When Ghibli lost its soul

-Samriddhi

Hayao Miyazaki is a legendary Japanese animator, director, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli. Known for films like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, etc. He revolutionized animation with his hand-drawn artistry and deep, emotional storytelling. His works explore themes of nature, humanity, and imagination, making him one of the most influential figures in the world of anime and art. Yet, look at how his works get robbed by AI to fulfill the mere desires of people to change their pictures into Ghibli Art.

There was a time when the word Ghibli meant wonder, hand-painted skies, quiet winds brushing through golden fields, and faces drawn with imperfections that made them real. It meant humanity, delicacy, and the art of patience. But somewhere along the digital highway, as technology sped ahead and shortcuts became the new normal, something tragic happened: AI took over Ghibli, not officially, but culturally. The Ghibli trend that now floods social media doesn’t come from the brushes of artists or the hearts of dreamers. It comes from prompt generators, from people typing “Ghibli-style cottage at sunset”, “change my face into Ghibli Art”. What once took human hands hours, days, even years to perfect, now takes seconds. And people celebrate it, trend it, even. AI didn’t steal Ghibli’s name; it emptied it. What made Studio Ghibli magical was not just the visuals, but the philosophy behind them: Hayao Miyazaki’s refusal to rush, his belief that “beauty exists in stillness,” and his disgust toward automation that kills creativity. He once said, in frustration after seeing an AI animation, “This is an insult to life itself.” And now, years later, his prophecy has come true. The AI Ghibli wave represents more than a technological shift; it’s a cultural surrender. People praise these generated images for their “perfection,” not realizing that perfection is exactly what Ghibli resisted. Real Ghibli art has smudges, uneven brush strokes, and color bleeding that reflect human imperfection and, therefore, emotion. AI art, in contrast, is sterile. It can mimic Ghibli’s look, but never its soul.

Let me remind you of something: a 4-second scene of a movie took him 1 year and 3 months to paint and animate. The people are generating their faces in just a few seconds. This is how we celebrate art and the artist?

What’s worse is how easily the public accepted this imitation. Instead of defending the original spirit of hand-drawn art, people began to celebrate convenience. They called AI “inspiring” and “creative,” ignoring the fact that creativity without consciousness is just computation. The world became satisfied with the illusion of art rather than the experience of it. In a way, AI didn’t destroy the Ghibli we did, by allowing ease to triumph over effort. Every time someone clicks “generate” instead of sketching, every time they call an algorithmic blend of Miyazaki’s colors a “masterpiece,” a piece of genuine artistry fades. Ghibli was never meant to be a style; it was a spirit. It spoke of compassion for the living world, respect for slow growth, and love for the imperfect. When AI took over, that spirit was replaced by simulation.

So before we post another “#Ghibli Trend,” we should ask ourselves:

Are we celebrating art or the death of it?

At the heart of this trend lies a disturbing truth: the Ghibli aesthetic, once born from human imagination, is now mass-produced by algorithms trained on countless frames of stolen art. People upload their selfies into AI generators, which “transform” them into Ghibli characters. What follows is a flurry of likes and reposts. “Look! I'm in Ghibli World!” But what goes unseen is the silent erosion of artistic authenticity. By feeding data scraped from real animators’ works into AI systems, these platforms are not creating art; instead, they are extracting it. Every digital portrait labeled “Ghibli-style” is a byproduct of the unpaid labor of animators, background artists, and designers whose creations were mined without consent. The machine doesn’t learn Ghibli’s characters; it copies them. What took artists decades of training and soul to master can now be reproduced in seconds, lifelessly perfect, devoid of struggle, and disturbingly hollow.

What is really unfortunate is that people who are doing this to follow a mere trend don't even know “Ghibli”, what “Ghibli” is, or who Hayao Miyazaki is. As a human, I'm really ashamed of how people can be this cruel.

The irony is also cruel. Ghibli’s art was built on resistance, which is the resistance to mass production, to digital shortcuts, to soulless repetition. Yet look at us now, feeding the soul of the artworks. The AI Ghibli trend reflects a society that is too impatient for process and too desensitized to artistry. The subtle imperfections, the uneven linework, the trembling hands, and the quiet breathing of a human touch are all erased for algorithmic precision. What we lose in this trade is immeasurable: not just the originality of visual art, but the emotional dialogue between creator and viewer.

Prompting AI to generate a Ghibli picture of their faces is similar to scribbling names on the Taj Mahal or the caves of Ajanta.

AI cannot be used to copy, or even if someone says they use AI for good things, such as studying or researching. That is so foolish for them to even say such things. Even if you use AI for generating images for so-called “studying,” you're equally harming the environment!

Training large AI models (like ChatGPT or image generators) requires massive electricity, often produced by burning fossil fuels. For example, training one big AI model can emit as much CO₂ as five cars over their entire lifetimes. When millions of users use AI every day, the total emissions become significant.

Data centers need cooling systems to prevent computers from overheating. Many centers use water-based cooling, which consumes millions of liters of freshwater yearly. This contributes to water scarcity, especially in drought-prone regions.

Even if you use AI for “studying” or for generating mere images and copying art style, le you're harming the environment, your own future.

STOP USING AI.

STOP USING AI TO GENERATE PICTURES IN ART STYLE, LEARN TO DRAW, OR ASK A FRIEND WHO PAINTS TO PAINT IT.