On March 25, OpenAI announced a new ChatGPT feature that allows users to convert text prompts into many familiar cartoon-style images. Include options The Simpsons,,,,, Rick and Morty and Pixar, etc. But once Openai CEO Sam Altman changed his X profile picture to a Gilley Scholarship image, it was obvious which style is the favorite, and Chatgpt users quickly began to revel in making their own hiding pictures.
Among all the iconic aesthetics available, why the Ghibli style of online explosion? From the relationship between the Internet generation and Ghibli to the studio’s lasting logo style, there are many factors at work.
Ghibli's movie “Don't talk to the kids.”
Born between 1981 and 1996, the Millennials are the first generation to grow up with Ghibli Studios (and the Internet community that cultivates Ghibli’s global significance). The deal between Walt Disney Company (DIS) and Ghibli's then-owner Tokuma Shoten was a pivotal moment to release its films worldwide. Disney is known as Ghibli movie for English-speaking audiences, released Princess Mononoke In the theater and Kiki's delivery service On VHS, Disney Animation is in the Renaissance. Disney brings Ghibli's work to a whole generation, “This is the touchstone of the globalization of the entire anime,” Toussaint Egan, an animation expert and editor at the entertainment news site Polygon, told Observer.
But if the Ghibli movies did not capture the audience's heart and imagination, Disney's improvement would not be included. The tone of Egan touting these movies is a big reason why they like this lasting loyalty. Given how much work operates in a level of childish innocence, he considers their subjects surprisingly mature and intelligent. “These movies don't talk to children or their audiences. They treat children as smart as they are, even more than adult audiences, [like] They are more intuitive,” he said.
Hand drawn simple and nostalgic
But it’s not the impressive and moving story people seek to replicate with AI, but the aesthetics they connect to these narratives. Gibling's 2D animation has long been distinguished from competitors thanks to the studio's cautious attention to detail, from fluffy clouds to tears. But from a more basic perspective, this is the most basic thing for people, such as the outline of the character.
“It's very unique when you're able to peel off all the surface details of the character design and be able to hone your own contours,” Egan said. “You can tell who Totoro, you can tell who Saint,” Princess Mononoke Yes, you can tell who the robot is Castle in the sky. It's easy to identify, it's so unique and well done. He added that, above all, Studio Ghibli “found a way to create a character that is both simple and easy to be clear and lasting. ”
This style of stamina makes Ghibli an outlier in contemporary animation. Disney abandoned hand-drawn animations favored a more modern computer-generated style a few years ago; over the past 20 years, the studio has produced only two traditional animated films (2009s) Princess and Frog and 2011 Winnie the Pooh), by comparison, there were 16 movies with computer-generated animations in the same period.
Ironically, Studio Ghibli's stylistic consistency makes its output unique, giving each movie timeless quality. Aesthetic nostalgia may be the driving force behind the generative AI boom, and Ghibli's people feel the style that allows people to wear some rose-colored glasses when facing ongoing debates about generative art, its effectiveness and legitimacy.
Hayao Miyazaki's unique aesthetic
Perhaps part of the trend is also related to Chatgpt, allowing people to get close to the main Auteur with a unique aesthetic. Studio Ghibli is known for its “house style” and director Hayao Miyazaki is inseparable from the appearance. Miyazaki directed more films for the studio than anyone else and was involved in many Ghibli films that he did not take the helm. Egan said his hand-painted style “is part of Studio Ghibli and is also unique.
In this sense, this social media storm exists the same aircraft as the “accidental Wes Anderson” phenomenon, where the traveling Instagram page is dedicated to places that look like they have popped up from the scene Budapest Hotel or The Kingdom of Moonlight Become a huge internet brand, touting many books and global exhibitions. With this online guide and similar social media accounts, one can feel like they stumble upon a sophisticated world created by famous contemporary artists.
But unlike Chatgpt's “diversification” craze, these sites and images have been Establishednot generated. This key difference is what makes the influx of AI-generated images so disturbing. Animation is a hard medium, especially when it comes to Studio Ghibli's abilities. Miyazaki’s latest (and final) movie, Boy and heron, premiered in 2023; he began researching the work in 2016. This work will be rewarding when seen on screen, but it is cheap when run through a computer program to fit a person's brief fantasy.
“These AI-generated image models are technologies that are now being used to explicitly exist in a way that relates artistic expression to artificial labor,” Egan said. Egan published a painful irony a few years ago expressing his concern about human loss of faith in his own artistic expression.
While many people object to Openai's choice of Studio Ghibli's style, it seems more people would be happy to participate in it. Although elementalized pet pictures or group photos look adorable now, computer programs will never really replicate the heart and soul of Studio Ghibli’s work.
