Controversy Surrounds Sekiro Anime Adaptation: AI Usage Allegations and Industry Debate

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime studio Qzil.la lands in the hotseat after suspected AI usage -- though whether it's generative or not is still up in the air

The Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice anime, announced at Gamescom 2025, has found itself landing squarely in the hotseat -- as it turns out, the studio brought in by Crunchyroll to produce it, named Qzil.la, might just be using generative AI in their work. Well. Potentially. Here's the evidence for: As pointed out on Bluesky, Qzil.la's website, when run through a machine translation, reads: "We challenge the conventional wisdom of existing methods, collaborate with partner companies with high technical capabilities, and utilize the latest technologies such as AI to evolve production processes and expressions, thereby bringing about digital disruption in the anime industry." Digging into the studio's history, others have discovered there've also been similar examples of Qzil.la boasting proudly about its use of AI. Namely, a presentation about how "60% of the animation is being produced using AI" in an upcoming series. I also stumbled into a past collaboration Qzil.la made with Azuki, an NFT project. The evidence against? First-off, Qzil.la repeatedly emphasises that the Sekiro anime is "fully hand-drawn 2D animation". Which would beat most accusations off at the punch for this anime, at least -- though there's wiggle room. Perhaps the base drawings are done by hand, and the in-betweens or backgrounds are 'merely' AI assisted. Moreover, the series itself has a solid team behind it: Yūji Kaneko is its art director, and he's worked on proper series like Kill la Kill, My Little Witch Academia, and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Colour designer Azusa Sasaki has credits on Sword Art Online and Zombieland Saga. Cinematographer Keisuke Nozawa crops up in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and multiple Pokémon movies. In other words, there are industry professionals here, and I'm not super sold on the idea they'd hitch their wagon to a monstrously unpopular practice off the cuff. It's possible, mind, it just seems unlikely. While I think the "for" column is looking stacked, I want to urge some caution: It's likely Qzil.la's shin-deep in all sorts of techno-bubbles, and you can feel however you want about that. I just think you should be getting accurately mad. However, there's a slim chance it's just the routine use of non-generative AI tools in animation, which has been normal for years before gen AI took off. Don't blame me, blame the boneheaded naming convention that's got us all talking in circles. I particularly don't find the frames plucked from the trailer with multiple fingers or weird hands convincing -- in animation, in-between frames often look strange. Either because they're "smear" frames, meant to exaggerate movement, or because the animation industry is kinda a hellscape, things are done to tight budgets, and the blink-and-you'll-miss-them moments are the first corners to be cut. As always, what might look like AI could simply just be cheap or bad. I've contacted Qzil.la directly for comment, and I'll update this article if I receive a response.

Anime fans are accusing Sekiro: No Defeat animation artists of using AI: "Oh that's really bad"

The studio behind Sekiro: No Defeat has already been accused of using AI The upcoming anime adaptation of the popular video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has just released its first trailer, and the creators have already been accused of using AI in animation. Soon after the trailer for anime series Sekiro: No Defeat dropped, one viewer took to Reddit to ask whether other anime fans think that the show has used AI to create animation. Although the screenshot has now been deleted, the still showed one character who seemed to have an extra finger. The user said, "Honestly, if I'm going to watch a Sekiro anime made with AI, I'd rather it not even be produced." At first, it seemed as though some Reddit users agreed that the dubious-looking screenshot did look AI-rendered. "Oh that's really bad," replied one fan, and another added, "I usually tell people to reserve their judgment, but I won't lie, it's not the frame here, but the trailer looks like an everyday fan-made animation on YouTube." The user does have a reason to question the anime, as although Sekiro: No Defeat is said to be a fully hand-drawn adaptation, the studio behind the series has already fallen in hot water for its AI usage. Via its official website, anime studio Qzil.la states that the company "is pioneering the future of entertainment by combining the latest technology and creativity without being bound by conventional ideas." The question is whether that 'technology' includes AI-generated animation. However, many fans quickly jumped to the series' defence, stating that the still was simply a smear frame used to show motion. "That's a smear frame. We've really reached the point where kids are calling smear frames AI," said one user. Another added, "Look up anime in-between frames and you'll quickly see that even the best anime have hilariously awful motion or in-between frames. Like, we know this by now." Based on the popular video game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice by FromSoftware, Sekiro: No Defeat follows a hero who tries to restore balance to a dismantled Japan, after a ceaseless war left it fractured into many independent nations.