Template:Short description Template:Infobox film
Template:Nihongo is a 2024 Japanese animated coming-of-age drama film based on the one-shot web manga of the same name by Tatsuki Fujimoto. The film is directed by Template:Interlanguage link, who also wrote the screenplay and served as a character designer, and produced by Studio Durian. It stars Yuumi Kawai and Mizuki Yoshida as two girls with a passion for drawing—the outgoing Fujino (Kawai) and the truant recluse Kyomoto (Yoshida), the latter of whom's artistic ability inspires a competitive fervor in Fujino that soon develops into a partnership.
Look Back premiered at the French Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2024. It was theatrically released in Japan by Avex Pictures on June 28, 2024.
Cast
| Character | Japanese voice actor[1] | English dubbing actor[2] |
|---|---|---|
| Ayumi Fujino | Yuumi Kawai | Valerie Rose Lohman |
| Kyomoto | Mizuki Yoshida | Grace Lu |
| Homeroom Teacher | Yoichiro Saito | |
| Classmates | Rina Endo Shinnosuke Tokudome Nanaka Shogaki Taisei Miyagishi Haruto Shima Minori Takanami Sakura Tsutsumi |
|
| Editor | Koya Yoshihashi | |
| Man | Kota Oka | |
| Fujino's Sister | Kureha Maki | |
| Newscaster | Takeshi Miyajima | |
| Announcer | Daisuke Takahashi | |
| Teacher | Jun Ito | |
| Friend's Mother | Kaori Takeuchi | |
| Grandmother | Masuma Taira | |
| Shut-in Competition Announcer | Seila Ina | |
| Man from 4-koma | Toshiyuki Morikawa | |
| Woman from 4-koma | Maaya Sakamoto |
Production
In February 2024, an anime film adaptation of the manga Look Back was announced.[3] In March 2024, it was announced that Kawai and Yoshida had joined the voice cast as Fujino and Kyomoto, respectively.[4][5]
Music
The music is composed by Haruka Nakamura; the film's theme song, "Light Song", is composed by Nakamura and performed by Urara.[6][7]
Release
Look Back premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, which took place in Annecy, France, from June 9–15, 2024, in the "Annecy Presents" category, a non-competitive category created to showcase a variety of international animated films to audiences.[8][9]
Look Back received a theatrical release in Japan by Avex Pictures on June 28, 2024, screening in 119 theaters nationwide. Due to positive critical and commercial response, including positive word of mouth, its release expanded to 11 more theaters on July 5.[10]
In the United States, the Japan Society screened the film on July 14, 2024, in Japanese with English subtitles, as part of the "Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Cinema" event at New York.[11] The film has been licensed in North America by GKIDS and premiered in theaters on October 4, 2024.[12] Singapore-based film distributor Encore Films licensed the film in India and Southeast Asia countries and released it in theaters.[13][14] The film was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video on November 7, 2024 (November 8 in Asia due to timezone differences) by Amazon MGM Studios;[15] it includes the original Japanese audio with English subtitles, as well as an English dub.[16]
Reception
Box office
Look Back grossed Template:US$Template:Nbspmillion in Japan and Template:US$Template:Nbspmillion in other territories, for a worldwide total of Template:US$Template:Nbspmillion.[17] The film grossed over ¥227 million (around Template:US$Template:Nbspmillion) in its opening weekend at the Japanese box office.[10] By July 17, after 18 days in theaters, it had made ¥1,017,961,780 (around Template:US$Template:Nbspmillion).[18]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Look Back has a 100% approval rating based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10.[19][20] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[21]
IndieWireTemplate:'s David Ehrlich gave the film a grade of "B+", praising the character design and the emotional weight of the story; Ehrlich wrote that, "the fleeting nature of Oshiyama's film, which so fluidly renders eons of labor with the lightness of memory and the brilliance of a shooting star, is what ultimately allows it to crystallize a truth that most artists can only hope to accept for themselves [...]: Making things isn't a waste of time or a way of isolating oneself from the world, but rather the most beautiful way of belonging to it."[22] Robbie Collin of The Telegraph gave the film a score of five out of five stars, praising its visuals as "wildly yet unassumingly beautiful" and its plot as accessible "yet philosophically rich"; he concluded: "There's a haiku-like purity to it: Look Back is as neat and yet also as overflowing as the four-panel strips in which its leads once diligently honed their craft. And if something so beautiful also feels too brief – well, that may be the idea."[23]
Accolades
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Template:Refh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hochi Film Awards | Template:Dts | Best Animated Picture | Look Back | Template:Won | [24] |
References
External links
Template:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical animated features
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBOM - ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ Template:Cite web