Sexy AI-generated Evangelion, Yu-Gi-Oh art sales lead to copyright infringement charges in Japan

Illegal posters also used AI to make images of older and obscure characters to appeal to fans with vintage tastes.

There aren’t many topics more divisive in the anime community right now than the use of AI. Opponents of the idea say that AI threatens artists’ jobs, is void of the human element necessary for true art, and that AI-generated images just look plain weird. Those in favor of the technology often counter with the argument that by reducing the time and expense needed to produce visuals, AI allows smaller or unknown would-be creators to complete endeavors they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

And it turns out generative AI can be very useful in making and selling illegal sexy posters of preexisting anime characters! At least until you get caught by the police, as just happened to two men in Japan who used AI to generate posters of characters from Evangelion, Yu-Gi-Oh, and a couple of other anime series that are especially classic.

▼ You can spot AI-generated versions of Evangelion’s Asuka and Mari in the video of the seized evidence, and also Yu-Gi-Oh’s Dark Magician Girl.

One of the men facing charges is a 36-year-old office worker from Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, while the other is a 40-year-old self-employed resident of Hikone, Shiga Prefecture. It’s unclear if the two men were working in cahoots or simply got caught in the same sweep by officers from the Kanagawa Prefectural Police’s Ofuna Precinct who were on “cyber patrol” (the term used in Japan for police investigators checking the Internet for illegal activity) and discovered the posters for sale via an online auction site.

▼ Yes, if you pursue a career in law enforcement in Japan, there’s a chance your official duties will include searching the Internet for illegal sexy anime art.

Both men are now facing charges of copyright violation, and have admitted to the accusations. According to investigators, between May of 2023 and March of 2024, the Yokohama man earned roughly 10 million yen (US$63,700) from selling AI-generated posters, while the man from Hikone earned 5.7 million yen between July of 2023 and April of 2024.

Whenever charges of anime copyright infringement are filed, the topic of Japan’s vast fan artist community tends to pop up too. However, there are a few things that set this case apart from doujinshi artists hawking their works at Comiket. Anime/manga publishers, and by extension law enforcement organizations, tend to turn a blind eye to fan artists selling in small batches at in-person events, under the philosophy that it fosters fan enthusiasm and artist talent development without majorly impacting the original work’s economic viability, and that the money being made by fan artists is primarily to cover the costs they incur in creating their fan art.

On the other hand, it’s kind of hard to claim you’re just trying to break even while honing your skills and sharing your passion when you’re making millions of yen without drawing a single stroke of what you’re selling, and so online commenters reacting to the news have been quick to condemn the two men.

“Nice work, officers.”
“Go get ‘em!”
“Make an example out of them.”
“Fans themselves drawing sexy versions of preexisting characters is permissible, but not doing it as a business.”
“Asuka: ‘Are you criminals idiots?’”
“I’m amazed anyone would buy those.”
“AI-generated art looks so weird. The people who’d buy it have problems.”
“Whoa, there are some old-school characters from Nadia and Dirty Pair mixed in there too.”

As alluded to in the last comment, the evidence pile includes at last one AI-generated poster of the title character of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, a 1990 anime TV series that shares its character designer and production studio with Evangelion. There are also multiple posters of Yuri from Dirty Pair, an anime franchise that started in 1985, ended in 1996, and hasn’t used the design for the character seen in the AI-generated posters since 1988. There’s even a poster that appears to show the title character of Amazing Nurse Nanako, a short-lived 1999 anime series that was forgotten so quickly it’s honestly kind of amazing that the seller bothered to have AI scrape and form images of her, and also sad for what remaining fans the series has that this is how they’re seeing her again.

Source: Nitele News via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin, NHK News Web, YouTube/ANNnewsCH
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