Osamu Tezuka's iconic Black Jack receives an AI manga adaptation, employing ChatGPT

Black Jack is widely regarded as being one of the greatest mangas of all time, spawning a franchise consisting of animes, films, TV series, and more. It has been revealed that this iconic manga will be in the spotlight for this year's TEZUKA2023 project, by Tezuka Productions, and will receive a manga adaptation created by AI technology.

Best known for being the creator of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka is one of the greatest mangakas to have ever lived, whose work has paved the way for the manga and anime industry as we know it today. His creation Black Jack released in 1973 and ran for 25 volumes till 1978.

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Black Jack manga to release an adaptation created by AI this fall in Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine

Tezuka Productions has launched the TEZUKA2023 project and this time it will release a new chapter for the Black Jack manga, created entirely with ChatGPT-4. The organizers of the project announced that the same will be published this fall in Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine by Akita Shonen, as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the series.

The technology employed for the production is developed by a research and development agency in Japan called New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). It will attempt to create new stories by imitating the style of Tezuka. Professor Satoshi Kurihara of Keio University's Faculty of Science and Technology will be supervising the project.

Previously for the TEZUKA2020 project, a similar AI tech was used to create a manga called Paidon, but considerable intervention from the creators was still required despite the use of AI, which will not be the case for the new project. Prof. Kurihara has remarked, "We are interested in how creators and AI interactively make new plots and new expressions of the characters," as per The Mainichi.

Using AI to create art is a sensitive discourse in the industry and creating a manga solely with the use of artificial intelligence is bound to raise some eyebrows. Osamu Tezuka's son Makoto Tezuka, the current director of Tezuka Productions, who is also participating in the project, has addressed the same.

“While I myself made the proposal, I am aware that it is an outrageous one and, even today, I am half doubting that it is going to work," he said.

Tezuka mentioned he is hopeful that the project will be received positively. He stated that his father would have encouraged the inculcation of technological developments in his creation, given that his previous work Astro Boy featured technology as an elemental concept.

“Still, we are challenging ourselves. I know Osamu Tezuka would have definitely used AI if he were alive,” he continued.

The description of the original Black Jack manga as per Osamu Tezuka's website reads:

"This is a medical drama in which an unlicensed but gifted surgeon, Black Jack, is the main character. Endowed with excellent surgical technique, Black Jack always miraculously saves seriously ill patients and those on the verge of death. But he always claims an outrageous price for his surgery, which is why his presence is rejected in medical circles."

It continues:

"Black Jack lives quietly in a clinic out in the deserted wilderness with his assistant, Pinoko, whose life he had saved. Patients whom other doctors have given up on come to see him every today; he represents their very last hope."

Stay tuned for more updates on the Black Jack manga and other anime shows like Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer, Jujutsu Kaisen, One Punch Man, and more.