Look Back - Movie Discussion
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Confession time. Despite being a moderator for the !manga@ani.social community, I had never read this oneshot before. So, I was going in about as blind as I could have been. I knew from the way people talked about it to have a box of tissues on hand and that it was about manga, but that was about it.
There were so many great moments that were in here. First, I liked One Piece on the cover of Shonen Weekly Jump when they were looking up the results of the manga contest. @rikka@ani.social
Their partnership really seemed to work well. It was tough to see it come undone when Kyomoto wanted to go to art school. You can really feel how hurt Fujino felt in that moment as she was trying to exploit Kyomoto’s insecurities to keep her from leaving. The visual framing of this sequence was brilliant as well. They had consistently been showing Fujino leading Kyomoto around by the hand, dragging her out of her shell. Then, when this conversation happens, they aren’t joined together anymore and a tree is shown literally dividing the frame right between them. Driving the proverbial wedge into their relationship as Fujino is trying to shove Kyomoto back into her shell to keep from losing her.
The part that really started to get to me was when Fujino picked up the old 4-koma that she drew that had lured Kyomoto out of her room back when they first met. It was tragic to see her blame herself and her art for the death of Kyomoto. As we transitioned out of that, I had no idea where the story was going to go next. I was not expecting the supernatural turn that came next at all. I must admit that I was confused for a little bit about what was going on.
The alternate history timeline was interesting. We see Kyomoto at art school, doing her thing and somehow scraping by with some degree of independence just like she had wanted. One thing I liked about this alternate timeline was Fujino’s dynamic entry and rescue. It looked like it was straight out of a manga panel. The irony of this timeline is that if Fujino had not lured Kyomoto out of her room, Kyomoto would not have died at art school. Sidenote: this sequence of events has to be inspired by the KyoAni arson attack, right? It is too similar for it not to be the case.
The titular 4-koma that Kyomoto drew, depicting a humorous take on the attack and rescue was actually hilarious. I absolutely loved the joke in the final panel. As somebody that has read tons of 4-koma over the years, that is a top tier reveal.
The shelves of Kyomoto’s room being full of Fujino’s work was incredibly cute. It was very touching and did a great job of showing how Kyomoto never stopped being Fujino’s biggest fan, ever since elementary school. I loved how this scene culminated in Fujino literally looking back to see the coat that she autographed all those years ago hung up prominently on the door.
Overall, this was a great watch. The way in which these two managed to inspire one another to greater heights across time and space was very touching. Really enjoyed this.
If you’ve watched I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, how similar is it in emotional impact to this, in your opinion? I haven’t seen that yet.
Look Back a great movie and am very thankful to experience watching this in the theater. My rating on it is purely on its technical merits. I guess I couldn’t relate on it at an emotional level. I especially love the ambiguity of the eponymous 4-koma scene. Is it an alternate timeline? Or did Kyomoto pen the comic far in advance, without knowledge of her eventual fate? It’s up to you.
I’ve seen I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. Kimisui (the short title, because it’s so long lol) kind of feels like getting stabbed in the chest then it’s over. Like what @wjs018@ani.social said, Look Back wasn’t top tier emotional, at least in the same sense as Kimisui.
Kimisui / Look Back spoilers
Kimisui banks on the audience’s anticipation on when Yamauchi dies because it’s pre-established that she does die (movie opens with her funeral). The twist takes a different form. There’s also the reveal of the main character’s name. After Yamauchi dies and the MC goes through a cathartic moment, life goes on for him.
In Look Back, I kept thinking to myself “oh it’s not over yet?” There are several moments after the “twist” when I thought the movie was going to end already but it kept going (for good reasons) so the emotion you feel is a bit different. Perhaps a bit dull. Maybe you can say Look Back doesn’t have a “climax” in the same way Kimisui does.
Also, Kimisui is grounded completely on reality while Look Back has a segment where two timelines converge. So maybe the realism in Kimisui makes it more emotional.
Thanks for the response. I guess I’ll check for myself once I come round to watching it.
For context, Violet Evergarden, Your Lie in April (the first watch especially, unresolved past issues and all that), and A Place Further Than The Universe are some that emotionally destroyed me.
I haven’t watched I Want to Eat Your Pancreas either, so I can’t directly compare the two. I think Look Back was touching for sure, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it reached the top tier of emotional anime movies for me. I ended up not needing my box of tissues for example.
By comparison, when I want to watch something like Tale of the Princess Kaguya, I prepare a fresh box of tissues and go ahead and clear my schedule for the whole weekend. That movie destroys me when I watch it.
My friend’s been bugging me to read the manga years ago so now I can say that I “read” it. It was kind of depressing to watch though.
I’m guessing Fujino and Kyoumoto are two parts of the author (Fujimoto) and it’s essentially his response to how a mangaka keeps on going. The manga was released during the Chainsawman hiatus and I’m guessing there are other references to his other past works.
Despite that, I’m still figuring out what Kyoumoto means to him. It’s a silly thing to think about but assuming he’s both Fujino and Kyoumoto, and he uses Fujino to represent the mangaka we know, then “who” is Kyoumoto?
Also this shot reminds me of Misato walking in the corridor:
And if anyone hasn’t, definitely read Fujimoto’s other one shot “Goodbye Eri”.
Personally, I think Kyomoto is a couple things at the same time. She is a fellow artist that inspires a mangaka to do better and at the same time is a stand-in for the fans that provide the satisfaction that all that work that went into the art/story was worth it. I know some artists irl that are really good, but they are always comparing themselves to other’s art and think that they could do better.
