Look Back wins Best Animation at Japanese Movie Critic…

Summary

Look Back wins Animation of the Year at the Japanese Movie Critics Awards for 2024.
The anime movie has high scores on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, and MyAnimeList.
Look Back captures hearts with a short run time, coming-of-age storyline, and stunning animation.

The Japanese Movie Critics Awards (日本映画批評家大賞) have just finished for 2024, and the winners have been announced. The category likely of most interest to otaku and anime fans will be the Animation of the Year Award. For 2024, this award went to the anime movie Look Back. The movie was directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, and is based on a one-shot manga of the same name created by Tatsuki Fujimoto.

Look Back was first screened in France last year at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in early June, before releasing in theaters in Japan later that same month. The movie later had a release in theaters in North America, along with select Southeast Asian countries. Look Back has universally high scores across sources, scoring 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.8/10 on IMDB, and 8.65/10 on MyAnimeList. With these scores, it comes as little surprise that Look Back is taking home awards.

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By Ali Tahir

Look Back - The Short Anime Movie You Need to Watch

It's Winning Awards for a Reason

Name	Look Back
Original Release	June 28th, 2024
Studio	Studio DURIAN
Director	Kiyotaka Oshiyama

If you enjoy watching anime but haven't seen Look Back yet, you probably want to do something about that. At only 60 minutes, it is not a huge time commitment. This coming-of-age drama has taken the anime world by storm, though, with its characters and story embedded in the world of otaku culture. It doesn't have to have a long run time to capture your heart, and it has earned high scores from critics all around.

MyAnimeList describes the story of Look Back as,

Ayumu Fujino may only be in the fourth grade, but she already basks in high praise for her hand-drawn four-panel comics featured in the school's newspaper. However, when she is asked to share the page with Kyoumoto—a reclusive student she has never met—Fujino feels inadequate for the first time: her free-spirited drawings look embarrassingly amateurish next to Kyoumoto's breathtakingly detailed art.

For a year, Fujino shuts out the world, obsessively studying manga creation and drawing tirelessly to catch up to her faceless competition. But Kyoumoto's talent far exceeds hers, and Fujino quits it all. Another year passes, and on the day of their graduation, Fujino finally meets Kyoumoto. This unkempt, shy, and stuttering girl has actually been Fujino's biggest fan all along. Their encounter reignites Fujino's passion for art and sparks the beginning of a years-long friendship built on rivalry, admiration, and their shared love of manga.

Look Back is based on a one-shot web manga created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, more famous for his manga Chainsaw Man. After a successful premiere in Japan, Look Back was licensed for distribution in North America by GKIDS. It was released in movie theaters there in October 2024. By the start of November, Look Back was distributed worldwide by Amazon Prime Video, with both the original Japanese version and an English dub available.

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By Ahmad Rafiq

Look Back Takes Home Animation of the Year

The 34th Japanese Movie Critics Awards are Here

The Japanese Movie Critics Awards have been running since 1991 when they were first established. However, animated movies did not have their own category until 2012, when Wolf Children was the first to take home the award. Since then, the anime movie category has changed names from Best Animation Feature Film to Animation of the Year in 2023. The winner last year was The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes.

This year, though, the title of Animation of the Year went to Look Back. The awards ceremony will be held in Tokyo on June 9th, 2025, though all the winners have already been announced. With how well Look Back has performed in 2024, and no major films from studios like Studio Ghibli to compete with, it comes as little surprise that it has taken home the title. Look Back is available to watch worldwide for anyone who has not taken the time to watch it yet, and the Japanese Movie Critics Awards are a good reminder to do so as soon as you get the chance.