My video interview with German TV (DW Deutsch / Deutsche Welle): How AI could save Anime

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AI can help maintain the anime boom, says Roland Kelts, Professor and

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Japanese culture expert.

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He has written a book about anime.

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"They call it 'in-betweener work,' when you draw frames in

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between the keyframes.

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And that kind of work can be done by AI very effectively and save the

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studios money and time.

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A lot of people think of anime as these big hits, etc.

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But there are thousands of anime produced every year.

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And many of them are just for late-night TV.

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They are pretty cheap, so those can probably easily be produced by AI."

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Technology isn’t seen as a threat in Japan, says Kelts.

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This openness is rooted in the country’s indigenous

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religion, Shinto.

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Shinto is centered on worshipping kami, or spiritual entities.

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They inhabit all kinds of objects, manmade or not, and everything is

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accepted to be part of nature.

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"Japanese creativity is quite fluid.

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The very first anime hero was called Astro Boy, and the character was half

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boy, half robot.

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And the idea was not so threatening to Japanese."