hovermilk

“I’m going to Post My Drawings Again” On December 24, 2025, X launched a service that allowed people to modify, transform, and rework artwork using AI without the creator’s consent. I desperately hoped that the unbelievable news could not possibly be true. But I eventually confirmed it was. So I took down all of my artwork from X and wrote about what had happened. Many people read my post and supported me. Later, one prominent figure in the American comics industry told me that what I did was the first such action taken by a well-known creator, and that it had a significant impact. I am deeply grateful for that assessment, but honestly, I don't really know what to make of it. All I know is that after it happened, I threw away all the medication I was supposed to take, stopped eating, and lay down. All the memories and wounds I had carried inside me came rushing back, and they made me lose the will to do anything. I have seen—and experienced—a world in which a mangaka has to endure so much pain simply because they want to live as a creator who draws, as a mangaka. Many aspiring manga artists around the world who post their manga and artwork on X probably do so because they desperately want, somehow, to become mangaka. Even that, in itself, is a kind of violence inflicted by reality upon young students who hold such a simple dream. And for aspiring artists from poor countries, who are already living in poverty, that violence can be especially cruel. What I... what we want is not something grand. Most of us, astonishingly, accept rather calmly as AI tries to take our jobs and even mocks us. We are hurt. We suffer. And yet we accept it quietly. We do not block the streets or set cars on fire to defend our work and exercise what should be the most basic rights of people living in a democracy. What we want is very simple. The drawings we create after giving up so much of the joy and happiness of life, drawing alone in solitude and hardship—they belong to us, the creators. All we ask is that they be recognized as ours. Do not take them casually. Do not use them casually. And certainly do not use them to mock us. And even—even—do not use them to take away our work and our dreams. Even—even, even—many of us have already spent our lives enduring humiliation and theft. I have seen a manga artist leave this world because of it. All of those wounds burst open again on December 24, 2025. And I lost the will to go on and simply lay there. Five days passed. Then Hiroya Oku-sensei, having heard what had happened to me, sent me a message. Hiroya Oku-sensei is the most warm-hearted person I know. I have met many manga creators in South Korea, Japan, and around the world who have warm hearts and extraordinary empathy. Among all these wonderful people, Hiroya Oku-sensei had one of the warmest hearts of all. His message was filled with an almost boundless warmth. It gave me the strength to get back on my feet. I started eating again. I went to the hospital and got my medication again. And from that moment, for the next three months, I worked harder than usual for aspiring manga artists around the world. For this work, my friend, Steve came from Canada to Japan and lived with me for a month. He and I had been dreaming together and imagining the future of manga around the world together. So when we are going to work hard, we have to do it together. During that period, I met people involved in the manga business in South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, North America, and several other countries. I drew a manga for Zimbabwe. I met with JICA. I met Hiroko Oda-sensei. And I did many other things that I still cannot reveal. Once I had gotten back on my feet and looked back, I realized that this year had been incredibly difficult. Several projects that carried many of my dreams fell apart. It was because I was not good enough. There were also a few occasions when I felt that I had been treated unfairly. But that is life. I did not get back up because I thought everything would suddenly become bright and happy. Pain is what gives a work its soul. That is what exists inside the drawings and manga we create. And because our lives are like that, we treasure the works we create. I only posted artwork when I had to endure the pain of doing so for promotional purposes or to deliver an important message. I did not post any Dr. STONE artwork on X during the final season of the anime. And so about ten months passed. Recently, after discussing it with Steve, I decided to start posting my manga and artwork on X again. There are two reasons. First, the vast majority of manga readers and fans did not use AI services to participate in that kind of violence. Quite the opposite. Many of them made efforts to stop it. Having lived through an era when the internet was a jungle, I find this phenomenon to be one of the great moments in human history. The second reason is that X has made some changes to its policies to protect the interests of creators themselves rather than those of people who steal from them. Yea, it is only a small step, but I thought it could become the beginning of something good. When I took my artwork down from X, I said that I believed X could become a place that stood up for creators, and that when that day came, I would post my work there again. The changes X has made to its policies are not proof that X has become such a place. They are simply an important change. But I believe it was the readers who made X move in that direction. These are the same people who fought to make sure manga would not simply be given away for free. They are the people who are willing to pay when a good manga industry is built. And I believe they will continue to protect manga, manga artists, and human beings who draw. With my gratitude to everyone, I have decided to begin sharing my work again, starting with the release of Sunday’s Momonga: Zimbabwe Adventure. Thanks for all the fish. But I never left. I come back.