Imagine
winning your dream contest in Japan's biggest magazine, only to have your crown
removed because your "pencil" was actually a graphics card. That's
exactly what has just happened to the author of NTR Kaeshi, a work
that had swept first place in the monthly ranking of newbies for February 2026
on Shonen Jump+. The publisher did not mince words and decided to
cancel its serialization and disqualify it all at once.
From
glory to funa: Why was it canceled?
The
situation is on fire because the manga already had the green light to be
published digitally. However, Shueisha's evaluators noticed something odd:
although the story of revenge and netorare (infidelity) was
great and had fans hooked, the art smelled like an algorithm. It turns out that
the creator is known for experimenting with image generation and used software
to "stabilize" the character designs using prompts.
Basically, visual consistency didn't come from years of practice with the pen,
but from knowing how to ask the machine for things.
The
publisher's stance was blunt: the Jump Rookie program exists
to find and polish raw human talent, people who can grow and evolve over time.
By relying so much on AI, the work lost that organic touch and natural
imperfections that publishers look for. Although the author was transparent
about his method – he even shared tips on how to fix styles with AI – that
itself worked against him. For Shueisha, using these tools to sketch is fine,
but presenting a final product made by an AI in a talent contest is like taking
a motorcycle to a bicycle race.
About
the AI debate in manga
This NTR
Kaeshi case has opened Pandora's box in the community. On the one
hand, there are those who say that AI democratizes art and allows people with
good stories but "stone hands" to create. On the other, there are
purists and the industry, who see this as unfair competition and a threat to
the spirit of manga. Shueisha has made it clear that, for now, they prefer real
sweat and ink over synthetic perfection, leaving February's top spot vacant.
