It's an ordinary evening as you idly lay back on the familiar bed in your bedroom, your arms crossed supporting your head as your eyes gaze upon the ceiling you'll never forget. Just as your eyes begin to slowly close, your phone rings, buzzing by your side. You groggily reach out for it, and realise it's someone you're very close with, who explains they simply wanted to have a conversation with you before they could doze off as well. Next thing you know, you're exchanging sentiments talking about topics and whatnot; needless to say, it's merely some light-hearted catch-up. Then, before the chat could come to a close, the person on the other end says something along the lines of:

"You know, back then, you were really good at doing x. I'm just wondering, why did you stop?"

You momentarily pause for a moment, adjusting your back to sit up as your eyes dart over a group of boxes shelved near the door. There, memories of old past enclose your mind. Those distant days come back to you as the series of muffled 'hellos?' going unnoticed.

Look Back.

There's something reminiscent of nostalgia flipping through the 144 pages of this one-shot. See, I've always aspired to become something of an artist myself. I remember 8 year-old me, before the times I've indulged in rickrolling pals around my minuscule social circle, doodling and sketching stick figures with behemoth body proportions stretching out in messy detail on piles of cluttered paper too many to count. Oftentimes, I would draw a plethora of make-believe movie posters as a go-to during those days. The square-fitted frame where a roster of my imaginary friends making up the 'X-Force' (sounds stupid I know but you can't blame me back then), pose with their swords held upright as their soulless, hollow eyes marked by the sharp jab of a pencil looking back at me - yep.

You could put an argument I was driving myself crazy to the bone, but tell that to eight-year-old me, heck I was having the time of my life. I didn't mind, I didn't care. The rigorous exercise of more dishevelled anatomies and quietly borrowing the sheets of paper in my father's workstation was nothing more than delight in my eyes. All I wanted is to show off the mighty and righteous X-Force to the world with the flick of my handy-dandy stationery at my disposal. In my mind, that was my everything and so, I continued. Even if the Earth would suddenly combust, I would still continue.

average reader: shouldn't you be dead when that happens?

Moving on from that logic, by the time fifth to sixth grade came around, homework and school work only intensified. Naturally, I could've kept my doodling on and on as I finished my tasked assignments, but for some reason, I eventually took a break. Maybe the reason was I was being carried by my friends playing basketball, but when I think about it, it was stemming from the realisation I had that, simply put, it wouldn't work in the long run. Whenever I returned to my bedroom, glancing at the stack of papers waiting to be drawn, only to dismiss the thought and collapse on my bed. Soon, I decided to postpone said break even longer, and longer. Longer to a fault. And as you probably can guess, I never returned back to drawing hours at a time.

But what if I did stick with it? Refined my sketches following a more firm and natural figures and anatomies, seeking out and sketching finer subtle details and achieving potential I could never dream of reaching before. Attend an art school to further hone and polish my artistic capabilities, made a living as an artist and beyond?

Maybe in a different life, but as of this universe, that isn't the path I took. Since then, I've been exposed to the internet, learnt about existence of anime and manga, and now here I am, making reviews on Anilist and other stuff alike. 'Look Back' by Tatsuki Fujimoto was something I had in the back of my mind for some time now, even so, I recommended to a person here on Anilist not too long ago to go check it out in their thread, with their response being to (also) check it out for myself. They were very nice in providing me feedback, and thus I had the urge to buy it once and can finally bring some closure.

Look Back's premise is easily summarised by the introduction of Fujino, bearing a talent for drawing witty manga strips in the school's newspaper. However, one day, she is outmatched by a student that goes by the name of Kyomoto, possessing an even greater talent for drawing, especially designing backgrounds. The story centralises upon these two characters with them growing up and moving forward with their love of drawing manga. Leaving it like that to avoid delving into spoiler territory, as I flip through the pages, I can tell this is very personal to Fujimoto-sensei, the creator of the hit absurd series 'Chainsaw Man' and 'Fire Punch.' After all, Look Back's story follows the upbringing of two manga artists, reflecting Fujimoto's personal journey as one of the notable and highly respected artists of this period in contrast with the absurd and chaotic Chainsaw Man, following the titular absurd and equally chaotic 'Chainsaw Man'. To add, there is a fictional serialised manga series named 'Shark Kick', a direct allusion to 'Chainsaw Man' with other familiar easter eggs a Fujimoto fan or some ordinary reader would discover. All in all, this is his more grounded, heck, his most grounded and realistic work to come.

One page to another, I kept thinking to myself formulating imaginary branches which I like to call 'Is this really it?' game. Practically, I would think of a reasonable path the narrative would head towards, but to my surprise, not a single 'Is this really it' scenario occurred in real-time. The only thing I got close to was a specific ingredient in most of Fujimoto-sensei's works, and if you don't know what that particular ingredient is, I think it's better off to say you need to experience that for yourself. But for the most part, this says a lot that this one-shot really subverts your expectations.

For example, there's a sequence near the middle half of the one-shot that took me by storm. It involves a pretty ordinary conversation, and likewise, although it came across as more natural and totally reasonable, I felt detached with gargled thoughts spewing by. I said to myself, "Why?"

It only took me some time to finally realise that reality isn't always like you envisioned, like my relationship with doodling as mentioned before. Again, I don't want to spoil any major points but damn, it particularly hit me pretty hard.

Let's continue. In this thread of the aforementioned realism, Look Back's straightforward narrative manages to be a hard-hitting one albeit its short length, as we spend most of our time focusing on the relationship between Kyomoto and Fujino is a highlight to see unfold, dwelling on their interactions and their genuine and natural growth of one another. Originally, I visioned Fujino as a hot-headed brat in the first few pages, but as the story progresses, she's way more than a stereotype, but rather a believable, flawed individual. And for Kyomoto, truth be told I was torn if they were a male or female, but if you haven't read it, I'll let you find the answer for yourselves.

It's an inspiring, moving, poignant yet simple story that thrives off the authentic dynamic of the two moving forward in life, whether that would be the frequent rectangular panels making up a single page, subtly showcasing the technique of 'Show, Don't Tell' of time quietly passing by, (mostly taking place in Fujino's bedroom with very minute details, with a few other exceptions) or the very drawn-out singular panels encompassing one or two pages, displaying a powerful and raw magnitude in the grand scale of Look Back, piercing you right in the feels. With this, the distinct visual style Fujimoto-sensei portrays is astounding, coupled with the art direction he sketches.

The backdrops, although they may look cheap and somewhat plain/mundane at first glance, once you get to a particular stage while reading, you'll notice the deliberate, stylistic intent of this, especially in the middle portion. The same goes for the character art, but I can't help but say it's handled with more finer detail than the backgrounds. Taking a small look at a character's face can immediately tell you the exact emotion they're going through. A grimace, an expression of worry, a disoriented face of bottled-up rage: that truly goes to show the level of craft gone through the facial expressions. To me, there's something so unique about it, making me appreciate Fujimoto-sensei even more.

The only major detriment and nitpick I have with many others would be the latter half to the last act of this one-shot. It essentially, without giving too much away, is pretty baffling and it threw me for a loop. It's so out of place and I honestly thought it'll head to the sci-fi realm or something not going to lie; but the more I thought about it and reread the pages, I realised it serves more of a reflective connotation to the overarching story than straight up mindbonkers.

Still, something tells me it could've been reworked better for its execution, like adding a few extra pages to better emanate its transition, but at least I have a grasp on what Fujimoto-sensei was trying to convey.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed what Look Back had to offer. It's the most human work Fujimoto-sensei has crafted yet and is his most personal. The stunning panelling and immersive artwork sucks you in for a ride, easy on the eyes, but heavy on the heart. It's not with its issues, however, with the short length and the middle to last section of this one-shot, but that can be excused by reading this one-shot for a second time around, or you can look up a video summary/analysis on Youtube.

If you've read this all and still haven't read Look Back, I think it's safe to say you should. It's beautiful, exquisite and a bit mind-bendy, but I'm sure you can manage. I assure you, this isn't House of Leaves-bendy.

A Short Afterword: Hey there! If you got this far without scrolling down only to see the damn score, I appreciate it a lot. I don't really know what to put here aside from the fact of being grateful for having you, the reader, simply taking your time reading all of this. Now when I think of it, it's coincidental in the sense that I realise, this is my most personal review yet, covering Fujimoto-sensei's most personal work yet, it's just something worth to mention lmao.

Anyhow, this one-shot left me thinking and reflecting upon old times, old times as in troubled and messy periods of my life, and now since I've moved on from them, it's time to take a backseat and plan out my next step. Although I cannot rewrite or shift those times, what I can do is look back, see what I did wrong and make sure they don't occur again. Of course, I'm not exactly superhuman and there's always a window I'll make the same mistakes again, but I'll find a way.

So, dear reader, a word of advice. Even though something in life may be bothering you, you're in a difficult spot right now and it feels you can't take it no more - don't give up, as I quote the top review:
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