Korean comic strip accused of using AI to draw and copy Marvel's illustrations for "Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World"

Recently, the adaptation of Salamsallyeo's web novel "The Return of the Knight King" by South Korea's Blue Line Studio sparked controversy after it was released on Naver Webtoon earlier this week. Some readers were quick to point out that there were many inconsistencies between the panels, and the fingers were often oddly shaped, making the work look like it was generated by AI.

Critics were further angered by characters in some panels that looked a lot like those in the TV anime adaptation of the hit Japanese light novel series “Musume: Re:Zero”, while another character looked a lot like Groot from the Marvel movie “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

The comic's first chapter had a user rating of 1.91 on Wednesday. This was the lowest-rated chapter of the webtoon on Naver Webtoon. The chapter currently has a rating of 1.98.

In response to the criticism, Blue Line Studio explained that the images were not generated by AI, but AI was indeed used for final polish. The studio re-uploaded the revised version of the first six chapters and promised that subsequent chapters would never use AI assistance. Regarding plagiarism, the studio admitted that the character looked very similar and deleted the scene where the character appeared.

In fact, the original author of the novel, Salamsallyeo, has also been subject to plagiarism controversy for many years. Another novel he wrote was accused of plagiarizing elements from other Korean comics and various Type-Moon works. "The Return of the Knight King" has also been controversial because of its many similarities with the "Warhammer" series.