Look Back

(Hello there! Just a small disclaimer. This is the script of a video review I did on this manga, if you want to check out this review in video format please click here. Otherwise feel free to read the review below. If you end up enjoying the review however, it'd be really cool if you'd check out my channel or my other reviews on AL afterwards! Thank you!)

While we all waited for Tatsuki Fujimoto to start the second part of Chainsaw-Man, he surprised us all by revealing that he was actually working on a one-shot, unrelated to Chainsaw-Man and with 140 pages, almost a full volume of manga. And today we’re going to take a look at this short story!

So hello and welcome, ladies and gentleman! My name is Crash and Look Back was probably the best one-shot I’ve ever read.
The only other one I can think of that can rival it is the original Koe no Katachi, or Silent Voice, one-shot, which is still probably the best version of that story, even if I love the series and the movie in their own right.
Look Back however does one thing I don’t think many one-shots actually do, which is to deliver a fulfilling and completed story in a short amount of time. So let’s go through that story and discuss my opinion and what I think are the main themes of each section. There will be spoilers all over this review, as I go beat by beat through what happens, so I’d ask you to go over to Mangaplus and read everything for free if you haven’t yet!

We are first introduced to our main character, Fujino, in elementary school as she is praised for her four koma manga in the school’s newspaper. And if you think Fujino sounds too much like Fujimoto, well, that’s most definitely on purpose because the other character we are introduced is one Kyomoto.
Now, Kyomoto doesn’t appear for most of the first segment, but it’s still her actions that drive the narrative, as she starts to draw for the newspaper as well and she draws like a pro already, versus Fujino who’s just pretty good for an elementary student.
The other students quickly point this out to Fujino and that drives her to actually start prioritizing drawing, to try to improve and be better than Kyomoto.

This is where we are kinda introduced to the first meaning of Look Back, which, by the way, is the actual title even in Japanese, as we spend a lot of time, and we do again and again throughout the entire manga, just looking at Fujino’s back as she sits in her desk and draws and draws.

Tho, what I think is the main question in this entire manga is “Why do you draw?” Fujino is introduced to the manga saying that she just did the 4 koma in 5 minutes, and that she really doesn’t want to be a mangaka, much preferring to follow a career in sports.

And while we’re going to see that this is not completely true, it does seem like she’s doing it mostly because it’s an easy way to get praise and look good. She’s doing it for the fame and glory… or at least the closest that she can get in elementary school.

But when Kyomoto’s work gets into the scene, Fujino is forced to decide if she wants to put in that extra effort to become better or not. And she takes the decision to do so, having now a second reason to work hard and to draw. Competition.

Having a rival or someone you want to beat is very often a good motivator, and it definitely was for Fujino… at least at first. Fujino does improve in the next two years, a lot, but at the cost of her friendships and grades, and all that, to still not be on par with Kyomoto’s art. So she decides to give up.
That is, until graduation day, when she is tasked to go to Kyomoto’s house to give her the diploma. At first Kyomoto doesn’t leave the room, but that changes when Fujino draws a strip and drops it under the door. Kyomoto runs to her and admits that she is a big fan of Fujino’s work, having read every manga that was published in the newspaper since 3rd grade! And this helps motivate Fujino to go back to drawing!

And if we can stop here for a second, what I find interesting is that this can kinda be an objective versus subjective argument or even about the value of manga compared to pieces of art like paintings.
Kyomoto was objectively the best artist of the two, there’s no one in the entire planet that would look at the two side by side and say that Fujino was a better artist, but that didn’t invalidate Fujino’s manga. It still had value to some people, in this case to Kyomoto, and Fujino still had a strong point, while Kyomoto was the best at drawing backgrounds, Fujino was undoubtedly the best at drawing manga! And by doing that she helped Kyomoto, and this is what mangaka do! Through their stories, through their ART, they help people like me and you through hard moments, by providing us with entertainment!

And it’s in realizing this value, that there’s someone out there that enjoys her stuff on a deeper level, that really appreciates everything she worked for, that she gains a completely new drive to draw!

But this time she’s not alone. Kyomoto helps Fujino to draw a manga to submit to a magazine and they get an award! Most of this next segment is just showing and establishing this new friendship, as the duo continues to work together to deliver more one-shots. It’s done mostly with silent panels, and it does such a great job. At this point, we are seeing the multiple shots of Fujino’s back for the second time in the manga, but while the first was just Fujino alone… this one has two people, and it’s not just that shot, we get multiple shots of Fujino and Kyomoto, although sometimes just Fujino, having fun, going to the cinema, to the aquarium, the bookstore… We get this feeling that Fujino met someone that truly completes her, not just in the manga department, but in life. And again, this is done in such an effective way, in such a short amount of time.

But then they get accepted to a serialization!
Which is great… but Kyomoto doesn’t want that to herself. She wants to become her own artist, she wants to improve and she wants to join an art school! That’s her dream, not to have a manga serialization.

And that is fair, because going back to their origins, it was always Fujino that drew manga, Kyomoto drew landscapes and backgrounds, so it makes sense that she wants to follow her own career. Fujino tries to change her mind, pointing out essentially all the reasons why Kyomoto’s more antisocial and reserved behaviours may end up causing her problems and how everything would be easier if she just followed along.
But Kyomoto wants to be herself, and wants to improve herself in order to be a better artist.

And so we go back to Fujino’s lonely back. We see that she publishes what essentially is a spoof of both Fire Punch and Chainsaw-Man, Fujimoto’s two serializations, in one! Also a note here is that she keeps her pen name which has Kyo in it. Which is most likely from Kyomoto!
And she gets 12 volumes in, but then an incident changes everything.
An axe murderer got into Kyomoto’s school and killed 10 students including… Well, I suppose you can guess who. This traumatic event causes Fujino to go into a hiatus due to her mental health.

And let's stop here as I think this mentions a couple of events.
First one is kinda obvious in retrospect, but I’ll be honest that it was other people have pointed me out to it, which is the connections with the Kyoani incident, which if you don’t know, was an arson that happened in July 18, 2019, in Kyoto Animations, or KyoAni’s studio in which 33 people got killed.
The suspect was someone who had his novel submitted and rejected by KyoAni years before, but thought that KyoAni was ripping it off. When in truth, after people looked into it, they found that the novel that it was submitted had little to no resemblance with ANY of Kyoto Animations productions.
In “Look Back”, the murderer is also screaming to Kyomoto that she “stole his art” before trying to hit her with his pickaxe.
Besides this, there’s the Kyo in Kyomoto that sounds too in the nose, but this is also a guy called Fujimoto who called his two main characters Fujino and Kyomoto, so yeah, I think it is on the nose on purpose.
And there’s also the fact that this came out on July 18th, 2021… EXACTLY two years after the incident… except technically it did not, it came out on the 19th in Japan, we’re just a couple of hours later than them. Still, it’s undeniable that it’s still very very close.

The other element though, is the hiatus, which is a topic that’s been “hot” lately, so to speak, for a couple of reasons. Both the death of Miura and recently the hiatus of JJK due to Gege’s health.
I just don’t think we are giving the mangaka the treatment they deserve as human beings, which in the end, they are.
And this comes in both ways, I don’t think the industry is giving them that respect and treatment, and I don’t think the audience is as well.

And I’m sure this isn’t what Fujimoto was going for, Fujino goes on a hiatus because she lost her will to draw and she’s going to have to find her reason to continue, which is, again, the main theme of the entirety of the manga.
But either way, I still felt like it was something worth bringing up.

Which is cool, but now… oh, now we’re getting into the weird part.
Fujino goes to Kyomoto’s house and finds the strip comic she originally drew that made Kyomoto leave her house and she feels incredibly guilty for having put Kyomoto into the path that would eventually lead to her death.

She rips the paper and we get treated into an alternate timeline in which Kyomoto didn’t leave her house. Now, I kinda expected this to go to some specific ways to go to one or two classic messages. Like, for example, we’d see that it wouldn’t change a thing and Kyomoto would still die, or even if she didn’t, she wouldn’t be as happy as she was with Fujino and the point would be that it was still important for Kyomoto to have had that experience. And while that message technically is still here, it’s not how this segment happens. Which just helped remind me that you shouldn’t try to predict Fujimoto.

Actually what happens is that Kyomoto, yes, ends up going to the art school anyways, and face to face with the murderer, but a passing Fujino ends up saving her, they talk a bit and Fujino reveals that she’s actually starting a new manga and she invites Kyomoto to be her assistant. Kyomoto goes home and she draws a 4Koma manga in the style of Fujino, called “Look Back” recalling the early events and a gust of wind sends that 4Koma under the door, and it comes out to “our” reality and to our Fujino.

And it’s a really weird part, right?
Of course, we are used to weirdness from Fujimoto, but I think the difference is that the rest of the manga is very realistic. It’s not a Fire Punch and it’s not a Chainsaw-Man. And there’s always the approach of this not being real. And upon my first read, since we do get some symbolic interaction between the two timelines, I took it at face value as just two realities that just existed. On my re-reads I’m starting to think that it’s more of a coping mechanism of Fujino to create this ideal world where it’s not really her that leads Kyomoto to the path that leads to her death, and on top of that, she’s also saving her.
Both interpretations are valid, I think, but I’m definitely leaning more to the second one now.

Then we get to the climax of the story. Fujino enters the room and reminds herself of her time with Kyomoto, and one moment in particular, when she was saying that she didn’t like drawing manga, and Kyomoto asks her “Then why do you draw?”
And Fujino doesn’t really answer, or if she does it cuts before it, but what follows are scenes from when the two of them were together. Laughing, writing, reading, and it's those memories that make Fujino go back to her room, and start drawing again.

And yeah, let's answer that, why did she go back to drawing? And, of course, the obvious answer is because of Kyomoto, she was a fan of Fujino’s works, she always what fueled Fujino to continue working hard, and even though she is gone, it’s Kyomoto’s passion for Fujino and Fujino’s passion for Kyomoto that drives her back to manga.

But let's move a bit away from the actual manga and look back at everything, and answer why Fujimoto drew THIS specific manga, or one-shot.

I think a lot of people will say this is a tribute to KyoAni, and while, yes, everything aligns, and yes, it most definitely IS a tribute to that event, I don’t think that’s the main reason for the manga. All in all, the parts that relate to the incident makeup probably not even a fourth of the entire thing.

Rather, I think this is Fujimoto looking back at his career. This is Fujimoto after having written Fire Punch, a pretty successful manga in it’s own right, but then he just did Chainsaw-Man, and that is, right now, one of the most hot manga around. It’s super popular, everyone is talking about it, and we know that this isn’t the peak. We still have Part 2 to come, we still have the anime adaptation to come. Chainsaw-Man might explode soon.

This, right now, is the best time for Fujimoto to not just jump into Part 2, but instead take a moment, look back, and question himself why does he draw? And I think it’s that reflection on why he does it that is Look Back.

What I don’t think Look Back is, however, is simply Fujimoto’s story. I know it’s easy to look at the names and make that connection, and I think there might be some elements that are true, but I don’t think it is as close as saying, like, “Fujimoto wants to draw because a friend of him died and he wants to honor him or something.”

Rather, I think Kyomoto represents the fans. The ones that love Fujimoto’s works and let him know, the ones that follow and eagerly await each and every chapter he writes. Those that were changed by his works.

Chainsaw-Man and Fire Punch and now Look Back… these works resonated with me in ways I never expected them to, and they are definitely some of the most important manga I’ve read in the past few years. And Fujimoto helped me change the way I look at the media. It’s different, it’s wild and it’s meaningful. There is value to Fujimoto’s works, and that value is recognized by the fans.

A lot of my favourite manga, a lot of the manga that changed my life, that impacted it…. A lot of them are not manga that you would expect to be that valuable. Beelzebub, Agravity Boys and Love Hina.
And maybe you think my connection to these manga are stupid, but I don’t care. These manga have value, just like Fujino’s stupid 4Koma gags had imense value to Kyomoto.

And I think it’s because of us, that Fujimoto, and that a lot of other creators, not just mangaka, do it.
Storytelling is such a powerful tool to impact people’s lives, in positive ways. We’re not all barking Makima fans.
And yeah… Look Back is beautiful. I know a lot of people won’t see the wildness and weirdness of Fujimoto in this one-shot. It’s far more realistic and grounded, and, to be fair, Fujimoto has a lot of one-shots that are like that. This reminds me of Imouto no Ane, the one-shot that Fujimoto drew between Fire Punch and Chainsaw-Man, since it’s also more grounded and it talks about the value of art as well.