Manga Industry Insights: AI and Art

Against my better judgment, I’m writing about the most contentious thing in the publishing industry, and in just about every artistic industry. Not because I’m here to make a point—I feel like every point has already been made, and by more intelligent people than me—but because I want to take a bird’s eye view at it based almost entirely on the recent news that Inio Asano is taking Mujina into the Deep on a hiatus until he can use AI to “ensure its quality.”

If that makes your heart hurt, you’re not alone, but let’s try to dig out exactly what’s happening here. And for the record, I’m not here to speak to the technological implications. I’m not that smart. What I am here to speak about is the humanity of creating, which I have a lot to say about.

The full article I’m going to reference is here, if you want to read it, but the quote I want to hyper fixate on is this:

In the current state of things, mangaka are not allowed to use AI. But using AI actually drives up the quality by a mile. So doesn’t that mean it would be best to not draw the manga now? Maybe they suddenly lift the ban [on AI] next year, so it might be better to start drawing after that happens. I’m currently on standby in that sense.

It was literally just a few weeks ago I was obsessing over Asano’s artistic style, and the depths of humanity in his storytelling, which is why I feel a particular way about this quote. I’m also not pretending to know everything about Asano’s work process, so I’m going to be speaking mostly in generalities. Mostly.

One of the most satisfying aspects of manga art—in my opinion—is how imperfect it can be while still being accessible and impactful. The way it can capture motion by bucking realism and still read crystal clear. Even better, when it is made more beautiful because of its imperfections. I can’t even begin to name all the ways that manga art—and art in general—is made better by how it eschews what’s expected and does its own thing. How it doesn’t seek to be perfect, but rather to be perfect for the particular story it’s telling.

Fool Night is a series I always point to in this capacity. That art style is beautifully imperfect, which is the best compliment I can give, because it serves the story, it captures an atmosphere, it is exactly what it needs to be. I feel certain in stating that AI could not have upheld the level of atmosphere and style needed to match what mangaka Kasumi Yasuda did.

Because AI doesn’t create, it imitates. Emotion cannot be imitated, at least not to the extent that it’s felt.

As an editor, that is what draws me into a manga’s art style—not it’s “high quality” backgrounds or whatever Asano wants to use it for, but the fluidity of the artwork, the motion of the movement, the humanity in each character, the way the world feels lived in. The style, if I have to simplify it to one word.

AI doesn’t have style. I can’t forecast the future (shocker, I know), but I’d wager that AI will never have style. Style is manifested through human creativity and experience, and related to by readers using the same. So expecting AI to mimic or replicate any sort of humanity is a losing endeavor. The same way that expecting one human artist to perfectly capture the soul of another human artist’s style will never work… and shouldn’t be asked, honestly. But at least another human has their own heart, soul, and creativity to put into their art whereas AI doesn’t. Another shocker.

Again, I don’t know the full context of the situation, so I’m mostly using Asano’s statement as a prompt to explore what it means to use AI in art.

That said, from that one Asano quote, and from the full conversation of the article, it sounds like Asano wants AI to “perfect” this series. To improve its quality beyond what he can accomplish, but I find that logic, at best, wobbly. This is a series that came from him, the art style comes from him, the writing, the characters, the world, the emotion it all comes from him. Up to this moment of hiatus, I highly doubt anyone out there was saying that the series needed to up its quality.

Because it doesn’t.

Even if the idea is to use AI solely to make better backgrounds, or clearer world features, or consistent landmarks, all in the name of “efficiency,” that still robs the world of humanity. And, for what it’s worth, it absolutely does cast a pall simply by knowing that it is, literally, artificial.

Asano’s work is so rich in human emotion, from his characters to his worlds, that it’s hard to consider even backgrounds given over to the artificial in order to make it “better.” Because what does “better” even mean in that context? That’s quite honestly a notion that does not compute in my brain, that AI can take human creativity and make it “better.”

A work of art is an extension of a human and all of their complexity. Therefore, all that is needed to tell any given story in the fullness it needs to be told in is the artist, maybe with the help of some other humans, putting their own humanity into their roles as assistants or whatnot.

I’m just really stuck on this notion of AI driving up the “quality” of a manga. Again, things that don’t compute.

Look, I’m not here to say what’s right and wrong, or who can use what tool to what end. That’s for another day. But I am here to say that art is human. Storytelling is human. You and me, we’re human. Game-changing declaration, I know.