With new drama popping up online of AI recreating the style of famous animation company Studio Ghibli, which is known for such movies as Spirited Away, Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke. It is reopening a question, often controversial, of whether or not AI truly belongs in the creative sphere.
The viral trend mostly getting big on X/Twitter is called the “Studio Ghibli AI Trend.” The concept is simple: you would take pictures of popular memes, photos of you, and or any other picture you’d want. Run it through the new updated Gpt-4o image generator and boom. There is a picture of your own but now in Studio Ghibli style.
Seemingly innocent to some people it deeply offended a huge amount of others. The reason why people are getting so upset about this trend is because they feel it devalues human creation and is poorly mimicking the distinct art style of Studio Ghibli. They would also claim that people participating in the trend need to “pick up a pencil.”
AI is often very critiqued because it’s seen as “lazy” and takes away from artists who spend day in and day out animating and drawing. Hayao Miyazaki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, in a 2016 interview said, “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”
As of writing, Studio Ghibli hasn’t made a statement recently but rumors say the studio will be taking action by sending lawsuits against AI Creators because they believe it’s violating the trademark that Studio Ghibli has. There is also a chance that brands like Netflix, Wendys, and Zepto, just to name a few, could be under fire by Studio Ghibli.
The other opinion is AI can at least be a tool for artists to give them inspiration or jumpstart ideas and get creative wheels turning. Or from a non-artist point of view, it’s just a money saver and a way to produce artwork super efficiently. But, this way will put a lot of artists out of business who depend on these commissions. Threatening artists’ livelihood who do it for the passion and love that you can see in the art.
The uproar has been so loud it has reached big directors for other animes defending Studio Ghibli, like Megumi Ishitani, who has directed episodes of One Piece and Dragon Ball Super. She spoke out on X/Twitter saying. “I want legal action to be taken… I can’t stand seeing Ghibli treated so cheaply.”
With all of this anger being stirred around for a month it feels impossible that Studio Ghibli won’t make a response soon.
One quote that resonates strongly with many people sharing around is by an author named Joanna Maciejewska saying, “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes.”
