In mid-March of 2025, social media was flooded with AI images using Studio Ghibli’s art style. 

Ever since AI has taken over technology, humans have been using it for daily tasks and personal use, specifically in generating art pictures or animations for entertainment. However, the latest Ghibli art trend has faced significant criticism among the animation’s fans, and here is why.  

What is Studio Ghibli? 

Founded in 1985 by the renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki, the director Isao Takahata, and the producer Toshio Suzuki, Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio known for its diverse fantasy movie creations. Named “Ghibli”, italian for “Hot Sahara Wind”, the studio aims to blow new wind to the anime industry with its unique style and meaning behind its films.  

The studio has found success in their work, leading to worldwide recognition with their first ever animation, Nausicaä of the valley of the wind (1984), an adaptation of Miyazaki’s post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure manga. Following this, they start releasing newer adaptations, such as Laputa: Castle in the sky (1986), and take over the animation industry with their best-known films, My neighbor Totoro in 1988 and Howl’s moving castle in 2004.  

Today, Hayao Miyazaki’s animation continues to circulate around the globe, attracting more fans and future animators. 

When did the trend start, and why? 

With the rise of Ghibli watchers worldwide and the implementation of artificial intelligence in our daily tasks, many individuals are now using AI to create art inspired by multiple animated series. 

In March 2025, the Studio Ghibli art trend flooded social media with many users posting AI Ghiblifications of their own images in reminiscence of Hayao Miyazaki’s artwork. The trend reached a significant amount of attention, where even celebrities and prominent figures such as Elon Musk have started sharing their Ghibli-generated pictures.  

Who’s behind this trend? Well, none other than a Seattle-based software engineer, Grant Slatton. Thus, after OpenAI has upgraded its image generation, Slatton has tested them while using Miyazaki’s art style, creating a new trend in 2025. 

However, for real Ghibli fans and artists, this trend has sparked a ton of criticism online. 

How is AI Ghiblification of images disrespectful to art? 

Ever since AI took over the world with its impressive intelligence, artists have been fearing the day when AI will replace them. Which is why using AI generated art has been a disrespect to art and to artists who put their souls into their artworks.  

Effectively, Studio Ghibli’s animator Hayao Miyazaki has pointed out this nuisance to art in one of his meetings. “I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel this is an insult to life itself.”, he said. Taking this into consideration, the new trend that appropriates his artwork with AI has started a debate online, where many artists and fans of Miyazaki’s work have said that AI takes away the meaning of art and its life.  

Not only have we seen this AI generating art with Studio Ghibli’s style, but also with many series such as Arcane’s art style, a series that went viral for its animation and plot in 2021 and 2024.  

So, with the evolution of artificial intelligence and the indifference of humans, will AI replace artists in the near future? Or will we be able to save the importance of human - based art?