First-Ever Live-Action Movie Adapting Popular 5-Year-Old Manga Debuts To Stellar Rotten Tomatoes Score

Published Sep 13, 2026, 2:56 PM EDT Fariba Rezwan is a Lead Editor for the Movie News team. She has been with ScreenRant for nearly five years, with roles ranging from list editor to junior news editor. During that time, Fariba has led coverage for breaking movies and TV news, including Hunger Games, Marvel, and streaming. Additionally, she has actively provided commentary and reactions to the biggest movies and shows on her YouTube channel, The Movieception Show. Sign in to your ScreenRant account A new live-action adaptation of a popular manga has won critics over. In 2021, Chainsaw Man's Tatsuki Fujimoto wrote and illustrated a one-shot manga, Look Back, published by Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+. The story was a major hit in Japan, generating 2.5 million reads on its first day and over four million reads in two days. Since then, the popular manga has been adapted twice, with one movie recently premiering at Venice this month. With 15 reviews, the live-action Look Back movie debuted at a stellar 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. In comparison, the animated series earned a 100% Tomatometer and a near-perfect 98% audience score. Every Adaptation Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Score Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score Look Back (2024) 100% 98% Look Back (2026) 93% N/A In reviews for Look Back, the performance of the leading pair was the driving force of the story's emotional weight. Critics also praised the live-action adaptation for capturing the essence of the manga's themes, such as friendship, art, and grief. However, some criticisms noted the movie stretching the short story into a 99-minute film and losing some of the magic of the original manga. Nevertheless, Look Back won many awards at Venice, including the Cinema & Art Award and the SIGNIS Award, and was nominated for the Golden Lion. Looking Back stars Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita as two students with different personalities who bond over their love of making manga. The pair grow closer with this one connection into their adulthood. Hirokazu Kore-eda directed and wrote the screenplay, while Daiju Koide served as the producer. The supporting cast features Furi Nanase, Rokka Okada, Masaki Suda, Kayo Noro, Kankurō Kudō, Ryō Ikeda, and Maho Yamada. As of July 2026, the original Look Back manga has circulated over one million copies. The story ended up on several best-of lists, including Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi's best manga for male readers in 2022, 29th on Da Vinci's "Book of the Year," and first in Freestyle's The Best Manga 2022 Kono Manga wo Yome! It was also nominated for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia at the 2023 Eisner Awards. While Look Back is already in theaters in Japan, it's expected to be released in the United States sometime in 2026. Director Hirokazu Kore-eda Producers Daiju Koide