Whenever anime weaves a tale about the trials and tribulations of making art, it often has to pump the brakes on its storytelling and thoroughly elucidate techniques, brush strokes, and styles to bridge technical gaps to its audience through a fish-out-of-water protagonist. While Look Back aligns with art-centric anime like Blue Period and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, it also seamlessly exemplifies the show-don’t-tell principle, presenting a genuine narrative about an artist’s approach to their craft.
Look Back, based on a one-shot manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto of Chainsaw Man fame, is a semi-autobiographical story about the journey of becoming a mangaka. It follows Ayumu Fujino, a vain fourth grader who thinks herself a comedic 4-koma manga prodigy. Despite her somewhat basic artistic prowess, she receives ample praise from classmates, neighbors, and parents, which boosts her self-confidence into outright egotism. However, her inflated ego is abruptly deflated when she witnesses the mesmerizingly intricate background art of her reclusive classmate, Kyomoto. What follows is an angsty coming-of-age story that explores their growth from artistic rivals to close friends and how their shared love of manga inevitably leads to them growing apart.
Look Back stands out as a triumph, largely thanks to the impressive quality of its animation. This is a result of the collaborative synergy between director Kiyotaka Oshiyama, art director Kiyoshi Sameshima, composer Haruka Nakamura, and color designer Maya Kusumoto, all complementing Fujimoto’s distinct flair for emotionally resonant storytelling. Every scene, whether in a messy bedroom, a lively classroom, or a charming countryside, carries the gentle, nostalgic touch reminiscent of a Little Golden Book illustration. Moreover, Nakamura’s music also possesses the emotional crescendo typical of a Studio Ghibli film, and its absence delivers an impactful emotional depth to its poignant drama.
By far, the most captivating aspect of Look Back is its minimalist, almost-unpolished character designs. Throughout the film, Look Back maintains character designs with harsh, bold outlines reminiscent of a sketch artist’s preliminary drawings instead of the refined compositing that anime enthusiasts typically expect. Far from detracting from the film’s quality, this raw aesthetic is its hallmark. It lends Fujino and Kyomoto’s movements a flip-book quality, akin to observing the ebb and flow of a roaring campfire.
What’s more, Look Back distinguishes itself with camera movements that are more reminiscent of live-action film techniques than conventional animation. Rather than rapidly switching between establishing shots, match cuts, and extreme close-ups, Look Back allows scenes to unfold and linger momentarily as characters navigate a static backdrop. In these moments, the audience is presented with the raw psyche of Fujino and Kyomoto. This is exemplified by Fujino’s initially proud posture, which collapses into a slouched hunch as she fervently replaces simple Goku doodles with anatomically precise drawings. Look Back‘s unique animation quality shines brightest in the rotoscope-like exuberance of Fujino sprinting down a rural road, splashing through every puddle along the way, and in the soul-crushing stillness of her fish-eyed despair.
Alongside unraveling Fujino and Kyomoto’s personal and professional ties, Look Back presents a fresh perspective on creating art for commercial success and personal growth. Notably, Look Back cleverly uses an anagram of Fujino and Kyomoto to hint at Fujimoto’s creative mentality. At the same time, its allusion to the tragedy of the Kyoto Animation arson attack provides a window into a creative’s existential contemplation of art. Through this, Look Back injects a genuine levity in its spoof of Chainsaw Man‘s meteoric rise while concurrently exploring the distress and delight tied to the enduring question of an artist’s purpose. The revelations presented in Look Back are profoundly moving, cementing its place as one of history’s most significant anime films.
Look Back will release in select theaters on October 4.
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