Revival of ‘Black Jack’ after AI collaboration

LEE YOUNG-HEE
The author is a Tokyo correspondent of the JoongAng Ilbo.

I recently purchased a comic magazine for the first time in a long time. It is the 52nd issue of the “Weekly Boy Champion,” which was released on Oct. 22. A paper sign reading “Only one copy per person” was placed next to a pile of magazines at the bookstore. The magazine is “Black Jack” by Osamu Tetsuka (1928-1989), which was completed in 1978.

Black Jack is a Japanese cartoon drawn by Tetsuka, the father of Atom, and deals with the genius surgeon Black Jack. It was serialized in the “Weekly Boy Champion” from 1973, and more than 100 million copies of the manga have been sold around the world.

The work, which has started to be serialized again this year to mark the 50th anniversary, is a collaboration with artificial intelligence. The generative AI ChatGPT was given 200 issues of Black Jack, text data from 200 short stories, 20,000 pictures of characters’ faces drawn by Tetsuka and 4,000 pages of background screen data to learn.

The title of the new series is “Tetsuka 2023 Black Jack: Mechanical Heart — Heartbeat Mark II.” One day, a man comes to Black Jack and asks him to fix his daughter’s heart. Maria is a girl whose body functions gradually deteriorate due to an illness. She has many artificial organs, including her heart. For an unknown reason, the mechanical heart stops and Black Jack performs surgery on the artificial organ for the first time.

The key scene of Black Jack operating on a person with a mechanical heart was conceived by AI. AI also came up with the names of the girl and the mechanical heart, “Heartbeat Mark II.” AI could create the setting because it has studied the “manga past” of Black Jack, who had already operated on astronauts, ghosts and mummies in the original series.

The production team completed the plot by asking, “Why does he try to save the girl?” and “Can a being with a mechanical heart and brain be called a human being?” The background and facial expressions of the characters created by AI have been reflected in the composition.

Still, it was disappointing, personally. The drawing style and storytelling were similar to Black Jack, but it was hard to feel the ingenuity or cynical humor that the charm of the original had. Some Japanese fans also showed mixed reactions. Some said they are happy to see the series again, even like this, while others said they are disappointed that the series is so obvious. Some criticized the production team for trying to make money by selling under the name of the deceased.

But it is only a matter of time before AI is fully utilized for creation. The revival of Black Jack gives us many things to think about. Korean cartoonist Lee Hyun-se has also announced that he will try making creative work using AI. I wonder what kind of work his original comic — “The Terrifying Mercenary Baseball Team” — will turn into after collaboration with AI.