[Seong Chan-eol's Comic Book] May This Regret Be the Driving Force of Your Life, 'Look Back'

Since this is the first article opening this series, I thought a lot about it. Still, it's a bit embarrassing to reveal my taste on the first day, and it shouldn't be unhelpful to the reader, so I decided to write about either 「Spy Family」 or 「Skip and Loafer」. However, while lying down to sleep and daydreaming, a work that I thought I should introduce suddenly came to mind. It is 「Look Back」.

I think many people have encountered it now that an animation of the same name has been released. As a 'Look Back' fan, with both pride and embarrassment, I must say that I read 「Look Back」 before its official publication and bought it immediately upon its official release to read again. The first time I encountered it was through an illegal translation by someone. Fresh Japanese short comics are usually spread on the internet by someone more otaku than me and fluent in Japanese (because otakus live by promoting). Since 「Look Back」 was a new work by a famous author, someone uploaded a translation, and I happened to see it (I swear I didn't see it while browsing illegal sites). And since I already liked it when I read it that way, it was only right to buy the official version to repay. After that, I recommended it to everyone I met, saying, 'There is such a comic.'

「Look Back」 is a short story by Tatsuki Fujimoto, the author of the original 「Chainsaw Man」, which has shaken the theaters with 〈Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc〉. Tatsuki Fujimoto is called the 'devil of short stories' or 'devil of the first episode' because many of his short stories or first episodes have extraordinary appeal. Of course, the first long story 「Fire Punch」 ended arbitrarily, which became an irony, but anyway. Tatsuki Fujimoto, who is famous for his short stories, finished the first part of 「Chainsaw Man」 and announced 「Look Back」 in July of that year.

「Look Back」 depicts the story of Fujino, a girl who pretends not to want to be a manga artist but actually does, meeting Kyomoto, who is much better at drawing but refuses to go to school. 「Look Back」 contains Tatsuki Fujimoto's seemingly indifferent yet precise character depiction and panel composition, and the story is excellent. The story of two completely different girls becoming each other's driving force and then drifting apart as their dreams change shakes the hearts of everyone who has experienced intersecting fates in life through the mindset of a creator.

In the end, the image of Fujino sitting back at the desk to draw a work after an irreversible time must have stimulated the hearts of those in the Japanese manga industry. How else could a 20-year veteran animator have pushed for animation with a small elite team? Director Kiyotaka Oshiyama threw himself into almost every field he could, including directing, storyboarding, animation, and editing, to complete the medium-length animation 〈Look Back〉. He transferred the original as faithfully as possible while beautifully capturing the time Fujino and Kyomoto spent together, enhancing the tragedy of the work. He actively used music, which cannot be used in comics, to ensure that all this reached as encouragement rather than frustration.

As a single book or a medium-length animation, 'Look Back' leaves a deep impression. (Personally, I recommend the original with Tatsuki Fujimoto's panel composition and rough, desolate artwork more) So, please make sure to watch it, or I hope you have watched it. The comic book is less than 150 pages, and the animation is 57 minutes, so it only takes an hour. If you watch it at this time when the end of the year is approaching, the spring, summer, autumn, and winter of the work, the emotion that permeates the work, will be even more deeply felt. 〈Look Back〉 is currently being re-released at Megabox and can be viewed on the OTT platform Prime Video.