Matt Schley
June 20, 2023 
Black Jack, the famous manga by Osamu Tezuka, is about to get a new chapter over 30 years since Tezuka’s death thanks to AI.
The project was announced last week by folks at Tezuka Productions, including Macoto Tezka, son of the legendary manga creator.
“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. Still, we are challenging ourselves. I know Osamu Tezuka would have definitely used AI if he were alive,” Tezka was quoted as saying at the press conference announcing the new manga.
The team stressed that the project is meant to show how AI can assist humans in creating manga, not to replace them.
The AI-generated Black Jack chapter will run in Shonen Champion, the original home of Black Jack. It’ll be generated using GPT-4 and will be released this fall.
Here’s how Vertical describes Black Jack volume 1:
Black Jack is a mysterious and charismatic young genius surgeon who travels the world performing amazing and impossible medical feats. Though a trained physician, he refuses to accept a medical license due to his hatred and mistrust of the medical community’s hypocrisy and corruption. This leads Black Jack to occasional run-ins with the authorities, as well as from gangsters and criminals who approach him for illegal operations.
Source: Kyodo/Japan Times
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