After it was announced that NieR and Drakengard creator Yoko Taro will be writing the scenario for a brand-new anime in the Neon Genesis Evangelion series, Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim commemorated the news with a celebratory image posted to his personal X account. The image, which appears to be AI-generated, features Evangelion heroine Asuka against a background of Emil Heads, which appear in NieR: Automata and have become the “face” of Yoko Taro himself thanks to his mask-wearing habits.
The iconic Emil Head mask was created by Yoshikaze Matsushita (source: PlatinumGames Offical Blog), who wasn’t very happy to see his work run through a generative AI tool, especially by a fellow game creator. Matsushita, who goes by the nickname “Sculptor Yoshi” online, is a former PlatinumGames modeler who worked on NieR:Automata, ASTRAL CHAIN, and Bayonetta 3 before becoming an independent artist in 2021. He created several of NieR:Automata’s enemy and machine designs.
Shortly after Kim posted the crossover image featuring Asuka, Matsushita made a comment on his own personal X account suggesting he was uncomfortable with his work being fed to AI, as well as the way the output replicated even the small quirks of his style and technique. Later, he followed up with a screenshot that suggests Matsushita got blocked by Kim over his remark. He commented, “[Nier] is not my IP, I was just commissioned to work on it. But I’m still really fond of it, which is why I personally find this unpleasant. But more than anything, seeing the representative of a game company gleefully do this kind of thing shows a lack of risk management. And blocking me just for pointing it out is downright lame as a creator.”
Matsushita is not the only one, as many fans have expressed dissatisfaction with Kim’s alleged use of AI for outputting copyrighted designs, though the creator has not addressed the concerns so far. Beyond Kim’s personal views, Shift Up has also announced that it views AI technology as an indispensable means of bridging the gap in manpower between Korean and Chinese game development companies, “allowing one person to perform the work of 100 people.”
