Photo/Illutration Makoto Tezuka, left, director at Tezuka Productions Co., and Satoshi Kurihara, a professor of engineering at Keio University, announce the outline of the “Black Jack” project during a Tokyo news conference on June 12. (Masato Nishida)

A new episode of Osamu Tezuka’s renowned “Black Jack” manga is being created with the help of artificial intelligence for release this fall to mark the 50th anniversary of the start of the series.

The AI-crafted manga will be published in Weekly Shonen Champion, project organizers said.

A project team comprising Tezuka Productions Co. and Satoshi Kurihara, a professor of engineering at Keio University and AI researcher, outlined the basic concept during a Tokyo news conference on June 12.

Featuring a genius but unlicensed surgeon, the manga series ran in the comic anthology between November 1973 and October 1983 for more than 200 episodes.

“Black Jack” is considered to be one of the representative works of Tezuka (1928-1989), often called “the god of manga.”

The team got the AI to learn the entire episode to create a new one with a helping hand at times from human creators.

The idea of using AI to create Tezuka-style manga was launched in 2019. It was born out of an idea that if the maestro “were still alive and creating his manga, what would he make?”

In 2020, an AI program that learned his works came up with the rough story outline and original ideas for character designs for a new work titled “Paidon.”

Kurihara, a member of the project at the time, got stuck into research with his colleagues.

He said the members filled in the story’s details and drew illustrations for “Paidon.”

While AI is also used to support their current creative endeavors, team members can fine-tune the AI-generated scenario to give it a more natural flow through interactive exchanges with the AI.

They can also create illustrations with lines replicating Tezuka’s style using an image-generation AI.

Tezuka’s son Makoto, who serves as director at Tezuka Productions, came up with the idea of creating a new “Black Jack” episode.

“(The original series) has a complex story structure and many episodes, while it reflects the essence of Osamu Tezuka,” he said at the conference. “There is a high hurdle to overcome, but I thought it was worth trying.”

He added, “I am prepared to accept criticism, but I hope that our efforts will lead to discussions on a wide range of ideas.”

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