Tag: black jack

A legendary manga by Osamu Tezuka will have a new chapter… made by AI

A mythical manga by Osamu Tezuka will have a new chapter… made by AI, with human collaboration, and not a little controversy behind it due to its use

There are two inevitable things: taxes and death. And while for the wealthy it seems the former is true, we fear the latter spares no one. Death comes to all, even if some can postpone it more gracefully than others. Nevertheless, humans have always sought ways to evade it, to find a path to immortality. The latest attempt to do so is through AI, in a somewhat questionable creative exercise.

Manga Plus DOWNLOAD

Osamu Tezuka, considered the father of manga, a pioneer in Japanese animation, and the creator of iconic manga such as Astro Boy or Phoenix, is set to release a new chapter of one of his most well-known works, Black Jack. However, anyone familiar with Osamu Tezuka’s biography might be incredibly confused right now. Why? Because Osamu Tezuka has been deceased for 24 years.

To explain how this is possible, as hinted earlier, we have to turn to AI. Known as Project TEZUKA2023, it began in June 2023 with the goal of creating a new chapter of Black Jack for its 50th anniversary. This project involves combining AI technology with human artists. So, what will the AI be responsible for? Generating the overarching story, character biographies, and the facial features of the characters. All of this will serve as reference material for the human artists to create the actual artwork itself, without directly using any of the content generated by the AI.

In this way, their intention is to use AI as a tool for creative support. As explained by one of the involved individuals, Kaizo Hayashi, it feels like they’re having a conversation with someone while they work. However, we add, if the important decisions of the story are made by an AI, it still carries all the issues associated with AI.

This new Black Jack manga appears in the November 22nd issue of Weekly Shonen Champion. The artists involved are the film director Kaizo Hayashi, the mangaka Shigeto Ikehara, and the character designer Tsunohai. Whether it turns out well or not, one thing is certain: it’s going to generate a lot of discussion within the manga and anime community, and quite possibly beyond it as well.

Manga Plus DOWNLOAD

Reviving a Legend: Artificial Intelligence Breathes Life Into Iconic Manga Series

The AI has learned the plot structure and character relationships of Black Jack and is supposed to be ready to make its own episode.

“Hey, ChatGPT, make me a chapter of the manga ‘Black Jack'”. Osamu Tezuka’s heirs don’t seem to have as much respect as they seem to have for the so-called “god of manga” now that it’s almost 35 years since his death. The artist, who in his death throes asked to be allowed to work a little longer and who drew some 150,000 pages of manga by himself, would surely be delighted with artificial intelligence writing an extra chapter of his most remembered manga. Oh, yes. Almost for sure.

Shonen Jump Manga Reader DOWNLOAD
A free program for iPhone, by Viz Media iOS.

In shirtsleeves

That artificial intelligence is supposed to have come to take away our jobs, salaries and lives is not news, but that the authors themselves (or the distant family of the same) agree to have their work studied by a machine and passed through filters to have something more or less new. In this case, the AI has learned the plot structure and character relationships of ‘Black Jack’ and is supposed to be ready to make its own episode.

To add insult to injury, it will be the first chapter since the last manga was published in 1983 in Shukan Shonen Champion magazine. Tezuka’s son Makoto is not entirely convinced, though: “Although I proposed it myself, I’m aware that it’s outrageous and, even today, I’m hesitant about whether it will work.” Just the words of encouragement you want to hear from your leader.

However, in another statement he has pulled out of his sleeve that his father would use AI if he were alive and that’s enough to try to do the creative Ouija board. To demonstrate what artificial intelligence is capable of doing they showed drawings in which the doctor uses a cell phone as proof of what machines are capable of doing.

It is not the first time that an AI creates a work, precisely, by Osamu Tezuka: in 2020 ‘Paidon’ was already published with his style and his way of making the arguments but without the express permission of the family. What is known as “stealing”. Anyway, we know that this project will use ChatGPT-4 and that it will mark a new barrier in artistic ethics that, to tell the truth, nobody seems to care too much about. Strange times.

Shonen Jump Manga Reader DOWNLOAD
A free program for iPhone, by Viz Media iOS.

Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.