So About Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto.

so originally this was going to be more of like a recommendation just talking about the story from start to finish but i decided to scrap it it was about 45 minutes long and felt a little bit pointless instead i would rather you go read the story which you can on manga plus for free and then come back here and watch this if you're still interested because the more i thought about this brand new work by tatsuki fujimoto the author of chainsaw man fire punch now you to one shot and a couple of other stuff that

he's done this brand new one shot called look back for me personally is kind of like a reflection of himself and it definitely could be kind of overreaching in that department it's a very melancholic story it's very sad it's very emotional it does have obviously a lot of bright points and handles its characters really well but i look at fujino and i look at kyomoto and i can't help but both of these characters are quite literally just a reflection of himself fuji with fujino and moto with kyomoto fujimoto and not to mention the sheer amount

of references that it has to chain some and the door within chainsaw men which is a reference to forgetting about the past and kind of locking away trauma and any sort of personal issue that you've had growing up or anything along those lines mental emotional physical locked away behind a door that is kind of not only drawn and approached by the kyomoto character but also the harsh reality of fujino and losing that side even down to the serialized manga that is drawn within this story basically identical or a reference to chainsaw men and you could

easily just say that this story is just paying homage to fire punch to chainsaw man to all of his previous wakes but if you take it that tiny bit extra further that handful of steps i think he is definitely channeling from past experiences past emotions and the way he's thought about artwork manga in general and potentially even his future a lot of people have already asked me or have approached me with the question and that is this a cry for help and i feel like it would be disrespectful to say that no this isn't but

i also feel like it's not appropriate to say that it is from my understanding of fujimoto just from his works how he likes to write he draws on past experiences quite a lot it's why it makes a lot of his characters feel very personal feel very natural and come across freely in a way that is very understandable that people can relate with that people can fully understand to their heart's extent because they relate to such a character so deeply it could be anyone within chains or man it could be anyone within fire punch but he

also has this very i don't want to say egotistical but chaotic side to himself that is very humorous in nature the way he handles specific characters the chaoticness that he draws the blending of this humor is always within his works even the more serious unpolished tone like fire punch for example whose world is completely suffering and tragedy and despair in itself yet the characters within it are a kind of mere reflection of not only himself of the world but also have this humor interlaced within it molding bright humorous moments with deep dark moments it's like

this clash of tones and atmospheres that work well normally when it's drawn out and fleshed out fully but in fujimoto's case he likes to contradict everything he likes to clash them very drastically together that for a lot it can be very jarring i think it's the biggest reason why a percentage of people that read chainsaw men for example just see it or take it at face value they indulge within chains of men as a chaotic corny-esque story quite unquote yet underneath chainsaw man is something entirely different and if you ever were on that prior side

where you thought chainsaw man was corny or just chaotic and that's all it ever has been read this one shot because this is the prime example of what is underneath chancellorman the story that isn't told on the surface the story underneath its characters underneath these lingering emotions these past these traumas these trials and tribulations that people have to face the look back for me is easily one of fujimoto's most impressive works because he not only manages to channel what is so loved about chainsaw man within its characters within how they act and the quirky attitude

that they uphold but finally makes it more known for readers it makes it more obvious makes it more apparent how much suffering can come from it how much embedded tragedy and deep-rooted issues or emotions can affect an individual or individuals it's quite a lengthy read it's 140 pages but it takes you through the motions of two children how they appreciate artwork how they kind of see it very differently and how their positions justify their viewpoint very differently fujino is more egotistical and loves the praise that she gets from drawing this artwork yet when someone else

comes into the industry or someone else comes into the same weekly school magazine that she publishes into that praise that she loves is no longer a thing kyomoto gets that praise her artwork is incredible it's much better than fujino's yet kyomura doesn't go to school she's a heavy recluse she stays at home and is locked inside of her room fujino would do everything within her power to try and match kyomodo to the point of even giving up but the person that brings her back into the fold of creating manga to loving what she does is

none other than kyomoto they meet for the first time and fujino's rival person that she was going up against the person that she was trying to compete with is also her biggest fan from there they uplift each other they create each other's stories they write their future together i think a good focus is that kyo being a recluse is something that slowly starts to fade away she still has this anxiety she still has this crippling nervous nature when she meets people when she talks to people but it slowly starts to heal itself because of fujino

because of the path that they take as mongol authors and how they work together how they continue to thrive and better themselves to put themselves in better positions fijino never really forces kyomura to do anything that she's uncomfortable with but just enough of a push to allow her to decide for herself sometimes it comes across very brutal and blunt and even egotistical or manipulative but kyo never ingests that with a horrible intention more so an intention to bettering herself and maybe even tries to deter her away and starts to rely more so on herself rather

than fujino i think the ending is definitely most prominent it's like a story that is conceptualized by fujimoto's own past experiences how he feels his emotions and they're reflected within both characters but i don't think it's a telling of his future or a specific titled cry for help if that makes sense obviously i'm not the person to judge if fujimoto is okay or not but i think with how he wrote look back how he approaches chanselman his interviews his prior works he likes to put himself within the story he likes to make it feel very

natural and something that you can kind of correlate yourself with the ending is kind of like a mix of alternate timelines you can view it as something very special or spectacular where kyomoto's room is kind of like a dimension in itself it's not necessarily time travel but you see two different versions of the life that both fujino and kumoto live one where they're together and one where they're apart but in the quote-unquote alternate timeline or version they end up meeting each other once again and also end up drawing manga together once again the difference is

that in the main timeline kimoto unfortunately dies she gets killed by a crazy axe-wielding maniac in the other timeline fujino never becomes an artist till right at the end till they actually meet and kyomoto doesn't have these very joyful and lovable experiences that she has with fujino in the prayer timeline so it's almost like there's pros and cons in both that even with alternative timelines and experiencing both timelines you can't really put your thumb on what would be better and now that i think about it i feel the ending in how it's represented is kind

of the whole point is that the life that you live is the only one that you get and that even in an alternate timeline or another life that you could potentially live doesn't mean it's going to be better doesn't mean you're going to have the same experience as your previous ones it can be just as much tragedy within it or you could miss what made your previous life so good do you see how by the end both timelines kind of bled together that the main fujina that we've seen who was an artist that experienced ko's

death is the one that continues after we see the alternate version where they don't meet where kyo doesn't thank fujino for taking her out of this room for helping her to experiencing this whole life together i think a lot of people may have taken the ending as like the biggest quote-unquote problem where fujino continues to work on her serialized manga regardless of all the tragedy that she's been through the way i see it however is more so to continue kyomuro's legacy to continue a life that they wanted to live together not only for this independent

story's sake but in the reflection of potentially fujimoto is something that he still enjoys i don't think he's doing manga just for the sake of appraisal anymore maybe that's what it was at the beginning but now it's a lot more personal maybe he realized that there is trials and tribulations there is hardships and he could take different directions with his life he could quit entirely he could stop drawing entirely but i think that's the whole point of kyomoto in general is that even with a completely different outlook or timeline variation of life it's either still

going to lead him too hard or still lead him down a life that maybe he doesn't want so he continues just like fujino with what he knows best what he's happy with and what he's indulged the most enjoyment from i think it's a showcase of growth fujino was very quick to give up when she couldn't compete with kyomoto and you would think that that type of quitting mindset would come back after experiencing such a tragedy would be very understandable but she doesn't she continues that legacy she continues forward because kyomodo loves the manga that fujino

created she read every single volume when they went their separate ways as much as this may seem like overreach in terms of trying to psychoanalyze fujimoto or whatever i think this could be just a reflection of how he loves manga creation so much and understands that there's trials and tribulations with it that there is rough issues that comes with the weekly maga experience or just with the manga industry in itself that he's had to face a lot of different hurdles within his life as a child but manga and art specifically has changed it for the

better and while it has produced very traumatic experiences he still continues to love it and fall in love with it and loves to produce it regardless of the cost that is something we may never really know and to be honest it's something that i don't think we need to know something that is not our business unless fujimoto himself wants to come out and state it it may be even wrong for me to talk about it in this specific way to make these quote unquote assumptions so i apologize all i feel is that he puts a

lot of real emotion within his whack reflections of things that he's experienced within his characters within their experiences their trauma their tragedy he's done it for chancellor man he's done it for fire punch i think look back might be the most polished of them all and i can only hope and wish for the best with whatever he decides to do i'm sure this is a big consideration for himself going into chainsaw memphis ii changing magazines and him explaining that for chainsaw manpower too he wanted to change the tone of the story he wanted to make

it feel entirely different he has quite literally done that he has evolved in a very beautiful direction and with whatever he decides to do i couldn't be more excited to experience it and i hope that he's able to produce content that he's happy with the way he wants to at the rate that he wants to in the healthiest way possible i'm happy that he's switched magazines and i'm hoping they give him the freedom to be able to do that look back is undoubtedly an experience and if you haven't read it i'd highly recommend you go

do that right now so with that being said that is basically it let me know how you felt about fujimoto's brand new one shot i know it's got a lot of people emotional i think it was very beautifully done so i'd love to hear your thoughts and or interpretations but i want to thank you all for watching leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed i greatly appreciate it drink plenty of water new video every three days and i will see you within the next one [Music] goodbye