History Manga / LookBack

An animated adaptation, directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama of ''Anime/FlipFlappers'' fame, was announced on February 13, 2024, and released in Japan on June 28th the same year. [[https://youtu.be/6pKt9OsxwWc Teaser]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: The story revisits elements from ''Sisters'', the oneshot Fujimoto made between ''Fire Punch'' and ''Chainsaw Man''. Both are about a pair of female artists who feel inadequate about their abilities compared the other. [[invoked]] Fujimoto even calls ''Sister'' "foundational" for creating ''Look Back'' in his short story collection.

* SpiritualSuccessor: The story revisits elements from ''Sisters'', the oneshot Fujimoto made between ''Fire Punch'' and ''Chainsaw Man''. Both are about a pair of female artists who feel inadequate about their abilities compared the other. Fujimoto even calls ''Sister'' "foundational" for creating ''Look Back'' in his short story collection.

* TechnicianVsPerformer: Kyomoto is the Technician to Fujino's Performer. Kyomoto's art focuses primarily on scenery, making her art high quality, but otherwise nothing more than SceneryPorn. Fujino's talents meanwhile is based on her eye for humor and (presumably based on the apparent acclaim for ''Shark Kick'') story. Kyomoto idolized Fujino's combination writing and drawing ability while Fujino was envious of Kyomoto's technically impressive artwork.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The classmate that had to say that Fujino's art was amateurish compared to Kyomoto's, inciting a series of events that leads Fujino to an unfulfilling life as a mangaka and Kyomoto indirectly to her death.

* SurpriseCreepy: Although lacking most of the author's bizarre violence and horror elements, the third act still has a disturbing sequence of the murderer attacking Kyomoto.

* SelfDeprication: In-story, ''Shark Kick'' is meant to symbolize that the best Fujino could do artistically was a gimmicky superhero serial that while successful fails to meet her own high standards borne from seeing Kyomoto's beautiful paintings. On a metatextual level, it highlights how either ''Fire Punch'' or ''Chainsaw Man'' can be viewed as such at a glance.

* TakeThatUs: In-story, ''Shark Kick'' is meant to symbolize that the best Fujino could do artistically was a gimmicky superhero serial that while successful fails to meet her own high standards borne from seeing Kyomoto's beautiful paintings. On a metatextual level, it highlights how either ''Fire Punch'' or ''Chainsaw Man'' can be viewed as such at a glance.

''Look Back'' is a 142 pages long one shot manga by Creator/TatsukiFujimoto of ''Manga/FirePunch'' and ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' fame, published in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Jump+]]'' in July 2021. It centers on two middle school students and their journey to become mangaka, and the tragedy that befalls them.

''Look Back'' is a 142 one shot manga by Creator/TatsukiFujimoto of ''Manga/FirePunch'' and ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' fame, published in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Jump+]]'' in July 2021. It centers on two middle school students and their journey to become mangaka, and the tragedy that befalls them.

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: The manga was released in 2021, and set from 2002 to 2016. This isn't really relevant to the plot, but a detail that makes it so Fujimoto's {{Author Avatar}}s were born around the same time he was.

''Look Back'' is a short, one shot manga by Creator/TatsukiFujimoto of ''Manga/FirePunch'' and ''Manga/ChainsawMan'' fame. It centers on two middle school students and their journey to become mangaka, and the tragedy that befalls them.

* AmbiguousEnding: Kyomoto's pursuit of an art career ends in her murder, causing Fujino to fall into a deep grief and feel extremely disillusioned about her manga career, openly calling it "useless". After a DreamSequence about a timeline where Fujino was able to save Kyomoto, she enters Kyomoto's room and sees how she still was Fujino's biggest fan after everything. Fujino pulls herself to her feet and gets back to work on her manga, though with her motivation remaining unclear. It's left up to interpretation as to whether Fujino does so to honor the memories she has of Kyomoto, because of the fans who get joy from her work like Kyomoto did, or simply because she doesn't know how to do anything else.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: The one-shot ends with Fujino admitting her disillusionment with drawing in general, but an unknown voice then asks her why she even bothers, then.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: The DreamSequence that takes up much of the final act. It's incited by Fujino tearing up her mean-spirited 4-koma that , which slips into Kyomoto's room in the past and prevents her from meeting Fujino. Then the sequence ends with Kyomoto drawing her own 4-koma about Fujino saving her from the attacker, which is blown out of her room by a sudden breeze that startles her. Fujino finds the strip and an open window in Kyomoto's room, and tapes it above her desk at home. It's not clear if there really was some weird AlternateTimeline going on, if Kyomoto's spirit somehow passed it along to Fujino, or if it's all coincidental and merely symbolic.