Azabudai Hills Gallery

Adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s celebrated manga, the anime film Look Back (2024) is a quiet yet piercing meditation on creativity, loss and the fragile resolve that drives manga artists to keep drawing despite uncertainty. Directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, one of contemporary Japan’s most respected animators, the cinematic adaptation stood out for its emotional restraint and the expressive power of its hand-drawn lines. The Fukushima-born Oshiyama has built a multifaceted career as an animator, director and designer, contributing to landmark works such as Den-noh Coil before setting up his own company, Studio Durian. For Look Back, he assumed nearly every key creative role, shaping a deeply personal tribute to drawing itself. This exhibition at Azabudai Hills Gallery offers an unprecedented look behind the scenes of the film. Instead of presenting Look Back as a completed work, the display traces its making through original key animations, character sheets, memos and an immersive ‘tunnel’ of drawings suspended from the ceiling that foreground the physical labour of animation. Carefully recreated spaces from the story invite visitors to step inside the emotional geography of the work. Other highlights include the first public presentation in Japan of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original sketches for Look Back, newly created manga drawn by Oshiyama for the exhibition, and a special dialogue display with Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki. Together, these elements form a moving...