u/theofanmam

I really liked it.

The movie is a little less absurdist than something like Chainsawman or Goodbye Eri but it still had Fujimoto's usual style of kinks and weirdness at times.

I loved the relationship between Fujino and Kyomoto and how both of their characters developed throughout the film. I'm kinda burnt out emotion wise these days from consuming a lot of depressing media or stuff with bad endings, but Kyomoto's death and the way it affected Fujino was still heartbreaking to watch.

When I watched the movie, the flashback scene didn't really hit me emotionally until much later.

I guess it was mainly due to the fact that I've become quite desensitized to emotional scenes in movies, I've cried to soo many characters deaths and sad stuff that I couldn't really find it in me when this scene came on.

But after rewatching the scene and listening to "Final One", the emotional core of the scene, the reason for why Fujino kept drawing manga, even if she clearly disliked it, it finally hit me.

It was all to see Kyomoto smile, to see her reaction to her work, she drew for her.

When I realized this, I finally ended up crying over the scene. Fujino's tears became my tears as well in that way.

Even though Kyomoto's gone, even if she was killed by a pickaxe wielding maniac. The memories she made with Fujino will never die. Their friendship was something that no one could take away.

Even after they "broke up" and Kyomoto went to art school, Fujino clearly still cared about her as evidenced by the fact that the "Reze" in Shark Kick looks almost exactly like Kyomoto. She even kept Kyomoto's number after all this time. And Kyomoto was clearly still Fujino's biggest fan as well, she bought every volume of Shark Kick after all.

People say that Kyomoto died thinking Fujino hated her, but I like to think that Kyomoto knew deep down that Fujino still cared about her a lot. There's this one fanart that shows Kyomoto being shocked at how similar the "Reze" in Shark Kick looks to her, there's no way she was reading the manga as it came out and didn't pick up on this.

It's often debated among fans as to whether Fujino and Kyomoto's relationship was platonic or romantic, I think either interpretation fits the story well though and makes what happens in the climax all the more tragic.

My interpretation isn't necessarily the right one or the only interpretation people have of Look Back's ending, but I like to think that Fujino now draws to honor Kyomoto's memory, so that in a way, she'll live on.

I don't always like Fujimoto's writing choices, especially with how Chainsawman was handled ending wise, but man, Look Back has officially joined the list of media that have managed to make me cry.

It's very easy to get caught up in the consumption of art that you forget there's always someone behind the screen making the stuff you enjoy. There's always someone who suffers and slaves away to make sure a manga you like gets a new chapter out. There's always someone like Fujino who keeps drawing even if they hate it, because they have someone special to them.

Look Back reminded me of the fact that mangas and mangakas deserve respect along with any other medium of art. And I'm saying this as someone who primarily consumes video games and occasionally movies. When the whole Manga Piracy debate was happening on Twitter, it was easy for me to side against the anti-piracy side of things as I felt that JP fans were being unreasonable.

I still side with piracy of course and will always advocate for it when a piece of media can truly no longer be obtained legally. But putting a face to the people who make the mangas I enjoy does make me emphasize with how they feel about piracy. I imagine finding out a piece of media you made (and what is effectively your livelihood) is being consumed by people without payment must hurt.

More manga sites need to do what Viz Media does imo, they allow you to read manga for free when a new chapter comes out, but you have to pay in order to read the rest of the manga. This way people who can't afford manga can still read new chapters, while those who want to support the artists can still support them.

It breaks my heart to know that Kyomoto will never know how Shark Kick ends. Assuming it went down the same path writing wise as Chainsawman, she died just as Part 1 of the manga was finding its footing.

But then again, I like to imagine that Kyomoto is still practicing art up there in Heaven. Bettering her skills everyday, waiting for Fujino to join her at some point so they can draw together again.

I give Look Back an 8-9/10 overall, would highly recommend the film to anyone.

Also Fujino sometimes dresses up like Sans in the movie which I found funny. It wouldn't surprise me if Fujimoto has played Undertale since it got localized there and it's quite popular.

I've been considering reading Fire Punch as well but I'm kinda burnt out on depressing stories and stuff.

Are there any feel good anime or manga out there I can read? Preferably with action and battle elements?

Real talk, why is it that people who have Asa Mitaka profiles are some of the most annoying and pretentious Chainsawman fans you will ever meet in your entire life?

Every time I see some sort of "deep analysis" or post about how anyone who dislikes Chainsawman lacks media literacy, it is almost always from people with Asa Mitaka profile pictures.

I'm guessing since Asa herself is quite miserable and stuck up at times during the story, these people are naturally drawn to her and act the exact same way that she does.

I hated the Chainsawman ending just as much as lot of other people did, but for the love of God this needs to stop.

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He has been spamming the same type of posts malding about the ending since it was released back in March. At this point I just think he's doing it to farm karma.

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We please stop letting this guy bring down our rep as Reze fans and just ban him already?

Here is a link to their Shipping Wiki page if anyone wants a summary of their relationship and interactions:

https://shipping.fandom.com/wiki/CloudNight

More specifically, I hate video game essays and retrospectives that often just summarize the piece of media being discussed instead of adding something new to the discussion.

Every time I click on a video game retrospective these days, it's just someone summarizing the game. They never take the time to explain what makes the story good, or what they like about the game itself beyond just minor interjections in-between their summaries. They act as if summarizing the game is more than enough to explain why it's good.

To use an example, I tried watching this Dead Space retrospective video. But I ended up disliking the video and finding something else to watch because very early on, it became clear that it was just summarizing the game and telling me things that I, someone who has played Dead Space numerous times, already know about the game.

What's even worse is that half of them aren't even funny, they either make really lame Twitter level jokes and memes to relate to the Gen Z types, or they put way too much effort into the editing of the video in order to compensate for a weak script.

In addition to that, I also hate video essays that try way too hard to seem like they're pointing out some deep and philosophical idea about a piece of work that seemingly no one else has figured out. By far the worst offenders of this are Silent Hill 2 and Bioshock video essays.

Literally search up "Silent Hill 2 Video Essay" on YouTube and most of the results will just be people saying the same thing that everyone else has already said about Silent Hill 2.

Bloodborne also has this issue where the only meaningful analysis people can make about the game is that it's feminist horror or "heckin based on Lovecraft!!!", which yeah, Bloodborne does have heavy themes about the abuse and pain that women suffer, as well as multiple references to Lovecraft's works. But literally everyone who has played the game knows about this at this point. What do these videos add to the discussion? What new topics do they bring up?

It's the same thing with Bioshock, everyone already knows the game is a criticism of Objectivist ideology and Atlas Shrugged, you can figure this out by playing the game itself. I don't need an hour long video essay to tell me that Andrew Ryan is a reference to Ayan Rand.

These videos could benefit so much by touching on some of the lesser known aspects of these games. While Bioshock is very much about Objectivism, the game also has heavy themes relating to family and child abuse. It also handles topics like drug addiction and drug trafficking really well through Splicers and Adam.

It's such a shame that these videos would rather mindlessly repeat what everyone else is saying than offer any unique perspectives. Once you've seen one of them, you've practically seen them all.

I know some people in the comments are going to counter all this by saying something along the lines of;

"But these videos aren't trying to be anything special, not everything has to be deep or meaningful. Sometimes it's fine to just make background noise."

But in my honest opinion, if I'm making a video talking about a game I love, I **especially** want it to be meaningful.

I don't want to spend hours of my life making a video about Dead Space 2, one of my favorite games of all time, just for people to use it as background noise, that's what those Lo-Fi Study Beats videos are for.

And I honestly don't think these content creators want that either considering how many of them have titles like;

"*Blank* is a *Adjective* Masterpiece"

If I click on a video like that, I expect it to have a very good reason as to why blank is a masterpiece, I don't wanna waste my time listening to someone else summarize a game and not add anything.