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Look Back Anime Film Director, Producers Win Fujimoto Award

Japan's Eiga Engeki Bunka Kyōkai (Film Theater Culture Association) announced the winners of its 44th annual Fujimoto Awards on Monday. Director, producer and animator Kiyotaka Oshiyama and Ryo Oyama, producer and in charge of planning for the Look Back anime film, won this year's special award.

The Fujimoto Awards, named after Shachō and Wakadaishō series producer Sanezumi Fujimoto, recognize the achievements of film producers who have worked on popular and entertaining films. Godzilla Minus One live-action film producers Hisashi Usui, the late Shuji Abe, Kenji Yamada, Kazuaki Kishida, Gō Abe, and Keiichirō Moriya received last year's general award, and Kitarō Tanjō: Gegege no Nazo producer Keisuke Naitō was awarded the rookie award.

Look Back won the Animation of the Year award in the film category of this year's Tokyo Anime Award Festival (TAAF). Oshiyama, the film's animator Toshiyuki Inoue, and sound director Eriko Kimura also won the Kōji Fukiya Award at the third Niigata International Animation Film Festival this year.

The film is nominated for the Excellent Animation award in this year's 48th annual Japan Academy Film Prizes.

The film opened in theaters in Japan in June 2024. It ranked at #2 in terms of ticket sales (but #1 in weekend earnings) in its opening weekend. The film sold 135,000 tickets and earned 227 million (about US$1.49 million in current conversion) in its first three days.

GKIDS screened the film on October 4 in New York and Los Angeles, and then on October 6 and 7 more widely in North America. The film earned US$688,253 at the U.S. box office in its opening weekend.

Yūmi Kawai and Mizuki Yoshida star in the film. Kawai plays Fujino, a fourth grader who draws four-panel comics in the school newspaper. Yoshida plays Kyomoto, Fujino's classmate who has been skipping school.

Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man) debuted the one-shot manga on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ in July 2021. The manga had over 2.5 million views on its first day. Viz Media and MANGA Plus launched the manga digitally in English. Viz Media published the manga in print in September 2022.

The manga won the first Rakuten Kobo E-book Awards in May 2023, and it ranked at #1 in the 2022 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (This Manga Is Amazing!) guidebook. It was also nominated in the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in 2023, and was second place at the 15th Manga Taisho awards.

Source: Eiga Natalie