hoesmad1

For me, liking Lookism was more of a journey than a natural occurring.

I started reading this in 2017, in my native language. The website I read from stopped translating and I was left waiting for more. For more than a year, my views of this story were the same: Lookism was a enjoyable, but not standout, webtoon. Aside the sympathetic protagonist, it still had some of the biggest turn offs for me: hyper-sexualized female characters, who were there to be damsels in distress, sidekicks convenently strong and unbeatable, etc.

I realized how wrong I was when I went back to reading it. And heres why.

ART:

You can physically feel how the story and artstyle grows as you read through the chapters. I noticed that while re-reading — the initial artstyle is completely ugly compared to the actual. You can get used to it, but now (around the last disponible chapters), its so much prettier and expressive (not only the characters, but also the scenary). 

Giving 10/10 because of how much it developed.

STORY:

Its beautiful. I don't know how else to explain it.

Its beautiful, well written, has nice extra stories, every character has some depth and the ones who don't still weren't fully fleshed out. The protagonist grows so much, the sidekicks grow so much... And eventually, as if the author realised they are also characters, the girls grow so much. Even Haneul (who is still an airhead), who is the embodiement of female rivalry and dullness at the start, grows.

The story grows more and more serious as the chapters go. We learn who which character is, through straight up chapters entirely dedicated to them, or through small sidestories. From adapting to life at a new city, with a new body and new friends, the protagonist goes to getting involved in some serious shit which I will not spoiler.

CHARACTERS:

I am trying to not spoil anything in this review, so, let's go to the important part:

Everyone has a reason to do what they do. Their views of the world and why they fight is, if I remember well, 100% justified. Even if it is for a silly reason, like fighting for their friends (the protagonist), defending their crews's views (Vasco), or just straight up beating someone, everything is connected to something those characters have gone through. Well, everyone, except one character who was basically created to be a bully (not hard to spot who).

Even some of the background characters are shining now (around chapter ~229). The pace of the story is accelerating and some pieces of the last chapters are gathering together.

OVERALL:

I will be totally honest with you. I went from "not caring about this story at all" to "absolutely loving and cheering for it". If you can get through the slow start and the blatant female sexualization from the initial artstyle, you will notice you're reading a gem of a webtoon.

On my first read, I would prob have given this around 5/10. At maximum. But now? I won't give it a 10/10 only because I recognize the plot and pace aren't flawless.

If you give it a try, I hope you find it as enjoyable as me.