Look Back (2024) Movie Review: Art As the Unifying Expression of Imagination and Reconciliation

The popularity of anime as well as manga as an art form has touched mainstream at the crossroads of media consumption, be it in smaller reels or with the availability of streaming services, as well as stacks of tankobons available in prestige bookshops for fans of sequential art form. But exposure to the art form brings forth revelations of the unglamorous lives of the mangakas (manga artists), their hectic work schedules, etc.

“Look Back” seeks to shed light on the love of art as well as the emotional toll caused by the creation of said art. Art pushes the two protagonists—Fujino and Kiyomoto—to compete with each other. It occurs more so with Fujino once she sees the much more advanced art style of Kiyomoto which pushes Fujino to obsessively work on her art and push herself. Two years pass and she is beckoned with a realization that maybe she has hit a ceiling, and thus decides to forego art in favor of reconnecting with her family.

Art pushes these two characters closer when Fujino is asked to deliver Kiyomoto’s diploma, and Fujino’s yonkoma (four-strip gag comic) slide through Kiyomto’s closed door, helping Kyomoto push through her agoraphobia and allowing her to connect with Fujino, resulting in Fujino also realizing Kiyomoto’s respect towards her talents. This connection allows them to work together as a team until the evolution of art intertwines with the vagaries of humanity, pushing them apart as their professional dreams fail to coincide. But art would again unexpectedly reconnect their friendship.

Look Back (2024) Movie Review — A still from “Look Back” (2024)

Running just shy of an hour, the adaptation of the eponymous one-shot manga written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto works because of the beautiful and tactile animation. It shifts between the looser abstract animation of the manga strips being drawn by Fujimoto but then shifts back into the gorgeous, almost water-colored depiction of the movement of the characters. It exists within the canvas of the animation, where an apparent top-down shot signifying pencil-sketched animation transitions seamlessly into 2.5D animated layouts.

More importantly, it’s in the facial expressions, which, while not too concerned with the heightened depiction of micro-expressions, manage to exquisitely depict the emotional nuances through strands of thick hair or within shadows. What also works in context are the character structures, foregoing unrealistic body structures, and rather depicting a somewhat realistic depiction of the changes in body shape as the two girls age out of their adolescence into adulthood.

In most manga and anime adaptations, characters are more inclined to spell out their emotional dilemmas via voiceovers or their epiphanies voiced out in longer monologues. In contrast, both characters act realistically, with the introverted Kiyomoto struggling to voice out her decision, while the outgoing Fujino chooses to act out in protest and be generally more open to hanging out with her friend, forcing her to break out of her shell.

The poignancy of their friendship thus hits harder, especially when the film chooses to go towards a plot route that could only be described as a form of magical realism. The music too aids in scoring that poignancy, though I would be lying if I said it didn’t become overpowering. While the inciting incident in the movie, which is based on a real-life event, seems to come out of nowhere, the fallout of that incident and the utilization of magical realism shows the power of art in both narratively connecting the two friends through contrivance and also in art’s power to reconcile with one’s grief and extracting hope from said reconciliation to move forward, despite the unglamorous life of the artist and the emotional toll being borne.

The emotional gut punch at the end, aided by the brevity of the entire story, helps push the film’s overall exploration forward, offsetting the inherent flaws within the story structure itself. The animation is the draw, the subject of the story being the intriguing premise, but the exploration of friendship sprouting out of shared love of creation and the medium is what ultimately pushes “Look Back” to the finish line.