Why Ghibli style image trend is taking over the internet with ChatGPT?

Who doesn’t love the Ghibli movies, the Japanese animation studio has been a forefront of various art and vibrant imagination and recently, OpenAI has brought back Ghibli nostalgia as an internet trend.

A week ago, OpenAI released the 4o image generation model, this release equips native generative image model integration, which wasn’t the case before. The direct integration has enabled the chatbot to use its trained knowledge to create context accurate pictures.

Early users of this new feature shared their creation on social media site X, some of these inspired by Ghibli art, which later awed many others, creating a massive online trend.

Studio Ghibli has delivered some of the most iconic and unforgettable animated movies, including Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo, The Boy and the Heron and more.

The art style is rooted in traditional hand-drawn animation, which reflects the vision of Ghibli studio founder Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. These two prioritized art over mass production techniques to achieve detailed and natural characteristics.

The studio employs a palette of vibrant and soft colors, creating visually appealing and emotional scenes. Most of its movies contain scenes with soft, warm lighting to enhance emotional depths in scene, creating an inviting environment for viewers.

This art style has allured millions of people around the world for decades and now with the latest ChatGPT model, non-artists can also turn their own pictures into Ghibli style.

ChatGPT CEO, Sam Altman, also changed X profile picture into a transformed picture to participate in this trend, which was also melting down OpenAI GPUs due to massive user interactions.

This trend also took off at the time of Studio Ghibli’s 40th anniversary. This nostalgia, paired with the accessible AI technology, has created a perfect storm for users and resonates emotionally with fans.

The generative image feature is available for ChatGPT plus users and it will soon be available for free with a limited access.