Ghiblification (ChatGPT trend)

This article is about The AI art trend and fannish reactions to it. For the non-AI art trend, see Ghiblification.

Event
Event:	Ghiblification done with ChatGPT AI image generator
Participants:
Date(s):	??late March 2025?? -- present
Type:
Fandom:
URL:
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In late March 2025 ChatGPT Ghibli style trend hit the internet. As AI and Fandom was already a contentious topic, this led to a large backlash and discussion.

Origin

In March 2025, after GPT-4o image generation was released, a new trend emerged: using ChatGPT to redraw photos and screenshots of movies in the style of Studio Ghibli. It became available to free users on March 31st but the Ghiblification trend was already in full swing by then.

Was started by a Tweet by Grant Slatton, in which he showed an AI image he generated from a photo of himself, his wife, and his dog.

Spread

People were already posting guides by March 28th: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1jlq58q/generate_studio_ghibli_style_images_with_chatgpt/

news report about the trend dated March 28th: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/how-to-create-studio-ghibli-style-ai-images-on-chatgpt-for-free-8029848

Guide posted April 1st: https://ai.tenorshare.com/chatgpt-tips/studio-ghibli-chatgpt.html

Celebrities comment on it (dated March 30th): https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/kiara-advani-reacts-to-ghibli-style-ai-edit-of-her-and-sidharth-malhotra-from-shershaah-101743328656693-amp.html

Fandom Response

"Summary of the Drama" by TechRadar: https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/i-refuse-to-jump-on-chatgpts-studio-ghibli-image-generator-bandwagon-because-it-goes-against-everything-i-love-about-those-movies -- oh but this misuses the Miyazaki quote

Visakan Veerasmy on X/Twitter, 26 March 2025:

there are several interesting things to be said about the mass Ghibli event

First thing is that people don’t often know in advance what they’d want out of a tool until they see it for themselves. “generate any image you can think of!” draws a blank for lot of people

so lesson in there for anybody making things; customers/users need more guidance than you might think.

Second thing is I think this is an ongoing preference cascade and consensus cascade, at least some of the people who are adamantly anti-AI concede this is a cute/fun use case

for a lot of people this is the first time they’re like “ok fine I want one for myself and heck the whole timeline is doing it so what’s so wrong if I do it too”

I think this is probably a good thing. I think it gets more ppl interested in art and visuals etc

I wanna say I do also feel for any artist or illustrator who feels anxious about the explosion of people sharing images that were not directly made by a human. I think ppl deserve compassion and understanding here. I think it’s even understandable if some get really angry & upset

I do genuinely believe that in the long run even artists and illustrators will be better off from all of this. I don’t have the energy to piece together the argument but you can look back at things like how bank employees # went up after ATMs

fourth, I think “Studio Ghibli style” seems less like it’s stealing an individual’s work (vs “Miyazaki style”). this has interesting implications for people who want to share their styles vs people who don’t, I think there could be some useful coordination/consensus around this

I do think it’s gross when like AI maximalists sneer at artists with like “we will copy your work however we like, deal with it”. I think in the interim it would be nice if we could at least try to respect the wishes of artists who don’t want their work to be in the training data

tho like personally as a writer for eg I long ago accepted that all of my work in the public domain is pretty much meant for remixing by anybody anywhere, this was my personal position even before AI, like it’s the nature of scrapbooking etc, like Prince using Dave Chappelle-

[...]

none of these reduce the value of the original

they only elevate it

a bunch of people are gonna be curious to check out Ghibli films for the first time because of the mass Ghibli event

and that’s a good thing in my eyes

Anger on Tumblr:

• https://www.tumblr.com/hanavbara/779289912797233153/support-human-artists-not-ai-ai-generated
• https://www.tumblr.com/ayeforscotland/779341979050016768/unfortunately-couldnt-find-the-artists-name-but
• https://www.tumblr.com/victusinveritas/779291301718966272/art-by-bluesky-user-adi-fitri
• https://www.tumblr.com/newtsnaturethings/779364055637999616/reducing-the-art-of-hiyao-miyazaki-to-a-vibe-and

Some pushback to the anger on tumblr too:

• let’s see, if using ChatGPT to generate one Ghibli style image takes approximately 3 Wh of power, and one Taylor Swift concert takes up to 35,000 kWh, then we could afford to generate ten million Ghibli style images for every Taylor Swift concert we cancel.

Complaints about lewd images drawn in Ghibli style as a perversion??? (since Ghibli has a reputation for being "non-horny" anime) TODO: FIND LINKS

On Tiktok: Largely critical:

• https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd8gXYp2/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd8g74jx/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNd8g3Av9/

Though there may be more positive videos in support of the trend?? TODO look for links

There may be a divide between "largely online" fans who participate in online-fandom culture and are aware of the norms in many fandom spaces that discourage AI generated art, and "casual" fans who aren't aware of these evolving discussions and norms. The large increase in ChatGPT use^{[citation needed]} seems like it might not be driven by "power users" but instead a large base of people wanting to use ChatGPT-4o. And it's easy to find threads of people excited about the trend and asking their own photos to be Ghiblified.

Human-drawn fanart response

People drawing fanart themselves to protest the trend:

• https://www.tumblr.com/emotsper/779441575900200960
• https://www.tumblr.com/rahiodead/779422144545374208/learn-to-draw
• https://www.tumblr.com/senecasart/779213170056331264/jerma-in-ghibli-form-fuck-this-stinky-ai-trend-we

Argument Over Hayao Miyazaki's Opinion on AI

Some fans cited a quote from an interview with Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki to claim that the director was opposed to AI content generation, so this trend was particularly disrespectful. Other fans claimed that the quote was taken out of context and was not about AI art at all, but intead about disability or tolerance.

• shit ton of people are repeating the thing about hayao miyazaki saying AI art is an "insult to life itself" and just as a reminder he was talking about the zombies that team made that were intended to be scary in how much they shook..., ^{Archived version} by mamoru
• i don't love ai but THIS WASN'T ABOUT AI IT WAS ABOUT ABLEISM by dawsonadamsVO

In the 2016 clip, Miyazaki does not refer to modern AI-generated images. In the full clip, he discusses a 3D model of crawling zombies, which he considers a disrespectful portrayal of disabled people.

FWIW it’s not clear to me it was about ableism either, at least as a Miyazaki fan who was familiar with this interview beforehand - I think it was about empathy and about his friend. But yeah, it definitely wasn’t about AI on its own.