Regardless of what grandma mentions, that Face of yours is beautiful… I am sure everyone from all walks of life has once found themselves saying that If only I were a bit more good-looking…Life would probably be twenty times easier.
You know that sounds a bit shallow to say, but you will also have a hard time finding anyone that honestly believes that they don’t value looks, at least to a certain extent. Now, take that to the absolute extreme, and you get something that we call Lookism. This idea of discrimination against people is based on whether they meet your beauty standards.
The manhwa navigates through such a complex social issue as Lookism. It also just got an anime adaptation by Netflix, but as you can expect from the adaptation, they only cover up to a certain point in the whole story. Lookism, the anime should go up to about Episode 27, while the entire story itself has over 400 chapters! And today, we will be looking at How To Read Lookism Manhwa.
What The Manhwa Series Lookism Is All About?
In Lookism, we follow the story of Daniel Park, described in the synopsis as an unattractive loner. But I think it’s more descriptive to say that he is more of a victim of relentless bullying. And, unless you are a monster, you will obviously be sympathetic when seeing this guy’s situation, especially if you have been bullied before.
That obviously was not the fandom’s problem with Daniel Park. Their problem is that this guy had the Isekai protagonist set up; the guy is having a bad time, and suddenly, a magical thing happened to him, and now he is living his best life.
These type of stories feels like power fantasies, and some of us actually hate that because we find them very escapist in nature. If you are a person going through a tough situation, like the protagonist, I don’t find it healthy to see that the only way someone like you might get out of your situation is through magic.
It might be nice to temporarily imagine a world where things worked like that, but in the long run, I don’t think these are sustainable thoughts to unconsciously internalize. And, at first, you know, it’s easy to think that that’s what you are really getting into with Lookism.
We see that magical thing happened to Daniel after when he somehow wakes up in a second more attractive, cooler, and stronger body, and BOOM. His problems are now solved. No more bullying, It’s time to be a hot guy. This clearly connects to the title as we see him more respected now in society just because he looks better.
Yet, thankfully, we then see the story do something that most of the fans of the story found genius. They don’t let Daniel stay in this more attractive body. He is forced to constantly go back to his original body. We learn that he now has two bodies, and when he needs to rest in one body, he goes to bed and wakes up in the next one, and so on.
This is an interesting plot device since it creates this situation where Daniel gets to experience the benefits of being attractive in society half the time. While also being forced to live his original life right after. Another thing I never really liked in stories where the protagonist gets a new power is that every lesson they learn is clear in hindsight.
In other words, because they are now in a place more privileged, the protagonist can look back at their past and see maybe they shouldn’t have taken out their insecurities on their loved ones because they feel weak.
Well, it’s a good thing I am strong now, so that won’t happen again. Nah, this guy, Daniel, realizes these things, and every time he returns to his original body, he is forced to face that reality again, which brings some beautiful and very real character development.
Is Lookism a Contemporary Classic?
The themes and situations covered in Lookism, the protagonists also feel so contemporarily relevant that it adds a level of realism that you rarely ever see in stories, beyond just the minor irrelevant reference. Like they will have dialogue in movies, sometimes referencing something high school kids do. But it will either be ten years too late or trying way too hard.
This is just the nature of writing stories in the present. The present is always changing, while the past remains the same, so it’s a challenge to write about the present in a way that actually stands the test of time. A challenge that we believe Lookism overcomes almost too easily, as we will see.
The Webtoon is divided into short story arcs where each really focuses on one real-world problem. They sometimes even open or close with newspaper-type headlines talking about that problem in the arc. For example, “A vast majority of the fake bank accounts are under the names of minorities. We must act in a swift manner to put an end to this horrible crime.”
Also Read: Lookism Season 2: Everything You Need To Know
Designing of Characters in Lookism:
To this day, Takehiko Inoue is one of the best artists, and his approach to storytelling is quite literally creating good multidimensional characters that will tell the story for you! This approach is something I see Taejun Pak, the author of Lookism, seem to follow as well clearly.
He is able to tell these compelling stories that shed light on real-world events, not because he can write the perfect plot line, but because he is able to write these characters that have real motivations to act the way they do, so the story feels so authentic.
Four other notable arcs the fandom absolutely loved, pointing back to the current state of our world, were the ones looking at cults, gambling problems, animal hoarding, and cruelty issue that is developing, and the glory and dark side of live streaming, which should actually be the arc immediately after what takes place in the last episode of the anime.
You will also love that one if you are on Twitch. I will let you get into that arc yourself, but without spoiling it too much, at the end of this live-streaming arc, there is something that this one character says that really got to me because it summarizes many of the lessons in Lookism; it changes you as a person, or the very least, it really makes you think,
We see a villainous character complaining about how he can’t get a girl or earn money easily because of the way he looks and that he can’t overcome that in this society. Alluding again to the title of the story, while also strikes a chord in Daniel since it relates to how he feels in his unattractive body.
But then we see ‘that’ one character think a bit… and then say, “Don’t blame others, I overcome it.” This character’s name is Vasco, and in a cast of hundreds of brilliant characters in Lookism, as I mentioned, he still stands out as one of the fan’s favorites.
What he says is chilling, firstly, because you would have almost never expected that he was the type of guy to overcome the struggles of being at the bottom. After all, when we are first introduced to him, he is like this ultra-strong gang leader at the top of the school.
There are definitely signs that you know he climbed his way from the bottom; as we see his gang, The Burn Knuckles, which some of you will remind of the Body Improvement Club from Mob Psycho 100.
They seek to help those at the bottom in need. But, overall, since you only really know someone as the person they were from when you first met them, it’s sometimes hard to imagine anything else.
The Backstory of Vasco:
In the story, we find out that Vasco was also a victim of relentless bullying, probably even more than Daniel. And, unlike Daniel, he constantly stood up to his bullies. That never changed much. If anything, I would say it made it worse. It was only when a greater evil arrived that Vasco’s bullies got wiped out, cleared, and wasted.
And for anyone else, that would probably be the greatest relief. It would probably even be satisfying to see, and it might even confirm some more negative worldviews that people in these situations might have. But, for Vasco, we don’t even see these thoughts cross his mind even once.
What he does is just vow to get stronger, not only to prevent something like this from happening to him again but also to make sure that others don’t have to go through what he did as well, and he succeeds.
I really like this because it’s one thing to get to the top and tell everyone that since you did it, anyone can. It’s part of the logic people who hoard wealth use to justify the money they “earned,” and I hate it. It’s another thing to get there. And want to actually create a better world for the people that were like you, which is the standpoint Lookism encourages.
Daniel, in his original and unattractive body, begins to train with Vasco every morning after hearing his words, and just getting to see Daniel develop in both his bodies after this point in the story is probably the biggest reason, or I would say the number one reason, to keep reading the Lookism after the last episode of the anime; it gives you crazy motivations.
At that point, our story is well into acknowledging that people that look a certain way or are in positions of higher power are not inherently better than others, but in society, they are always going to have an easier life.
As someone without these benefits, it shows you that you have quite a few options; you can blame the world and make yourself miserable over the fact, or you can blindly strive towards the pursuit of beauty and/or wealth and fail or succeed to a degree, and become the thing you hated in the first place, or you can look deep down at what the most self-respecting and kind version of yourself looks like.
And you can strive for that, which is something I think many of us wish we could have realized maybe ten years earlier. Admittedly, this is just one of the many lessons in Lookism that changes how you see things, but it’s the one that’s emphasized the most in these arcs right after the last episode of the anime.
How To Read Lookism Manhwa Online?
You can easily read Lookism on the popular manga-providing site, WebToons. The most recent chapter currently on the site is Chapter 418. You can read the manhwa from the first to the last for absolutely free.
Although to get the latest chapter even before its release, you can get a Fast Pass, which will cost you money. You can also read the three latest chapters of Lookism on their official smartphone app, which you can download from the App Store and Play Store.
WebToon
WebToon is a digital platform for comics that was launched in 2004 by Naver, a South Korean internet company. It has since become one of the most popular websites for reading comics online, with a large and diverse library of manhwa (Korean comics) and manga (Japanese comics).
One of the unique features of Webtoons is their vertical layout, which allows readers to scroll through the pages of the comics rather than flipping through them. This layout is particularly well-suited for reading on mobile devices, and it has helped Webtoons become popular among readers who prefer to read comics on their phones or tablets.
WebToon offers a wide variety of genres and styles, including action, drama, romance, horror, and more. It is known for hosting many popular and high-quality manhwa and manga series, including Lookism.
In addition to its library of comics, Webtoons also has a community aspect, with forums and a social media presence where readers can discuss their favorite series and connect with other fans.
To access the comics on Webtoons, you will need to create an account and log in. Some content may be available for free, while other series may require a subscription or payment to access. Webtoons also offer a paid subscription service called Webtoons Plus, which provides access to exclusive content and other perks.
WebToon Plus:
To get Webtoon Plus, a paid subscription service offered by Webtoons, you can follow these steps:
Go to the Webtoons website, open the Webtoons app on your device, log in to your account, or create an account if you don’t already have one. Click on the “Plus” icon in the top right corner of the screen. This will take you to the Webtoon Plus subscription page.
Review the information about Webtoon Plus, including the features and benefits of the service. Choose a subscription plan that fits your needs. Webtoon Plus offers several different subscription options, including monthly, quarterly, and annual plans.
Click the “Subscribe” button and follow the prompts to complete the subscription process. You may need to enter your payment information and agree to the terms of service. Once you have completed the subscription process, you will have access to the exclusive content and features offered by Webtoon Plus.
You can access this content by logging in to your account and clicking on the “Plus” icon in the top right corner of the screen. Keep in mind that Webtoon Plus is a paid subscription service, and you will be charged a fee according to the subscription plan you choose. The cost of the service may vary depending on your location and the currency you use.
Also Read: How To Watch Lookism? Streaming Guide Of The 2022 Netflix Webtoon
