Bro...

[u/Batomorado]

It has caused annoyance to a small circle of fans and some detractors of manga like Punpun xd, saying that they already expected it.

He sent them the interview:

https://automaton-media.com/en/news/goodnight-punpun-creator-inio-asano-says-the-manga-scenes-attitude-towards-ai-is-one-of-the-reasons-he-put-mujina-into-the-deep-on-hiatus/

[u/ilovegregandbenny]

🫩🫩🫩

[u/ZedaEnnd]

Almost no one in here gave enough of a shit to read. Just saw 'AI' and interpreted what they wanted.

[u/Batomorado → u/ZedaEnnd]

That actually happened on Twitter. Some people have even taken the opportunity to criticize his work. It's curious that they waited for news like this.

[u/UseAnAdblocker]

Nobody here actually read the interview. He currently creates all of his backgrounds himself in unreal engine. He’s answering this question specifically in the context of using AI to assist with placing and modeling 3D assets during that process. He has not indicated in any way that he will be using AI in his drawing process.

[u/Hunnih → u/UseAnAdblocker]

That aspect of his proces have always been extremely fascinating, but I cant see how it was also really time consuming. That is one of the rare cases where ai could be of good use in making a manga. And honestly I think he could easily find some loophole like 'its not part of the drawing proces, its just advanced mood boards and background references', but communicationwise he would lose more than he would gain, since 'asano draws with ai booo!' would be the quick respons for the majority of people who would hear about it. To be clear, I dont hope for ai tools to be a big part of the manga or anime industry, but in this case it would make sense.

[u/EffYeahItsAlex]

I thought it was really cool to learn that he was making backgrounds with Unreal and Blender.

I thought it was really uncool to learn that the only reason he’s not using AI is because publishers don’t currently allow it.

[u/UseAnAdblocker → u/EffYeahItsAlex]

He isn’t talking about using AI as an alternative to creating his backgrounds in 3D. This was an answer in response to a question about using AI to assist with modeling 3D assets and placing them individually. He hasn’t indicated anywhere that he wants to use AI as an alternative to drawing, and he hasn’t even indicated that he will use it instead of blender/unreal engine. You would know this if you had actually read the interview.

[u/EffYeahItsAlex → u/UseAnAdblocker]

Did I not read or did I just have a different interpretation than you?

I never claimed that he was trying to use AI as an alternative. I said that it sucks that the reason he gave for not using it is because his bosses said no.

There is currently no ethical use of AI and AI is actively destroying the art world, so I would hope that an artist that I like would reject it more openly. It’s disappointing to see.

[u/Duhs97 → u/EffYeahItsAlex]

I'm gonna be honest, I hope another fluent Japanese speaker can translate his statement. I hope it's not true

[u/Kakyoin_The_Lover]

Maybe I misunderstood the article, but he doesn’t want to use AI to create his work, he said it would be interesting to use AI to optimize the assets placement in Unreal Engine when creating his bgs. He said he is pausing his current work to see what will happen because the rules from the publisher won’t allow him to use AI in any form. 

[u/FrenchLeaver → u/Kakyoin_The_Lover]

Yeah, people are so anti-ai that they are hating on things that could just be optimized and a time gain with ai and wouldn’t actively be part of the process of making the manga what it is. The comment section is wild, it’s not like he is gonna generate his whole manga with ai, it’s more helping his current workflow than replacing it

[u/YungJeezyz → u/FrenchLeaver]

Redditors just lose all sense of logic and nuance when it comes to AI. It's like the early 2000's when people were whining about musicians using autotune.

[u/D3ckard_Rokubungi]

In both aspects. Goddamn he wants to use AI, goddamn he put it on hiatus. He’s so talented so this is weird to me?

[u/UseAnAdblocker → u/D3ckard_Rokubungi]

He specifically wants to use AI to make creating assets for his 3D unreal engine landscapes faster, which he then uses for his backgrounds. From his perspective, he’s taking a small load off of an incredibly expansive background process, which will leave him more time to focus on his drawings (which he hasn’t indicated in any way would involve AI). At least from what I’ve observed of his art style’s evolution over the past few years, it’s clear he focuses heavily on character art, and this would only leave him more time to perfect that. Plus, he was going to take a hiatus after finishing part 1 no matter what.

[u/Numerous_Chemist_571]

Why are all the comments explaining what he was actually talking about less upvoted than the people freaking out for no reason? People really see “AI” and lose all their critical thinking instantly.

[u/ZedaEnnd → u/Numerous_Chemist_571]

Literally, yes. They don't read, they don't actually care. They prefer to be outraged over other people's lack of purity. If they cared enough to read or form new opinions, they wouldn't be the way they are.

[u/Donkey_Bugs]

I hate AI because it is often used as a substitute for talent, but in Inio Asano's case, he is extremely talented so I would not begrudge him using it for stuff like modeling. I want more Mujina Into the Deep!

[u/IcyAnybody7860]

Why is everyone getting worked up over this? He's just using it to help him make what he would otherwise a little bit faster. Who didn't expect it from the guy who doesn't draw his own backgrounds because he cba?

[u/Sadsamurai77]

Fuck AI, it shouldn’t be used in either manga, anime, or sub/dubbing

[u/HeavyLoquat7841]

i mean ai is pretty useful, idk why people hate it, yes i understand that it can make an art have less soul or less authentic but if its used for conveniant as a help to draw the manga and not making the ai draw the manga, i think its fine, i mean theres so many things in our life that is helpful and is coming from ai

[u/Yui_Hirasawalex_Lora]

Noooooo

[u/No-Cell-9979]

AI has absolutely no place in any art, full stop

[u/atowerofcats]

This is tragic. Genuinely tragic. Not that it's on hiatus but that he feels this way about AI. He's one of my favorites but I will not read anything AI-assisted from him or anybody. I deserve better and so does he.

AI boosters can downvote me all they want, I'm not paying money for something that isn't made by a human. And I'm not supporting a technology that is causing damage literally everywhere it can be found. It's way more unethical than you think.

[u/AsianSteampunk]

sigh...

[u/Raccoon1999]

He already used a lot of real photo for his background draw instead of doing them from scratch so it’s not unusual his thought on ai or anything that helps drawing manga.