Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's live-action spinoff, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, has upset more than a few fans with the reveal that its newest project, the movie At A Confessional, extensively used AI to create the soundtrack. The reveal ignited a major controversy among fans, with some Japanese moviegoers threatening to boycott the film.

At A Confessional is a film adaptation of the first chapter of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, based on the spinoff anthology manga by Hirohiko Araki, starring Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's Rohan. The film had been highly anticipated by fans of the live-action series, which had been drawing from other chapters of the series for its content. Given that it's a live-action production, one would think the risk of AI getting involved would be unlikely, but that's unfortunately not been the case. As it turns out, the film's composer, Naruyoshi Kikuchi, proudly announced that he "did not compose a single piece."

At A Confessional's Entire Soundtrack is AI-Generated

Every Original Song in the Movie Was Composed by AI

According to the fansite Jojo News, a pamphlet was distributed to moviegoers who went to see the film, and one of the pieces of content in the pamphlet was an interview with the composer about his use of AI. He boasts that using the AI, they were able to create "genuinely terrifying music." Kikuchi goes through the process of creation to some extent, talking about how the music is generated using samples and recordings, even mentioning the "hallucinatory elements" that AI can create as something that increased the horror of the music employed in the film.

"The newly composed songs in particular carry a strangeness that makes you wonder, 'Could a human even sing this…?'" Kikuchi said, going on further to call this use of AI a type of "new cyberpunk." While Kikuchi may be quite proud of the soundtrack that they created for the film, the same can't be said of everyone with ties to the project. Jojo and Rohan creator Hirohiko Araki has been outspoken in his distaste for AI, calling those who use AI to generate art "con artists" and stating that copyright infringement by AI is a "villain" which all modern artists must contend with.

Fans Have Largely Been Unhappy About The Use of AI

Many Moviegoers Felt The Use of AI Was Unfitting for Rohan

The article on Jojo News also includes a wide variety of comments from fans on X (formerly Twitter), which are overwhelmingly negative towards Kikuchi's use of AI. Many were upset because they felt this use of AI goes directly against Araki's beliefs about AI, while others pointed out that the protagonist of the movie, Rohan, would be equally displeased to learn about how AI was used in the film.

Naruyoshi Kikuchi even weighed in on X himself, stating that he intends to continue using AI as a tool alongside live performances, comparing the hate for AI use to a witch hunt. It remains to be seen if the film's use of AI will hurt its box office totals in Japan, but with fans of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure so extremely unhappy about this, there's a real chance it could have an impact.