The Best Anime Film of 2024 Is Oscar Eligible and Really Deserves to Win

Every few years, an anime film comes along that makes significant waves not only in the anime and manga community, but also in the ever-changing landscape of popular culture. Look backStudio Durian and director Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s passion project, based on the original manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto, is the latest to do just that. Following unexpected success in Japan, the film was released globally to widespread commercial and critical acclaim, and is now Eligible for Best Animated Film at the Oscars.

Boasting an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% of critics, Look back is a triumph in both the animation and storytelling fields, boasting an impressively emotional narrative while also offering some of the best visuals anime has seen in recent years. All packed into a fast-paced 58-minute runtimeThere were doubts surrounding the film’s eligibility for any awards, given that the official US release needed to be bolstered with an extra interview sequence to reach the standard running time of a theatrically released film.

However, Look back was deemed eligible for Best Animated Film and is highly deserving of the honor. There’s stiff competition for this year’s award, and the Academy’s history of largely ignoring anime films will no doubt make it Look backthe way to overcome a difficult task. It remains to be seen whether it will be the first anime film to win an award without Studio Ghibli’s iconic name, regardless of how deserving the film may be.

Look Back is an animation triumph

The film is visually stunning throughout its short running time.

Tatsuki Fujimoto’s work is extremely stylized and expressive, often inspired by the author’s favorite films or TV shows, a quality that, in theory, would lend itself well to film production. However, the viewer’s response to chainsaw manThe anime adaptation showed that Truly capturing the mangaka’s unique art style is a tricky joband even the slightest variation in tone can delay an entire adaptation. When taking this into consideration, hitting Look back out of the park becomes an even more impressive feat for Studio Durian and Kiyotaka Oshiyama.

While the original manga featured panels that were breathtaking in their own right, the film’s ability to lift already visually stunning sequences and give them movement cannot be underestimated. This is perhaps most evident in Fujino’s running scene, a moment that carried immense weight in the source material. Although it features nothing more than the young artist traveling down a narrow road, the unique point of view from which the scene takes place, alongside the impressive animation and soundtrack make an already moving sequence explode with emotion.

Look back it’s also full of similar moments, in which the stillness of everyday life is often the backdrop for intensely uplifting or moving scenes. The film’s narrative doesn’t grant the story any flashy action sequences where the animators can really stretch their legs, but Studio Durian is able to construct the film in such a way that no moment goes without a lot of style and care. While many other anime have upped their game in terms of visuals in recent times, Look back stuns in its silent drama.

Look Back is a work of art that celebrates artists

The film asks viewers why artists continue to create

Look back is a moving coming-of-age story that follows two young manga creators beginning their artistic journeys. Through heartwarming triumph and heartbreaking tragedy, the film asks the burning question: “Why do you draw?” While not entirely autobiographical, author Tatsuki Fujimoto drew on his own experience as a young manga artist to tell a story that celebrates both the art and the artists who create it.

Perhaps it’s the film’s appeal to creative audiences that led to its surprising success. Fujino jealous of his mysterious classmate’s drawing skills promises to improve your own artistic skills and continue to impress those around you with your four-panel manga strips. And despite facing adversity, she manages to do so, eventually getting her own popular manga serialization. The film is a reminder that through hard work, it is always possible to achieve artistic desires.

And for those who are not artists, Look back also presents a highly emotional story of friendship between two young women, who manage to grow side by side both as people and as creatives. The film lacks Fujimoto’s trademark strangeness that often defines his writing, instead offering a more intimate experience that may appeal to a wide range of viewers. Despite the tragedy that occurs later in the story, Look back is a surprisingly uplifting tale written by one of manga’s most interesting authors.

Anime films have historically been ignored at the Oscars

Only two anime films have ever won an Oscar

Despite Look back being worthy of at least one nomination for the Best Animated Film award, the Oscars have a history of ignoring anime films. Only two have won the award, those being from 2001. Away from spirit and 2023 The Boy and the Crane. Both are very popular films from industry titan Studio Ghibli, which were also directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki.

For a lesser-known film from a smaller studio like Durian to receive its flowers on the Academy stage might be a long shot. Many other Ghibli films, at least according to fans and viewers, were overlooked at the awards, and no other studio had been nominated as of 2018 Mirai. Since then, no other anime film has been nominated other than The Boy and the Crane.

Whether you win or not, Look back is deserving of all the praise heaped upon it since launch. The film is not only impressive in almost every aspect, but also a reminder of the quality films that anime is capable of producing. Animation fans, to any degree, would do themselves a favor by giving the film a chance, regardless of any awards it receives or doesn’t receive.