Let me setup some context first :
Tired midway from my Day Job, I opened YouTube and mindlessly played Gigguk's Best Anime of 2024 Video, I watch a lot more anime review's than anime these days.
I expected my anime of the year DanDaDan to be at #1, it was an easy choice. I was Surprised by - Kiyotaka Oshiyama's LOOKBACK to be his #1 for the year. I had heard about it, it's by the ChainSawMan Mangaka, I did also put it on my list to watch(the nonexistent yet endless list). I was intrigued, with some time left on my lunchtime and the movie being only one hour, I thought why not and played it.

LOOK BACK REVIEW

First of all, the animation is JAW DROPPING GOOD, I am a sucker for a good hand drawn animation. It felt so surreal, and with the mixture of very minimal dialogue and just RAW visuals, I was instantly HOOKED.
The story is about two school girls, learning about what they like and doing what they like i.e making Manga. The main character is Fujino, she's confident in her skill of being the best young Mangaka (atleast in her school) as she's regularly publishing her short 4 panel manga to the school newspaper. But the confidence is short lived when one day a mysterious girl, Kyomoto, who doesn't come to school, gets her Manga published and is appraised by the whole class.
The comparison, makes her work even harder until one day when she's had enough and gives up on her dream and leaves drawing. she picks her hobby up again, when she gets to meet Kyomoto. The story explores their Relationship to each other and to their art. The soundtrack, the Visuals and the overall story brought tears to my eyes. YOU SHOULD GO WATCH IT.

The question the movie asks, is "Why do you draw?", as a Self Proclaimed creative person, and a person trying to get into the hobby of drawing, to me that question translates to "Why do you create?"/"Why be creative". and I may not have the answer to that question right now(wow makes the whole buildup feel worthless doesn't it?). But what I know as a Improvisor is stories need to be told. Stories need to be shared. Getting people to feel emotions from a piece of story that you crafted, that you drew , that you wrote is such a overpowering feeling. Every time I am on stage and craft stories, I forget about my doubts, my self image, my never ending list of things to do and to watch and to think about. All I (want to) become, at that moment in time, is a medium for that story. Oshiyama's LOOKBACK made me feel good, made me feel happy to be creative, and made me feel good for having friends who make me push myself to a ever greater pursuit of the creative.

This was my first attempt at writing(publicly) so if I have shared this link to you, read it and shut up, I do not want any feedback or praise rn 🙂

~
Mohit