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Looking Back is a one-shot manga by Fujimoto Tatsuki, author of Chainsaw Man. It's a brilliant work about a young girl driven by a love of painting and petty jealousy, and it was recently adapted into a fine film that does justice to the source material. I don't want to spoil Look Back, so I highly recommend everyone check it out, but I also think it's a very accessible work that can help those who are skeptical or hesitant to look at Chainsaw Man to understand Fujimoto as a creator.
I find Chainsaw Man to be one of the best series to come out in the last five years or so, but I fully understand that its reputation and image can be off-putting. Between his less-than-noble, gory hero and the number of fans who want to call Makima “Mom,” Chainsaw Man can appear quite fragile on the surface and rely too much on gratuitous violence and sex appeal .
But Looking Back is about as far from that type of content as you can get, and thus makes it clear that Fujimoto is a very capable and engaging storyteller. While Chainsaw Man as a whole is truly ridiculous in a variety of ways, it doesn't use those things to cover up its other shortcomings. What both works have in common are interesting characters with lots of mottled gray reality and depth to their shallowness (and vice versa), as well as a constant fluctuation of expectations. It's just that Look Back is a cleaner package that feels more realistic.
So if you're someone who feels like Chainsaw Man isn't for you, you're probably right. But even if you are, I think Looking Back can help clear up some misconceptions about Fujimoto's work in general and maybe open the way to appreciating the author's violent masterpiece .
