News Navigator: How was new installment of Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Black Jack’ manga made with AI?

The Mainichi Shimbun answers some common questions readers may have about the new installment of Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga “Black Jack” produced by generative artificial intelligence (AI).

Question: I heard that the “Black Jack” series has returned thanks to AI.

Answer: This classic medical manga by Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) is about an unlicensed but genius surgeon that ran in the weekly magazine Shukan Shonen Champion from 1973 to 1983. Tezuka’s son Makoto and others in the “Tezuka 2023” project harnessed AI to produce a new 32-page story, published in the same magazine on Nov. 22.

Q: What’s the new manga about?

A: It revolves around a patient who discovers they have blood cancer after getting a transplant of a complete, AI-developed heart. The protagonist is called on to help, and he performs a difficult surgical procedure, during which he becomes conflicted over the meaning of life. New characters appear alongside the series’ familiar faces such as Pinoko and Dr. Kiriko.

Q: Interesting. How did they make it?

A: The project members used generative AIs to create a Black Jack-like story and images by feeding in over 200 original works and facial image data from Osamu’s manga. Through a back-and-forth process between AI and humans, a new story and characters were created. The process took around half a year to complete.

Q: I see. It was a joint production between AI and people.

A: Makoto stated, “With humans alone, we would have just gone around in circles and a new story would have been impossible to make.” Shonen Champion’s editorial team also commented, “It looks possible for AI to be used to assist manga creators in the future.” The possibilities for AI in manga appear to be growing.

(Japanese original by Misaki Morokuma, Cultural News Department)