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James Marsh

4/5 stars
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s 2021 manga Look Back is an uncharacteristically nostalgic one-shot from the creator of Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man.
Exploring the relationship between two schoolgirls who share a love of drawing, the story poses questions about what motivates artists to create, and has themes of jealousy, grief and friendship.
Brought vividly to the screen by animator Kiyotaka Oshiyama, in a film clocking in at just under an hour, those emotions and sentiments can now be experienced in a fresh format by a wider audience.


Fujino (voiced by Yuumi Kawai) has garnered a passionate and supportive following among her classmates for the witty four-panel yonkoma comic strips she draws for her school newspaper.
However, when she is asked to relinquish some of those column inches to the perpetually truant Kyomoto (Mizuki Yoshida), she is bowled over by the detail and emotion captured in Kyomoto’s superior sketches.
Fujino is so disheartened that she abandons drawing altogether – until she is instructed to take Kyomoto her graduation certificate, and discovers that her wildly unkempt and passionate rival is in fact her biggest fan.

The girls begin working on manga together and achieve notable success, but when the opportunity arises to move up in the industry, Kyomoto decides to go to art college instead, leaving Fujino to fend for herself.
Realised through a simple yet effective hand-drawn aesthetic, Oshiyama’s film disarms its viewers with its measured pace and apparent simplicity. But as the layers of the central relationship are formed, and later stripped away, we only realise after the fact how deeply invested we have become in their friendship and shared success.
In its final third, the film ventures into more fantastical territory, flirting with ideas of violence and alternate timelines in such a way that the viewer is never entirely certain where reality ends and Fujino’s boundless imagination begins.

This is perfectly understandable considering that Oshiyama honed his craft as a key animator for such masters as Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai, whose work compulsively blurred the lines between the magical and the mundane.
With this film, both Oshiyama and original author Fujimoto appear to be entering a new phase of their careers, eschewing the escapism of their earlier work to indulge in something more personal.
A reflection of the youthful passion that drove them to create and compete, Look Back stops to ask what might have changed and what keeps them going as they enter middle age. Looking forward, the future is very promising indeed.
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Kyomoto (left, voiced by Mizuki Yoshida) and Fujino (Yuumi Kawai) in a still from Look Back.

Fujino (voiced by Yuumi Kawai) in a still from Look Back (category IIA, Japanese), directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama and also voiced by Mizuki Yoshida.



A still from Look Back.

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Look Back follows Fujino (voiced by Yuumi Kawai), who loves drawing comic strips at school, and friend and rival Kyomoto (Mizuki Yoshida)


Fujino (voiced by Yuumi Kawai) is a schoolgirl who has built a fan base for her comic strip and who becomes jealous of another girl (Mizuki Yoshida) who is also a popular artist. Then they team up.


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Review | Look Back movie review: Japanese manga adaptation is a lovely look at the art of drawing

Look Back follows Fujino (voiced by Yuumi Kawai), who loves drawing comic strips at school, and friend and rival Kyomoto (Mizuki Yoshida)