Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s animated debut feature film Look Back, based on the best-selling manga by Tatuski Fujimoto, is a heartfelt coming-of-age drama that has resonated with moviegoers and at home audiences globally, amassing more than $12 million worldwide and landing a spot on Prime Video. At just under an hour, Look Back follows the popular Ayumi Fujino (Yumi Kawai) who has been long praised for her humorous comics in the school newspaper. However, when her teacher asks her to share panel space with Kyomoto (Mizuki Yoshida), an absent recluse, her beautiful artwork outshines Fujino’s and kickstarts friendly rivalry between them into their young adult years.
Here, Deadline talks to Oshiyama about the significance of Look Back and the highs and lows of pursuing creative endeavors.
DEADLINE: What was your entryway into Look Back? I understand that you used to do animation work on Chainsaw Man. Did you read it first, or did Tatsuki Fujimoto approach you about collaborating on the adaptation?
KIYOTAKA OSHIYAMA: Avex Pictures came to me and said, “Do you want to work on Look Back with us?” So, I agreed. We then worked together on developing a pitch and took it to Shueisha, the publisher of Look Back. Other teams were also interested in adapting Look Back, so it was like a competition vying for that pitch to be approved. But I think Shueisha, including the manga editor and Fujimoto, decided on our group Avex Pictures and Studio Durian. This is my opinion, but what caught Fujimoto’s eye was when I uploaded some illustrations on social media. I think that played a big role in getting this pitch. Even though [my studio] Studio Durian is an anime production company, it’s not like we had a lot of street cred or clout working on commercial animation projects. We were going up against big production companies, but I think Fujimoto’s personal bias was toward what I had uploaded.
DEADLINE: As an artist and filmmaker, what theme resonated with you and made you want to adapt the story?
OSHIYAMA: In the manga and the movie, there’s a line, “Manga isn’t something that you should be drawing.” As an animator, I think it’s better to be in the audience just watching anime. To consume anime is much better. Making it is a really long production. The fact that you have to sit for so long and maintain your focus is a physically demanding job. So, I don’t think it’s something that we could work on for long periods of time or long years.
Look Back
GKIDS
DEADLINE: In the film, the two girls come to a crossroads. One decides to skip school and continue her career. The other decides to put her career on hold and do formal school training. That’s a real struggle. What is your own journey with coming into filmmaking?
OSHIYAMA: My dad liked to draw as a hobby. I think that had an influence on me. I also have an uncle-ish person who is a painter, but it’s not like I had a lot of involvement with him growing up. Also, as a kid, I had a neighbor who rooted me on to continue drawing, so that really helped, too. In elementary school, I was one of the kids who drew a lot. I had the skill to observe something and then recreate that on paper. I was also part of the art club and played sports a little, but I liked being indoors drawing. When it came to college, I actually failed my entrance exams to get into the university that I wanted [laughs]. So then, I went to a 3D CG-based school. But where I grew up in Fukushima, it’s not like their graphics were super great. But I practiced and then moved to Tokyo. While there I was doing part-time work and looking for a job. I think I could have gone into becoming an illustrator or a manga artist, but that’s something that I really didn’t know how to get into the industry. But as an animator, I think as long as you get into a company that animates, you could become an animator. So that’s how I chose to be an animator. And then, I happened to find a job posting for companies to join their company to become animators. I joined the one company that accepted me.
DEADLINE: Now you’ve got this widely praised film that everyone is talking about. Was the stress worth it?
OSHIYAMA: Yes [laughs]. I really think the success of a movie is hit or miss. You don’t know what contributes to it and I think I was just lucky. I am thankful for the praise that I’m getting, but I try to tell myself constantly to maintain my mental strength. It’s like, “It wasn’t really my ability. It was just luck and all the other aspects that came into it.” So, I try to tell myself and tone it down. But I think if I were to think about my next project and if they’re like, “Oh, it’s going to be a hit just like Look Back,” then I might stress out a little, but I try not to think about it.
DEADLINE: The film is just short of an hour. What were some of the creative challenges of adapting something so short about grief, love, and happiness in such a short time span? Was there ever a version of this film longer than an hour?
OSHIYAMA: The [idea] started out as it should be a short that would be within 40 minutes. Considering my schedule for Studio Durian and the finances, I can’t use a lot of money. So, I knew that having a 90-minute film to work on was going to be a lot of work, and I wouldn’t want to do it. So, with that in mind, it was necessary to keep it short. But also, because the original manga follows this timeline, I couldn’t rush through those scenes too fast. Because then, I thought the audience wouldn’t be able to keep up. I also wanted to keep it easy for the audience to follow what’s happening in a good rhythm. So, I thought, “What can I do?” And then, I think I ended up borrowing the power of what music can do in a film. Because I think the dialogue and art could do a lot, but it’s not enough. I think, really, the music, they’re able to convey their emotions and what they’re feeling inside easily and straightforwardly. So, even in a short scene with the music changing the tempo or what’s happening or what’s going on, I was able to keep it short and concise. But also easy to follow and in a good rhythm.
Look Back
GKIDS
DEADLINE: What was a scene that you didn’t think would work while making the film, but upon seeing it ended up resonating more than you thought on screen?
OSHIYAMA: There’s a lot. But for example, I think towards the end of the movie there’s about three to four minutes where it goes back into the past. There’s a lot of cuts and stills. To have that many stills is used a lot in TV but rarely in films because it feels like a cop-out. So, it’s just a long time. Three and a half minutes or four minutes of just music and stills, we were like, “Is this going to be okay?” I was worried. But because of the schedule, we had run out of time, so we had to just make it into stills. So, until it was shown, I was worried, like, “Is the audience going to be okay with this? Is it still going to convey what we want to and is it going to be accepted?” But the audience really liked it. So, it ended up working well for me.
DEADLINE: Talk about the ending of the film. Fujino is dealing with this guilt of losing her friend but keeps a piece of her artwork with her in the end. What does this mean to him? OSHIYAMA: In the manga, it does have that 4-panel strip pasted. I thought maybe in the film that it’s not important to have that strip pasted on the window. But I think when I took on this project, one of my biggest goals was to respect and be true to the manga as much as possible. So, in the end, we did match the manga. But I think in the film, even if we didn’t have that 4-panel strip pasted on the window, the ending conveyed what we wanted to convey, and I think what the manga wanted to convey. Because I think with where Fujino is working outside her window, it’s like a beautiful city scenery. And then, it turns in from morning to night, and she just works throughout. And I think the background scenery really did the work of what that 4-panel strip conveys. But yeah, I think in the end, we matched the manga just to match it. But I do think what I wanted to convey, what the manga wanted to convey, was already conveyed if that makes sense.
[This interview, conducted through an interpreter, has been edited for length and clarity]