Having premiered on Netflix on December 8, 2022, the much anticipated animated adaptation of the webtoon created by Taejun Pak has already created quite the buzz. Let’s take a look at the Lookism ending and how the arcs of each character introduced in the first season of the series concluded.
The series is produced by Studio Mir, and stars a voice cast including Shim Kyu-hyuck, Han Shin, Ryu Seung-gone, Jeong Jae-heon and more. The story being with the protagonist, Park Hyeong-seok waking up in a starkly different physique, who then finds himself in a fix, leading two lives in his polar opposite bodies.
Netflix’s official description of the adaptation reads:
IN A SOCIETY THAT FAVORS GOOD LOOKS, A HIGH SCHOOL OUTCAST LEADS A DOUBLE LIFE SWITCHING BETWEEN HIS TWO BODIES THAT ARE POLAR OPPOSITES IN APPEARANCE.
-Lookism Ending Explained Contains Spoilers-
The adaptation stays close to the character designs as well as Taejun Pak’s storyline, covering the plot’s worth up to the 26th chapter. During this course, the main character of the story, Park Hyeong-seok strives to befriend Deok-hwa and attempts to persuade him regarding the similarities shared between them. Deok-hwa, on the other hand, can’t seem to accept the same due to their different appearances and how society treats them respectively.
Hyeong-seok’s new avatar becomes an instant ‘eye-candy’ in his new classroom, while Deok-hwa is bullied by Ho-bin who deems himself to be superior in the food chain, coming to the conclusion solely on the basis of their appearances. However, one day, when Hyeong-seok is cleaning the classroom and Deok-hwa is laying defeated in the ground after Ho-bin tears apart his lyric notepad, a sweet melody reaches his ears and pulls him up to the classroom.
On finding out that Hyeong-seok is the singer, Deok-hwa gets choked with emotions, and is shocked to see him sing so deeply about one’s insecurities, the same theme that fuels his lyrics. Asserting that they can get along well as a team for the school festival’s concert, they form an alliance which brings them closer than before and gives Deok-hwa a chance to get a glimpse into Hyeong-seok’s real character, leaving him shocked about how genuine of a person he is.
Lookism Ending Explained
While their school prepares for the much-awaited event, with the concert being the show stopping finale of the fest, Jae-yeol helps Hyeong-seok and Deok-hwa with their stage outfits. However, before their performance, Hyeong-seok finds Crystal or Choi Soo-jung (the same girl who often greeted him at the convenience store during his night shift) visiting his school.
Having made up her mind that people merely care about external appearances, she leaves the premises with Jong-geon, who’s been appointed to protect her. Hyeong-seok tries to strike a conversation with her, forgetting that he’d only met her while inhabiting his original body. She calls him out, thinking he’s like every other person, pretending to know her as a means to initiate a forced conversation.
Jong-geon attacks Hyeong-seok, but Vasco joins them in the meantime and defends him, admitting for the first time that he’s Hyeong-seok’s friend. They engage in a hand-to-hand combat but Soo-jung helps avert the crisis by pulling Jeong-geon away. Later, Hyeong-seok and Vasco share a banana drink and mark the beginning of their friendship.
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Eventually, Hyeong-seok and Deok-hwa’s performance begins and concludes the concert. Proving the entire crowd gathered around, Ho-bin and the music label’s chief wrong, they deliver a heartwarming performance that moves every single person attending the fest. During the performance, we also get a glimpse into Hyeong-seok’s childhood, when his mother used to hum the same tune to him, reminding us of the origins of the song, initially forgotten by him.
The music label’s chief, after being disappointed in Ho-bin’s defeat, moves on to greet Hyeong-seok and Deok-hwa. His assistant reminds him of the day when Deok-hwa came by their office to audition but was turned away by him. He starts appreciating Deok-hwa’s talents but eventually hands over his card only to Hyeong-seok, claiming that the public is quite unjust and that Deok-hwa won’t fit into the standards set by the audience for an artist, therefore his debut wasn’t possible.
After everything’s wrapped up at school, Deok-hwa, Ji-ho and the original self of Hyeong-seok meet up at their usual spot and watch the performance clips, and feel sad for Deok-hwa’s being edited out of the video. However, they also acknowledge that the song united everyone regardless of their appearances – from the ones singing it, to the ones listening – and consider it a win.
A new character’s introduction is hinted at with DG’s entry, who’s possibly a Kpop star. Although not much is revealed about him yet in the show, he’s seen watching Hyeong-seok and Deok-hwa’s performance clip on the internet and finds it interesting. Later, Soo-jung also checks out the video and is shocked to see Hyeong-seok, the boy who fought Jong-geon earlier, and is even more stunned to hear him singing the same song as the boy at the convenience store. The screen soon pans out to show us another girl asleep beside her, and those who’ve read the webtoon already would’ve taken this as another major Easter egg that may be revealed if the series is renewed for another season.
Just like Hyeong-seok, she also leads a double life with two starkly opposite bodies. Although this hasn’t been clearly talked about yet, her inner monologue as heard previously in the final episode is quite similar to Hyeong-seok’s thoughts at his school. They’re the only two characters in the show yet who openly acknowledge and recognise the double standards raised by society regarding beauty and materialism. Moreover, the fact that the other girl is asleep while the first one is awake, is again something that we’ve already witnessed in Hyeong-seok’s case – both bodies can neither be asleep nor be awake at the same time.
The last scene of the finale features Hyeong-seok’s two bodies as his taller identity gets ready to head out for school. His room’s wall is filled with photos of his new friends. The most heartening aspect of this is the fact that Hyeong-seok has not only formed new relationships with people while donning his ‘more acceptable and liked’ physique, but has also come close to Ji-ho and Deok-hwa in his original visage.
Will There Be a Lookism Season 2?
The series hasn’t been picked up for another season yet. However, taking into account how well it’s doing among the viewers and the fact that the finale has left some things open-ended for the viewers (only known to the webtoon readers), its second season may be confirmed some time down the line eventually.
For now the chances of the show coming back seem high. Even its premiere was highly anticipated and the loyal webtoon fans have been waiting for a long time for it to finally see the light of the day and are once again hoping for the series to be continued further and pick up other strands of the manhwa’s story.
All 8 episodes of Lookism are now streaming Netflix.
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