Kore-eda’s Look Back explores the bonds and costs of artistic collaboration

In its review published on 16 October 2026, the Guardian described Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Look Back as an affecting exploration of friendship, ambition and regret. Adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s standalone online manga, which had already received an anime adaptation, the film follows aspiring manga creators Fujino and Kyomoto from their early teens into a successful collaboration.

Fujino supplies stories and characters, while Kyomoto develops the backgrounds that give their work emotional depth. Their partnership earns prizes and commissions, but fractures when Kyomoto decides to attend art college. Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita play the older protagonists. The review praises the film’s intimacy and its treatment of artistic success as both exhilarating and burdensome.

The review places creative interdependence at the centre of the film: the artists’ contrasting strengths make their shared work possible, yet professional momentum does not erase their different goals. Its account frames Kyomoto’s wish to keep learning against Fujino’s attachment to their partnership, making artistic development inseparable from personal loss.