Wit Studio is a household name among anime fans and for good reason. It gave them the first three seasons of Attack on Titan, co-created Spy x Family, sleeper hits like Ranking of Kings, and it’s poised to helm the remake of One Piece. Which is why it’s pretty disappointing to see the anime production studio apologize for using AI to create the background art for one of its newest shows after fans roasted the studio online for it.
As reported by Kotaku, the show in question is the fourth season of Ascendance of a Bookworm: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, a fantasy isekai anime on Crunchyroll. Fans began to notice the usual stink of AI-smeared background art in its opening sequence and began sharing screenshots on X/Twitter, which spread like wildfire, voicing their sharp disappointment that Wit Studio, of all people, would lazily implement AI into the anime.
AI generated backgrounds in the opening of the new Ascendance of a Bookworm season. Very unfortunate. https://t.co/rbjknegFhr pic.twitter.com/V9CD6KIiMM
— ukloim (@ukloim) April 4, 2026
Eventually, enough justifiable rabble-rousing from anime fans led Wit Studio to release a statement on April 10th, six days after the show’s premiere. In it, Wit Studio wrote that it had conducted an internal investigation into the anime’s production process following “feedback” it received online, and confirmed that generative AI was used in cuts in its opening sequence in its first episode. In tandem with its statement, the studio promised to redraw the background in its opening sequence for its second episode and to replace the opening sequence in its first episode. Wit Studio also aired out its stance on AI, writing the following:
While we at our company are always interested in and closely monitor new technologies related to video production, we have, in principle (*), not permitted the use of generative AI in the video production of our works, including this one. Despite this, the current situation has occurred solely due to shortcomings in our production management and inspection systems, and we take full responsibility for this series of events. As the production company of this work, we sincerely apologize to our fans, the original author, and all other related parties.
To date, with the exception of this particular cut, no use of AI-generated images has been confirmed in this work. Furthermore, we would like to add that NAM HAI ART, the art director and background production company for this work, has no involvement whatsoever in the above-mentioned matters.
Taking this incident as an opportunity, we will strive to prevent recurrence by revising our production process guidelines and management system. Thank you for your understanding.
TVアニメ『本好きの下剋上 領主の養女』オープニング映像に関するご報告https://t.co/0bPSKrMuRm
— WIT_STUDIO (@WIT_STUDIO) April 10, 2026
As noted up top, this isn’t the first time Wit Studio has been caught using AI on an anime. In fact, the asterisk in Wit Studio’s post was, as it puts it, “an exception,” for “the experimental work Dog and Boy, which was created for the purpose of technical verification. ” A cop-out, if any, given the reporting Kotaku did on the incident, many anime fans in a tizzy over Ascendance of a Bookworm might’ve forgotten that this marks the second time the studio got caught using AI.
Back in the somewhat less stupid times of 2023, the studio was in the hot seat after fans noticed its Netflix anime series Dog and Boy very explicitly credited AI in its production credits. At the time, the show’s production credits specifically listed AI as a co-creator of its background art and music. What’s worse, the show didn’t even go the extra length to credit the human artist who had to babysit the AI in its credits, simply labeling the background designer’s credits as “AI (+ Human).”
Netflix アニメ・クリエイターズ・ベース×技術開発のrinna株式会社×WIT STUDIOによる共同プロジェクトアニメ『犬と少年』のショートムービー。
人手不足のアニメ業界を補助する実験的な取り組みとして、3分間の映像全カットの背景画に画像生成技術を活用！ pic.twitter.com/GYuWONSqlJ
— Netflix Japan | ネットフリックス (@NetflixJP) January 31, 2023
To further step on rakes in an already bad situation, Netflix Japan issued a tweet about the whole snafu, justifying its AI usage, writing, “As an experimental initiative to support the labor-short anime industry, image generation technology is utilized for the background artwork of all cuts in a 3-minute video.” This statement (very shittily) ties into the reality that the anime industry doesn’t pay freelancers a living wage to create the work that winds up making beaucoup bucks.
Whether the AI usage looks good or bad is besides the point when we’re talking about one of the biggest and most adored anime studios around not doing the bare minimum to hire human artists to animate their shows. Which only makes the sting of the company’s second public infraction with AI all the more shitty when you consider the lengths the company went to prevent issues like crunch.
In an interview with Kotaku at Anime Expo later that year, Wit Studio president, CEO, and producer George Wada revealed that one of the benefits of working with fellow studio CloverWorks on Spy x Family—an at-the-time unheard-of practice for an ongoing anime—is that it helped the studios maintain a healthy worker environment that didn’t lean on overworking animators to make a show (cough cough, Mappa). In that very same interview, Wada explained why Wit Studio was no longer working on shows like Attack on Titan (which infamously took four years to release its second season) and Vinland Saga, which were taken over by Mappa in their fourth and second seasons, respectively.
“There was a schedule set by like the manga side saying, ‘Can you air it on this and this date’ and it just did not mesh with the studio. We can’t really create something with that schedule because the fans want to get the show sooner than later,” Wada told Kotaku, adding that Wit hires creators as employees so it can give them a salary to ensure they’re “properly paid. A statement that reads glaringly hollow in hindsight.
There’s no putting the proverbial toothpaste back in the tube with generative AI, but that doesn’t make its pervasiveness in the arts any less disappointing to see. Plainly speaking, it’s a slap in the face to fans and to professional animators. Time and time again, it’s ruined any sense of excitement for otherwise promising shows when a whiff of it is sheepishly admitted to and mucks up any admiration one might’ve had with actors caught using it. And for good reason. Why should anyone care about something nobody bothered to make in the first place?
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