The project is described as a collaborative effort between an AI program and human “creators” at Tezuka Productions. The AI 'Black Jack' manga will appear in publisher Akita Shoten’s Weekly Shonen Champion, the same anthology 'Black Jack' was serialized in during Tezuka’s lifetime, from 1973 to 1983. The new 'Black Jack' manga is a joint effort between Tezuka Productions, Tezuka’s ongoing production studio, and Satoshi Kurihara, a professor at Keio University. This isn’t a case of recently discovered work from Tezuka being published posthumously, though, but a brand-new 'Black Jack' story that’s being created with the help of AI.
So it’s a big development that there’s a new chapter of 'Black Jack,' Tezuka’s story about an unlicensed but brilliant surgeon who wanders the globe performing seemingly impossible procedures, scheduled to be published. No other single artist did as much to advance the art form of comics in Japan, and nearly 35 years after his death, he remains a figure of reverence among anime/manga fans and professionals alike.
Osamu Tezuka is known as the God of Manga, and with good reason.
