In today’s tech-driven world, AI has somehow become a threat. From helping people by giving effective solutions to ruining the art, hard work and creative vision of the people, it can either be a bane and a also a boon.

Studio Ghibli, which is a renowned Japanese animation studio, was founded in 1985 by visionary directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, along with its producer Toshio Suzuki. The studio captures the essence of different emotions, art and visionary offering the audience with an imaginative storytelling, memorable characters and stunning animations. The name “Ghibli” originally comes from the Italian noun for a hot desert wind, which symbolizes the studio’s goal which means, “to blow a new wind through the anime industry”. This production studio is loved and adored by fans from all around the world. It’s beloved films like “Princess Mononoke”, “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbour Totoro”, have earned numerous awards, including Academy Awards and Golden Globes. It’s latest animated film, called “The Boy and The Heron” which was released in 2023, was also well received by the fans from all around the world, and the film has also won several awards, including Best Animated Feature Film at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards and Golden Globe as well. But with the immense popularity of AI, a new feature was introduced this year which quickly got popular among the user’s which allowed the user’s to generate the exact Studio Ghibli reimagined illustrations or art within a second, when in reality it took years for the team of the production studio to complete their art and visionary which required immense hard work, passion and dedication but now AI has given a quick access to explore their art style within a second or a minute. But the irony is that the art generated by an AI lacks human touch, emotional depths and personal experiences that only human creators can bring in their work.

A world dreamed by human hands, ruined by technology:

Studio Ghibli’s animation process is a handcrafted masterpiece that blends traditional techniques that carry the essence of love, dedication, passion, hard work and emotions.

It's founding director’s Hayao and Isao, treated the animation as a craft and not as a product which can be clearly seen in their works. For more than decades, Studio Ghibli stood against the use of machines and technology. While the industry uses different digital styles, Miyazaki and his team remained loyal to their art. They created each and every animation by their hands using various art styles. The director Hayao himself creates the storyboard, drawing each scene by hand like manga. These are incredibly detailed and contain notes, dialogues and even emotional cues. The backgrounds are also hand-painted, often using watercolour or gouache which is visually stunning and captivating. This handcrafted art took years to complete, and the final look always fascinated the fans from all around the world.

But now, using an AI model a user can generate a Ghibli concept images within a second or a minute with same art illustrations and concepts but the art seems to be lacking while the hand drawn art looks lively but technologically driven art looks shallow, like there is something missing in it, cause it lacks depth and emotions of an artist who creates the art with their own hands.

Why prevents an AI from being a true artist?

It may sound a little bit off when I say this, but it is true cause an AI cannot imitate art created by human hands.

The Studio Ghibli is not just a production studio, but it is also an emotion that connects the audience into the Ghibli world. It gives life to the animated characters through it’s thrilling illustrations, storytelling, vision and hard work. The time and years they took to create the art and turn their vision into life cannot be replicated by an AI model. Even though an Artificial Intelligence can generate the exact image within a minute or a second, it can never come close to the work a person has done in bringing the visionary to life. Hence, the AI can imitate art, but it cannot be a true artist.

There is also a huge difference between an artistic brushstroke and an algorithm. The hand-drawn animation is poured with hard work, dedication and passion and carries the essence of real art and behind each and every character is a person who has worked hard to breathe them into life.

The AI generated image which seems to appear with a minute or seconds with vibrant colors, identical lightings and similar art styles seems to mimic the look of the Ghibli’s art style, but in reality it just completes a prompt which the user has created and the image is only statistically satisfying, not emotionally born. So it cannot be considered as an art. It is only a stimulation of an art.

Conclusion:

There is a huge contrast between the real art that is created by Studio Ghibli and the art that is generated by an AI model. The difference is loud and clear.

In an old clip which resurfaced online, the director Hayao Miyazak,i the founder of Studio Ghibli, has expressed that “ I am utterly disgusted “, “If you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead, but I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all”. His deep respect and love for his art and works can be felt through his words. From his words, we can clearly understand that he does not wish to incorporate the use of AI or other technologies in his work.

So, using AI to recreate or remaster the art which Hayao and his team took many years to create is just off limits. Where the hard work and dedication of a human is being generated within a second using technology does not sound nice at all. So there is a stark contrast between the real art made by human hands and AI-generated art, where the real artist breathes life into the characters they create, while the AI just generates the prompt typed by the users.

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