The Israeli military’s recent attempt to participate in a viral social media trend by sharing AI-generated images in the style of Japan’s iconic Studio Ghibli has sparked significant backlash online.
On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted four AI-created illustrations depicting its military branches rendered in Studio Ghibli’s signature hand-drawn, whimsical aesthetic—an art style widely associated with peace and anti-war themes.
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“We thought we’d also hop on the trend,” the IDF captioned the post.
The move came in the wake of a surge in similar imagery across social media, fueled by the release of a new AI image generation tool from OpenAI last week. While the trend has already ignited discussions about AI’s impact on traditional art and potential copyright infringement, the IDF’s post drew swift condemnation.
Critics slammed the post as tone-deaf, especially given its timing—amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which began in October 2023 and has led to over 50,000 Palestinian deaths and the widespread displacement of civilians.
In response, social media users began sharing their own AI-generated images, portraying alleged acts of Israeli aggression against Palestinians. Some illustrations showed soldiers mocking a blindfolded child or pointing weapons at women and children amid rubble-strewn environments.
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“Colonizing art too,” one commenter wrote, referencing Israel’s history of settlement expansion and military occupation in Palestinian territories.
Many also highlighted the contradiction between the IDF’s use of Ghibli’s visual style and the values of Hayao Miyazaki, the studio’s co-founder. Miyazaki is a well-known pacifist and outspoken critic of war. In 2003, he famously skipped the Oscars in protest of the Iraq War, despite his film Spirited Away winning Best Animated Feature. A resurfaced clip from a 2016 documentary also shows Miyazaki expressing strong disdain for AI-generated content, calling it “utterly disgusting.”