Overall Rating: 3.5/10
At Its Best: 7.5/10
At Its Worst: 2/10
Characters (Design/Writing/Arc): 2.5/10
Fights/Abilities/Powers: 6/10 up until the middle. 2/10 from middle to present day.
Plot: 1/10
Pacing: 5/10

(There are spoilers)

Lookism is THE most popular manhwa of all time. No debate. But let's be honest, its not good. I will be talking almost entirely about "Gangism", where the story is centered around fights. The story hasn't been about slice of life for 400 episodes and it won't be ever again.

A story is good (whether its a manhwa or book) when it has compelling and interesting themes, complex characters, and a well thought out entertaining plot. In my opinion, Lookism does not have any of those 3 (keep reading and I'll explain why). So in my eyes, it fails to elevate itself to a self-respecting story worthy of academic scrutiny. However, not all stories need to be like that. It can just be plain old fun and manhwas in particular have the strength of SHOWING us the story through illustration. So, Lookism isn't an interesting story by any means but at least the fights are fun, right? Well......

The Fights Aren't Good/Fun. At Least, Not Anymore.

#1 -> Fights Aren't Dynamic
For the past 250~ episodes of Lookism, fights are almost exclusively written with this formula:

1. Characters are introduced and their power levels are compared/explained, usually by other characters.
2. They exchange blows for a couple panels, usually with many many re-used panels and artworks from previous episodes.
3. One character goes for a special move to push the fight forward beyond just "exchanging blows".
4. Some twist happens. The blow lands, but the other person gets up. Or the blow is avoided, etc.
5. The other character retaliates in some dramatic fashion and the fight is over.
6. If the fight isn't over, then some special twist happens where the character gains some plot device like "conviction" or "Ultra Instinct" or "path" or "mastery" that turns the fight in their favor.

This....this is just turn based combat. I've read all 601 episodes of Lookism and the characters just exchange special moves that VISUALLY does damage, but does very little to actually change how the fight goes. It always ends up with something like "I have to end this fight NOW or it will be risky! So I'll go for an all-in move!".
There's no dynamic combat. No effective dodging, no movement, no usage of terrain, no strategies.

Let me give an example of a fight. Daniel Park vs Pacheon Jo during the Incheon arc.

Daniel starts by throwing out some mediocre moves to bait Pacheon into letting his guard down. Pacheon dodges them easily but then Daniel uses his best moves. He hits Pacheon so hard he goes flying away into a wall, breaking it. But it causes 0 damage. He's instantly right next to Daniel Park again and retaliates hard enough to cause serious damage. Then Daniel awakens his "path" and completely destroys Pacheon, but not enough to knock him out. Pacheon then stands up again and Daniel is completely exhausted. Daniel loses.

Do you see how that's "turn based"? Daniel does his thing, then Pacheon, then Daniel, then Pacheon. There's no volatile ebb and flow. No complex strategy. Why doesn't Daniel fight to dodge and exhaust Pacheon after realizing his best punches have no effect? Why doesn't Daniel use the objects around him to gain an advantage? If his best punches don't do damage, go find a random sharp object. He's smaller than Pacheon. Lead him into a tight area to debilitate his movement. Why not use Pacheon's size against him and fight to knock him down over and over? Etc.
Instead of suddenly awakening his path, why not have Daniel play a drawn out fight and start to slowly analyze Pacheon's pattern? It would be much more interesting if he starts to see Pacheon's moves a little bit faster each time until it becomes so good its precognition rather than just:
"in times of crisis, Daniel's plot armor awakens, but to keep it tense, Daniel isn't good enough yet to completely take a top tier opponent out".

You can make all sorts of excuses to justify the way the fight goes. "Pacheon is just playing with Daniel". "Daniel has never used a knife, so he doesn't like sharp weapons". "Pacheon has just as much stamina as Daniel". But at the end of the day, at least for me, its not interesting to read.
ALL of Lookism's fight's nowadays are just an exchange of special moves. If you look at any other fight-focused manhwa, there are so many other factors that come into play. Terrain, mental state, strategy, weapons, items, different mechanics, etc. The strategy that Lookism characters employ is AT MOST on the level of "I need to bait him. I need to get rid of his weapon. I need to aim for his feet". That's like, level 1 strategy. We're 600 episodes in, come on people.

#2 -> Asspulls, Bullshit, and Logic

Lookism characters are supernaturally strong. That's totally fine, but there is a clear line. Supernatural does NOT mean illogical. When a fight is illogical, it doesn't matter how much the author tries to explain away the bullshit. It just feels like the fight is fakely molded to how the author wants it to go and ignoring previous precedent and skimping over logic. And that's when it starts being bad.
The biggest example of this is Hunt for Gun where Gun Park fights the entirety of 2nd Generation, Goo Kim, and Ultra Instinct Daniel.

As Gun fights the 2nd Gen, his arm is completely broken and mangled plus his entire body has deep bruises and internal bleeding. Yet he's STILL USING his injured arm? It doesn't matter if he pushes through the pain. His bone, muscle, and nerves are literally torn to pieces. His arm literally biologically cannot move correctly to lift itself up, yet he uses it to deal powerful punches.
If you reread the part where Goo fights Johan with his vision restored, he's using his injured arm COMPLETELY fine. There's basically zero adjustment to compensate. What's the point of making it a large point of mangling Gun's arm only for it have ZERO effect? This doesn't feel like "Gun's just that strong bro. Its adrenaline bro". It feels like pure bullshit and plot armor. I can't take the fight seriously knowing that Gun is just going to do whatever PTJ wants regardless of how the fight plays out.
After 2nd Gen, Gun fights Goo and blacks out into a Ultra Instinct monster. Before that, he tries his best with an exhausted/injured body and his best punch doesn't faze Goo at all. And then all of a sudden, he blacks out and starts doing WAY more damage? All of a sudden he's SO fast Goo can't react? Goo cuts into his ankle and it doesn't do ANYTHING?
Is there anything more plot armor than this? Not only should he barely be able to stand but now he's just completely ignoring the missing flesh/muscle/nerves needed to move the way he does when he fights and wins against Goo.
And after ALL of that but he WINS against Ultra Instinct "perfect body" Daniel. He shouldn't even be able to muster an attack ANYWHERE close to knocking out the perfect body with that level of injury.

"Hunt for Gun" isn't the only culprit. In the latest episode, Jinyoung Park fights Kitae Kim and tries to finish him with Gapryong Kim's punch, but its revealed that Changsu Oh cut his pinky, thus reducing the power of the punch enough for Kitae to not get knocked out.

...Okay? Up until the reveal, we have no idea his pinky is cut. In the PUNCH ITSELF, HIS PINKY IS COMPLETELY FINE. And if Jinyoung has his pinky cut, why doesn't he do literally ANYTHING else except punch with his right hand? Why not use Gapryong's punch with his left hand? Or any other powerful character's moves?
"He wants to punish Kitae in Gapryong's stead, so he used Gapryong's iconic move"
Excuses excuses excuses. PTJ has so many constant excuses and half-assed explanations for how the fights go. Other characters explaining this and that and why this happens and what that didn't happen. These are all just poor excuses for writing poor fights that have dramatic and large effects.
The ESSENCE of an interesting fight is not there at all.

The Plot is Nonsensical and World Nonexistent

Hey, remember when we spent ONE HUNDRED FIFTY episodes on fighting Workers? Daniel using his two bodies to infiltrate and this and that. Even if Lookism is just an excuse for cool fights, the plot should at least be bare minimum logical, no?
150 episodes where characters punch each other and NOTHING happens. The 4th affiliate stayed up, they just replaced the management. Nothing changed in the 2nd and 1st affiliate. 3rd affiliate would've been fine if Vivi's father didn't decide to bring her back to China. Daniel doesn't call the cops or inform the media or take video evidence or NOTHING. These establishments are

1. enslaving people
2. kidnapping people and assaulting them
3. Illegally distributing drugs
4. kidnapping people into death games
5. Violating numerous laws and human rights

But nah let's just go in there and punch people. Workers basically doesn't change at all after 150 episodes. Zero consequences. Zero changes. Just 150 episodes of punching.

The story stops becoming a story when the plot is thrown out the window. I feel like I am watching a children's television show where each episode is just the characters fighting with small variations and twists. The background is barely drawn. In any other manhwa I can very clearly name a location and describe it. For Lookism, I can't.
The world literally revolves around the characters. Entire ARMIES of hired musclemen are gathering in large highways to fight and NO ONE in society sees this and reports it? ALL of those musclemen are perfectly loyal and decide not to defect and go to the authorities or government? There are even numerous car crashes and whatnot and no one says a thing. This isn't a world. Its not Korea. Its characters posing with backdrops and filming fights.

When your manhwa feels like a fake show with a fake feeling plot, somethings gone seriously wrong.

Vivi, Xialong, Ryuhei, Mistuki got "happy" endings.

Let's be straightforward. In the process of trying to make cathartic endings, PTJ immaturely treats these characters as anything but terrible criminals.

Vivi produces and distributes illegal and harmful drugs and uses them to KIDNAP people for her rich friends to use in R*PE games.
Xialong was indoctrinated and trained as a child to be a slave to Vivi.
Ryuhei started off as a delinquent biker gang member but started participating in kidnapping people to participate in death games for the enjoyment of the rich and powerful.
Mistuki is the manager of the death games.

Y'all. These people deserve to go jail for LIFE for their crimes. Xialong's love for Vivi is not noble or grand or anything. Its TRAGIC. He had his life taken from him. He was forced to live his life as Vivi's loyal dog not because he WANTED to, but because that's all he ever knew since he was a child. Do you think its noble and grand to take in children off the street and train them to be loyal slaves?
And guess what PTJ did.
Vivi got a happy ending with Xialong where they live in the woods together.
Ryuhei got severely injured when we last saw him but he "sacrificed himself" nobly for his lover Mistuki, and Mitsuki finally appreciates the obsessive "love" he has for her.

These endings are effectively "feel good" moments that COMPLETELY miss the point for these characters. This isn't a situation where:
"villain gives up a losing fight and makes do with what they got"
or "villain gets a happy ending because the world is corrupt".

PTJ genuinely thinks these characters should have happy endings in a genuine manner. Or at least, that's what it looks like based on what happens in the manhwa.

This just tells me that PTJ has the writing depth of a 13 year old. Because those endings were that disgustingly bad.

Daniel Gets a Glow Up. Twice

Look. Gangism or not, being fat and ugly is EXTREMELY integral to Daniel's character. Its the most interesting thing about him. He's spent his entire life in self-loathing and pity because he is fat, ugly and poor. His story is about accepting himself for who he is and working towards a healthy lifestyle where being fat/ugly doesn't mean he's a sub-human that doesn't deserve to life.

And the thing is, there's actually some good stuff here. Zoe is Daniel's main love interest and Zoe genuinely romantically likes fat/ugly Daniel for who he is and the actions he's shown her. Love is deeper than just appearances.
And when Vasco trains Daniel to workout, he doesn't lose any weight because he continues to eat a lot, but because he's working out, he builds muscle.

Those plot points are GOOD and INTERESTING things about a character who's fat and ugly. And there are many things we all love about Daniel BECAUSE he was fat and ugly. Daniel is humble and morally good because he's been a punching bag his entire life. He looks out for the little guy and won't stand for injustice. He'll never give up in a fight because he's already been fighting against social stigma his entire life.

So what happens you ask? He becomes thin off screen. And its treated like a joke.

???????????

Making consistent changes to your lifestyle to go from obesity to thin is just COMPLETLEY skipped over for Daniel's story. Nothing about his addiction to eating food, nothing about self doubts and resentment, nothing about feeling proud at his slow and gradual results. NOTHING. Its completely skipped over just so Daniel can participate in Gangism.

And even worse, he gets another training arc with Gun where Gun transforms him into another tall, handsome, muscular so he can do the punchy punchy fights.

How ironic that PTJ decides to completely trash the most integral part of Daniel and make him a pretty boy. This is truly "Lookism".

And if you think what I'm saying is that Daniel should be fat forever, you completely missed the point.

AND ALSO? Why not keep Daniel short? It would be way more interesting to see how Daniel overcomes being small in a society like Korea and in Gangism fights. But noooo let's remove absolutely every interesting thing.

Themes and Meaning? Naaaah

Here are some overall themes that could give Look-Gangism greater meaning.

1. Individuals do not have less worth just because they are unattractive
2. Police and government are corrupt because the individuals within it are tempted by power and money
3. Corporations prey on people's insecurities to sell them body altering surgeries (this is very large for Korea in particular)
4. Parts of Korean societal values are warped and tempts youth to focus on harmful power dynamics (bullying, gangs) rather than growing up and living healthy, fulfilling lives.
5. The social welfare in Korea is lacking and unfortunate individuals are left without help.

Okay, lets see where Lookism goes with these 5 potential themes

1. When's the last time anyone talked about social stigmas around looks? All the characters are manly men with perfect abs and pretty girls with extremely large boobs and small waists. And all of the extra disgusting characters are depicted as ugly and grimy. Remember the dogmaster in Chungecheong and the butcher in Dark Crocodile Society?
2. We haven't seen anything about the Police Commissioner and Eugene/James Lee continues to abuse their power as rich men to do their underground criminal stuff.
3. We had a short scene with Zoe during the first affiliate and that's it. Tons of the characters are overly pretty in a Korean plastic surgery manner. There is minimal variation on body and face shape, size, and uniqueness
4. There has been absolutely zero commentary on teenagers fighting criminal gangs. Just more fights and punches.
5. The Hostel crew set up a local shop in the community and Eugene briefly mentions establishing an outreach center for kids who ran away from home and that's all we see about the lack of social welfare in Lookism

Final Notes + Message to PTJ

I'm still going to read Lookism because its entertaining and I DO want to see where the story goes, and some fights here and there aren't totally terrible. But I cannot elevate Lookism as a self respectable story and its not spectacular as a light fiction type slop entertainment either.
It's not completely void of redeeming qualities. The way the fights are storyboarded and drawn IS good and was once fantastic, but the formula never evolved. It just stayed the same and stagnated. Some fights really are fantastic. I love Samuel and Eli vs King of Suwon.
Enjoy your characters. Powerscale them. Have fun. But if I see someone call this story "peak" again, I'm going to lose it.

And Park Tae Jung. My guy. You have the most popular manhwa in the world. You have a whole successful studio. And I know that making manhwas is genuinely one of the hardest things in the world. But Lookism's complete lack of depth and NUMEROUS blunders AND the constant re-use of panels AND minimal background...really? Come on man.
There are indie artists out there drawing their manhwa and writing the stories entirely by themselves with minimal help and their stories have more interesting depth, flavor, and complexity than Lookism. They have more interesting fights too. Its even PRETTIER to look at too. Have you seen some of the backgrounds and shots of the greater world in other manhwas?

Step it up. You can do more and your life's work can be more.

This is the end of my review. This is all my opinion and I believe I have defended it with sound reasoning. I'd love to hear your guys' opinions and what you agree/disagreed with.