OpenAI’s newest tool has stunned users OpenAI’s latest image-generation update has triggered a Ghibli art fest on social media. From watercolour-like landscapes to hand-drawn character portraits with expressive eyes, the internet seems to have transformed into a scene from Spirited Away or Howl’s Moving Castle.
How Did The Trend Start?
Launched on Tuesday as part of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s newest tool has stunned users with its ability to recreate the signature Ghibli aesthetic. While the model was designed to generate highly accurate and stylised visuals, its unexpected talent for replicating Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s legendary art style has turned it into a viral sensation.
Hours after OpenAI’s update went live, users began experimenting with the image generator, giving it prompts to test its capabilities. It didn’t take long for people to realise that the AI was particularly good at creating Studio Ghibli-inspired art.
Soon, social media was flooded with Ghibli-style renditions of people’s selfies, pets, fictional characters, and even everyday objects like coffee cups and bicycles.
The trend spread rapidly across X, Instagram, and Reddit, with users sharing their AI-generated artwork under hashtags like #GhibliStyle and #AIGhibli. Some even used the technology to reimagine iconic pop culture moments – turning celebrities, historical figures, and internet memes into Ghibli-style characters. It’s been 24 hours since OpenAI unexpectedly shook the AI image world with 4o image generation.
Here are the 14 most mindblowing examples so far (100% AI-generated):
1. Studio ghibli style memes pic.twitter.com/E38mBnPnQh — Barsee ???? (@heyBarsee) March 26, 2025 Snoop Dogg drawn in Studio Ghibli style.
[????️ Robert Bradshaw / Cursed AI] pic.twitter.com/ej8NKP0tZc — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 21, 2025 Even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman jumped on to the trend. On Wednesday, he joked on X, "Be me. Grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever, mostly no one cares for the first 7.5 years, and then for 2.5 years everyone hates you for everything. Wake up one day to hundreds of messages: ‘look I made you into a twink Ghibli style haha.’" >be me>grind for a decade trying to help make superintelligence to cure cancer or whatever>mostly no one […]
Why Social Media Is Suddenly Flooded With Studio Ghibli-Style Art
