"The end of Toei Animation" is near as the company intends to increase AI usage

In a recent report for the fiscal year ending in March 2025, the animation studio for Dragon Ball Z and One Piece, Toei Animation revealed its intent to implement AI much more frequently. Per the report, the studio intends to use AI in storyboard creation, coloring, automatic correction of in-between animation (also known as “genga”) and in background creation directly from a photo.

Toei Animation also confirms their intent to use the generative AI provided by newly formed company Preferred Computing Infrastructure, Inc., which will begin operations in early 2026. The company is a joint endeavor established by Preferred Networks, Inc., Mitsubishi Corporation, and Internet Initiative Japan, Inc.

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Toei Animation’s promise to use more generative AI in production leaves fans furious

In the latest fiscal report, Toei Animation also provided a graph alongside their text-based explanation of future plans to use generative AI. The graph also confirms that it will use Preferred Networks, Inc.’s generative AI models for these future plans, which will almost certainly come from Preferred Computing Infrastructure, Inc. The graph also claims the company’s AI technology is “Japan’s best.”

The graph also makes reference to Preferred Networks, Inc. making both unique AI models and dedicated hardware for the purpose of AI. The final bubble references the large companies behind Preferred Computing Infrastructure, Inc., suggesting this was also a major factor in choosing the company specifically. On the company’s side of the graph, it seemingly references its intent to use the abundant data it has from previous projects to train these models for usage.

In this way, Toei Animation is not in the ethical or moral wrong since the company obviously owns the rights to its prior productions. Likewise, the argument about generative AI being trained on stolen content doesn’t apply here. However, many fans are pointing out that there are still inherent ethical and moral concerns regarding further usage of generative AI beyond what the company was already doing.

Toei also previously invested in Preferred Computing Infrastructure, Inc., further explaining why they’re choosing its models specifically for future heavier generative AI usage. This also explains the company’s statement on looking to “advance business co-creation” with the partnership, which they seemingly describe as “establishing a joint venture.” As a result, many fans are calling it “the end of Toei Animation” as it’s currently known.

Many are also saying that the anime medium is effectively reaching a point of no return, and will be vastly different in the near future from what fans have come to know. In a similar vein, many are pointing to the overt stance animators and creators have taken against generative AI, asserting that Toei Animation’s higher ups are behind the move.

Others still argue that this isn’t a big deal, pointing to the fact that Toei has been using AI in varying capacities since 2021. These arguments also point to the idea that AI usage may speed up the animation process and reduce costs simultaneously. Similarly, many are taking the stance that if fans can’t tell the difference in the final product, then AI’s usage doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.

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Related links

• Toei Animation fiscal report suggests new One Piece movie on the way
• Latest Toei update gives hope for a new Dragon Ball movie
• Toei Animation animator calls for studio to "fire the One Piece sound team" in since-deleted post