Tatsuki Fujimoto's recent success gives fans hope for a Goodbye Eri adaptation

With the announcement of the Look Back anime film earlier this week, fans of mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto’s work have been riding high on the unexpected and exciting announcement.

While Fujimoto’s Chainsaw Man series has announced the continuation of its adaptation for quite some time, fans had wholly given up on any other Fujimoto properties being adapted.

However, the announcement of the Look Back anime film has caused fans to take a complete 180 regarding the chances of other manga series and one-shots from Tatsuki Fujimoto being adapted.

More specifically, fans are excited over the possibility of an anime film adapting Fujimoto’s original Goodbye Eri one-shot manga, viewing the possibility as a very likely one.

Fans are also discussing Fire Punch, Tatsuki Fujimoto’s first foray into a serialized manga, as a potential adaptation property should the Look Back anime film prove successful.

Nevertheless, the focus is predominantly on the chances of a Goodbye Eri film being made, especially given how popular the one-shot was both for Fujimoto fans and in the general anime and manga community.

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Additional adaptations of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s many works, including Goodbye Eri, would “feed families”

Why fans pine for adaptations of Fujimoto’s works, explained

Despite being relatively unknown before the serialization of his Chainsaw Man manga series, many general anime and manga fans consider Tatsuki Fujimoto one of the best mangaka.

While Chainsaw Man fans have expressed concerns over his art in recent months, the criticism has largely been retracted with the reveal that he’s also been involved with the production of both the Reze arc film and the Look Back movie.

With that criticism out of the way, fans consider Fujimoto to be so great largely for his paneling and artstyle. More specifically, fans praise his understanding of the manga format and how he leverages what some would call the medium’s limitations to create memorable scenes, double spreads and moments. The word “cinematic” is often used to describe this approach, and accurately so.

Hence, it’s no wonder why fans are pining for a Goodbye Eri movie and a Fire Punch anime adaptation of some kind. Tatsuki Fujimoto’s works naturally lend themselves to a cinematic style of portrayal, making film adaptations specifically a natural fit to his works.

Many fans feel that the Look Back anime film will serve as a living example of this, and inspire adaptations of his other works. However, as mentioned above, the relative anonymity which Fujimoto’s early career and works are plagued with could be the fatal flaw in these hops from fans.

While Chainsaw Man’s popularity has helped more casual fans of Fujimoto’s works to dive deeper into them, the financial gains to justify further adaptations of his properties may not be there.

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Fan reactions

Fans yearn for additional adaptations of Tatsuki Fujimoto's works (Images via Twitter users @Lostkami_, @DanteiMustDie, @Takonodensetsu, @Echoplex25)

Nevertheless, fans are desperate to see additional works in Tatsuki Fujimoto’s anthology be adapted.

One fan goes as far as to say that it would “feed families,” which is a slang term meaning (in this context) the adaptations would be both fiscally successful for animation studios and emotionally fulfilling for fans.

As mentioned above, while most of the focus is on a Goodbye Eri adaptation, there's also significant support from fans for a Fire Punch adaptation. While fans recognize that some aspects of the latter work may need to be censored or heavily edited, they, nonetheless, pine for the series to appear on the big or small screen someday.

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