GKIDS Screens Look Back Anime Film in N. American Theaters on October 4 (Updated)

GKIDS announced on Friday that it has acquired the North American rights for the anime film of Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto‘s “Look Back” one-shot manga, and it will screen the film in theaters on October 4. The company streamed an English-subtitled trailer:

Update: In a related story, the film has sold over 1 million tickets in Japan. The film has earned over 1.73 billion yen (about US$12 million) at the Japanese box office.

The film opened in theaters in Japan on June 28. It ranked at #2 in terms of ticket sales (but #1 in weekend earnings) in its opening weekend and sold 135,000 tickets earning 227 million (about US$1.40 million) in its first three days.

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.

Kiyotaka Oshiyama (Flip Flappers) directed the anime, and was also in charge of the screenplay and character designs. Oshiyama’s Studio Durian produced the film.

The staff also includes:

• Art Director: Kiyoshi Sameshima
• Art Director Assistants: Yoshio Harisaki, Takashi Omori
• Color Key Artist: Maya Kusumoto
• Compositing Director of Photography: Kazuto Izumita
• Editing: Kiyoshi Hirose
• Sound Director: Eriko Kimura
• Music: haruka nakamura

Singer urara performs the film’s theme “Light song” by composer haruka nakamura.

Fujimoto 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 company describes the story:

The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn’t be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together. A poignant story of growing up and moving forward that only Tatsuki Fujimoto, the creator of Chainsaw Man, could have crafted.

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 for last year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, and was second place at the 15th Manga Taisho awards.

Update: Added 1 million tickets news. Sources: Look Back anime’s X/Twitter account, Mainichi Shimbun’s Mantan Web

Source: GKIDS‘ X/Twitter account and Instagram page