The anime movie adaptation ofLook Backis now playing in North American theaters, and audiences are raving about the subtle genius of manga artist Tatsuki Fujimoto. The deceptively simple one-shot story, written in betweenChainsaw ManPart 1and Part 2, tells the heartwarming (and heart-wrenching) tale of two middle school girls whose love for manga brings them together in unexpected ways. While Fujimoto is best known for his wilder and more action-oriented stories, the nuance and emotion inLook Backcaptured the imagination of readers and animation studios alike.
Veteran animator Kiyotaka Oshiyama, whose career has touched on projects as diverse asChainsaw ManandThe Boy and the Heron, ultimately transformed the one-shot into an hour-length feature film.Look Backhas since been hailed as a new anime classic - evenshaking Hideo Kojima to his core. Oshiyama worked with Studio Durian, newcomers who may be small at the moment, but whose work onLook Backproves they have what it takes to hold their own in the industry.
Look Back Review: Summer 2024’s Blockbuster Anime Movie Showcases Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Genius
Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Look Back has been released in select venues overseas, and it’s already looking to be one of the best films of the summer.
Screen Rantinterviewed director Kiyotaka Oshiyama abouthis vision forLook Back, his collaboration with mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto, and the casting of Fujino and Kyomoto. The filmmaker also explained why exactly he has no plans to adapt Fujimoto’s other one-shot,Goodbye, Eriin the future. (Note: The interview was conducted with an interpreter, with Oshiyama’s answers given in Japanese and translated to English for this article.)
But the director did learn some personal details about Fujimoto-san to better animate the manga.
Screen Rant: You worked on character design inChainsaw Man. Is that where the inspiration to adaptLook Backcame from? Can you share a little bit of initial conversations you may have had with Tatsuki Fujimoto about it?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: I did the designs for theDevils for Chainsaw Man, and when I got that job to do the character design for the Devils, that was the first time I read Fujimoto sensei’s manga. I think Chainsaw Man was animated at MAPPA, and I wasn’t working in the studio within the production. I was just asked to do the design and then turned it in, so I was working remotely and wasn’t really part of the production.
When Look Back was announced, I read it thinking, “Oh yeah, this is Fujimoto-san. What kind of one-shot did he work on?” But even then, when I was reading it, I wasn’t thinking like, “I would do this and that if I were to make it in the film.” I was just reading it as a customer.
The first time I met Fujimoto sensei was when we decided to take on Look Back. It was like a meet and greet, but I also did ask him about some scenes in the manga that could be interpreted in different ways. Then I wanted to make sure, “Is this the interpretation that you want to be portrayed in the film?” Then the second time I met up with him, I showed him the storyboards and the character design and asked for Fujimoto’s opinions.
I also asked Fujimoto sensei some personal questions because I wanted to incorporate some of his habits into the film. “What kind of chair do you use? How do you sit in the chair? How do you hold your pen, pencils, et cetera? What kind of equipment do you use? What kind of food do you eat when you’re working?” A bunch of stuff like that.
Screen Rant: On that note, I love the variation of scenes that are really just Fujino’s back to the audience as she works on her manga.Look Backis lauded for its cinematic story-telling, but also for leaning into manga’s inherent strengths. Was there any difficulty in adapting those moments to the screen and highlighting the subtle changes?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: The manga shows a lot of the effort that Fujino puts in. But just showing that in an anime is not enough. So, as an animator, I really wanted to focus on her efforts and to show them, and also make it easy to see that she is working hard.
Screen Rant:Look Backis a very complex work with so many little details that make it feel very personal and intimate. You mentioned asking the mangaka personal questions, but did you have a favorite small moment or subtle element that you got to incorporate into the film?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: I don’t know if this is a favorite necessarily, but I asked him, “Do you have some kind of habit or some tick that your friends imitate?” He actually said, “I don’t have any friends imitating any of my ticks or anything.”
But when we were having a meeting, I think maybe to either wake himself up or something, he would do a massage with his fingers between his eyebrows. So, I incorporated that when Fujino was drawing her manga.
Staying True To Look Back’s Source Material Meant Playing With The Length Of The Movie
“I don’t think anyone on the production side thought that it was going to be distributed worldwide.”
Screen Rant:Look Backis a fantastic story, but it’s not a very terribly long one. Did you ever think about adding more to the movie, or did you want to keep it to an hour-long runtime?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: When I took on this project, we did have the expectation or agreement that it was going to be a compact, very small number of people working on it. I didn’t want to make it necessarily longer or anything, but I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t take anything away from the manga. Nothing is cut and nothing is taken out just for the heck of it.
But I also thought that there were some parts that were needed in an anime film, so then I just added little bits and pieces here and there.
Screen Rant: Some might feel the temptation to dive more into the parallel universe or time travel portion of the story rather than stick to the ambiguous, fleeting moment from the manga. Is that something that you and Fujimoto-san spoke about, and was it part of what you wanted to ensure was appropriately depicted?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: Anything like that, regarding the story, I didn’t really talk about with Fujimoto sensei. I knew I could add more to make it a 90-minute film, for example. But with the production time and the budget, I thought that even if I had the opportunity, I really just wanted to make it compact and tight.
We didn’t start on this project thinking that it was going to be a long film. We really thought it was going to be a short film, but then in order to incorporate everything that we wanted to do, a short film would not be enough. There would not be enough time. 60 minutes is where we ended up, but it’s not like we were calculating. It really was the minimum of what we could do, what we wanted to do, and that’s what we ended up with.
I don’t think anyone on the production side thought that it was going to be distributed worldwide. That was something that none of us had in mind because, in Japan, they would even come to the theaters even if it’s only 60 minutes. We were thinking, “Maybe it was efficient. Everyone’s busy, there’s no time.” [Laughs[ Everyone’s attention span is not that long.
But maybe it matches the era, and maybe this is a new way to watch a movie. It’s not a revolution, but some audiences are saying, “This is probably the best way to watch a movie. You can watch it in 60 minutes.” But it’s not like the production had thought about any of that. It was just really ended up at 60 minutes. That was all we could do within the time constraints.
Casting Look Back And Finding The Heart Of The Story
There’s a little bit of Fujino and Kyomoto in each of us – but Kiyotaka Oshiyama especially relates to them.
Screen Rant: Can you talk a little bit about the voice casting process and what made Yuuma Kawai and Mizuki Yoshida right for the roles of Fujino and Kyomoto?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: I had auditions because I wanted to find the best voices that would match these two characters, and the auditions included both professional voice actors who usually do animation or anime and live-action actors. They’re all included because I really just wanted to find a certain style that I wanted to incorporate.
I think among all of those people, those two just shone the most as the voices. They ended up being live-action actors because I thought they fit more in a way. They were a little bit more natural or realistic; similar to what young teens or pre-teen girls would sound like.
Screen Rant: You’ve spent a long time in animation. How do you think that your previous experience has helped evolve you as a director now, especially onLook Back?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: On Look back, I wasn’t just a director. I was almost more of an animator working on this. But in the 15 to 20 years that I’ve worked in this industry, I’ve been an animator. I’ve been a character designer, and I’ve done directing of various things.
I think the fact that I was able to be involved in various styles and various productions of animation really helped me. This one is based on manga, so as a designer, I had to match the art style of Fujimoto to verify that it looked like the manga. But as an animator, I was able to animate it, and as a director, I was able to control the flow and the direction of the story. I think every single experience I’ve had in the past 20 years came in handy when I worked on this film.
The biggest thing was having the experience. Because it is anime, we only have a limited time. As an animator or director, it’s really hard to be involved 100% in each scene or each cut of the anime. There’s no time to redo particular anime sequences, so I had to think about, “How much can I do? How perfect can I make it? How efficient can I be?” All of my experience helped, so I could think, “If I use this method and this style from my past time, I could do this much in this scene.”
By using my experience with different styles and different ways to work on different scenes, I was able to create a high-quality movie. In the sense that everyone is saying it’s high quality, that is. [Laughs] If I was a newbie with no experience, I would think one sequence or one scene needed 1000% of my effort, but then the rest of the movie would be pretty plain and boring. So, luckily I had the experience to divide my efforts.
Screen Rant: Which would you say is closest to your creative process, Fujino’s drawing writing style or Kyomoto’s?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: I have elements of both within me, but I do think it’s mostly Fujino. I don’t think I’m as pure as Kyomoto; I’m more complicated. I have to be, given the situations that I’m put in. I have to be more practical.
Maybe I don’t have the best personality, or I’m not always 100% kind, but I think deep down inside I do have Kyomoto’s pure love of the medium. And you do need that pure love for animation to survive in this industry.
Reflecting On Look Back’s Reception And Making Plans For The Future
Kiyotaka Oshiyama addresses whether he wants to adapt another Tatsuki Fujimoto one-shot.
Screen Rant:Look Backhas already been hailed as an all-time classic and has been receiving rave reviews. Has there been a favorite reaction that you’ve received from a fan or critic?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: They don’t really say what part of the movie they liked or didn’t like most, or that this was a scene that was particularly moving. But they do say, “I don’t know what it is, but I just know I saw something amazing.” Or, “It was really good. It’s staying with me.”
Screen Rant: Given how well-receivedLook Backhas been, are other adaptations of Fujimoto one-shots such asGoodbye, Eriin the cards for you? Or are you hoping to branch out and look in a different direction for your next project?
Kiyotaka Oshiyama: Regarding Goodbye, Eri, definitely not. Not because I don’t like the manga or anything. I actually love it! It’s just too much because you’re in the position of movie filmmaking there. The point of view of film won’t work with the process that we took with Look Back, where everything is hand-drawn. I don’t think it really matches the style of what Goodbye, Eri should look like. It would take just too much time and effort to work on it.
But then it’s not like I’m saying, “Oh, I don’t want to do any more adaptations, et cetera.” I do think originals are the way to go, and I should announce one. But I’m open.
More About Look Back (2024)
Popular, outgoing Fujino is celebrated by her classmates for her funny comics in the class newspaper. One day, her teacher asks her to share the space with Kyomoto, a truant recluse whose beautiful artwork sparks a competitive fervor in Fujino. What starts as jealousy transforms when Fujino realizes their shared passion for drawing.
Based on the acclaimed manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of “Chainsaw Man”, Look Back captures the highs and lows of pursuing artistic excellence and the special bonds formed through creative collaboration. The heart-wrenching story is the stunning feature-length directorial debut from Kiyotaka Oshiyama that will leave you in tears and inspire you to chase your own artistic dreams.
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Look Backis distributed by GKIDS in the U.S. and currently playing in theaters.
Look Back
Cast
Confident artist Fujino and reclusive Kyomoto bond over their shared passion for drawing manga. As they navigate the challenges of growing up and pursuing their artistic dreams, their friendship deepens. The story beautifully explores themes of creativity, dedication, and the impact of personal connections on their journey.
