Get the tissues ready. The first trailer for the live-action adaptation of Look Back is here, and it looks just as gut-wrenching as its anime movie and Tatsuki Fujimoto's acclaimed manga.
The dreamy trailer for Kore-eda's Look Back charts the friendship between budding mangaka Fujino and Kyomoto, a shut-in generational artist who is gently coaxed back out to the wider world. As their careers begin to develop, they are suddenly hit by personal tragedy.
The Look Back synopsis reads: "Fujino, a young girl with complete confidence in her talent for drawing manga, and Kyomoto, a reclusive classmate whose artistic ability far surpasses her own, are brought together by their shared passion for creating manga. As in the original work, the film follows the thirteen-year journey of the two characters from their elementary school days onward, portraying it with remarkable sensitivity and a vivid sense of youth."
While it does recreate some panels shot-for-shot, the live-action actors Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita add plenty of heart-wrenching realism to a story that's often marked as one of the most bittersweet of the past few decades. Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada play the younger versions of Fujino and Kyomoto.
Look Back is set to release in theaters in Japan on September 11. It marks another achievement for Tatsuki Fujimoto, whose early one-shot work was adapted into an anthology titled 17-26.
Of course, the author is best known for Chainsaw Man. A second season of the anime, adapting the International Assassins arc, has been announced.
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