logo
Is this AI video generator the future of anime? Definitely not

Is this AI video generator the future of anime? Definitely not

Digital Trends10-05-2025

Table of Contents
Table of Contents Is there a place for AI tools in the anime industry? How do the generated animations look? Should you use Animon.ai?
Japan has been fairly quiet during the AI boom so far, but now — just after the whole ChatGPTxGhibli trend — Japanese company Animon has come out with an AI video generator specifically for anime.
The free-to-use tool takes still images of anime, cartoon, or CG art and creates five-second-long animations based on the prompt you enter. The company claims it will help both professional and amateur animators speed up the creative process — essentially requiring only one hand-drawn frame per five seconds of video instead of hundreds.
Recommended Videos
Is there a place for AI tools in the anime industry?
Quick confession here — I happen to be a total anime nerd. I've watched hundreds of shows, I visit Japan nearly every year, I've worked there, and I speak Japanese. I'm no expert on the animation process, but I know what good animation looks like and what bad animation looks like.
Even without AI getting involved, there are already a lot of ways to cut corners with animation in the anime industry. A lot of the work now gets outsourced to Korean animation studios, and the time and money going into it keep going down.
When a studio doesn't invest enough in its animation, it affects the shows in two main ways: there's a lot less movement, and there's a noticeable drop in art quality. The character designs might look beautiful on the promotional posters, but the versions drawn from frame to frame don't have the same level of detail or the right proportions, and in some cases, they even look straight-up derpy.
I have an unfortunate example of this from a show I like (a popular volleyball anime called Haikyuu). Earlier episodes were animated really nicely, but for whatever reason, the quality plummeted during one of the later seasons. Here's an image comparing a shot of the protagonist from an episode in season one to an episode in season four.
To be clear, some shows still look great — but low-quality animation can pop up just about anywhere, and it can definitely be bad enough to drive away viewers like me.
With the bar sinking so low, you might think AI video generation tools actually have a chance in this industry. However, judging by the content I got from Animon.ai, I'm afraid that doesn't appear to be the case.
How do the generated animations look?
The tool does work in that it takes the image you give it and makes it move for five seconds, but that's about all you can guarantee will happen. For my first experiment, I gave it a still of Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop about to drink from a whiskey glass.
My prompt was simply 'The pictured character takes a drink from the glass of whiskey he is holding.' The video I got in return has a few things wrong with it.
Firstly, Jet Black does not drink the whiskey. He appears to be talking, and he lifts the glass closer to his face, but I don't see anything that looks like actual drinking. The whiskey inside the glass appears to be very busy, however — the glass both fills up and drains despite the lack of drinking that appears to be going on. If you want to see Jet drink for real, it's right here on YouTube.
The AI model also struggles with Jet's scar. The bottom end of it sort of disappears, and when he opens his eyes, the scar is going straight over his eyeball. Because I grabbed the still from a video on Crunchyroll's YouTube channel, it has CR's logo in the top right. In the AI video, however, the text appears to have morphed into 'Crunchyolo' instead.
Next, I tried feeding it a still of Maomao's dance scene from The Apothecary Diaries, and I got a really weird result. Unlike the trippy, mushy, morphing movements of the 2D Jet video, the AI gave me what looked like a 3D model.
Animon.ai is meant to work with CG art as well, so I suppose it makes sense that it can generate 3D models, but I was pretty surprised. While The Apothecary Diaries makes use of 3D models a lot for buildings and backgrounds, the character was definitely drawn in the shot I used.
Either way, the generated videos seem significantly more stable when 3D models are involved. Movement looks less sloshy, and the model keeps the size and shape of the character more consistent. I still wouldn't want to see it in a show as is, but it's undoubtedly a step up from the 2D-style content it gave me.
However, Animon.ai's sales pitch is all about helping animators save time by drawing fewer frames — and this is irrelevant when it comes to 3D animation. It's already quick and inexpensive compared to 2D, and it doesn't make much sense to create a 3D model and then use an AI video generator to haphazardly animate it rather than using animation software.
Should you use Animon.ai?
If you don't know anything about animation and you want a quick GIF or a video for personal purposes, this tool will probably work just fine (or give you a good laugh if not). However, it's hard to imagine any amateur or professional animators seeing real value in this.
If you want to see what the tool is capable of, the Animon YouTube channel posted a music video that appears to be almost 100% AI-generated — it definitely looks that way, at least.
Overall, I think there are two main reasons AI video generators aren't ready for any real work. One is that movement looks too bad, and the other is the lack of control you have over the result. It's the same as any other generative AI tool, really — they're just not consistent and responsive enough to be reliable. We will likely get there one day, and it's still fun to mess around with early versions of the technology, but don't let the salespeople fool you — none of these tools are ready for commercial use yet.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Adobe beats Q2 estimates, raises guidance on AI innovations
Adobe beats Q2 estimates, raises guidance on AI innovations

Yahoo

time40 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Adobe beats Q2 estimates, raises guidance on AI innovations

Adobe (ADBE) shares are getting an initial lift in Thursday's extended hours right after releasing fiscal second quarter results, posting revenue of $5.87 billion (vs. estimates of $5.8 billion) and adjusted earnings per share of $5.06 (vs. estimates of $4.98 per share). Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton dive into the creative software company's earnings print, as the company outdid Wall Street's third quarter revenue and earnings forecasts, and Adobe's AI investment affirmations. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination Overtime here.

Equifax Secures 35 New Patents, Advancing Responsible AI, Machine Learning, and Fraud & Identity Solutions
Equifax Secures 35 New Patents, Advancing Responsible AI, Machine Learning, and Fraud & Identity Solutions

Yahoo

time40 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Equifax Secures 35 New Patents, Advancing Responsible AI, Machine Learning, and Fraud & Identity Solutions

New Patents Secured in the First Half of 2025 Help Drive Responsible AI Innovation and Create More Effective Insights for Customers ATLANTA, June 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax® (NYSE: EFX) has secured 35 new patents in the first half of 2025. These new patents, which bring the number of Equifax issued or pending patents to nearly 650 patents spanning 15 countries, encompass distinctive techniques in artificial intelligence and machine learning, data & analytics, cybersecurity, and identity & fraud solutions. Patents protect the unique innovations created for the benefit of the businesses, customers and consumers Equifax serves in 24 countries around the world. "With innovation made possible by the Equifax Cloud™, our latest patents reflect our continued commitment to developing new technologies and solutions that empower our customers to drive greater access to financial opportunity to more people in more places," said Harald Schneider, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Equifax. "We have more than 1,000 Equifax analytics professionals across the globe dedicated to solving the complex and evolving challenges faced by both our customers and consumers." The custom-built Equifax Cloud is a top-tier global technology and security infrastructure that continues to set the company apart in the industry. The Equifax Cloud and custom data fabric enable the organization to drive AI innovation and maximize capabilities for faster solution implementation, cloud-native model deployment and expedited consumer decisioning and aids the organization in developing solutions that are faster, more reliable, more powerful, and more secure than ever before. The latest technology and innovation covered by the most recent Equifax patents include: Automated Model Development Process (European Patent Office with national validations in Ireland, United Kingdom and Spain) - Developing highly predictive models is a strategic capability for Equifax. This patent relates to an automated model development tool that helps in creating analytical models for machine learning applications, automating several processes like data exploration, variable selections, auto binning and model refinement. These capabilities enable Equifax Data Scientists to produce more accurate and standardized models while streamlining and accelerating the model development process. Automatically Generating Search Index for Expediting Searching of a Computerized Database (U.S.) - This patent describes a method for automatically generating search indexes to make searching large computer databases much faster and more efficient. The patented process automatically creates "search indexes" and learns through previous interactions, identifying common and effective search patterns that, when applied, efficiently narrow down the search space to a much smaller, more relevant group of records. Detecting Synthetic Online Entities Facilitated by Primary Entities (Australia) - The patent is related to a system that analyzes the rate at which secondary users are added to and removed from a primary entity's accounts to identify secondary accounts that are likely involved in facilitation of synthetic identity fraud. Production-ready Attributes Creation and Management for Software Development (India) - The patent describes a development tool designed to streamline the creation and management of model attributes, minimizing the need for manual recoding and validation when deploying attributes in a production environment. It addresses the potential problems that can occur in traditional software development processes when developers rewrite attribute code across different programming languages and environments, reducing the development time, minimizing errors, and improving the overall efficiency of model deployment. Techniques for Determining Legitimacy of Email Addresses for Online Access Control (U.S.) - Determining the legitimacy of an email address is a critical aspect of detecting various types of fraud. This patent specifically relates to a system that does not rely on past interactions with a specific email address to determine its legitimacy and can therefore be used to determine the risk associated with email addresses never before seen by the system. Updating Attribute Data Structures to Indicate Trends in Attribute Data Provided to Automated Modeling Systems (Canada) - The patent is a system and method for updating attribute data structures to include "trend attributes," which indicate patterns in time-series data for automated modeling systems. It addresses a challenge associated with traditional automated modeling systems that may rely on static "snapshots" of data at a single point in time. Learn more about the Equifax commitment to responsible AI innovation at The most recent list of issued Equifax Intellectual Property is available here. ABOUT EQUIFAX Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by nearly 15,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit FOR MORE INFORMATION: Alexandra Packey for Equifaxmediainquiries@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Equifax Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Infobell Expands Collaboration with AMD to Accelerate Enterprise-Ready AI Innovation
Infobell Expands Collaboration with AMD to Accelerate Enterprise-Ready AI Innovation

Yahoo

time44 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Infobell Expands Collaboration with AMD to Accelerate Enterprise-Ready AI Innovation

Infobell delivers highly performant AI solutions with AMD Instinct™ GPUs and AMD EPYC™ CPUs, ensuring exceptional scalability within an open ecosystem to meet the evolving needs of AI innovation. SAN JOSE, Calif., June 12, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Infobell IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ("Infobell"), a global leader in product engineering and AI solutions, today announced an expanded collaboration with AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) to drive enterprise-ready AI innovation powered by AMD Instinct™ GPUs and AMD EPYC™ CPUs. As a long-standing engineering and solutions partner to AMD, Infobell leverages the AMD CDNA architecture and ROCm™ software stack to deliver high-performance AI, cloud, and high-performance computing (HPC) solutions to leading enterprises and cloud service providers worldwide. Infobell is also a proud sponsor of the AMD Advancing AI 2025, underscoring its commitment to accelerating AI adoption with AMD technologies. Delivering Real-World AI Impact Infobell brings deep full-stack AI expertise to real-world enterprise and hybrid cloud environments. Its innovations—ranging from AI Inference Framework eXpress (IFX) platform, use case-based service products such as DocPrep RAG, Transcribe, ConvoGene™, VAST, SmartE, EchoSwift™ to advanced performance analysis and domain-specific LLM training—demonstrate the transformative potential of AI-in-action at scale. Through its engineering partnership with AMD, Infobell delivers AI that is faster to value and faster to train and infer. By leveraging ROCm-optimized performance across AMD Instinct GPUs and AMD EPYC CPUs, Infobell accelerates both training and inference cycles, enabling enterprises to adopt AI more rapidly and achieve better business outcomes. "The AMD Instinct MI350 series GPUs deliver industry-leading performance for next-generation Sovereign AI and hybrid HPC-AI architectures," said Travis Karr, corporate vice president of business development, Data Center GPU Business, AMD. "Built on our advanced 4th Gen AMD CDNA architecture, the GPUs provide leadership memory capacity and robust support for both AI and HPC workloads, enabling our customers to meet the evolving demands of Sovereign AI and large-scale HPC deployments." "At Infobell, we don't just build AI—we engineer it for performance, reliability, and enterprise scale," said Ramana Bandili, Chief Executive Officer at Infobell IT Solutions. "Leveraging AMD Instinct MI Series GPUs and the ROCm™ software stack, we fine-tune large language models, deliver seamless multimodal AI experiences, and optimize performance across the entire stack. Our collaboration with AMD enables us to bring transformative AI solutions to enterprise customers with exceptional speed, cost-efficiency, and sustainability." "For over 40 years, Gallery Systems has developed collections management solutions for the world's leading museums and cultural institutions. We are dedicated to helping our clients continually improve how they manage and share their high-value collections," said Paul Thyssen, GM of Gallery Systems Inc. "Our applications process massive volumes of archival and provenance data across global collections. As we modernized for enterprise scale, Infobell's product engineering and performance optimization expertise proved invaluable—delivering over 90% performance boost by dramatically reducing our data processing time. Infobell's deep understanding of performance optimization of latest technologies, applications, and infrastructure stacks uniquely positions them to offer high-performing Enterprise AI and enhance the overall customer experience." "As energy and engineering sectors evolve, embracing AI is not just a choice—it's a strategic imperative," said S. Narayan Prasad, CEO, Triveni Turbines. "Our partnership with Infobell has enabled us to explore new possibilities in faster time to value and operational excellence." About Infobell Infobell is a global product engineering and solutions company driving next-generation innovation in AI, performance engineering, cloud-native development, and sustainability. Backed by a team of over 400 engineers and domain experts worldwide, Infobell empowers enterprise transformation through end-to-end AI delivery—from design, validation, deployment and optimization. Learn more at: View source version on Contacts Lax Sakalkale - lax@ Sign in to access your portfolio

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store