Japan's Manga Artists Can't Ignore AI Anymore

The brushstrokes of generative AI can help anime and manga to thrive.

- Walter Sim

Imagine if the late Osamu Tezuka, Japan's revered "Godfather of Manga" for his pioneering artistic techniques and visionary behind the iconic worlds of Astro Boy and Black Jack, were alive today. What would his stance be on generative artificial intelligence (AI)?

His eldest son Makoto Tezuka believes that he would have embraced it.

"If my father were alive today, I believe he would have used AI," Mr Tezuka said in 2023, announcing a special project that harnessed generative AI to breathe new life into his father's distinctive style for Black Jack's 50th anniversary.

He added that his father, who died at 60 of stomach cancer in 1989, had "mass-produced manga with very high quality without enough people. With AI, he could have produced even more".

Japan's creative sector has been wrestling with the question of the role of generative AI in the production process. Some purists have recoiled at the idea, calling it an affront to hand-drawn artistry.

But there is also growing recognition that the technology, wielded with strategic guardrails and robust copyright protections, could offer a lifeline to an industry caught between chronic manpower shortages and an insatiable global demand.

For decades, the glittery world of anime and manga has been propped up by cheap labor who toil for long hours at minimum wage — sometimes under the guise of "apprenticeships" — a labor model born in a different era where passion may trump pragmatism.

Yet industry demand has only surged, driven by on-demand streaming platforms like Netflix, which has reported that one in every two users watches anime, the crown jewel of Japan's creative industry.