Stellar Blade director clashes with Nier Automata designer following accusations of an AI-generated celebratory image

Stellar Blade director Hyung-Tae Kim has drawn the ire of Nier: Automata character designer Yoshikaze Matsushita thanks to an image the former posted in celebration of Yoko Taro’s new Evangelion project. Matsushita, who worked on enemy design for Nier: Automata, is best known for sculpting the ‘Emil head’ mask that you’ll often see Yoko Taro wearing during public appearances. He took exception to the image, which was shared by Kim to commemorate the news of the Evangelion anime directed by the Nier creator.

“I’m absolutely thrilled to hear that Mr. Yoko Taro is taking the helm on a completely new Evangelion project, and my heart is overflowing with genuine congratulations,” the illustrator, Stellar Blade director, and Shift Up CEO wrote via social platform X. “Since you mentioned feeling some pressure as well, I’ll switch to a lighter image for this. Please take good care of Asuka.” He attached a picture of Asuka, one of the main characters in mecha anime Evangelion, in her signature red plugsuit, sitting atop a pile of smiling Emil heads.

Accusations of the image being AI-generated quickly flooded in. While there’s no firm confirmation, Kim has not denied this, and has previously been a vocal advocate for the use of such tools. At a South Korean briefing in January, he spoke about the difficulty for Korean game developers to compete with the manpower of Chinese studios, and suggested that using AI technology would be a valuable tool in overcoming this gap so that “one person can perform the work of 100 people.”

Matsushita did not address Kim directly at first, but posted a seemingly pointed message on his own page, which reads (via machine translation): “This is the first time I’ve seen something I created clearly incorporated into a generative AI. The peepholes and paint quirks remain exactly as they were.”

He then shared an image showing that he had been blocked by Kim’s account on the platform, writing, “Ah, so you do have some self-awareness, huh? It’s basically a peephole, after all, right?”

Shortly after this, Kim offered a apparent apology, although he didn’t point to the incident directly. “Recently, an error with ‘Blue Blocker’ [a third-party extension] caused some of my followers to be accidentally blocked. I want to clarify that I never block anyone based on their personal opinion of my artistic direction. If you find that you have been blocked, please let me know so I can resolve it. I sincerely apologize for any concern this may have caused.”

One reply calls this “the worst excuse I’ve seen in my life,” to which Kim responds, “That’s right. But it’s true – what should I do? Life is brutally entertaining.”

Matsushita adds some more context in response to another commenter, this time in English. He claims that Kim “probably just wanted to quickly and easily make something high-quality that would go viral. It’s sad.”

The user, ‘Kaitsu,’ says they think of Kim as “literally one of the best artists in the gaming industry. His style is so iconic that you will know it’s his. He does not need anything to go viral. That’s why I’m confused. It’s sad.”

“Yes, I think so too,” Matsushita replies. “The brilliance of his work and his contributions to gaming won’t disappear. However, at least for me, I probably won’t be playing games from his company any more.”