Look Back

Ayumu Fujino may only be in the fourth grade, but she already basks in high praise for her hand-drawn four-panel comics featured in the school's newspaper. However, when she is asked to share the page with Kyoumoto—a reclusive student she has never met—Fujino feels inadequate for the first time: her free-spirited drawings look embarrassingly amateurish next to Kyoumoto's breathtakingly detailed art.

For a year, Fujino shuts out the world, obsessively studying manga creation and drawing tirelessly to catch up to her faceless competition. But Kyoumoto's talent far exceeds hers, and Fujino quits it all. Another year passes, and on the day of their graduation, Fujino finally meets Kyoumoto. This unkempt, shy, and stuttering girl has actually been Fujino's biggest fan all along. Their encounter reignites Fujino's passion for art and sparks the beginning of a years-long friendship built on rivalry, admiration, and their shared love of manga.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kyoumoto Main

Yoshida, Mizuki Japanese

Fujino, Ayumu Main

Kawai, Yuumi Japanese

Man Supporting

Oka, Kouta Japanese

Newscaster Supporting

Fujino's Mother Supporting

Takeuchi, Kaori Japanese

Teacher with a Watch Supporting

Itou, Jun Japanese

Fujino's Grandmother Supporting

Taira, Masumi Japanese

Classmate Girl Supporting

Kae Supporting

Endou, Rina Japanese

Woman in the Manga Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Matsumura, Kazuto Producer

Shinozaki, Shinya Producer

Nagano, Yuuki Producer

Shiga, Yurie Assistant Producer

Reviews

Dec 8, 2024

EmpireDeLuna

Recommended

As an art enthusiast myself, it'll be the hardest thing in the world not to fall in love with this piece. In just under an hour, they managed to encapsulate every drive and break that an artist could have, striving in their own world.

I doubt this will resonate with everyone, and i can see some people having issue with the shorter runtime, as i myself consider it a waste of potential that Fujimoto, the author, is so hesitant to drown any further in narcissism that he doesn't develop this spark of his farther to be a feature length. But for someone who can create something ... as over-the-top as Chainsaw-man, to have so much self-restraint is honestly an art in itself!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by EmpireDeLuna (23)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 28, 2024

Halcyon13

Mixed Feelings

Tatsuki Fujmoto's one-shot Look Back serves as a love letter to the creative artistry behind manga. The short story follows two middle schoolers, Kyomoto and Fujino, two names that form a portmanteau in Fujimoto’s own surname when split. Fujino is a popular kid and happens to draw 4-koma manga strips for the school newspaper, and this success bolsters her ego through the roof. Until she sees Kyomoto's work published in the same paper and is in awe of her rival's artistic talent, an obsession to be better grows. As the saying goes, comparison is the thief of joy, but in this case, competition is directly ... correlated to improving her skills. The film shows her hard work as taxing, harming her studies, and such, but ultimately, it is clear to the viewer that she had fun. It's exciting to have a goal, something to chase. This contrasts Kyomoto, an agrophobe yet incredibly skilled at background design. Look Back essentially chronicles their unlikely partnership, then subsequently a friendship.

The film is narratively thin, although that's not inherently a downside, just a mere fact. There isn't much to work with given the nature of the concept and the emotion-centric storytelling. Whatever material director Kiyotaka Oshiyama has, he presents with fidelity. A large segment of the film is montages, probably one too many. It mostly works though, typically characterizing the two girls as well as the shift in their dynamic. Each of these sequences depicts various facets of the craft as well, showing them putting months upon months of work into a manga. While the combinations of successive shots condense time, the backgrounds show the sun rising and falling as the seasons change. The layout of Fujino's room becomes increasingly cramped, but as long as they have a desk to work on, the drawings continue. A number of the montages parallel each other in the same timeframe but characterize different aspects of the two girls' relationship. Evidently, the connection they develop is the central focus, particularly how attachments should be avoided by professionals. The only thing constant is change, and it is inevitable that a creator will want to hone their abilities, thus creating distance from those around them.

Look Back is studio Duran's first feature-length project since being founded in 2017, and while Oshiyama (co-founder) has a plethora of experience under his belt, he hasn't been at the helm in years. It's important that we address the quality of the film because it becomes an indispensable part of the experience. The color grading in the film bears a tremendous weight in shaping the mood of a scene. Take something as simple as Fujino grabbing Kyomoto's hand and running down a street, for instance. A moment as simple as this has the backgrounds muted out in slow motion as Fujino and Kyomoto happily jog. This is standard for most films with scenes of that nature, but the innate inclusion of peripheral movement allows the mise en scène of the rising action to stand out. We see this during montage sequences often, such as light refraction, or a potent example would be the first shot of Fujino brainstorming at her desk. The body language shows an acute attention to detail like ticks that mangaka may have, and something as trivial as pen spinning adds a bit more personality. Oshiyama opts for rotoscoped character animation, leveraging the technique in prolonged shots where facial expressions sell the emotion.

Much of what Look Back offers points to a capable adaptation, and I would identify it in that light for the better part of the film. To put it bluntly, it could have been shorter. That includes accounting for all the material and not cutting corners. A shorter runtime doesn't solve a great deal, but there would be less thematic elongation and would subsequently create slightly more interpretation. Then again, if we zoom into the root of the narrative's bewilderment, it is clearly the third act. That style of incorporating a brutal turn of events has become the norm lately, so it has now become exactly what it opposed: a derivative plot device. Personally, I'm neutral on the storytelling pathing in that direction, but I fail to see any level of effectiveness in it. The story can operate without that act or even mimic the same sentiments with a vastly divergent conclusion. This trend of tearing down reality has felt increasingly cheap to me, a method of forcing the viewer to cherish the past. It doesn't help that the film's foreshadowing is extremely heavy-handed, which again is generally fine if it were content with introspecting the lives of young girls vying to be mangaka.

Criticism aside, Look Back does have genuine watch value. There's one specific part of the writing that stands out, a thread that I would assume Fujimoto intentionally overlooked. Kyomoto is established as an artist, a visionary desperate to grow her skills. Fujino is never given that title, and it's consistently ambiguous as to why she draws manga at all. Originally, it was for recognition, maybe money, then jealousy, and lastly, perhaps for Kyomoto. Naturally, these are all perfectly valid reasons, and it's just as fine if none were true. Drawing because she doesn't know what else to do or isn't talented at anything else. Fujimoto's angle here hints at the universality of a job being just that, a job. And that is okay. In that same vein, the film has many feel-good messages to offer, painted in bright, warm hues. Composer Haruka Nakamura, who I've been familiar with for a long time now, is proficient at building up a string and piannisimo crescendo. He performs well here, and Oshiyama appropriately uses the score or douses a shot in silence. Look Back, even with its ups and downs, especially for a debut project, puts studio Durian on the map. If anything, it's a testament to Oshiyama needing longer original work. The opening shaky rotating shot is almost out of a Gaspar Noe film; similarly, the technical virtues positively overshadow narrative gaps. Art is cruel, and humans are like water in the face of it, moving whichever way the flow takes us.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Halcyon13 (32)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Nov 10, 2024

zettai-jin95

Not Recommended

Funny

Working through the angst of a lone young artist and reshaping ambition through the relation to another creative, one of a vulnerable and sensitive nature. Look Back is the grounded story of the meeting of two young manga artists, Fujino and Kyomoto, and the dramatic turns of their lives together.

The story is believable to the point of an creating an impression of autobiographical. The anime follows at a blitzing pace, years of the two’s lives are truncated into a few scenes of only a few minutes each. Sometimes montage feels like the ordinary state of the film. The boarding is at times overbearing and cuts ... too rapidly for the sake of its own weight. Take the scene of Fujino and Kyomoto having their talk at the paddy at dusk, thoughtful yet overdone images communicating disconnect are paired with rapid cutting in a way reminiscent of the style of Naoko Yamada’s sentimental film Koe no Katachi. Continuing with the overbearing sentimentality is the score, every song has the same high pitched reverberating sounds and sad piano. It’s the sort of music that plays in inspirational commercials and what I’d imagine a basic teenage girl would write poetry to. The music is monotonous and used often, it personally greatly brought down every scene where it played. What may have been assumed to be a strong character or relationship study, surprisingly doesn’t feature much intimate interaction between its only two characters. Thoughtful moments of emotional subtext and symbolism in its composition help but the film rushes past these images almost indifferently. Even during its most dramatic moment, it doesn’t carry a sense of stillness. As for the general directing style, while not breaking reality much outside of the expressionistic manga-come-to-life segments which are used for punctuation and juxtaposition, the film has a bit of a sense of cinematic realism but nothing doggedly consistent. Regularly are short moments of showy ballistic background animation and full animation character acting used but largely it’s not submerged in cinematism thanks to its refreshing avoidance of plaguelike digital effects and CG, although the film is not free of the depictions of ugly technologies such as smartphones, photoshop, and drawing tablets. The art direction sometimes has a look of painterly impressionism but with mixed looking penciling effects added. While the art direction was inconsistent, falling into a cheap looking digitality at times, it overall has a unique look, much better than average for 2024.

Look Back is imaginably anime of the year with its brief, grounded story and relatively high-quality art and animation. However, it’s almost too truncated to make a point, nearly unrelenting in sentimentality, and light on impactful dramatic images.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by zettai-jin95 (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Natsukashii

by galimx

23 Entries · 19 Restacks

Ugly Cry Movies

by SleepySteamBun

18 Entries · 14 Restacks

Must watch Anime films

by lainnvx

44 Entries · 11 Restacks

'Look Back' Unveils Additional Staff, Trailer

The official website of the Look Back anime movie unveiled additional staff, the theme song, a trailer, and the key visual (pictured) on Wednesday. The movie is sche...read more

Apr 16, 3:31 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (25 comments)

'Look Back' Announces Main Cast

The official website of the anime movie adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's Look Back manga announced the main cast on Thursday. The movie is scheduled to open in...read more

Mar 13, 6:55 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (6 comments)

	Poll: Look Back Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) IzanaSolos - Jun 14	146 replies	by Hangezoe2001 »» 11 hours ago
	Look Back and Kyoto Animation incident Bagus_Resol - Nov 11	19 replies	by Guilmon1 »» Dec 7, 8:06 AM
	I didn’t enjoy it as much as everyone else, am I stupid? ( 1 2 ) someguy - Nov 8	69 replies	by Iceman598 »» Dec 1, 1:01 PM
	Amazing performance of Mizuki Yoshida as Kyoumoto celebes - Nov 8	2 replies	by Aragane »» Nov 22, 7:11 PM
	Animation style reminds me of science saru Runasius - Oct 19	7 replies	by hjhjjhmggyg »» Nov 10, 5:48 AM