Welcome to the ルックバック Book Club!
This is the main thread for reading the manga ルックバック together with the Beginner’s Book Club.
We’ll be reading together according to a weekly schedule, asking and answer questions in weekly threads, and we have a vocabulary sheet we’re building together to make this easier for everyone.
View this book on Natively (Current level: 19)
Story summary
Japanese
自分の才能に絶対の自信を持つ藤野と、引きこもりの京本。田舎町に住む2人の少女を引き合わせ、結びつけたのは漫画を描くことへのひたむきな思いだった。月日は流れても、背中を支えてくれたのはいつだって――。唯一無二の筆致で放つ青春長編読切。
English
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.
How do I join in?
- Get yourself a copy of the book (see “Where to purchase” below)
- Click on the participation poll below to let us know you’re planning to join in
- Set this thread to “watching” so you get updates on the group (go just past the last post in this thread, click on the grey box that says “normal” or “tracking” and change this to “watching”)
Where to buy
(Bookwalker link is affiliate)
Physical:
Amazon JP / Amazon / CDJapan
Digital:
Amazon JP / Bookwalker / Kobo
First two weeks free online:
Shonen Jump Plus
Vocabulary Sheet
Construction and Editing in Progress
Thanks to ChristopherFritz for autogenerating this vocab sheet.
Vocab Sheet
Note 16/2/2025: Vocab up to Week 5 has been reviewed.
Proposed Schedule
- Start date: Feb 15, 2025
| Week | Pages | No of Pages | Start Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 0 → 15 | 15p | Feb 15 |
| #2 | 16 → 27 | 11p | Feb 22 |
| #3 | 28 → 39 | 11p | Mar 1 |
| #4 | 40 → 48 | 8p | Mar 8 |
| #5 | 49 → 71 | 22p | Mar 15 |
| #6 | 72 → 97 | 25p | Mar 22 |
| #7 | 98 → 115 | 17p | Mar 29 |
| #8 | 116 → 142 | 26p | Apr 5 |
I’ve made allowances for the Beginner’s club. Look Back is not divided formally into chapters, but it is possible to divide it by rough act structure. The page count is a bit inconsistent as there are large amounts of purely visual storytelling, so this division should provide a roughly even, or perhaps a gentle slope, level of difficulty.
Alternate schedule proposals are welcome as well.
Resources and Links
Thanks to ChristopherFritz for this section as well.
- Jisho is a popular online Japanese-English dictionary.
- ichi.moe is a tool for parsing out sentences. You can type/paste in a whole sentence, and it will try to break it down into individual parts.
- Deepl will translate a sentence from Japanese to English. It’s not always right, so if you want to check your translation, it’s often better to ask in the thread.
Discussion Guidelines
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
- Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
- Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
- Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
- When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
- Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Will you be reading with us?
- Yeah!
- Yeah, but I’ll start late
- I’m not sure yet
- I’m skipping this one
- I’ve read this before, but will join in the discussion
How will you be reading?
- Physical
- Digital
- With my eyes
- I’m not sure yet
Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to be notified when weekly threads get posted!
Names
藤野
京本
