Chainsaw Man creator's One-Shot Manga nabs anime movie adaptation

Tatsuki Fujimoto's Look Back has received the green light for an animated movie adaptation, the film's official website announced. Studio Durian is spearheading the project, with founder Kiyotaka Oshiyama of Devilman Crybaby, Space Dandy, and Flip Flappers fame directing, writing, and designing the characters.

Oshiyama presumably met Fujimoto while working on Chainsaw Man; the former was in charge of designing the Devils and several subcharacters for almost all 12 episodes. Check out the teaser below, currently playing on a separate website launched on Wednesday:

Look Back is a one-shot reverse coming-of-age about a school rivalry between two young mangakas (Fujino and Kyomoto). The story picks up the pace by adding a time travel and horror thriller subplot midway that challenges their relationship. It explores intimate themes of friendship, existentialism, and nihilism, and the role of human agency when determining fate. Look Back may have been inspired by Fujimoto's own life as a mangaka.

Look Back debuted on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ in July 2021, before featuring on Viz Media and Manga Plus (also by Shueisha) in Japanese and English on September 20, 2022. The manga received plenty of nominations, including 2023's Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia category. It won first place at Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2022, Twitter Japan's Trend Awards, Rakuten Kobo's E-book Manga Award, and Freestyle magazine. It placed second on the 15th Manga Taisho and third and fourth on Oricon. More significantly, Look Back amassed 4 million reads in just two days. The manga was compared to Chainsaw Man by Western critics in terms of structure, themes, and storytelling style. Viz Media writes:

"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."

Look Back's movie version releases in Japan on June 28 this year.