Look Back Director Shares Surprising Opinion of AI Art

Anime fans can barely go five minutes without someone mentioning AI artwork. Generative AI has become an increasingly persistent talking point within the industry over the past few years. As anime fans use the tech to turn themselves into Studio Ghibli-esque characters, some anime studios are looking to incorporate the technology into the animation process as a time and money-saving method. This year also saw the release of the first AI-generated anime series (spoiler alert! It wasn’t very good). Anime directors have also been having their say on the tech, and Look Back‘s Kiyotaka Oshiyama is the latest to comment on the topic.

Look Back is a love letter to the manga industry, as the film, based on the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man), follows two aspiring artists who form a close friendship through their joint hobby. When they decide to submit a manga to a competition, their careers take off, but as is life, they split off on two very diverging paths. Having directed an anime all about art and the human connection that is required to produce it, you’d assume that Oshiyama’s opinion on AI art would be obvious. But the director is more open to it than fans were expecting.

Look Back‘s Director Is Open to Fans Using AI Art

“I believe that technology causes people not to be able to go back to their old ways,” Oshiyama told Anime News Network at Anime Central 2025. He likened the ease of computer-generated art to the washing machine, which is now considered to be an essential part of domestic life, and few can imagine living without one.

Oshiyama views AI-generated art as a double-edged sword. “I completely agree that this AI technology, or this AI art, would take the jobs of people who work in the creative industry,” he began. “I strongly believe it’s something to be talked about… Using AI to learn natural landscapes or making it learn the realism of your surroundings to make some more creative art, I think, is totally fine. But when it comes to those unlawful, illegal, malicious uses of AI, I’ll say loud and clear that’s not something you should be doing.”

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Kiyotaka Oshiyama Supports Fans Using AI Art

While the use of AI by industry professionals is a grey area for Oshiyama, the director is surprisingly supportive of fans using the tech for recreational purposes. “The latter camp of people who say that creating AI art ‘democratizes,’ makes it more available to the common people who can’t express their creativity through art — I don’t want to take that away from them,” he explained.

“[Look Back] is a story that portrays and celebrates the growth of art. I didn’t make this movie to deny the possibilities of people gaining creativity or the opinions of people who say that AI art enables them to grasp their creativity.” AI art will likely remain a controversial topic within all aspects of the arts, not just anime, for many more years to come. Fans are still desperate for official legislation to be put into place by studios, unions, and governing bodies about the illegal use of AI. But that itself will likely be a long and hard-fought battle.

H/T: Anime News Network