Artists upset with Blue Archive for 'using AI'

An illustration from the popular "Blue Archive" franchise has become a topic of discussion on social media after fans noticed a peculiar bug: one of the characters had six fingers on his right hand. This discovery unleashed a wave of criticism towards the franchise, with accusations of possible use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creation of the illustrations.

From top to bottom, the errors pointed out are: (1) The torrii arch is absurdly long horizontally; (2), The roof of the second house seems to be floating, there are no walls; (3) Tsubaki's right hand seems to merge with the wood in her thumb; (4) The right hand has six fingers.

Artists upset with Blue Archive for 'using AI'

Adding more fingers than the correct number is a common mistake associated with artificial intelligences that generate illustrations. This led netizens to question whether "Blue Archive" was using AI to cut costs in the design process.

The controversy gained momentum because image-generating AIs have come under constant criticism, seen by some as a threat to human artists. Critics argued that a big-name franchise like "Blue Archive" should employ human artists to ensure the quality of the illustrations, rather than relying on technologies that could compromise the integrity of the art.

However, the situation took an unexpected turn when "Mendou Kusai (@dmvvhv_ver2)", the artist responsible for the illustration in question, intervened in the controversy through his Twitter account. In a series of posts, he clarified that the error was not a result of the use of artificial intelligence, but simply human error.

He even provided sketches made in Photoshop as evidence that the illustration was created from scratch, without the help of AI. And he wrote:

'1. About the six fingers: Looking at the uploaded image, the sketch is wrong from the line drawing section, so my mistake applies more than the AI problem."
'2. The roof seems to be floating: It wasn't floating but covered in petals, I originally tried to cover it with blades of grass, but there may be a misunderstanding because there is only green grass around, but if you look at what I've shown in the picture, the roof is not floating but covered in petals. Again, this is due to my inability to express myself."
'3. Tsubaki's fingers fused to the bench: This part was painted on Tsubaki while the shadow part was being colored, and has no relation to AI."
'4. The torii door/arch is extremely long: This part was drawn from the material I was given, but in the process of making the drawing the part I saw and drew became strange. I didn't suspect there was a problem because it passed the manager's review. I'm sorry, I should have looked at this part more closely."

This incident highlights how the debate around image-generating AIs has evolved into a kind of "witch hunt," where any mistake in an illustration is quickly attributed to the use of technology, rather than considering the possibility of genuine human error. And finally, the artist fixed the illustration in question.