[00:02] Ball, and Sailor Moon just told the world they're going all in on AI, and the anime community lost it. Toei Animation released a report outlining stage of anime production. Storyboarding, in between frames,
[00:15] coloring, background generation from photographs, the full pipeline. They even invested in a company called Preferred Networks, a Japanese AI startup to make it happen. The backlash was immediate. Fans argued that
[00:27] hand-drawn artistry is the soul of anime, and automating it strips away everything that makes the medium special. Animators within Toei were just as blindsided. One Piece animator Vincent Chansard posted that even the
[00:39] confused, calling the announcement an overblown PR statement aimed at shareholders. Toei walked it back, well, partially. They edited their report to used in production, but they didn't remove the plans. They still intend to
[00:54] implement it. And this isn't just a Toei problem. The fear is that if the biggest studio in Japan normalizes AI in anime, every smaller studio will follow just to stay competitive. Hayao Miyazaki has already called AI-generated animation an
[01:08] insult to life itself. The anime industry already has a crisis, overworked artists, brutal deadlines, and poverty wages. AI was supposed to of supporting them, the thing that made anime special in the first place dies
[01:22] with it. This conversation isn't going away, and neither should your attention.