Last week was interesting, to say at least. The controversy of ZUN using AI for spell card backgrounds in Touhou 20 was a shocking revelation for the fans. I was, too, shocked and disappointed in ZUN for using AI, as he could at least ask help to someone who can do the backgrounds. But he's not the only one who had a controversy due to using AI. Kaneko Kazuma, one of the most well-known artist in the video game world from his works in the Shin Megami Tensei series. Unfortunately, he also used AI for some of the mobile games he's a part off (though they aren't Shin Megami Tensei related, thankfully). Though he said that training the AI how to draw the things he intended is proven difficult, so hopefully that his ventures using AI would be over.
So, what am I trying to say? Simply put...
The old and revered artists are slowly losing their grip and showing their age in this modern world. They are slowly aging, screwing themselves and their fans up due to their deterioration of their skills as artists because of age, being lazy or just being ignorant in what's going on with the controversial aspects of technology (NFTs, AI).
And while the person I'm about to talk about didn't do any AI stuff, the way he ended one of his manga made me really disappointed: Hitoshi Tomizawa. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the guy for giving us Alien 9 and some interesting manga in the past and he's the reason why I am slowly into the Sci-Fi genre; but the way he "ended" Alien 9 NEXT really, really pissed me off. The fact we don't know what happened to Kumi and the girl who looked like Yuri and what will Ms. Okada do after becoming crazy and murdered Kasumi in cold blood, made me disappointed. If Alien 9 EMULATORS was bit divisive from the reactions, the NEXT is the absolute disappointment for all the fans of his works. Add that with the fact that basically disappeared after that, just leaves a sour taste for me.
I've this saying that I like to think to myself when I see old buildings getting demolished: "The old will go away and the new will come to take their place." I really believe that we, creative people (whether in art, music, writing, etc.), have to take the place of the old ones, because it's just inevitable that they'll pass away, and we'll be the one who's responsible with the creative world.
Thank you for reading, and God bless.
