"Look Back" review

[queen_unicorn_reject]

Look Back, this anime movie, which was originally a oneshot manga written by Chainsaw Man author Fujimoto Tatsuki, will probably come to theatres in the USA soon. (I've heard October being thrown around as the date.) If it does, and you are a person who has ever partaken in any creative endeavor in your life, I implore you to go see it.

I look at Fujino in this story and I see myself. She's someone who, fundamentally, doesn't even like the idea of drawing. She originally engrosses herself in drawing out of jealousy and spite; the childish idea that she should be the only one who can draw good manga. This idea kept her going, much like it kept my going when I was 13 years old.

But Fujino gives up. She returns to a "normal life". She makes friends again and learns karate. She's not like other "artist" characters in fiction, and I love her for that. She's just sort of a normal person who happened to find art as a clutch.

"I'm jealous of those who are as passionate as me, but in something that works" - Patricia Taxxon

What makes her return to her craft then? Finding out that her art has genuinely affected someone else's life; finding someone who is sincerely, earnestly in love with her work.

Why does Fujino draw? This is the final question the movie asks, and it's obvious what it is. It is the idea of sharing your expression with somebody else. Art is not a solitary life, and it shouldn't be. I love this story because it dares to defy the idea of the lonely, starving artist; its answer to the purpose of art is friendship and community. (Look Back shares this sentiment with my favourite anime show of all time, Shirobako.)

This is the story of two girls, two artists who inspire each other, whose works bring each other joy and passion. It's about how art can genuinely bring us closer together as people; it's about how art can help us discover and find each other's souls.

I'm not going to try and spoil the movie here. But this movie is not only an ode to artists and creative solidarity, but a tribute to artists who we've lost far too early. It's not exactly a secret that the original manga was written as a tribute to the victims of the Kyoto Animation arson incident.

I think if you are an artist, we can all relate to finding that sort of camaraderie, and, at times, losing them. Grief is grief, whether it be death or just simply drifting apart. It can be heartbreaking, and devastating. And yet, Fujino continues. She has to move on, because she remembers why she made art in the first place; for that connection, for that impact. There are people whose lives were made better because of her art; whether that's one person or millions of people, that influence is still the same. She has to keep going.

She doesn't look back.

"And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.

So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes.

People aren’t supposed to look back."

- Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Personally, one of my least favourite things in any story is when an artist character says they make art because "it's the reason they're alive", or they "need it to survive". To borrow the words of one Kaiki Deishuu: "Things that have scarcity value like that pisses me off the most." I also hate it when people in real life tell me this. That tells me that you are a boring person who doesn't have a lot going on in your life. Music and being a musician is an important part of my life, yes, but it is not my whole life.

That's why Look Back's alternative answer is so resonating and powerful to me. Art doesn't have to be your entire life. Being an artist doesn't have to be your entire identity, either. Art can be about friends, plain and simple. You can be a human being before being an artist.