English Dub Season Review: Lookism Season One

Based on the South Korean Webtoon Manhwa (Korean Manga) that’s written and illustrated by Park Tae-Joon, Lookism follows the story of Park Hyung Suk (Aka Daniel Park in the Manwha) who has spent all 17 years of his life at the bottom of the food chain. Short, overweight, and unattractive, he is used to being bullied by his classmates and constantly discriminated against for his looks. In an attempt to escape his biggest bully, Lee Tae Sung, he decides to transfer to Seoul’s Jae Won High School, a vocational preparatory school notorious for its liberal education system and carefree students.

Days before his transfer, Hyung Suk wakes to find that he is no longer in his usual chubby body, but is instead in a perfect body! Tall, handsome, and beautifully toned, Hyung Suk has become the ideal version of himself. The only problem is that his original body still lays beside him—and when one body falls asleep, he awakens in the other. Now possessing two extremely different bodies, Hyung Suk must learn to navigate his new and much more popular life at J High whilst also solving the mystery of where his second, almost superhuman, body came from…

On the technical side, this Korean manhwa adaptation was done by Studio Mir. The very same animation team whose works include Voltron: Legendary Defender, Legend of Korra, The Black Dynamite Animated Series, Batman: Soul of the Dragon, Batman, and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons, and the three Mortal Kombat Legends animated films Scorpions Revenge, Battle of the Realms, and Snowblind. Directed by Kwang Il Han, with Dae Woo Lee doing art and Kyung-Hoon Han composing the music, with K-pop sensation Ateez performing the series’ theme song “Like That”.

At its core, while the concept of extraordinary elements taking place in a high school setting is nothing new, much of its storytelling is more slice of life than supernatural. Hundreds of anime often use attractiveness to symbolize normalcy, goodness, or heroism. while Villain characters are often ugly to complement their malevolent nature. Traditionally, western Animated films like Beauty and the Beast or even the Shrek franchise attempt to empathize with ugly characters, but this rarely happens in anime. At best, they’re a comedic wacky sidekick, but never in the lead role.

Enter Lookism. The protagonist, Park Hyung, has all the traits you’d rarely expect in an anime lead. He’s short, fat, and pig-like. He lives terribly and is cruel to the few people who take his side. The show really goes out of its way to drive home how disgusting and loathsome the cycle of bullying can mentally affect an individual when they subconsciously project their cruelty onto others. At least until Hyung begins to experience what it’s like to be sexy on a superficial level, but there’s a catch… Hyung’s original body still exists in parallel to his handsome one, and every time he goes to sleep, he switches between the two.

Aside from its plot and characters, Lookism is well animated, with good music and a talented cast of voice actors who even in the English Dub, nail the Korean dialect when characters say their names out loud. Studio Mir as previously stated is known for its work on ‘western cartoons’, and that style carries through strongly and doesn’t use a lot of CG. It takes some getting used to the art. There were a lot of exaggerated reactions as well as still frames in the animation. Granted when it does use CG at times and it’s noticeable but in most scenes, it’s rather seamless, though the last episode was quite heavy on it. I was also surprised at some of the product placement and references that can be spotted in the background such as Pepsi and the rapper Eminem being mentioned a few times.

A lot of the anime’s runtime is spent on Park Hyung’s hijinks as he exploits his newfound attractiveness (and lowkey superpowers) to beat up bullies, protect nerds, and win girls. At its core, Lookism offers the same power fantasy along the lines of something like Spider-Man but boiled down to its most basic concept. At first, when I read the synopsis, I thought it would be a by-the-numbers school revenge story along the lines of the film Mean Girls, but there’s no complex plot at work here. It’s mediocre but makes for some easy viewing. As the story progresses, the inherent benevolence of being tall and ripped gradually starts to mentally rub off on Park Hyung, who develops an inner beauty to match his outer and many of the ongoing plot threads during its 8-episode run, slowly culminate to having a payoff by the end that leaves things open for a possible 2nd season.

While the show’s message is well-intentioned, the execution of it is not for everyone. There’s entertainment to be found in watching Park Hyung juggle his alter egos, but this is escapism first and foremost. When you examine the show’s deeper messages, they’re pretty harmful, but you’re not meant to look too hard. At its core, it attempts to satirize the hypocrisy of superficial beauty standards and raise awareness of society’s cruelty and unfair treatment of ugly people (or at least “Ugly” by Korean standards). But often shoots itself in the foot because the show thinks it can have its cake and eat it too by also glorifying the fuck out of attractiveness. At the time of this review, the Manhwa started its original run in November 2014 and is currently running on its nineteenth volume meaning there’s potential ground to cover for future seasons. I’m curious what direction the story will take if a season 2 does happen in the future…