On August 3, 2026, a post titled "Why is it said that hand-drawn animation is difficult to replace with AI?" appeared on the Chinese SNS Xiaohongshu (RED), attracting the attention of Chinese netizens.

The poster explained, "What is most striking in 'Look Back' may not be a grand scene, but rather that moment when Fujino dances in the rain. Knowing that her manga had truly reached someone's heart, Fujino couldn't suppress her pure joy and began to dance in the rain. Her movements are by no means refined, and the drawing intentionally doesn't pursue perfection. However, it is precisely because of this that a sense of genuine weight and vitality is born."

Furthermore, they argued, "This might be the unique charm of hand-drawn animation. Every slight tremor of a line, every seemingly clumsy, bouncing movement, gives the characters a sense of real presence, as if they are truly alive on screen. 'Look Back,' through a simple scene of dancing in the rain, depicts the most essential and irreplaceable joy for a creator."

In response to this post, Chinese netizens commented: "It's full of vitality and really dynamic," "This scene is truly the best..." "I think the anime adaptation of this scene was really good. But Tatsuki Fujimoto's manga paneling is truly at the level of art," "AI cannot understand this chuunibyou-like feeling taken to the extreme," and "AI voices are the same. They're good enough for reading news scripts, but they still can't really perform with emotion."

Additionally, another opinion stated, "I don't think AI can handle the storytelling and emotional expression like this anime. Moreover, such bold and continuous movements tend to break down with AI. AI can only create within the range of its training data, so while it can imitate popular art styles, it cannot generate truly original creator's ideas. Therefore, I think AI can only replace, at best, downstream processes."

On the other hand, counterarguments were also seen, such as: "No, it can be sufficiently replaced even now," "It can't completely replace it, but I think AI can replace some time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks in hand-drawn animation production," and "Ultimately, it's a matter of time. Last year's AI and this year's AI have evolved so much that they can be called completely different things. Let alone a few years from now, it's unimaginable."

Additionally, there was another perspective: "What AI takes away is not this kind of highly skilled hand-drawn animation. The problem is that it cuts off the path to reach that level. Beginners lose opportunities to gain experience due to AI and become unable to enter this world." (Translation/Editing: Iwata)