Can AI solve the anime industry’s problems? Industry member sparks discussion 

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A debate in Japanese about AI’s place in the anime industry has blown up on X. In an open letter-style post to the anime industry, one creator and company president explained how correct use of AI could help employees under the anime industry’s notorious working conditions (Related Article). The post quickly went viral with over 1000 retweets and many users expressing their opinions on the issue. 

Post translation: To everyone in the anime industry, 
I haven’t made this public, but in addition to being a CG creator, I am also the president of a company overseas that produces hand-drawn animation (a contact point for Chinese anime companies).  
There have been many criticisms of generative AI lately, and I think that misuse of AI is totally unacceptable.  
However, hardly anyone in the anime industry talks about how employees at their client anime companies in China are being overworked due to stringent unit prices and timelines due to repeated schedule disruptions. 
Please stop saying “we don’t need AI” and acting like this isn’t happening! 
I wonder if the end users (such as the large anime companies abroad and in Japan), who support the creation of the majority of Japanese anime in incredibly harsh working conditions, truly understand. 
I want it to be known that there are people researching AI with the desire to improve the workplace. 
While we must prohibit the misuse of AI, I really hope people will stop criticizing research into AI. 
If used effectively, AI has a lot of potential to solve many issues in the anime industry. 

He went on to explain how AI could be used as a useful tool- as it is getting better and processing images with increasingly high resolution. He emphasizes that the work of the human artist will not disappear, but suggests that animators can use AI to enhance their initial drawings and save time. 

Post translation: AI is more accurate if you give it instructions by drawing them, rather than using prompts. 

Some people agreed with this approach of using AI as a time-saving tool for animators, envisioning specific ways it could be utilized. 

Post translation: I think this has a lot of potential. It could be something like a layout-specific tool that spits out patterns and the artist can choose what looks good. Or you could just throw in the original design requirements, and have it spit out endless possibilities, which could be used as inspiration for the final design. I think it has the potential to be a powerful time-saving tool. 

On the other hand, some X users vehemently disagreed and stated that AI should not be used in anime at all. A common argument was that AI creations are soulless compared to those made by a human. Even if AI is only used as an assistive tool, users were worried that it would still end up replacing people’s jobs. One commenter expressed concern about what would happen to new aspiring animators who have yet to make a name for themselves, as well as background artists and other such people who are currently drawing by hand.   

Post translation: I’m not against AI. However, I love anime and I don’t want to see images drawn by AI in anime. (Human-created) images have value because people put their hearts into them. The human heart is not found in AI images, which are made by cobbling together various other images.  

Some people, like the commenter below, agreed that while AI could be used to help animators struggling with heavy workloads and short deadlines, this does not mean that we should turn a blind eye to exploitative practices in the anime industry. 

Post translation: If we are talking about giving back to the animators, then AI can be a way of helping them to improve their productivity. That doesn’t mean that the exploitative nature of the hand-drawn animation industry is a good thing… 

As a side note, a large-scale survey conducted by the Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association (NAFCA) last year indicated that the majority of anime industry professionals want AI to be legally regulated, but are open to its use (Related Article). Many anime fans who value hand-drawn animation, on the other hand, seem to be opposed to the implementation of AI in anime creation. Overall, AI use in anime is a divisive topic, and it will remain to be seen how it ends up being adopted by the industry as a whole. 

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Verity Townsend
Verity Townsend

Automaton West Editor and translator. She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.

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  1. The main thing about AI is it can help in instances of workplace in terms of efficiency much like 3D and using Animation tools including editing like Photoshop, but i would disagree that it should be used to do drawings or any in between animation work that should be human only. I do think there should be research into things and talks with animators, directors and creatives on what things they struggle with that can be helped with AI to help make things more efficient as a whole, but not take over jobs.

    Also i will agree with everyone that AI can not help solve exploitation of the workforce by an industry that refuses to pay it’s workers barely on minimum wage. That would need to go with city and country regulations. The only way to solve this would be to force bigger companies into providing Workforce housing aka Subsidized Housing for the workers who are not paying the necessary wages or pay them the exact wages they are owed, as for smaller Anime Industries they could get subsidies or help from Local City funds to help build Workforce housing as well.