Introduction
Tired of being looked down upon for her unattractive appearance, middle schooler Lim Jugyeong turns to the transformative powers of makeup. First, she experiments with BB cream, lip tint, and eyeliner; then she begins using mascara, double eyelid glue, and colored contacts. Before she knows it, Jugyeong goes from being a girl who is bullied for her ugliness to being praised as a high-class beauty. Constantly surrounded by those who adore her goddess-like appearance, Jugyeong can now live a more than comfortable life at school—she simply has to keep her bare face a secret.
However, everything changes when the new transfer student, Lee Suho, enters her life. Not only does the handsome Suho become immediately popular among their peers, but in a chance encounter, he also becomes the only classmate of Jugyeong's to see her face beneath the makeup. With her reputation on the line, Jugyeong must do whatever it takes to hide the truth about her appearance from the rest of her classmates. But the more time she spends with Suho, the more Jugyeong finds herself questioning whether one's true beauty lies solely in their looks.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
11 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Avengers007
I watched the anime from October 13 through October 18, 2025, and honestly, by the first few episodes I thought — this is not an anime from Japan! ???? Style of art, names, the atmosphere by and large — everything seemed unusual. Then I learned that it is an adaptation from a Korean webtoon (manhwa), and also there exists its live-action version (which I also did not watch).
The point is. I did not anticipate I would like it this much. I began watching it around midnight and would view just one episode — and then I would discover that I'd already consumed 5 episodes. That's how much I liked it.
It is an anime slice-of-life romantic comedy — packed with emotions, school conflicts, and the old standby love triangle. I normally would only see these kind of stories in fantasy or isekai anime…
Read at the source50Fiftillididee
✒ 💄True Change: It Was the Inside That Needed Fixing °7.5° °VG° 💯%🔍 some minor spoilers
“Who decided that if you're ugly everybody gets to treat you like dirt?”
Dumplings. They are delicious. One of the best foods on earth. But nobody wants “Dumpling” for a nickname. Lim Jugyeong/Jug is ordinary looking. Her grades are nothing special. She likes heavy metal and horror manga. And she doesn't have one friend. She's an outcast.
It's not the first romance rated in the 6's that is undervalued, imo. If you like romances, this is easily better than a 6. It is well conceived and written, the art is seamless, and it is a solid love story. Sure, there's some familiar formulas, but that doesn't matter as much if the execution is good. The biggest drag on the show is how Jug is alittle too fran…
Read at the sourceAshuz
This anime not clear anything perfect lity but it pretty much good tell as dark reality of school and discrimination with not good looking students they get bullied bye other students
Main character past trauma both suho and Lim, Jugyeong some kind problem the past and now suho father issue and Lim, Jugyeongget buling in school for her look
True beauty it's some good and funny scene anime in start like suho and Lim, Jugyeong moment but later it goes to love
triangle Han, Seojun awesome to and sad to
Firstly when Kang, Sujin character we feel sad but show go. One you start hate her ep by episode
[After ep 8 the anime turned around totally Anime get's boring anime typical 1side love at this point you totly hate Kang, Sujin character in anime when he try pull sabotage Lim, Jugyeong you s…
Read at the sourceBlondieLottie
To start off, I'll say that I read the webtoon and watched the live action before the anime (I didn't like the live action) and I thought that I personally wouldn't like the True Beauty anime. Surprisingly... it turned out to be the opposite.
Don't get me wrong, all three mediums have a very similar premise regarding South Korea's obsession with beauty standards. However, one thing that differs from the live action is that the anime is, surprisingly, more faithful to the source material (and doesn't evangelize some characters like the live action did)
The plot follows the story of Lim Jugyeong, who is bullied for being 'ugly' (something that doesn't surprise me about South Korea considering the bullying idols suffer) and is forced to change schools. During that time, she will learn how t…
Read at the sourceRian_Rahmat
Even though it's not from Japan, I liked it, so I recommend you guys to watch it too.
A romantic comedy that might be relatively new to me, although this kind of story already exists in Japanese anime too.
But what's different here is that each has its own style of delivery, comedy and storyline. So for those of you who are bored with Japanese romantic comedies, I think this anime is one of the choices.
For the characters are cute, the comedy is funny, and most importantly not exaggerated.
I often see Japanese romantic comedies where the characters are exaggerated, with the Ikemen style, or sparkling eyes, and other things, maybe some of you have noticed that.
Even though there are some scenes that are still stiff, I still like it. I hope that anime released outside of Japan can also be…
Read at the sourceAsasphinx
Prior to watching this I was able to read all of the chapters this adaptation managed to cover and I'm mixed on how I felt about this. I felt a mix of disappointment in what I saw, but part of me still wanted to keep watching because early on this adaptation seemingly deviates from the exact path taken in the manhwa while the outcome remains the same.
Take my first issue: I think the biggest issue comes from the means of storytelling on various fronts. The pacing of this whole show moves way too fast with all 13 episodes covering about 60 chapters of the manhwa. I don't feel like they give the viewer enough time to sit and process things as they happen before jumping right into new issues and had I not read the manhwa even I might've cared less about things. It's a drama but there's not e…
Read at the sourceDestron
This anime has been in my plan to watch for a while now and I figured it was finally time to watch it. With the low score I actually expected this to be not that good of a watch. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I actually liked watching this anime.
The first episode did feel a bit difficult to watch because within the first couple of minutes of the anime they highlighted how shallow and horrible people can actually be to someone just because of something as small as their looks. I myself look like a human version of Jabba the Hut so I know first hand what it's like to be harassed because of both my looks and weight. True Beauty highlighted that in a pretty good way.
Moving onto the actual plot. I think the plot was decent. I'm not going to say any of it was crazy becaus…
Read at the sourceshmeowww
Do you like cute anime husbands? Do you like not-weird fan service? Are you a women? Well chances are you will very much enjoy this anime. I am unsure why this does not have a better rating especially in female communities.
Honestly, the plot of this was quite good and I absolutely did not have any high expectations. This anime deserves a higher rating.
Just to preface: I have never watched the K-Drama before, but I am currently watching. Thus far, it’s mostly accurate to it! It is as good as this anime, and the anime reflects its original roots well. I’m also very happy they finished the English dub on Crunchy which is good for those who like sub and dub.
Moreover, I recommend this to any Shojo anime lover out there! It’s so good that I am getting my gal pals to watch too!! I I’m also h…
Read at the sourcermelda_7
I’ll start by saying that I’ve watched and read every single adaptation of true beauty. I had read the WEBTOON, then watched the kdrama and now I just finished the anime. In my opinion I would classify (based on my most enjoyed version to the least) : WEBTOON > anime > kdrama.
The main problem with this version is that it is TOO rushed which means that some details lack. Because of that you can’t understand completely the story and the background stories of the characters. It’s an anime so they could have made 24 episodes and explained everything more deeply.
Despite that, this version follows more the WEBTOON story which is great ‘cause that’s what really annoyed me while watching the kdrama.
I also don’t understand why people say that jugyeong’s voice is annoying. Personally, it suits…
Read at the sourcesagemoderose
Right off the back, I will give this animation adaptation a 7.5/10. Let me go over my reasoning.
Real quick, I have not read the manga, nor have I seen the actual K drama, I've only seen the animation which is what I'll be reviewing.
First off, I think the animation is good. Not great but good. though at times it looked like one of those game screens one in a blue moon and would throw mw off, or at least that's how I see it. The color and animation were good, I don't have many complaints about it, other thank the still screen like blue lock from time to time.
Secondly, I like the story line, girl gets bullied goes to a new school to try and reinvent herself in hopes she doesn't repat past drama and along the way finds herself with great friends and along the way ends up falling in love.…
Read at the sourceQueenOpals
With such low reviews I wasn’t expecting much from the show, but I was blown away by the amazing colors and looks of the characters, and the intro song that is original to the show? I actually downloaded the song to my playlist for the car it’s that good. The show is deeper than most rom coms and goes over topics like suicide, severe bullying, etc. I really
Don’t understand the bad reviews? There were a few spots where the animation looked alittle funny in moments, but that was just the animation style. Most 12 or 13 core shows have a few episodes that are super slow and boring but honestly all the episodes were intriguing and interesting. Great show overall!
Read at the source