Nawaal Nackerdien/Fourth Estate
Masterclass animation within one hour
BY CHRISTIAN SEGOVIA, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Editor’s Note: Spoilers of the movie are included in the article.
“Look Back,” written by Tatsuki Fujimoto, came to Amazon Prime on Nov. 7th with a runtime of 58 minutes that fulfills its promise of adapting to the manga.
Fujino Ayumu is a student drawing comics for the school newspaper. The teacher asked Fujino to allow another student, Kyoumoto, to have a section in the school newspaper for her comic drawings. Fujino didn’t think Kyoumoto could top her drawings but was determined to do better once she saw Kyoumoto’s drawings.
Fujino spent days during school and at home doing anything possible to get better at drawing comics. After seeing Kyoumoto’s artwork, she finally gave up and decided to spend more time with family, take karate lessons and focus on school. That is until she takes Kyoumoto’s diploma to her house to meet for the first time.
Kyoumoto is a fan of Fujino’s artwork. Together, they created a manga called “Metal Parade,” which became runner-up for the Manga Award, which won them 1,000,000 yen. When asked to do more manga work, Kyoumoto decides to attend art school, and Fujino continues her path as a manga author.
The film does an amazing job of adapting to what the manga produced. Within one hour, not a single scene is missed or cut out of the movie compared to the book.
The animation style is beautifully done. When Fujino picks up to see Kyoumoto’s artwork, you can see the reflection of the artwork through her eyes. When Fujino enters Kyoumoto’s house, the reflection of the wooden floors shows Fujino walking across, which is just astounding to watch.
There is a scene where they are on the train heading back home and the background is bright blue and purple as the sun sets. The scene brought feelings of when you see a picture-worthy sunset on the way back home.
At the end of the movie, there is a beautiful view outside where Fujino sees where she works throughout the day on her manga. Seeing this, along with the music at the end the movie channeled deep admiration for the animators’ work.
The turning part of the film is what I hate and love about the movie. Fujino has the news station on her TV as she works on her manga. She sees that Kyoumoto’s art school had a murderer who killed a few students, including Kyoumoto.
Fujino takes a hiatus from her manga and visits Kyoumoto’s funeral. Fujino visits Kyoumoto’s home saying, “If I hadn’t brought her out of her room.”
The film then flips to what life could have been like if Kyoumoto hadn’t left her room. Fujino had saved Kyoumoto from the killer with her karate lessons and they became friends after that moment.
This part of the movie messes me up because it depicts how some people deal with grief. Some think if they had made different decisions, their loved ones would still be alive. The movie handles this depiction very well.
The music throughout the film does everything it possibly can to draw in the audience to feel what happens at each moment of the film, especially through the piano during the moments when something good or something sad happens.
Overall, the film amazingly adapts to the manga, has a detailed animation style, has amazing scene shots, great music and doesn’t leave any questions in the story. I give this film a well-deserved five out of five.
