Chainsaw Man creator's best - and saddest - one-shot is getting a movie
Tatsuki Fujimoto is on a roll.
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You'll probably be familiar with Chainsaw Man by now, but you'll soon learn of one of Tatsuki Fujimoto's best works, Look Back.
Released back in 2021 as a one-shot, Fujimoto's Look Back is getting a film adaptation. A short teaser trailer, which you can check out below, was shared alongside a new website, showing off a brief clip of a girl drawing at her desk. For those that only know Fujimoto from Chainsaw Man, Look Back is a much more lowkey story, with English publisher Viz Media's describing the plot as follows: "The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn't be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together. A poignant story of growing up and moving forward that only Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of Chainsaw Man, could have crafted." While Chainsaw Man has plenty of sad moments, Look Back has a much quieter sadness to it, and personally I think is one of the best examples of what makes Fujimoto one of the best manga creators around at the moment.
The film actually comes from quite a new animation company, Studio Durian, currently best known for its animation assistance on Studio Ghibli's The Boy and the Heron, and not much else outside of that. Directorial duties are being handled by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, who actually worked on Chainsaw Man as the devil designer across all 12 episodes; he also provided key animation for anime like Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance, Mob Psycho 100, and Space Dandy, and has directed for shows like Flip Flappers and more.
Fujimoto also provided a comment for the announcement of the film, noting how he made the work to force himself to digest what he couldn't in himself, though isn't sure if drawing it helped him do so or not. He also expressed his gratitude to this working on the film, and noted how Oshiyama is a "monster animator" who isn't known much by anime otaku, so as an otaku himself Fujimoto is looking forward to seeing the film.
The film is currently scheduled to release in theatres in Japan on June 28, though an international release hasn't be confirmed as of yet.