MA-0042 · first seen 25 March 2025
Ghibli AI Trend
Photos redrawn in the style of a beloved animation studio, and the argument about who that style belongs to.
- Status
- FallingPast its peak, within the last five years
- Trend score
- 13/100Estimated
- Change, 90 days
- −3%Estimated
- Peak
- 90Mar 2025
- Years active
- 1Index of 30 or more
- First seen
- 202525 March 2025
Popularity over time
Monthly attention from Feb 2025 to Oct 2026. Hover or tab through the chart for each month.
- First appearance
- Went viral
- Peak
- Decline
Attention index, 0 to 100 on one scale for the whole archive. Estimated from each meme’s key dates, not measured.
About
On 25 March 2025 OpenAI added a new image generator to ChatGPT. Within days people were uploading family photos, film stills and old memes and asking it to redraw them in the style of Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house behind Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.
The result was a feed full of soft-edged, hand-painted-looking images, and an argument. Many artists objected to the use of a living studio’s look without permission, and an old interview in which the director Hayao Miyazaki called an AI animation demo an insult to life itself resurfaced. OpenAI’s chief executive Sam Altman publicly commented on the trend as it spread.
Origin
The launch of ChatGPT’s new image generation on 25 March 2025.
25 March 2025
Viralization
Users posted Ghibli-style versions of photos and memes to X, Instagram and Reddit in the days after launch.
March 2025
Peak
The last days of March 2025.
Mar 2025
Timeline
From the first post to where it stands today.
Origin
A new image generator
OpenAI releases image generation in ChatGPT.
Early adoption
Redraw this photo
Users ask it to redraw photos and memes in a Ghibli style.
Viral
A feed of soft watercolours
The images spread across X, Instagram and Reddit.
Peak
The argument
Artists object and an old Miyazaki interview resurfaces.
Decline
Saturation
The style becomes common enough to lose its novelty.
Current
A reference point
Cited in debates about AI and artistic style.
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