What was supposed to be a huge party to celebrate a decade supporting the yuri genre ended up becoming a public relations nightmare. The organizers of the famous Yuriten expo had to face the issue and drastically cancel the first event of its tenth anniversary, which was scheduled for this same weekend in front of the Hareza Ikebukuro complex in Tokyo, all because they used AI-generated images in their advertising.

The conflict erupted just hours after the official account posted the promotional art for the Ikebukuro campaign. The organization itself admitted shortly after that not only the ad image had been created with AI, but also several of the planned decorative elements for the venue and other event promotions. This sparked an immediate wave of rejection among prominent mangakas in the field. Nio Nakatani, the popular author of Bloom Into You, openly expressed her disappointment at seeing an art-focused platform resort to these tools, while creators like Yukiko (Futaribeya: A Room for Two) and Yayoi Osawa (Hello, Melancholic!) strongly questioned the lack of respect for the artists’ work that had supported the expo for ten years.

Amidst the massive backlash and the possibility of losing their main collaborators, Lilium, the company responsible for operating the event and its famous book café, issued a statement apologizing to the authors and fans. The company justified the mishap by explaining they had hired an external agency for advertising management and admitted internal failures in their review filters that allowed the material to be released. Lilium assured they will maintain a strict zero-AI policy in all future projects and proceeded to delete the original post before officially canceling all scheduled activities.

About Yuriten

Yuriten is a prominent commercial and artistic expo born in Tokyo in February 2016, designed to celebrate and promote manga and illustration centered on girl love. Over the years, the event has become a key meeting point for the industry, being the stage where exclusive previews of iconic works like the animated adaptation of Kase-san and… by Hiromi Takashima have been presented.

What do you think about the creators’ stance on the use of artificial intelligence in industry events?