Can calculators math? It’s a routine, a program. They (the machine that is) don’t actually “do” anything, they just follow the program. Does that make it math? And that’s not even A.I.

A.I. is so far ahead (technologically speaking) when compared to a calculator but interestingly enough not nearly as effective as a calculator (at calculating that is). Generally speaking A.I. is considered bad at math but this is quickly evolving (?) There’s links in the References to various articles on this (and the thoughts of one mathematician of A.I.’s evolution into more complex mathematising).

My question though is……. Is A.I. generated imagery art?

The question arises as recently I have been flooded by content regarding A.I. generated imagery in the style of Japanese animation referred to as being “Studio Ghibli” in nature. Who and what is Ghibli?

Hayao Miyazaki (born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as its honorary chairman. Over the course of his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation.

Ah Smudge. One of my favourite antagonists.

The name “Ghibli” comes from an Italian word meaning “hot desert wind” (1). Miyazaki chose it because he wanted the studio to blow a fresh wind through the anime industry.

1. The “Ghibli wind” refers to a hot, dusty wind, also known as a sirocco, that originates in the interior highlands of Libya and descends towards the Mediterranean Sea, particularly during spring and early summer.

Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, writing and directing films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), and Porco Rosso (1992), which were met with critical and commercial success in Japan.

Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997) was the first animated film to win the Japan Academy Film Prize for Picture of the Year and briefly became the highest-grossing film in Japan; its Western distribution increased Ghibli’s worldwide popularity and influence.

Spirited Away (2001) became Japan’s highest-grossing film and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature; it is frequently ranked among the greatest films of the 21st century.

Miyazaki’s later films—Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Ponyo (2008), and The Wind Rises (2013) also enjoyed critical and commercial success.

He retired from feature films in 2013 but later returned to make The Boy and the Heron (2023), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Rupesh (OneCuriousGuide) notes that “Ghibli art is more than just an animation style; it’s an emotion” he points out that “Ghibli’s signature style blends: Soft, painterly backgrounds (often inspired by real-world landscapes, yet infused with fantasy); Soft, Rounded Shapes (Ghibli characters rarely have sharp edges; everything feels organic); Expressive, hand-drawn characters (with large, emotive eyes and fluid movements); Nature Everywhere (even urban scenes have plants, wind, and flowing water); Delicate Shadows & Light (Ghibli avoids harsh contrasts; light feels warm and natural)” and possibly most important of all; “Whimsical yet grounded storytelling (even in fantasy, Ghibli’s worlds feel real and lived-in)” and that none of this can truly be emulated by AI.

Gratuitous food shot (actually by Studio Ghibli this time)

The Internet might be “losing it” but what about the artist Miyazaki san? How does he feel about his art being appropriated in this manner?

Have you no shame? (I ask this of the wit who created the above facsimiles of Miyazakis comments)

Time for Miyazaki to get sicario on this clown.

Only for another clown to turn the tables.

You shall find no safety in the internet.

The Controversy

Does that controversy double down when the images are made of other trademarked movies or images? What about memes? Who owns a meme anyways?

Controversy or no, there are still those who will use the images anyway.

And then of course there is me. Many of these images were simply trawled from the internet. I did not make them (nor, technically, did the people who posted them). Now I have referenced the sources of many of these images as I could (but not all) and I wonder “If you use an A.I. to generate art does that make you its owner?”

Am I, by sourcing images I did not create, as guilty of misappropriation as the people posting these images which they themselves did not create?

And again, “who even owns a fucking meme anyway?”

Then of course there is the debate between artist and machine generated art. Is one more valid than the other? Is one of them even real or is it simply a calculator performing functions as programmed and so has no soul and therefore cannot be art regardless of its visual beauty?

And of course, like the calculator, A.I. has had to evolve into its art. It wasn’t always (and still isn’t always) effective at its job.

Regardless of the controversy the app quickly went viral.

There are potential legal issues………

…….and it has made fans angry

Not only fans of Ghibli have been angered.

Images of particularly sensitive events have worried some. This also brings up another question (one that I’m not going to go into here but) Where does humour/comedy draw the line? Should there be lines? Sometimes the only way to address the madness of a situation is to deflect the pain by using humour. As an Australian I can have a pretty dark sense of humour on occasion (although I found no amusement in any of the above images).

I am simply a peasant though. What happens when an institution gets involved?

This was bought up when the White House participated in the trend by posting a Ghibli-style meme of Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, a convicted drug dealer detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The post, shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), comes as a ‘warning’ to drug peddlers. It is reply to an earlier White House update on the arrest. The original White House post stated, “Virginia Basora-Gonzalez, a previously deported alien felon convicted of fentanyl trafficking, was arrested by @ICEgov in Philadelphia after illegally reentering the U.S. She wept when taken into custody (picture attached).”

This image (and its use by a government agency as contentious as I.C.E.)(1) has attracted unpleasant feedback in a lot of cases as I.C.E is widely hated in the U.S. (2)

1. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
2. The other side of this coin is that the agency is supported by certain demographics who are “anti illegal immigration”. There is a definite slant in the media reporting of “illegal immigration” and people are manipulated by the language used when “reporting” this phenomena. The wording of the query is important as the more humanity put into the question the less negative the response. One thing that stood universal though was the criminality of the complainant. The more criminal, the less mercy shown.

Fentanyl is a huge problem in the U.S. though and there is little mercy for drug dealing clowns.

• u/NotaSpaceAlienISwear : She’s a Dominican fent dealer previously deported for peddling fentanyl. She a 36 year old woman who may have killed people with her product. She deserves no pity.
• SonderEber : It less pity for her, and more about how distasteful and ugly this is. No other administration has mocked people so much; and this is just another straw. It’s gross, typical for this administration.

Others are against it but are aware of the inevitable intrusion of AI into all aspects of our life and ponder whether or not it can even be avoided (and of course there will very soon be a point – we are standing on the precipice of it now – where there will be no discernible difference between AI and reality. We might possibly be in this matrix already)

Then there are those who initially raged against it (as all good virtue signallers do) and then decided “Fuck it” and went all in (and were disappointed when others disagreed with the hypocrisy)

She “rests her case”???

There was a large majority however that did not care either way and just climbed on the bandwagon.

Others just addressed the issue using their own art.

In my opinion A.I. does not set you free. In the case of art what it does is make you lazy. Why practice with pen/pencil/brush/paper/canvas when you can type a few commands into a computer? Why try attempt translating the music of your soul onto a medium for others to enjoy or ponder? Why? Why? Why? A machine can do all of this for you. It can create thousands of images (perhaps even hundreds of thousands or even millions) in the same time it takes an artist to create an image from oil paints onto a canvas. This is not a gain for humanity. It is soulless.

Mexico however does not care. They are a practicable people and invasion is not new. Adaptation is key.

Some of this art is quite beautiful and I say that sin vergüenza.

CDMX

The Zocalo

El Ángel de la Independencia

The Angel of Independence, most commonly known by the shortened name El Ángel and officially known as Monumento a la Independencia (“Monument to Independence”), is a victory column on a roundabout on the major thoroughfare of Paseo de la Reforma in downtown Mexico City.

El Ángel was built in 1910 during the presidency of Porfirio Díaz by architect Antonio Rivas Mercado, to commemorate the centennial of the beginning of Mexico’s War of Independence. In later years it was made into a mausoleum for the most important heroes of that war. It is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Mexico City

Jacarandas

According to The New York Times, jacaranda trees arrived in Mexico City in the 1930s at the request of then-president Pascual Ortiz Rubio

Initially Rubio wanted cherry trees but the climate was not amenable so he consulted with Tatsugoro Matsumoto, a Japanese immigrant who was the gardener for the then-presidential palace at Chapultepec Park. Tatsugoro recommended the jacaranda.

Los Niños Héroes

The Niños Héroes (translated as Boy Heroes or Heroic Cadets) were six military cadets (1) killed in the Battle of Chapultepec, one of the last battles of the U.S. Mexico War. Though they were given orders to abandon the school that the U.S. was bombing, these six young soldiers defied orders in order to defend their ground.

1. A.I. seems to have added an extra head in here (and they all look remarkably similar – septuplets?)

The Monumento a los Niños Héroes (“Monument to the Boy Heroes”), officially Altar a la Patria (“Altar to the Homeland”), is a monument installed in the park of Chapultepec in Mexico City

Street life and mercados

Central de Abasto CDMX

The Central de Abasto (also spelled Abastos; English for “Supply Center”) is Mexico City’s main wholesale market for produce and other foodstuffs run similarly to traditional public markets

En las calles

Street life fascinates me.

Mexico City (a la Ghibli) by Masala & Mole (on Facebook)

La Antojeria Food Park : Villahermosa, Mexico

Public Transport

Xochimilco

Escuela Nacional Preparatoria Plantel 1 “Gabino Barreda” is a national senior high school of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Escuela Nacional Preparatoria system located in Xochimilco, Mexico City

Museo Soumaya

Cuajimalpa CDMX

Cuajimalpa de Morelos (more commonly known simply as Cuajimalpa) is a borough (demarcación territorial) in Mexico City. It is located on the west side of the city in the Sierra de las Cruces mountains which separate Mexico City from the State of Mexico.

Pueblo Santiago Tepalcatlalpan, Xochimilco, Mexico City

Ivan CF in Mexico City (via Facebook)

Teotihuacan

AMLO

Jacarandas in Michoacan

Tulum

Tochimilco

Between Atlixco (Puebla) and Cuernavaca (Morelos) on the road between Santiago Tochimizolco and San Jerónimo Coyula in Puebla Mexico (and about 120 km from the Zocalo in Mexico City) lies the municipaility of Tochimilco

El nombre “en nuestra lengua bulgar idioma quiere decir Tierra de Conejos y también lo nombran Tochimilco, que descifrado lo interpretan Tierra de Muchas Flores,” aclara la relación del siglo XVIII, que lo llama Santa María Ocopetlayocan Tochimilco.

The name “in our Bulgarian language means Land of Rabbits, and they also call it Tochimilco, which, when deciphered, they interpret as Land of Many Flowers,” clarifies the 18th-century account, which calls it Santa María Ocopetlayocan Tochimilco. (Barlow 1963)

Various other translations of Tochimilco include

• “Field of Rabbits”
• ‘In the sowing of the rabbits’ (‘En la siembra de los conejos’)
• “Sementera de los Conejo” = Rabbit Sowing (seeding/planting) (Vázquez-Torres et al 2018)

tochtli (plural tochtin) : Central Nahuatl : Alternative forms (Canoa): tuchtli; (Nanacamilpa): tochin; (Tlaxcala): tochi : From Classical Nahuatl tochtli – “rabbit”

Tizayuca

Aztecs, conquistadors and samurai in the same field of battle? Seems unlikely (but has historical precedent)

Chimalhuacán

Huehuetlán El Chico, Puebla

San Miguel de Allende

Mexico specific memery has also enjoyed Ghiblification

Even the Hellmans dude got a Ghibli makeover (although he doesn’t seem to happy about it)

Advertising

The Mexican branch of McDonald’s created its own Studio Ghibli-style memes and shared them on social media, which, though not as shocking as others in content, was still a bad move. Using Studio Ghibli’s signature style to advertise without permission is not a good look for a global fast food giant. Not every trend needs to be jumped on

The post on McDonald’s Facebook, which shows a family and individuals enjoying McDonald’s food (see it above) has gathered hundreds of disparaging comments calling the chain out for stealing Studio Ghibli’s IP, and for using AI to create art. “What happened McDonald’s? isn’t it enough to pay a real artist?” asks one user.

The complete images

Actual Art.

The Ghibli aesthetic has been honoured by artists through their own sweat, blood, and in some cases tears.

Mural at Corredor Cultural Alameda, Aguascalientes City, Mexico. Completed in April 2022

In 2023 however some fucking idiots got involved (here’s where the tears get involved – this was a community art project that was paid for by the artists. It was done as a homage to the Ghibli style and its vandalising – using fairly shitty tags no less – was a pointless exercise performed by dickheads. Rant over.)

Original mural art by somosunocolectivo (on Instagram)

katt.ilustra on Instagram. I love the warmth generated by Katts art.

I hope shew drew this one though. It does look a little A.I.

Reinterpretar Estudio Ghibli al estilo mexicano.

Ghibli Studio in the Mexican style without AI. Art by TaBe*@TaBeComicz

Mexico does love a billboard

As noted earlier A.I. does have some inherent problems though. Why people are still surprised by this eludes me.

And for you Ghibli fans out there

New Studio Ghibli film, Tower Of Solace, was just announced. In theatres DECEMBER 7TH

Ghiblification does Cthulhu no justice though.

Where’s the ineffable madness?

Where’s the creeping doom???

And of course there’s that jackass Raygun who represented Australia in breakdancing at the 2024 Olympics.

What a fucking debacle that was. Ghibli doesn’t make it any more palatable.

Also, according to a Mexicano……

“This Ghibli meme nonsense must die already. Please welcome the DBZ meme wave.”

Robert Harold Liebling, better known as Bobby Liebling, is an American musician. He is the founder, lead vocalist, and only continuous member of the pioneering American doom metal band Pentagram from Alexandria, Virginia (U.S.A.). He has been referred to as “very much the U.S. version of Ozzy Osbourne, but without the money or sustained success. Trevor Eichler from 101.5 WPDH (1) notes that Bobby has been labeled as having “the hardest stage presence I’ve ever seen,” by several online users, and I have to concur. He then goes on to say “For those of you unfamiliar with current lingo, “hard” is a positive sentiment used by the younger generations. In Gen Z slang, “that’s hard” means something is amazing, impressive, or cool. It’s a way of saying something is great or of high quality”.

All I have to say is “Calm down Trev”, “we all know what “hard” means”.

1. WPDH (101.5 FM), the “Home of Rock ‘N’ Roll”, is a commercial radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York, and serves the Hudson Valley and Catskills.

Mexico abso-freakin-lutely loves Dragon Ball Z. This cultural phenomenon is worthy of exploration and I have no doubt there is a thesis (or more) floating around out there on this very subject.

References (after a fashion)

• A.I. Bad at Math (Forbes) – https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2024/10/07/ai-is-usually-bad-at-math-heres-what-will-happen-if-it-gets-better/
• A.I. Bad at Math (MIT Technology Review) – https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/23/1086944/why-does-ai-being-good-at-math-matter/#:~:text=Math%20is%20really%2C%20really%20hard,more%20powerful%20and%20intelligent%20systems.
• A.I. Math Skills evolving – https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2024/12/22/can-ai-do-maths-yet-thoughts-from-a-mathematician/
• Bobby Liebling – https://wpdh.com/viral-doom-metal-singer-bobby-liebling/
• Field of Rabbits – https://colonialmexico.blogspot.com/2013/04/water-water-fountains-of-tochimilco.html
• Ghibli Art Style Explained: How AI (ChatGPT, DALL·E) Recreates Studio Ghibli’s Magic – https://www.onecuriousguide.com/ghibli-art-style-ai-generator-guide/
• Hijinio Camacho – https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2018/02/fundraiser-started-for-elote-mans-food-truck-permits
• Huehuetlán El Chico, Mexico – https://www.facebook.com/huehuemagicoo/posts/pfbid02Q717uBU6QTvpZNxWS38NqWPezDksAWjPGWwA9febwobKr15VJMi777W78rehi7Kfl
• In the sowing of the rabbits – https://topueblawithlove.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/tochimilco/
• Internautas – https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2025/03/28/internautas-mexicanos-convierten-memes-virales-en-escenas-hechas-con-ia-al-estilo-studio-ghibli/
• Jacarandas – El Angel – https://english.news.cn/20250324/898897cf11184e4289d943de5bc54730/c.html
• Jacarandas in Michoacan via Fatima Gracian Farfan on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9526385354081217&set=pcb.9526386557414430
• La Antojeria Food Park : Villahermosa, Mexico – https://www.facebook.com/antojeriafoodpark
• McDonald’s Mexico – https://www.creativebloq.com/ai/ai-art/mcdonalds-jumps-on-studio-ghibli-ai-trend-and-gets-absolutely-destroyed
• Mexico City’s Zócalo according to Studios Ghibli – https://exafm.com/news/2024/2/23/asi-se-veria-el-zocalo-de-la-cdmx-si-fuera-hecho-por-los-studios-ghibli-segun-la-ai-3383.html
• Reinterpretar Estudio Ghibli al estilo mexicano. – TaBe*@TaBeComicz
• Rio Sonora Bacanora – https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1257126939752147&set=a.501440851987430
• San Miguel de Allende – https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9887135521379828&set=gm.4171985289705496&idorvanity=2396701427233900
• Tacos suaderos (by Gerardo Lopez) – https://tacoguy.com.au/recipe/suadero-tacos/index.htm
• The White House enters the fray – https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/other/white-house-joins-studio-ghibli-ai-trend-with-photo-of-fentanyl-drug-dealer/ar-AA1BOZlN#
• Tulum (Ghibli) – https://tulumtimes.com/tulum-is-already-a-ghibli-movie-you-just-have-to-see-it-with-your-heart/
• Vandalised Mural – https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/11ae14z/artists_of_my_state_made_a_mural_celebrating/#lightbox

Woo Hoo : Actual References

• Barlow, Robert Hayward. (1963) TLALOCAN “A Journal of Source Materials on the Native Cultures of Mexico” N72 IV: 3-TRES PUEBLOS DEL VALLE DE ATLIXCO : Revistas Filológicas : https://revistas-filologicas.unam.mx › download (337-Texto del artículo-449-1-10-20160927.pdf)
• Olalde Ramos, María. (2021). La interacción significativa de los gráficos urbanos de la ciudad en la identidad de sus habitantes. 10.24275/uama.7048.8702.
• Vázquez-Torres, María del Rayo, Castillo-Reyes Alberto, Rosendo and Navarrete-García, Mónica. Causes of the disappearance of vernacular housing in Tochimilco, Puebla. ECORFAN Journal- Spain. 2018.