TEZUKA2020 - A Project to Create a Work of Osamu Tezuka Using AI Technology

This video, titled "TEZUKA2020 Official Movie" (TEZUKA2020 オフィシャルムービー), is a a video introducing a project to create the newest work of the god of manga, Osamu Tezuka, using AI technology and manpower.

Upon hearing that a new manga by Osamu Tezuka would be released, many fans around the world were in awe.
Using cutting-edge AI technology, the project was able to create characters and basic story elements.
Based on these elements, humans filled in the story, and a new work by Osamu Tezuka was born.
You can see it being made in the video.

In this article, we'll introduce "TEZUKA2020," a project to create an Osamu Tezuka manga using AI. Be sure to follow along with the video!

Genius Manga Artist Osamu Tezuka

Source :YouTube screenshot

Osamu Tezuka was one of Japan's leading manga artists and was highly regarded as the "God of Manga."
His real name is “Osamu Tezuka, written 手塚治 in Japanese, but he used the characters 手塚治虫 (same pronunciation) as a pen name. He was born in 1928 in Takarazuka, Hyogo prefecture, in Japan's Kansai region.
Besides being a manga artist, he was also an animator and animation director.
He completed 700 titles, and drew more than 150,000 sheets of manuscripts before he passed in 1989.
He was famous for story mangas with the theme of life, science, and future, and he still has many fans around the world to this day.
Osamu Tezuka's debut work was "Ma-chan’s Diary."
At the time it was a complete hit, and there were even dolls and snacks based on characters from the story.

His major works are ASTRO BOY, Jungle Emperor Leo, Princess Knight, Black Jack, The Three-Eyed One, Phoenix, Buddha, Ayako, A Tree in the Sun, A Message to Adolf, and the list goes on.

TEZUKA2020

Source :YouTube screenshot

TEZUKA2020 is a project to create a new work by Osamu Tezuka through a collaboration between cutting-edge AI technology and humans.
The plot overview and characters are created by AI, and using these elements, humans fill in the plot and draw manga.
From 1:30 in the video, Osamu Tezuka’s son, Makoto Tezuka, a director of Tezuka Production, says in an interview "the possibility of AI creating a new Osamu Tezuka manga is not zero percent, so it's worth a try."

Most people thought AI could create a complete character design, but the design that the AI designed was far from ideal.
This can be seen at 4:45 in the video.
When creating characters, using only Tezuka manga data was not enough for the AI to study, to remedy this, AI researchers used NVIDIA’s hyperrealistic face-generating technology, and had the AI learn to draw faces.

The work, which ended up being a herculean task, was titled "Paidon," and it was published on Kodansha Publishing’s Weekly Morning magazine as a two-part episode.

Paidon is a story based in Tokyo in 2030.
The main character of the story is a homeless philosopher, and he turns his back on a highly regulated society, solving crimes with a small robotic bird, Apollo.

Summary of TEZUKA2020

Source :YouTube screenshot

The video "TEZUKA2020 Official Movie," posted by "KIOXIA-JP," introduces the collaboration project TEZUKA2020, that uses cutting-edge AI technology and manpower to create a work by the late Osamu Tezuka

You can see the new Osamu Tezuka work being created in the video.
"Paidon," created using AI turned out to be a pretty good work.
If you still haven't yet, be sure to watch the video to see the amazing AI technology in action.

【Official Website】KIOXIA #FUTURE MEMORIES 01 “TEZUKA 2020”
https://tezuka2020.kioxia.com/en-jp/