{"id":560094,"date":"2023-03-06T11:03:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T08:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/machine-magic-or-art-menace-japans-first-ai-manga\/"},"modified":"2023-03-06T11:03:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T08:03:35","slug":"machine-magic-or-art-menace-japans-first-ai-manga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/machine-magic-or-art-menace-japans-first-ai-manga\/","title":{"rendered":"#Machine magic or art menace? Japan&#8217;s first AI manga"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2c998aed41c\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2c998aed41c\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/machine-magic-or-art-menace-japans-first-ai-manga\/#%E2%80%9CMachine_magic_or_art_menace_Japans_first_AI_manga%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Machine magic or art menace? Japan&#8217;s first AI manga&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/machine-magic-or-art-menace-japans-first-ai-manga\/#Soul-searching\" >Soul-searching<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/machine-magic-or-art-menace-japans-first-ai-manga\/#%E2%80%98Humans_still_dominate\" >&#8216;Humans still dominate&#8217;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CMachine_magic_or_art_menace_Japans_first_AI_manga%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Machine magic or art menace? Japan&#8217;s first AI manga&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2023\/quotcyberpunk-peach-jo.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2023\/quotcyberpunk-peach-jo.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"&quot;Cyberpunk: Peach John&quot;, Japan's first fully AI-drawn manga.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2023\/quotcyberpunk-peach-jo.jpg\" alt=\"&amp;quot;Cyberpunk: Peach John&amp;quot;, Japan's first fully AI-drawn manga\" title=\"&quot;Cyberpunk: Peach John&quot;, Japan's first fully AI-drawn manga.\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                &#8220;Cyberpunk: Peach John&#8221;, Japan&#8217;s first fully AI-drawn <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/anime-manga\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"6\" title=\"Anime || Manga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">manga<\/a>.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The author of a sci-fi manga about to hit shelves in Japan admits he has &#8220;absolutely zero&#8221; drawing talent, so turned to artificial intelligence to create the dystopian saga.<\/p>\n<p>All the futuristic contraptions and creatures in &#8220;Cyberpunk: Peach John&#8221; were intricately rendered by Midjourney, a viral AI tool that has sent the art world into a spin, along with others such as Stable Diffusion and DALL-E 2.<\/p>\n<p>As Japan&#8217;s first fully AI-drawn manga, the work has raised questions over the threat <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> could pose to jobs and copyright in the nation&#8217;s multi-billion-dollar comic book industry.<\/p>\n<p>It took the author, who goes by the pen name Rootport, just six weeks to finish the over-100-page manga, which would have taken a skilled artist a year to complete, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a fun process, it reminded me of playing the lottery,&#8221; the 37-year-old told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Rootport, a writer who has previously worked on manga plots, entered combinations of text prompts such as &#8220;pink hair&#8221;, &#8220;Asian boy&#8221; and &#8220;stadium jacket&#8221; to conjure up images of the story&#8217;s hero in around a minute.<\/p>\n<p>He then laid out the best frames in comic-book format to produce the book, which has already sparked a buzz online ahead of its March 9 release by Shinchosha, a major publishing house.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2023\/it-took-the-author-jus.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2023\/it-took-the-author-jus.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"It took the author just six weeks to finish the over-100-page manga using AI, which would have taken a skilled artist a year to complete.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2023\/it-took-the-author-jus.jpg\" alt=\"It took the author just six weeks to finish the over-100-page manga using AI, which would have taken a skilled artist a year to \" title=\"It took the author just six weeks to finish the over-100-page manga using AI, which would have taken a skilled artist a year to complete.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                It took the author just six weeks to finish the over-100-page manga using AI, which would have taken a skilled artist a year to complete.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Unlike traditional black-and-white manga, his brainchild is fully coloured, although the faces of the same character sometimes <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ear in markedly different forms.<\/p>\n<p>Still, AI image generators have &#8220;paved the way for people without artistic talent to make inroads&#8221; into the manga industry\u2014provided they have good stories to tell, the author said.<\/p>\n<p>Rootport said he felt a sense of fulfilment when his text instructions, which he describes as magic &#8220;spells&#8221;, created an image that chimed with what he had imagined.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But is it the same satisfaction you&#8217;d feel when you&#8217;ve drawn something by hand from scratch? Probably not.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Soul-searching\"><\/span>Soul-searching<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Midjourney was developed in the United States and soared to popularity worldwide after its launch last year.<\/p>\n<p>Like other AI text-to-image generators, its fantastical, absurd and sometimes creepy inventions can be strikingly sophisticated, provoking soul-searching among artists.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2023\/rootport-entered-text.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2023\/rootport-entered-text.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Rootport entered text prompts such as &quot;pink hair&quot; and &quot;Asian boy&quot; to conjure up images of the story's hero in around a minute.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2023\/rootport-entered-text.jpg\" alt=\"Rootport entered text prompts such as &amp;quot;pink hair&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Asian boy&amp;quot; to conjure up images of the story's hero i\" title=\"Rootport entered text prompts such as &quot;pink hair&quot; and &quot;Asian boy&quot; to conjure up images of the story's hero in around a minute.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Rootport entered text prompts such as &#8220;pink hair&#8221; and &#8220;Asian boy&#8221; to conjure up images of the story&#8217;s hero in around a minute.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The tools have also run into legal difficulties, with the London-based start-up behind Stable Diffusion facing lawsuits alleging the software scraped large amounts of copyrighted material from the web without permission.<\/p>\n<p>Some Japanese lawmakers have raised concerns over artists&#8217; rights, although experts say copyright infringements are unlikely if AI art is made using simple text prompts, with little human creativity.<\/p>\n<p>Other people have warned that the technology could steal jobs from junior manga artists, who painstakingly paint background images for each scene.<\/p>\n<p>When Netflix released a Japanese animated short in January using AI-generated backgrounds, it was lambasted online for not hiring human animators.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The possibility that manga artists&#8217; assistants will be replaced (by AI) isn&#8217;t zero,&#8221; Keio University professor Satoshi Kurihara told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, Kurihara and his team published an AI-aided comic in the style of late manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka.<\/p>\n<p>For that project, humans drew almost everything, but since then AI art has become &#8220;top notch&#8221; and is &#8220;bound to&#8221; influence the manga industry&#8217;s future, he said.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2023\/some-manga-artists-wel.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2023\/some-manga-artists-wel.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Some manga artists welcome the new possibilities offered by AI technology.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2023\/some-manga-artists-wel.jpg\" alt=\"Some manga artists welcome the new possibilities offered by AI technology\" title=\"Some manga artists welcome the new possibilities offered by AI technology.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                Some manga artists welcome the new possibilities offered by AI technology.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                            <!-- Google middle Adsense block --><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%98Humans_still_dominate\"><\/span>&#8216;Humans still dominate&#8217;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Some manga artists welcome the new possibilities offered by the technology.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t really see AI as a threat\u2014rather, I think it can be a great companion,&#8221; Madoka Kobayashi, whose career spans over 30 years, told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial intelligence can &#8220;help me visualise what I have in mind, and suggest rough ideas, which I then challenge myself to improve,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>The author, who also trains aspiring manga artists at a Tokyo academy, argues that manga isn&#8217;t just built on aesthetics, but also on cleverly devised plots.<\/p>\n<p>In that arena, &#8220;I&#8217;m confident humans still dominate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even so, she recoils at copying directly from computer-generated images, because &#8220;I don&#8217;t know whose artwork they&#8217;re based on&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>At Tokyo Design Academy, Kobayashi uses figurines to help improve the students&#8217; pencil drawings, including details ranging from muscles to creases in clothes and hair whorls.\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2023\/when-netflix-released.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2023\/when-netflix-released.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"When Netflix released a Japanese animated short in January using AI-generated backgrounds, it was lambasted online for not hiring human animators.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img text-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2023\/when-netflix-released.jpg\" alt=\"When Netflix released a Japanese animated short in January using AI-generated backgrounds, it was lambasted online for not hirin\" title=\"When Netflix released a Japanese animated short in January using AI-generated backgrounds, it was lambasted online for not hiring human animators.\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-left text-darken text-truncate text-low-up mt-3\">\n                When Netflix released a Japanese animated short in January using AI-generated backgrounds, it was lambasted online for not hiring human animators.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;AI art is great&#8230; but I find human drawings more appealing, precisely because they are &#8216;messy&#8217;,&#8221; said 18-year-old student Ginjiro Uchida.<\/p>\n<p>Computer programmes don&#8217;t always capture the deliberately exaggerated hands or faces of a real manga artist, and &#8220;humans still have a better sense of humour,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Three major publishers declined to comment when asked whether they thought AI could disrupt Japan&#8217;s human-driven manga production process.<\/p>\n<p>Rootport doubts fully AI-drawn manga will ever become mainstream, because real artists are better at making sure their illustrations fit the context.<\/p>\n<p>But, &#8220;I also don&#8217;t think manga completely unaided by AI will remain dominant forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                \u00a9 2023 AFP<\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>                                                <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                Machine magic or art menace? Japan&#8217;s first AI manga (2023, March 6)<br \/>\n                                                retrieved 6 March 2023<br \/>\n                                                from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2023-03-machine-magic-art-menace-japan.html<\/p>\n<p>                                            This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n                                            part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2023-03-machine-magic-art-menace-japan.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Machine magic or art menace? Japan&#8217;s first AI manga&#8221; &#8220;Cyberpunk: Peach John&#8221;, Japan&#8217;s first fully AI-drawn manga. The author of a sci-fi manga about to hit shelves in Japan admits he has &#8220;absolutely zero&#8221; drawing talent, so turned to artificial intelligence to create the dystopian saga. All the futuristic contraptions and creatures in &#8220;Cyberpunk: Peach&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2023\/quotcyberpunk-peach-jo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}