Look Back is an anime I wasn’t much familiar with when I saw it trending on Prime Video… and even less familiar with the manga it’s based on. But I gave it a shot since I’m always on the lookout for top shelf anime and an hour didn’t seem like much of a sacrifice.

It’s about young girl/manga enthusiast who draws stories for her school paper. But a home school girl is writing manga too and they share the paper. When they eventually meet, they become friends and writing partners… until life become untethered.

This is a lovely story about friendship and art and I appreciate it on that level. And I wish it stayed on that level instead of getting all inverted and surreal. I was liking where the story twist was going until it kind of went nowhere. I mean, I see its direction but don’t see where it went or what it accomplished.

I dug the anime style when it adds more depth to the environment than most anime gives. It’s probably CGI but its well crafted and anime’d over to look convincingly hand-drawn. The actual character art is pretty typical for the style and fits in with the backgrounds, 2D or 3D.

I rather liked the main characters – both girls. The lead was amusingly confident in a way that should have been off-putting but I liked her. The more withdrawn girl was a little much at the start but she turned more interesting and heartbreaking as the story progressed.

This is a good film but I have a little confused by all the 5 stars. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess its fans of the manga who maybe got more out of the story than I did. But it’s worth a watch, especially with its runtime and availability on Prime (at least in the US).

Score: 83