“Look Back” is a coming-of-age movie by Tatsuki Fujimoto about two girls, Fujino and Kyomoto. Fujino is the classroom artist who makes manga strips and Kyomoto is known as an often-absent student. One day Fujino’s teacher encourages her to publish her manga strip in the school newspaper. From there it as Kyomoto is gaining recognition for her talent, Fujino gets jealous begins a quest to become a better artist.
In sixth grade Fujino realizes her skill level can’t reach Kyomoto’s, so she gives up being an artist. A time skip brings us to high school graduation where Fujino is asked to deliver Kyomoto’s diploma. When Fugino arrives and can’t find Kyomoto, she leaves the diploma at the front door. Kyomoto hears her voice and runs out of the house immediately to catch her. This first meeting of the two characters sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Kyomoto realizes she appreciates Fujino more than Fujino herself could ever could.
Overwhelmed with joy of meeting Fujino, Kyomoto wonders why her idol would stop drawing in 6th grade. Because of her sense of pride, Fujino doesn’t tell covers her that she didn’t think her talent would match and says she was just planning out a manga the whole time.
Leading to the most important parts of their life, they work on a manga together to enter a contest. Combining Fujinno’s character drawing and storytelling skills, and Kyomoto’s background drawing skills they place at a manga contest, receiving the runner up award! From there they continued to collaborate, working so well that they receive an offer for a full-time position at a publishing company. But Kyomoto does not want to work on manga for the rest of her life. Feeling she still has room to improve, Kyomoto chooses to improve her art skills in college. Formerly a shy and anxious girl, Kyomoto decides it is best to push out of her comfort zone so she can improve herself and what is important to her.
Life can be amazing but also very unfortunate at times. This is where we see that in the movie. While Fujino is making manga reach number one on the charts, Kyomoto improves her skills. Seeing both characters become successful in their own ways is a nice development. Until one day the news reports that a person killed multiple students at Kyomoto’s college. Struck with despair Fujino could not help but feel guilty for her death. Feeling like it was all Fujino’s fault because Kyomoto only came out of her house because of her. A good chunk of the movie shows the grieving of Fujino. As with life, Fujino is forced to return to her work, and the movie ends.
It was fascinating to see the story reflect Fujimoto’s journey and lived experience. You may know Fujimoto from Chainsaw Man or Fire Punch. He created Look Back as a manga originally in 2021 and it was later adapted to a movie, directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama. In the movie, small details about Fujimoto emerge like how the character’s names are from parts of his own name — Fuji to Fujino and moto to Kyomoto. Each character has a fascinating connection with Fujimoto. Fujino represents the director’s feeling of not being good enough. While Kyomoto resembles Fujimoto’s audience who praise and adore his work. Combining these two characteristics was interesting, even if dramatized as a “slice of life” story.
There are no lyrics in the music, which I found interesting. Emotional scenes often have no music to let the deep scenes soak in. Director also wanted it to feel more like the manga by having the linework feel more hand drawn and, at times leaving rougher linework or adding crosshatching to background details.
During the murder scene, the line work changes styles. If you read the manga, you can see the movie and try to mimic it. Using scratchy linework for intense emotions is a bold choice and really sells the unfortunate and out of place nature of the murder. Fujimoto’s eyes show more of a scratchy style when feeling at fault for Kyomoto’s death. Small details like the changing of the linework really helped sell me on how well this movie was made. While at first it looks artistically simple, the details of the background and the linework really add to the feel of the movie.