- AI risks replacing Japanese anime artists, but Studio Ghibli’s Goro Miyazaki says nothing can replicate his father Hayao’s unique artistry.
- AI generated images raise copyright concerns, Goro highlights the depth of Ghibli’s work rooted in human experience.
- He says Ai struggles to replicate his fathers famous Ghibli arts as it is.
Goro Miyazaki Concerns On Ghibli
While the studio has not commented directly on the image trend, Goro Miyazaki predicted that artificial intelligence could one day replace animators.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if, in two years’ time, there was a film made completely through AI,” he said in an interview last week.
But whether audiences would want to watch a fully AI generated animation is another matter, he added.
Despite the rapid changes, new technology also brings “great potential for unexpected talent to emerge”, added Goro, Studio Ghibli’s managing director.
He was speaking at the Ghibli atelier in western Tokyo, days before the San Francisco based ChatGPT maker OpenAI released its latest image generator.
OpenAI, which is already facing a barrage of copyright lawsuits, said generating images in the style of individual living artists is banned, but “we do permit broader studio styles”.
“Our goal is to give users as much creative freedom as possible,” the US company said.
Miyazaki Point On The Takeover
Japan is struggling with a shortage of skilled animators, partly because most spend years in low paid jobs to learn the ropes.
Digitally invested Gen Z may be also less enthusiastic about the manual labour involved, Goro Miyazaki said.
“Nowadays, the world is full of opportunities to watch anything, anytime, anywhere,” making it harder to imagine making a living from the physical act of drawing, he added.
Goro’s father founded Studio Ghibli with Isao Takahata in 1985, a year after directing the post apocalyptic Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
After Takahata’s death in 2018, Hayao now 84 and a heavy smoker continued to create films with 76 year old producer Toshio Suzuki.
“If those two can’t make anime or can’t move, then what happens?” Goro Miyazaki said when asked about Ghibli’s future.
“It’s not like they can be replaced.”
Despite his age, Hayao won his second Oscar last year with The Boy and the Heron likely his last feature film.
Anime cartoons are usually for children, but Takahata and Hayao, men “from the generation that knew war”, included darker elements that appeal to adults, Goro Miyazaki said.
“It’s not all sweet there’s also a bitterness and things like that which are beautifully intertwined in the work,” he said, describing a “smell of death” that spread through the films.
“That’s actually what makes the work so deep.”
For younger people who grew up in peacetime, “it is impossible to create something with the same sense, approach and attitude that my father’s generation had,” Goro said.
Ai Ghibli Is An Insult
As the Ghibli style AI images proliferated, a 2016 video of Hayao resurfaced that many said showed his disdain for the technology.
“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself,” the director says in the short clip, taken from a documentary.
However, he was in fact reacting to an AI assisted computer graphic of a zombie like creature, which he calls “extremely unpleasant” in the full footage.
Goro Miyazaki joined Studio Ghibli in 1998 and directed animations including the 2006 feature Tales from Earthsea and 2011’s From Up on Poppy Hill.
He also oversaw the development of the Ghibli Museum and newly opened Ghibli Park in Japan.
Goro enjoyed drawing as a boy and said he learned a lot watching his father’s and Takahata’s work, although he didn’t think he could live up to their talent.
“My mother, who was also an animator, told me not to pursue this career because it’s a tough and busy job,” Goro said, adding that his father was rarely at home.
“But I always wanted to do something creative.”
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