Random Anime Series Review - Lookism (Season 1)

 

One of the ambitions that I know a lot of people have, is to live a happy and healthy life. Free from bullying, violence, drugs, crime and the like. It's what we all strive to do, and we have an anime that kind of reminds me of how life was like for me at school. Yes, I too was one that got bullied a lot at school. For how I looked, the actions I did and the things that I said. But unlike the main character in this show (who I will get to in a moment), I got out OK despite all of that. Life is a lot different for me now, and while I do still get the occasional person who thinks they can get away with being just a bad person towards me, I'm in a much better place than I was back at school and even college for that matter (never went to university). So let's see how things play out for the main character here:

The series focuses on high school student Park Hyung Seok (voiced by Nicky Endres) who is often the target of bullying as many consider him to be unattractive and obese. As such, this puts him at odds with his mum, and he decides that he wants to be transferred to another school. Despite his mum not able to move with him due to work commitments, he soon gets bullied in this new place too. That is until one fateful night where he suddenly switches bodies and ends up looking attractive. As he learns to cope in this new body (in which his voice is done by Garrett Galego), he soon learns that he can switch between the two. Meaning that he has to live a double life and try his best to fit in while learning a few things about himself, his other body and the way things work.

This kind of bullying, which itself is known as Lookism, is not one I have experienced as it's largely all about a person being considered unattractive and to some, a "worthless piece of s**t". It's a nice change from the norm when it comes to anime where it's largely sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, historical or a mix of all of those things. Nope, this is a straight-up coming of age series with a hint of sci-fi elements. When it's not depicting bullying, it can be quite funny. Plus it has some action sequences and a lot of eye candy too. Probably far from the best of the anime Netflix currently has, but certainly far from the worst. 8/10