A.I. vs. Studio Ghibli

By: Ryann Sniadecki

At the beginning of April, a trend started, mainly on Twitter/X, in which people asked Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Getmig.AI, and most notably OpenAI, to recreate popular images, memes, movie scenes and posters in the iconic Studio Ghibli style.

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese Animation studio created on June 15, 1985 by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. Some of the studio’s popular movies, which you may or may not have heard of, are My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo, to name a few.

According to thousandfaces, there are 2 reasons that so many people enjoy Studio Ghibli.

1. Powerful storytelling, “If there’s one thing that remains consistent in all Ghibli movies, it’s the craft of storytelling. Hand-drawn art meets 2D animation and compelling storytelling.”.

2. Vivid imagination, “It’s rare to beat Japanese creators when it comes to crafting a world of magical surrealism.”

But now with the rise of A.I., many people are now commissioning A.I. to recreate some of their favorite Studio Ghibli scenes to make it look like them and their partner or asking A.I. to recreate famous movie scenes in the Ghibli style.

Even though the rise of A.I. is happening now, one of the founders of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki, was asked about his thoughts on A.I. back in 2016. He stated “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all…I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.”.

Now many artists are promoting their work, which don’t use A.I. and are geared to those who want to have an artist recreate a famous Ghibli scene but change the characters into their parents.