English Dub Season Review: True Beauty Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Once bullied for her looks, Jugyeong (Rebecca Danae) transforms herself using the art of makeup.  When she joins a new school with a True Beauty goddess competition, offering winners the chance of recruitment by entertainment agencies, she instantly becomes a top candidate!  But her new identity is at stake when heartthrob Suho Lee (Eduardo Vildasol) accidentally sees her bare face.  Will her elite status be short-lived?

Our Take:

There’s a timeless quote lying around that helps teens overcome their low self-esteem: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.  No matter what you look like, if people like you for your normal self, you don’t have to change anything.  Unfortunately, even in today’s age, where social media is all the rage, some of those brainless teens still can’t take that hint to heart and bully those who aren’t “beautiful” enough.  So, if you’re wondering why society hasn’t been improving throughout the last few years, this is one of those reasons.  This Korean anime is one of those occasions, with a title that’s as generic as the bullies’ personalities.

True Beauty is an ONA adaptation of a South Korean manhwa written and illustrated by Yaongyi, and it is produced by Studio N and Cocktail Media. The series, consisting of thirteen episodes, chronicles the hardships and drama of Lim Jugyeong, a teenager who was constantly bullied and harassed by other teens for her “ugly appearance”, leading to her transferring from her old school.  Using her makeup artist skills, Jugyeong transformed into a gorgeous “goddess” to fit in at her new school.  As she attempts to conceal her “unattractive” identity, Jugyeong competes in the school’s True Beauty goddess competition against social media celebrity Kang Sujin.  Additionally, she gets caught in the middle of a love triangle with two handsome boys: Lee Suho (Eduardo Vildasol), a cold and aloof teen with a dark past, and Han Seojun (Mauricio Ortiz-Segura), the “bad boy” who’s revealed to be Suho’s former best friend.

If I were to speak from a personal perspective, I would say that its protagonist didn’t look as “ugly” as the show makes her out to be regarding the design.  Maybe it’s because I’ve grown more attracted to anime female character designs, regardless of the appeal.  Either way, I don’t mind Jugyeong’s dorky-like appearance, as her kindhearted yet internally vulnerable personality offers more beauty than her looks.  The gorgeous girls who bully her are the ones who deserve to be called “ugly”, or in this case, “dumplings”, when it comes to their heartless actions, but I digress.  What really matters is how True Beauty handles these topics through its narrative and character depth.

True Beauty is another show that depicts some heavy-handed topics such as lookism, bullying, self-esteem, and suicide, especially in the age of rising social media.  However, the real heart of the narrative is Jugyeong’s coming-of-age journey.  Throughout the series, we see Jugyeong struggling to survive in a dog-eat-dog age where people’s popularity comes from being beautiful, and those who are not “gorgeous” enough are seen as inferior.  With Jugyeong at wit’s end, she resorts to makeup to fit in with the “beauty” crowd.  However, as she slowly discovers that being “gorgeous” is more harmful than she thought, Jugyeong is put into a position where she must find the courage to accept her true self and stand up to her tormentors.

To give True Beauty credit, this is another series that couldn’t have come at a better time, especially since bullying on social media is now the new norm.  While it may not change the minds of people who don’t care about their targets’ feelings, it’ll surely remind the victims not to give into low self-esteem and focus on those who accept them for who they are, including friends and family.  It’s another tried-and-true tale about overcoming prejudice and hatred in favor of positivity and acceptance that resonates profoundly with those on a similar path.  But the real question is whether the series is gorgeous enough to reflect these themes effectively.  It has moments of beauty, but its tone and narrative left much to be desired.

One thing I should mention about True Beauty is the length of each episode.  Most anime I watch have episodes that last for 23 minutes, which is the usual runtime for any other television show, animated or otherwise.  However, True Beauty has thirteen episodes that are eighteen minutes each, five minutes shorter than a regular anime episode.  It was an unusual strategy that could’ve played a huge factor in the narrative structure, especially when you have a show involving the consequences of bullying.  It’s certainly no time-waster, but it’s also pretty chaotic regarding the pacing.  The series wasted no time going from one situation to another in a matter of seconds, which doesn’t give it much time to delve deep into its commentary and characters.  Additionally, it gave the tone more of an off-putting feeling regarding the editing, in which one minute, we’re treated with a serious dramatic moment, and the next, we have a chibi-like, comedic vibe in the presentation.

That doesn’t mean it’s without a few moments that somehow worked amid its disarrayed tone.  The scenes involving Jugyeong’s character growth were mildly rewarding due to how much we relate to this underdog protagonist, including her standing up to the manipulative, villainous Sujin.  The ninth episode, involving Jugyeong’s reveal to her new friends, showcased the importance of acceptance, in which not everyone in Jugyeong’s life is a self-centered piece of shit while representing the climax of Jugyeong’s internal conflict with her low self-esteem.  There’s also the broken friendship between Suho and Seojun, both of which are at each other’s throats due to Suho’s guilt for unintentionally ignoring their friend, Seyeon, who committed suicide after suffering from online harassment.  These arcs for Jugyeong’s will-they-or-won’t-they boyfriends were heartbreaking by design, even if the execution for their growth was hit-and-miss regarding their repetitive feud and Suho’s actions.

Another example comes from the penultimate episode, “Goddess Livestream 2”, where the show’s antagonist, Sujin, got the justice she deserved for her actions.  Considering how annoying she is, that crowd-pleasing moment was enough to excuse most of its narrative tropes, especially the love triangle between Jugyeong, Suho, and Seojun.  Sure, the series showed that Sujin became this way due to her jealousy toward Jugyeong and living with her abusive, alcoholic mother.  However, without much context, Sujin’s antagonistic persona became irritating to the point of resembling a soap opera villain.  The show wanted me to hate Sujin for her unforgivable actions but also feel empathetic for her because of her personal issues.  Unfortunately, its way of forcing me to feel those feelings toward this bully wound up making me despise her even more.  It did its job of making me hate bullies regardless, but the direction it had for this task became more tedious for me as it progressed.

True Beauty is another representation of bullying and acceptance that’s inspiring and sincere on paper.  However, regarding the execution and genre tropes, the original net animation adaptation of the South Korean manhwa is far from beautiful.  I will admit that it had plenty of decent moments involving its characters and themes to balance out its irritating issues.  Even the English dub cast made a solid effort with their performances to highlight their characters’ personalities, including Rebecca Danae as Jugyeong.  Danae delivered a suitable blend of teenage angst, awkwardness, and depression in her voice to capture Jugyeong’s genuine personality.  However, the series was constantly bullied by its rushed pacing, irritating plot elements, and underutilized thematic material to make itself stand out from the romance slice-of-life crowd.  You could do no wrong with True Beauty if you’re into the genre, but it may not leave you feeling gorgeous when it concludes.