#kyomoto

please

what

no please no why

kyomoto

So I've watched look back recently and I LOVED it, but funnily enough as someone with a complicated relationship with art ( or lack thereof since I haven't seriously drawn anything in YEARS) the theme of art isn't what stuck out with me, moreso Fujino and Kyomoto's relationship. Hot take but their relationship is the most interesting part of the movie, Fujimoto could've just made them inseparable normal besties who just drifted apart over the years but the choice for their relationship to be codependent was the move(feels weird to say but whatever this is a Fujimoto work ffs), if Look back was a dish their relationship would be the meat while art would be the bowl it was served in

The way their friendship turned out feels very real and meaningful, much more meaningful than if they were just a normal pair of friends. It's very fun to dissect and psychoanalyze, part of Fujino's attachment to Kyomoto being caused by the fact that Kyomoto's her only consistent source of support and vice versa. Kyomoto's codependence on Fujino and eventual desire to "fly away from the nest" so to speak, to Fujino's unaddressed 'need' for Kyomoto, there's tons of layers in their relationship that are never said but are still there, we know everything we need to know about it for the story but there's just so much that can be speculated on

It's the fact that we know a lot about the characters yet at the same time, we really don't, but they still feel fleshed out because they were made with such intention for the story Fujimoto ultimately wanted to tell that it's palpable

Really sucks that we never get to know Kyomoto's first name, and in general how much less we know about her than Fujino, who we already don't know that much about once you think about it. But as I write this I realize it hones in on the idea that the only people who ever truly knew Kyomoto was herself and Fujino, even us, the fourth wall, the viewers, we don't get to know Kyomoto like how Fujino did. We don't get to know her like she did herself, because we are the outside world, other than that we only see the experience through Fujino's eyes for the most part, think about it, how many scenes are there where Kyomoto's on her own with no Fujino vs when Fujino is by herself with no Kyomoto.

For the first like 15 minutes of the movie we never actually see Kyomoto, it takes until after the whole scene of Fujino BEING in Kyomoto's house to finally SEE her. At first we assume no one is home, then we find out that someone is home, and then after Fujino leaves we finally get to see who Kyomoto is, if she didn't choose to chase after her we would only ever hear her voice for essentially a split second, not even a phrase, just a "what/hey" that suggests whoever behind the door was a girl, and if Fujino never drew that yonkoma, we might've never known who Kyomoto really was. Yes there's the alternate timeline/Fujino's grief-driven story, but there's also the possibility that they would've just never met, but I do like the canon-implied idea they were destined to be together

"Dont look back in anger" ⁽⁠⁽⁠ଘ⁠(⁠ ⁠ˊ⁠ᵕ⁠ˋ⁠ ⁠)⁠ଓ⁠⁾⁠⁾