Look Back director’s new anime short is a lush love letter to Fukushima

Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s star has been rising as of late and shows no signs of slowing down. Coming off of the commercial and critical success of last year’s Look Back, the adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s one-shot manga, Oshiyama was announced last week as the character designer for Trigun Stargaze, the follow-up to 2019’s Trigun Stampede slated to premiere in 2026. As if all that weren’t enough, he’s got a new anime short film out today, produced in collaboration with his hometown of Fukushima.

The short film, titled “Aka No Kiwoku,” is a special project commissioned by the Fukushima Map, a publication that specializes in promoting events in and around the Fukushima prefecture with colorful designs. The short is intended to attract attention and tourism to the region, which is still in the process of reconstruction in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster left in its wake.

In an interview with The Japan News, Oshiyama said that he was working in Tokyo when the disaster hit and felt as though he could do nothing as his family and loved ones struggled. Because of this, Oshiyama felt compelled to work on this film when he was approached to participate in the project. “I hope this film will give people an opportunity to reconfirm something crucial that they almost forgot,” Oshiyama told The Japan News.

That doesn’t even begin to touch on the short itself, which is absolutely gorgeous. Told completely without dialogue, the four-minute film follows a young animator sitting at her desk reminiscing about her hometown of Fukushima, a scene which itself feels like an explicit nod to the ending of Look Back. The scene then transitions to a montage of scenes and images from the artist’s life, reading storybooks with her grandmother, growing up in her childhood bedroom, going to university, and eventually returning home in the wake of a terrible disaster. It’s as wistful, understated, and deeply moving as one would expect from the director of Look Back.

The short was produced by Studio Durian, which was founded by Oshiyama and producer Yuki Nagano in 2017 and is currently working on a feature adaptation of their 2019 short Shishigari. As far as professional and creative success go, the future for Oshiyama and his collaborators looks mighty bright.