True Beauty – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

A Goddess descends?!

Episode 1 of True Beauty begins with our protagonist discussing how unattractive and uncool she is compared to her fellow students. She says she gets bullied because of her appearance. Nonetheless, our female lead walks through her school’s hallway and trips. A boy assists her and realizes she likes music from a band called Heavy Metal City. 

Our female lead approaches the boy later, asking him if he wants to go to a Heavy Metal City concert with her. Unfortunately, the boy rejects our female protagonist’s offer. Later, our female lead gets bullied by a girl named Semi and her friend. Semi isn’t happy that our female lead asked her boyfriend out. She and her friend use their lip gloss to draw on our female lead’s face. They also post a picture of our female lead on social media to humiliate and make an example out of her.

Eventually, our female lead accidentally harms Semi. Our female lead visits the counselor’s office. She learns she won’t be able to attend the same school as her bully anymore. The counselor tells our female lead, Jugyeong, that an art school would love to have her.

However, Jugyeong refuses to go to this school. At home, Jugyeong looks through the art school pamphlet her counselor gave her. Jugyeong wants to give up. Then, Jugyeong receives a strange text from someone. The text contains a video of a woman named Selena applying makeup on someone. Selena tells the viewer she can be just as beautiful as her.

Jugyeong follows Selena’s make-up tutorial. After applying make-up to her face, Jugyeong argues make-up will help her turn her life around. Then, Jugyeong heads to her new school. Two girls named Chaerin and Sua, from the art department, greet Jugyeong. Jugyeong introduces herself to the girls and we receive several scenes of other students texting and gossiping about Jugyeong.

Jugyeong tells the audience she spent winter break following Selena’s make-up tutorial. She says her new appearance helped her achieve popularity. Then, Chaerin and Sua bring up dumplings, causing Jugyeong to reflect on her experiences at the previous school. She’s conflicted because she’s unsure if she should tell them the truth. Fortunately, Ahn and Kang snap Jugyeong out of her trance and Jugyeong follows them somewhere. 

Then, at the Burger Cat restaurant, two boys discuss Jugyeong. The boys tell another male named Seojun that Jugyeong is from his school. Seojun says he doesn’t recognize Jugyeong and isn’t interested. Then, we continue following Jugyeong. She’s washing off her makeup and leaves her home’s bathroom. Jugyeong leaves the restroom and bumps into her brother. 

Her brother makes rude statements about Jugyeong’s appearance and snaps a photo of her. Jugyeong leaves home and rants that the money she’s making is being used for food. Preferably food for Juyong, her brother. Then, Jugyeong finds a bookstore, enters it, and looks at one of the horror comics on the shelf.  Then a boy named Suho Lee arrives and looks at the same book.

Internally, Jugyeong finds Suho to be a handsome gentleman. Suho grabs the book and tells Jugyeong he saw it first. Before Lee departs, Jugyeong grabs Suho’s arm. Jugyeong argues she’s the first one to read this book. Jugyeong asks Suho to answer a question about the comic to prove he’s a real fan. Suho answers correctly and asks Jugyeong to answer one of his questions about the book.

Then, the two engage in a questionnaire-like discussion. Eventually, Jugyeong loses. Jugyeong regroups with Chaerin and Sua at school the following day. She notices Suho and hides her face. Chaerin and Sua give Jugyeong more details about Suho. They tell Jugyeong that Suho’s a transfer student at this school. Chaerin and Sua discuss Suho with Jugyeong.

They tell Jugyeong that the art department finds Suho to be a handsome guy regardless of his horrible personality. Then, we cut away to Jugyeong in class. She wonders if Lee recognized her. Then, one of the girls tells Jugyeong she’s been nominated as the candidate for the Sebom High Goddess competition. One of the girls explains what Jugyeong will gain if she wins this competition.

Her friends tell her that she has the potential to defeat Sujin. Sujin held the goddess title for years. Chaerin and Sua aren’t happy about that. Jugyeong wants to participate in the Performance Contest instead. The girls understand. Sua tells Jugyeong she’d like to participate in the Performance Contest too. Then, Jugyeong returns home and reads a comic about a female character who’s just like her. 

Jugyeong visits the bookstore and bumps into Suho again. Suho grabs the book Jugyeong wanted to get. Jugyeong departs because she doesn’t want to get into another situation with Suho again. Suho notices Jugyeong dropped something and picks it up. Later, Jugyeong joins Sua, a boy named, Jimin, and Suho at a restaurant. 

Jugyeong isn’t happy because she didn’t expect Suho to be here. Sua asks Jugyeong if she and Suho met before. Jugyeong panics and this persuades Sua to interrogate Jugyeong about this potential meetup. Jugyeong promises Sua she never met Suho before. Suho tells Sua not to waste his time anymore. After that, Jugyeong tells Sua she’ll be heading elsewhere despite promising Sua they’d walk somewhere together.

Later, Jugyeong wonders if she should tell everyone the truth. Then, Jugyeong realizes one of her earbuds is missing. Jugyeong plays a song from Heavy Metal City and Suho greets her at the bus stop. He has her missing earbud on and recognizes the song she’s listening to. Suho asks Jugyeong if she’s the same girl from the bookstore.

The episode ends with Jugyeong staring at Suho.

The Episode Review

True Beauty is one of the latest webtoons to get turned into an anime series. Like Tower of God, Solo Leveling, and others, it’s great seeing more webtoons receive opportunities to gain more fans via an anime adaptation. Unfortunately, True Beauty’s first episode delivers lackluster material on par with bargain-bin film and TV show releases. 

This episode was horrendous and distasteful. From its poor visuals to its ear-grading voice acting, many fans won’t find True Beauty “beautiful.”

Also, the show’s premise and life messages won’t appeal to every anime fan either. The idea of beautifying oneself to achieve popularity and gain friends isn’t motivational. It doesn’t offer viewers who are experiencing similar issues a positive message either. It’d be better if the author went a different direction with this tale, instilling folks with an idea that feels more inspiring and pure.

While the story’s just begun, there’s a chance it won’t go in the direction many would like, which is unfortunate. Also, the pacing is too swift and it doesn’t have the finest story structure. For instance, the anime doesn’t let its critical scenarios breathe. If they opted for that route instead, folks would likely sympathize with Jugyeong’s character. While the episode delivers some enjoyable comedic bits, True Beauty episode one won’t please many folks. 

Hopefully, the next chapter delivers something worthwhile.