Stars: Nick Martineau, Mark Daugherty, Eugene Ko
Lookism, originally intended to premiere in November, came to Netflix, as the Korean animated adaptation of the webtoon created by Taejun Pak, on December 8, 2022 with 8 episodes, each lasting between 22 and 30 minutes. School art direction and teen animation was led by Lee Dae-woo, produced by Studio Mir, and welcomed a multi-faceted voice cast including Shim Kyu-hyuck, Han Shin, Ryu Seung-gone , Jeong Jae-heon, and more.
Tackling societal prejudices head-on as the title itself suggests, Lookism delves into the hypocritical standards of beauty discerned by the self-proclaimed "beautiful" counterparts present within it. Weighing inner beauty against mere charming appearances often leads many to be pushed to the "bottom of life chain." Park Hyeong-seok has to go through a similar situation and endure being bullied at his school by those who think they are superior and believe that his attractive faces are justification enough for his vile behavior.
To end the cycle, he plans to change schools, but due to poor economic conditions, with his mother already struggling to make ends meet, he is faced with a new challenge. Finally making his way to the new school somehow, his goal is to reinvent himself in the midst of the new crowd. However, he learns that people don't necessarily change with their surroundings and once again falls prey to the same circumstances until a change in life presents the world with two versions of him.
The webtoon already had a large following, so the increasing anticipation for the animated adaptation was inevitable. Having read the opening chapters of the webtoon, I think it's safe to say that Korean animation sincerely adheres to the plot of the source material. So, in terms of that particular aspect, it succeeds as an adaptation.
The character designs are also in line with the webtoon's art style, with slight evolutions that make the characters appear even more attractive than usual in some cases. However, when taken into consideration solely from the point of it being a new show on the horizon, I expect the character art and overall animation for the series to become a bit more fluid in the future.
Like the original text, the season, since it follows only the opening chapters of the webtoon, is mostly presented as a real-life animated series, packed with quite a few fight scenes due to its focus on bullying-related instances. . The only addition I was hoping for was the animation's focus on the psyche of the survivors instead of relying entirely on action sequences. This might have been the only factor that worked in favor of the adaptation.
Following the plot up to chapter 26 as linked on the webtoon website, the story sticks to Taejun Pak's text. One of the highlights of the series has to be its intro theme song, Like That, recorded by Kpop sensation Ateez, which pairs well with the opening sequence that introduces all the characters in the story, with a few changes of character. name as the webtoon protagonist, Daniel becomes Park Hyeong-seok in the series.
The animated adaptation, although it looks similar to the webtoon, I couldn't help but feel that it was missing something. While webtoon fans are sure to turn up to watch their favorite series, one question we need to ask ourselves right now is: would people who haven't read Taejun Pak's story want to keep coming back for every episode?
There is no mistaking the fact that the plot features intriguing characters and elements that are easy to fall in love with, like Basco and his gang; Jin-seong with the eventual development of his character; Jae-yeol and his soft spot for Hyeong-seok; Ji-ho, Deok-hwa, and Hyeong-seok's friendship arc, while also leaving open space for more characters to come in eventually if the series picks up for another season. However, the spotlight has already shifted from Hyeong-seok who leads a double life. The trials he faced in such a situation are only briefly highlighted, which is pretty surprising, especially since that's the actual trigger for the story.
Lookism's compact package of short episodes makes for an easy watch to watch, but we still need some unique inspiration to inflate the story concept, because while it all looks good in the webtoon format, its translation to the screen can turn out like prosaic. All in all, it's a good adaptation, but as an original piece, it lacks some pacing and appeal despite its heartfelt track record, perhaps including a few more episodes might have helped fix the problem, but that's not known right now.
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