LOOK BACK

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ONE SHOT DramaLook Back

REVIEWS

• 

  Kaito67

  100/100
  Then why do you draw, Fujino?

  *There will be spoilers for the movie after the headline “Looking back”. Until then feel free to read the review if you’re wondering if you want to watch the movie.* I haven’t cried so much within one hour for a long time. Look Back was, in many ways, a truly special experience. #My theater experience ___ Wanted to touch on that briefly - My theater experience was very good. They did show additional staff interviews at the end which were great and very insightful. That should be a staple for movies in my opinion, I love hearing the creators talk about why they decided to make a movie this way and what the intention behind various aspects of a work is. The whole theater also was relatively quiet which helped with the immersion. I also liked that we all clapped together at the end, I thought I would be the only one to do it but it was nice to see that there is widespread appreciation for a work like this. #Love Letter to Art and Expression ___ When I watched Look Back, I couldn’t help but cry not only because it’s an emotional story, but also because it’s portrayed in a way that felt like it just oozed love for the art of animation itself. The characters are drawn in a loose fashion that allows a lot of expression and human nuances in their behavior, the animation is constantly on the move, not caring much about being polished but giving life to what we see on the screen. In the staff interview after the movie the director Kiyotaka Oshiyama also went into how they tried to not polish and clean up the drawings too much to show the human element in them, such as sketches, intention behind lines, and so on, and it shows. The visuals themselves seem to be very much “alive”, and I honestly don’t know if I can describe it better than that and it might only make sense when you see the movie for yourself. This sentiment of being “alive” also carried over in other departments, with the voice acting being not too shy to be more natural than what you normally see in anime and the soundtrack helped to enhance the immersion as well with a lot of bittersweet piano melodies that helped to take in the full picture. I also love the color design in the movie, it reminds me in a very good way of Western comics such as “On a Sunbeam”. #Looking back ___ The movie also resonated with me personally due to me currently trying to get better at animating and having spent a good chunk of my life doing that and drawing in general. There are a lot of moments that are simply very relatable, such as Fujino getting too arrogant because of the praise of her classmates, or celebrating in the rain with weird body movements after giving Kyomoto an autograph. The movie also captures the framing of the original work by only showing Fujino’s back when she draws, and how she continuously springs forward with her ambitions without giving herself time to breathe and properly “look back”. It was only when Kyomoto died and she saw Kyomoto’s room, that she realized that she drew all the time because she loved seeing Kyomoto reading her manga. It’s a message especially powerful if you can resonate with the struggle of drawing or animating. It can be not very fun at times, and you constantly feel down because you can’t help but compare yourselves to others who do much better than you do. At times you feel like giving up, but at other times, you just keep drawing. But at the end of the day, there needs to be some reason to keep drawing, even if it’s trivial. The movie not only conveys this idea really well but it felt like it also asked me as a viewer to “look back”. While I am still in the process of doing so, I can say that I started seriously considering animation after someone here on Anilist told me to try - so yeah, as I said, it can be a trivial reason. #Conclusion ____ In the end of the day, “Look Back” truly was beyond what I ever could’ve hoped. The director also asked for his movie to be watched again in a few years with the technological breakthroughs happening at the moment, so we can once again “look back”. And I think it will be very interesting to do so because this movie truly celebrates the art made by humans. There is intention, emotion, and purpose behind what artists do which can’t be replicated by an AI that only can copy learned patterns. Thank you Tatsuki Fujimoto for creating this wonderful story and thank you Kiyotaka Oshiyama for a wonderful adaptation of a wonderful story. I can’t wait to watch it again. *Thanks for reading and if you have any feedback for this review, feel free to leave it [here](https://anilist.co/activity/795550822)*.
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• 

  Visconde

  95/100
  Look Back é uma adaptação maravilhosa do one shot, elevando toda a beleza do manga com os artifícios do filme.

  O Fujimoto talvez seja muito conhecido e apreciado pelas bizarrices que ele desenha. Chainsaw man e Fire Punch são lotados de cenas e mais cenas de ação bizarras, com muita violência que é até cartunesco. Mas ele também é um autor que sabe muito bem criar peso em momentos mais cotidianos de seus personagens, por várias vezes apostando em algo mais introspectivo. Em momentos dramáticos para seus protagonistas o Fujimoto sempre me encantou e quando saiu esse One-shot não foi diferente. Me emocionei muito com a história linda que ele estava contando ali, da maneira que sempre amei as suas histórias, utilizando muito do silêncio dos painéis para passar esse sentimento de solidão ou de tranquilidade. Ver a adaptação agora (no cinema!!) me levou de volta a todo esse sentimento do mangá.

  Look Back acompanha Fujino, uma garota que desenha suas tirinhas de grande sucesso no jornal da escola, até que perde o posto de melhor desenhista para Kyomoto, uma outra aluna que começa a desenhar também no jornal, mas que nunca sequer vai a escola. Fujino, para tentar superar a colega, começa a praticar incessantemente desenho em cenas sem diálogo, variando somente o cenário enquanto pequenos elementos que entram e saem compõe essa jornada dela no filme, tudo acompanhado por uma trilha lindíssima. Mas tudo é em vão, ao ver que não consegue superar Kyomoto, Fujino desiste do desenho definitivamente. É só quando as duas se encontram e decidem trabalhar juntas que ela volta a desenhar, e se antes ela fazia isso na força do ódio, agora é com a amizade e companhia de Kyomoto.

  É realmente linda essa transição dela sozinha para o mesmo tipo de composição agora com as duas em quadro. A trilha que antes já era linda agora tem um aspecto mais bonito ainda e agora é acompanhada por um mundo colorido e parece até mágico. Ambas amam aquilo e isso fica muito evidente nas montagens sem diálogo nenhum que o filme faz, como em toda a sequência do encontro das duas pela cidade, alterando aquelas cenas em primeira pessoa que já começam a construir o apelo dramático principal. Assisti tudo até ai lacrimejando.

  No último terço então que vem a parte mais dramática, com a perda total da cor e da vida novamente quando Kyomoto e Fujino se separam. Isso que só volta naquela sequência do "universo alternativo" onde Kyomoto continua viva. O final é devastador e ao mesmo tempo muito bonito tal qual foi no mangá, todo aquele sufocamento e o luto soterrados pelo trabalho e por aquilo que um dia ela já fez com amor junto de quem ela amava, mas que ao mesmo tempo parece uma forma de celebrar e manter vivo aquilo que a amiga tanto amava.

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• 

  dudelikewow

  100/100
  How Adaptations Should Be Done

  #__A Short Film for the Ages__ I say this with every fiber of my being, this will go down as one of the most beautiful and perfectly crafted short films in the history of the medium. This is how you do any adaptation. I already loved and was completely moved by Fujimoto's original one-shot when I read it on a random Sunday morning. This short story is full of so many relatable anger filled moments, then moments of sheer euphoria and glee for our main 2 girls, then to utter and sheer depressing moments that then get balanced with moments of believing in the good of life. There's just so many gut-wrenching and heartfelt moments throughout the entire story and takes you for a ride, and so many different meanings and lessons to take away from it as you think about life, passions, friends, and what they all mean to you. I was fighting tears the entire film up until the final montage when the floodgates just burst open, something that didn't really happen when I read it originally. I teared up a bit when I read it the first time, but the combination of animation, voice acting, and gorgeous mute piano accompaniment just made it into one grand, fantastic piece. The music especially is so incredible, it just finds a way to swell and build up through simple piano to display and show a wide array of emotions. And the final choir that sings over the final lasting shot of the movie as the credits roll will stick with you for years to come. Both voice actresses were brilliant in their performances. They both felt so natural and like genuine children finding their way together through adolescence. The conversation that they have in the middle where they have their first disagreement was so moving and sad to see play out and the anger of denial in Fujino's voice just hits so deep. The animation is just breathtaking as well. The fluidity of the characters and camera that then can contrast the sharp lines and edges of Fujimoto's art style make for such a fresh look that immerses you into the world and captures you with it's beauty of the mundane through the use of wonderfully drawn backgrounds, which ties in perfectly with the character motivation of Kyomoto. I went into this expecting a decent adaptation of a great work by one of my favorite mangakas, Fujimoto, but what I got instead is a work of art that was so lovingly handcrafted by a talented team that just truly got the point of both the original work and Tatsuki Fujimoto as a person, that it became something so much more. This is what I look for in adaptations, something that can elevate the source material to even greater heights, and share the vision of the original creator with even more people across multiple mediums. Fujimoto was already one of my all time favorite storytellers, and I'm glad his work is getting even more recognition through this story. I do not say this lightly, that this film, truly was a masterpiece and a work of art that will stick with me until the day I die. 10/10, perfection.
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