Unfortunately, the Princess Mononoke 4K remaster hitting theaters isn’t the biggest news for the legendary anime studio Studio Ghibli. Recent artificial intelligence-fueled art has been hitting social media that transforms images and videos into scenes that look like they were made by Hayao Miyazaki. To no one’s surprise, anime creators aren’t too thrilled to see Miyazaki’s style used in such a way and some are more than willing to share their thoughts on the matter. Most recently, a legendary animator who has worked on the likes of One Piece, Naruto, Castlevania, Pokemon, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure doesn’t have anything nice to say about the recent A.I. campaigns.
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Animator Henry Thurlow took to his social media account to express his displeasure with the new trend, wondering what those using artificial intelligence are even hoping to achieve, “I’m not sure what exactly these folks making AI Ghibli images even think they’re accomplishing, beyond offending & upsetting the original artists (which you’d assume they’re fans of) I mean, you can’t (& will never) make profitable movies w/ this stuff. It’s akin to trolling.” Thurlow has been a part of the animation world since the early 2000s, so he has definitely earned the right to share his opinion on this matter and come to Studio Ghibli’s side.
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Thurlow’s Thoughts
Thurlow continued, “If you don’t have the time to dedicate to becoming an amazing chef, you don’t deserve a Michelin star. If you don’t have time to dedicate to acting, you don’t deserve an Oscar. And if you don’t have the time to dedicate to animation/art, then stay the fuck out of my industry.”
The One Piece director’s thoughts were shared by Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki, who went on record stating his disdain for art that emerged thanks to artificial intelligence. In a 2019 documentary for Japanese television station NHK, Miyazaki pulled no punches when it came to art created by A.I., “Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
Anime Vs. Artificial Intelligence
Last year, the Nippon Anime and Film Culture Association banded together to back creators and make sure that those who create anime receive their fair share in the face of A.I., “We [the NAFCA] feel it will be very difficult in the future to bring fair revenue to creators when projects are being created through the use of generative AI,” the note reads. “For instance, if an AI generates a character with the head of Doraemon, the body of a Gundam, and the voice of Son Goku… If that creation is made with the thought it can be used freely so long as we hand over the required revenue, we’re not interested. Even if a character created using 100 others were to make a ton of profit, there is no good mechanism of sharing profit and approval with the creators of those 100 said characters.”
