Look Back Live-Action Movie: Cast, Release Date and Manga Connections

Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed manga Look Back is returning to the screen as a live-action movie directed by award-winning Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda.

The adaptation arrives only two years after Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s animated Look Back movie introduced Fujino and Kyomoto’s emotional story to a wider international audience. But the new version is more than a live-action recreation of the anime. Kore-eda wrote, directed and edited the film, which expands Fujimoto’s short manga into a 100-minute coming-of-age drama.

The movie recently made its world premiere in competition at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival, where it is competing for the Golden Lion. Its Japanese theatrical release is scheduled for September 11, 2026, while an exact United States release date has not yet been announced.

Here is everything readers should know about the Look Back live-action movie, including its cast, release plans and connections to Fujimoto’s original manga.

Look Back Live-Action Movie Quick Facts

• Japanese release date: September 11, 2026
• International release: Expected later in 2026; exact dates remain unconfirmed
• Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Writer and editor: Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Based on: Look Back by Tatsuki Fujimoto
• Main cast: Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita, Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada
• Runtime: 100 minutes
• Japanese distributor: K2 Pictures
• North American and UK distributor: GKIDS
• World premiere: 2026 Venice International Film Festival

When Is the Look Back Live-Action Movie’s Release Date?

The live-action Look Back movie will be released in Japanese theaters on September 11, 2026.

The film already received its world premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, where it was selected as one of the movies competing for the festival’s Golden Lion. The official Venice Film Festival listing gives the adaptation a runtime of 100 minutes.

International viewers should also get an opportunity to see the movie. GKIDS has acquired distribution rights for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The distributor has indicated that the movie will arrive in those markets later in 2026, although individual theatrical dates have not been confirmed.

Until GKIDS announces a specific date, reports listing an exact American premiere should be treated as unconfirmed. A streaming service has not been announced either.

Who Is in the Look Back Live-Action Cast?

The movie divides its two central characters between younger and older performers, allowing the adaptation to follow Fujino and Kyomoto across approximately 13 years of their lives.

Natsuki Deguchi as Fujino

Natsuki Deguchi plays the older version of Ayumu Fujino, the confident young artist who initially takes great pride in the manga strips she draws for her school newspaper.

Fujino’s confidence is challenged when she sees the detailed artwork created by Kyomoto, a reclusive classmate who rarely leaves her home. What begins as jealousy eventually becomes the foundation of a meaningful creative partnership.

Aju Makita as Kyomoto

Aju Makita stars as the older Kyomoto, whose extraordinary drawing ability pushes Fujino to improve her own work.

Kyomoto is shy and socially isolated, but her relationship with Fujino gradually opens a new world for both girls. Makita’s performance will be especially important because much of the story’s emotional weight rests on Kyomoto’s quiet admiration for Fujino.

Furi Nanase as the younger Fujino

Furi Nanase portrays Fujino during her elementary-school years. These early scenes establish Fujino’s competitiveness, her growing obsession with drawing and the first stages of her friendship with Kyomoto.

Rokka Okada as the younger Kyomoto

Rokka Okada plays the younger Kyomoto. Her artwork first appears alongside Fujino’s manga in their school newspaper, setting the story’s rivalry and friendship in motion.

According to Reuters’ coverage of the Venice premiere, all four actresses spent months learning how to draw manga. Some of the artwork they produced was incorporated into the finished movie. That practical preparation could help the creative process feel convincing rather than simply decorative.

The supporting cast includes:

• Masaki Suda
• Kankuro Kudo
• Kayo Noro
• Ryo Ikeda
• Miyu Sasaki
• Maho Yamada

What Is Look Back About?

Look Back follows Fujino, an outgoing elementary-school student whose four-panel manga regularly appears in her school newspaper. She enjoys the praise she receives from her classmates and believes she is an exceptional artist.

That confidence disappears when the school begins publishing artwork from Kyomoto, a classmate who does not attend school but possesses remarkable drawing skills. Fujino becomes determined to surpass her mysterious rival and spends much of her free time practicing.

Their rivalry takes an unexpected turn when Fujino is asked to deliver Kyomoto’s graduation certificate. The meeting brings the two girls together, and they begin creating manga as a team.

Their shared love of art shapes their friendship, ambitions and eventual careers. However, their lives take different paths as they grow older, leading to a devastating event that forces Fujino to reconsider her choices and her reasons for continuing to create.

The premise sounds simple, but Look Back develops into a powerful examination of artistic ambition, grief, guilt and the relationships that inspire creative work.

How Is the Movie Connected to Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Manga?

The movie is directly based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s self-contained Look Back manga. It is not based on an ongoing series and is not a Chainsaw Man spinoff.

Fujimoto originally published the story digitally through Shueisha’s Shonen Jump+ platform in July 2021. It was later collected into a single volume. VIZ Media’s official description presents it as the story of two students whose ambitions to become manga artists send their lives in dramatically different directions.

Although Fujimoto is best known internationally as the creator of Chainsaw Man, Look Back is much quieter and more grounded. It does not share characters, continuity or supernatural mythology with Chainsaw Man.

The two works are connected by their creator and by some recurring ideas in Fujimoto’s writing, including obsession, loneliness, sudden loss and the need to create meaning in an unpredictable world.

Will the Live-Action Movie Follow the Manga?

The trailer suggests that Kore-eda’s movie follows the manga’s central story closely. Several images and compositions resemble recognizable panels from Fujimoto’s work, including scenes of Fujino and Kyomoto drawing and walking together.

The biggest difference appears to be scale. The original manga tells a complete story in one volume, while the live-action movie runs approximately 100 minutes. That gives Kore-eda more time to explore the girls’ lives, their evolving creative process and the passage from childhood into adulthood.

This expansion makes sense for Kore-eda. The director of Shoplifters, Nobody Knows and Like Father, Like Son is known for intimate stories built around memory, family and emotionally complicated relationships. Those interests align naturally with Look Back, even though the source material comes from a manga creator normally associated with much stranger and more violent stories.

Kore-eda has explained that he discovered the manga during the COVID-19 pandemic and felt a strong personal connection to its depiction of creativity and loss. At the Venice Film Festival, he said adapting the manga became a way to express his gratitude to Fujimoto.

One of the director’s central ideas was capturing how the sound of drawing changes as Fujino and Kyomoto mature. Tentative pencil scratches become more confident strokes before eventually giving way to the tapping of digital tools. It is a small detail, but it reveals how Kore-eda is treating art itself as part of the storytelling.

How Is the Live-Action Movie Different From the Anime?

The live-action movie is the second screen adaptation of Look Back. The first was Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s acclaimed animated film, released in Japan in June 2024 and later made available internationally through Prime Video.

Oshiyama’s adaptation ran for approximately one hour and remained closely connected to the visual language of Fujimoto’s manga. The animated format allowed the movie to preserve the looseness and movement of hand-drawn artwork.

Kore-eda’s film takes a different approach. Its longer runtime, use of real locations and actors of different ages should give the story a more expansive sense of time. The director also shot the movie on 35mm film, which could give its changing seasons and rural setting a warmer, more tactile appearance.

The live-action version therefore should not be viewed as a replacement for the anime. The two adaptations use different cinematic tools to interpret the same material.

Why the Look Back Movie Is Worth Watching

The most exciting part of the live-action Look Back is not simply that another popular manga is receiving an adaptation. It is the pairing of Fujimoto’s deeply personal story with a filmmaker whose greatest strength is observing people during moments they cannot fully explain.

A conventional adaptation could easily reduce Look Back to a tragic friendship story. Kore-eda appears more interested in its larger questions: Why do artists continue creating when the work becomes painful? How much of an artist’s identity is shaped by the people who first believed in them? Can making art help someone live with an event that cannot be changed?

Those questions made the manga memorable, and they also explain why the story can work in animation and live action without one version making the other unnecessary.

Final Thoughts

The live-action Look Back movie brings together two major Japanese storytellers: Tatsuki Fujimoto and Hirokazu Kore-eda. Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita lead the cast as the older Fujino and Kyomoto, while Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada play the characters during their childhood years.

Following its Venice Film Festival premiere, the movie opens in Japan on September 11, 2026. GKIDS will distribute it in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, but exact international release dates are still to come.

For readers who loved Fujimoto’s manga or the 2024 anime film, this adaptation offers an opportunity to revisit the same moving story through a filmmaker known for finding emotional depth in quiet, everyday moments.

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