Internet likes photo trends, especially when it converts personal images into dream images by adding visually amazing effects. The latest trend that has taken over social media is “ghiblification” or “transformation of Ghibli”, where AI converts real images into animated images that resemble the style of the Ghibli studios of Japan.
The trend of the Glibli AI trend started when the technological assistant Grant Slatton shared a ghiblified image of himself, his wife and his dog, on March 26, using the generation of Openai images in Chatgpt which has several style formats. On April 1, Openai published this feature for free to all users. The Slatton post exploded later, triggering Ghibli’s new trend.
Internet was quickly flooded with ghiblified user images. People love the sweet and romanticized images that this style of animation creates. But irony? Few even knew what “Ghibli” was.
What is Ghibli art?
Despite Ghibli Ai’s trend that makes people spring up on its animated creation and its vibrant style, most only think of it as a cartoon style. But it’s so much more.
The Ghibli animation style is copied from the Ghibli studio, a Japanese studio widely recognized for their legendary animation, which is filled with deep emotion, in -depth narration and carefully drawn frames.
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by three renowned directors, Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata and Toshio Suzuki, who built this legacy of a slow and immersive world where each brushstroke serves a goal.
The essence and inheritance of Ghibli art
Ghibli’s aesthetics do not only concern bright colors and fanciful parameters, but it is the imperfection and emotion of the anime drawn by hand and how Miyakazi put life in extraordinary characters.
Ghibli Studio is known to create authentic and emotionally rich films that transport the public to different worlds, but above all, also transport them to the deepest essence of what a human being means.
Films like Fiery,, My neighbor Totoro,, Princess Mononoke, The boy and the heron,, The wind rises And The Fluish Tomb Are some of the most famous, visually amazing and essential animated films of Ghibli Studio. However, if you are an emotional person, keep the fabrics ready because they are magical and very touching.
Princess Mononoke was the first animated film to win a photo of the year at the Japan Academy Prize. Fiery was the first Ghibli Creation studio to win an Oscars for the best animated functionality in 2003.
In 2024, The boy and the heron Also won an Oscars for the best animated feature film, marking a remarkable return to Hayao Miyazaki after a long interruption.
Can AI capture the magic of the world of Ghibli?
The Ghibli AI trend can be considered another fun and harmless trend in the world of social media. But for Ghibli fans who have an idea of the true essence of Ghibli’s art, it’s quite exasperating. Each animation frame indicated in Ghibli’s films is hand drawn by the creators.
When an AI generates art, it combines the art, data and ideas of different original works of art and presents an interpretation of machines that does not have human creativity and emotion that enter real art.
To understand the depth of Ghibli’s art, here is an example. There is a four -second scene in the movie studio Ghibli The Wind Rises (2013) This took the animator Eiji Yamamori a year and three months in hand -firing by image. There were several stories in the four -second scene emphasizing the different facets of human reaction.
Note how every character in this crowd scene has a certain personality, and a certain direction of movement and guess what? This scene has 24 images per second. This represents a total of 96 images, which leads to 6.4 images drawn by hand per month.
Imagine the devotion that the creator has put in sketching and respecting the same art to make it perfect. Now art in the same style is generated in seconds by an AI tool.
The ghiblification of real images is exciting, but it can also affect the artist and art, especially when the main artist behind the Ghibli studio called content generated by AI in the past.
In a clip of the Japanese documentary series NHK SPECIAL: Hayao Miyazaki – The one that never ends (2016)When the creator has been shown an AI animation demo, it has been shown to be declaring: “I am completely disgusted. If you really want to do scary stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never want to incorporate this technology into my work.”
“I strongly think that it is an insult to life itself,” he added.
While the art generated by AI has already faced indignation in the face of copyright problems, because it essentially copies artists from around the world, Ghibli’s new trend has inspired another type of rage and betrayal since Ghibli studio creations are as human as they can get it.
Those who joined the trend, and those who did not do it
As Ghibli Ai’s trend broke on the internet, everyone jumped on the train – influencers and celebrities to politicians.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, the Sachin Tentulkar cricket player, the Superstar Amitabh Bachchan and many other celebrities have embraced the trend.
This was the impact of the trend that even the Israeli army joined by generating images of Ghibli-De its soldiers. This led to criticism from Ghibli fans.
What makes him quite alarming is that the founder of studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki spent his whole life creating anti-war films like The Fluish Tomb And Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki also boycotted the Oscars in 2003 on the American invasion of Iraq.
However, there are still many people who have decided to stay away from the trend of Ghibli Ai. Indeed, for fans of Ghibli, their films are more than a simple animation, and they believe that this trend is an insult to the artist and the real art created by man.
Aruja Maithani, a 22 -year -old undergraduate student and fan of the Ghibli studio, said: “Art requires emotions, years of dedication and talent, which lack technology. A work of finished art is only a final product for technicians to go ahead and copy in a soulless rendering.”
“It is not only a question of missing from Miyazaki here, but it is the lack of respect for art in general. There are many dilemmas to replace art. But true art survives, and it will also live through it,” she said.
“Nothing can replace the real human emotions that go behind the creation of masterpieces and he has a lack of soul,” she adds.
Another fan, Srishty Chauhan, a 23 -year -old student, says: “See, the trend of the art of Ghibli is not absurd because it exists … It is absurd because people who do not even recognize the real artist push him.”
“The trend should concern the films, the years of hard work that Miyazaki has deposited there, and not a filter generated by AI in a few seconds,” she adds.
However, some Ghibli fans have also shown a taste and appreciation for this trend. Ayush, a 22 -year -old student from Mumbai, says: “In fact, if I say, I don’t think it’s a big problem, I know that real art takes much more passion and time to create, but see that it is not the only things that are reproduced by AI nowadays, there are many things.”
AI already makes art that is sold, and it gains popularity in the art world. In recent years, pieces generated by AI have even been presented in galleries. What makes it even more interesting is that this art generated by AI does not necessarily need human intervention.
Whether it is Ghibli studio or Ghibli Ai’s trend, the two have the world in a strangulation. The anime lover can hardly go from masterpieces of the Ghibli studio, and currently it does not seem that the world of social media is ready to say goodbye to this trend as soon as.
– Article by Priyanka Palta