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Look Back Movie Review

Look Back is a 2024 anime teen drama film directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama. It’s an emotionally manipulative, but gorgeously made and effective film.

Fujino and Kyomoto couldn’t be more different, yet their shared passion for drawing manga unites these two small-town girls. Based on the manga of the same name, Look Back is a rare anime film that is less than an hour in length. For the most part, this choice worked well for this material as it led to a movie that did not feel prolonged at all, but was consistently engaging and deeper than expected given its short runtime.

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As a big anime and animation fan in general, it was wonderful seeing the behind-the-scenes process of creating arc, in this case focusing on manga. This is a very difficult job that requires a lot of crunching hours of endless work and devotion and the movie really got that as the tone is one of deep passion and commitment. The film is all about what it means to be an artist and how hard it is to create something that is meaningful to yourself as well as others.

Where the movie lost me a bit is in the second half. The ending itself is very moving and beautifully affirmative, but how we got there was through some turbulent pacing, structural issues and problematic messaging. The imaginative time travel elements gave the movie non-linear storytelling that was exciting and unique, but not really needed for this type of simple and short story. That added to a different structure to the second half that didn’t fully work for me, though I did respect the ambitious intent behind it.

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But the idea that what happened was still somewhat worth it as the two got to have a couple of amazing years of success and friendship together was deeply problematic to me. The tragedy that was included was an obvious allusion to that infamous 2019 animation studio shooting in Japan and this plot element was definitely touching in the movie too, but it still felt emotionally manipulative as you can sense that the film was building to some sort of tragedy with all the joyous scenes of friendship thrown in just to afterward make you reminisce about them and make you cry. It was heavy-handed is what I’m trying to say.

With that being said, Look Back is still a wonderful movie in spite of its shortcomings. The central friendship is incredibly moving and powerful. It showcases how sometimes friendships happen in spite of huge differences between the two people as these two exemplify – Fujino is more outgoing and confident while Kyomoto is more reserved and shy. I related with the latter character more as this is how I felt back in school and the movie explored the concept of otaku very well through this character. Their friendship is genuinely touching, though more time could have been devoted to their dynamic overall.

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The voice acting is wonderful, the movie is very well directed and its animation is superb. The illustrations are gorgeous and memorable and I liked the scene where they become alive and I wanted to see more of those moments personally. It’s a polished, beautiful-looking film that is also phenomenally scored – its tender music perfectly accompanied the tragic and inspiring sequences on screen.