{"id":592895,"date":"2026-04-19T02:53:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/592895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:53:20","slug":"square-enixs-new-ai-tool-could-cut-3000-hours-of-manga-work-every-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/592895\/","title":{"rendered":"Square Enix\u2019s new AI tool could cut 3,000 hours of manga work every year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Square Enix says its editors spend more than 3,000 hours a year on one of manga\u2019s most time-consuming tasks, and the company is now using AI<\/a> to cut that down.<\/p>\n

The publisher has partnered with Tokyo-based AI firm Mantra to develop a tool that automates \u201ctypesetting specification,\u201d the process of assigning font, size, style, and placement to every line of dialogue. <\/p>\n

According to the press release<\/a>, the system has completed beta testing and is now being rolled out internally at Square Enix.<\/p>\n

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Revoloutionary AI being used to cut down manga production<\/p>\n

While it is largely invisible to readers, typesetting plays a key role in how manga looks on the page. Editors manually adjust every speech bubble depending on context, from everyday dialogue to shouting or internal monologue. <\/p>\n

As you can imagine, in text-heavy manga like Jujutsu Kaisen and the never-ending story of One Piece, this can quickly add up to thousands of hours of work each year.<\/p>\n

The new tool is designed to handle much of that process by scanning raw pages, analyzing speech bubbles and text structure, and then suggesting layouts that match both the space available and the tone of each line. <\/p>\n

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Editors still review and adjust the results, but the system removes the need to manually write detailed font instructions for every panel.<\/p>\n

\"MangaSquare Enix<\/p>\n

Square Enix and Mantra have both stressed that the AI does not generate or alter artwork, and purely focuses on layout so that creative decisions remain with artists and editors.<\/p>\n

In internal testing across 1,516 pages, 73% of editors reported overall satisfaction, and all respondents said they would be open to continuing to use it. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThis tool was developed to optimize the workload of editors by merging the ideas of those on the front lines with Mantra\u2019s technology and the AI expertise Square Enix has cultivated over a decade in digital entertainment,\u201d said Katsuyoshi Matsuura, Executive Officer at Square Enix. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is not just efficiency for its own sake, but to create an environment where editors can focus on their primary mission: supporting creators\u2019 activities, while AI handles routine tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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AI tools are increasingly being used in a variety of ways,\u00a0from helping authorities track manga and anime piracy<\/a>\u00a0to prompting game studios to change how they hire artists, including\u00a0asking applicants to draw live during interviews<\/a>\u00a0to prove their work is human-made. One famous case even saw an AI-generated manga becoming one of Japan\u2019s best sellers<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Square Enix says its editors spend more than 3,000 hours a year on one of manga\u2019s most time-consuming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,74],"class_list":["post-592895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}