Image via Shonen Champion Comics
The project to create a new Black Jack chapter using AI technology has been completed, and Tezuka Production has publicized some of it. Some of the people working on the project include movie director Kaizo Hayashi, Mega Man manga artist Shigeto Ikehara, and character designer Tsunogai. [Thanks, NHK and ryokutya2089!]
Project TEZUKA2023 started in June 2023, and its goal is to create a new Black Jack work for its 50th anniversary. It combines AI technology with human artists, with AI developing the idea for the general story and characters.
From there, the creators would edit the work that AI made. According to Hayashi, it felt like conversing with someone while working. The creators would ask AI questions about what they should do, and the AI would answer. Aside from commemorating the 50th anniversary of Black Jack, TEZUKA2023 also wants to see just how much AI can act to support creative work.
A text-based AI program created the general plot and character biographies based on prompts the humans put in. An image-based AI program, which learned from Osamu Tezuka’s art style, generated character faces based on prompts. Humans did all the work for the actual manga that you can read in Weekly Shonen Champion, so the readers won’t be looking at AI images.
The new Black Jack manga made with AI’s help will appear in the November 22, 2023 issue of Weekly Shonen Champion.
