It’s been over half a year since the Ghibli-style hype died down, and looking back now, the whole imitation boundary thing feels way more chill. Back then, feeds were flooded with people turning their photos into that Miyazaki vibe—fun as hell, sure, but pushing stylization that hard basically steps right into a specific studio’s visual language.
I struggle with this myself when training LoRAs: how many reference images count as learning, and at what point does it become copying? Technically, you can push a style to the point where it’s indistinguishable from the real deal, but that style is something a team spent decades building.
These days, I lean more toward using it as a seasoning—borrow the skeleton of that atmosphere, then stuff in my own subjects and compositions instead of just cloning it outright. Hype fades, but the question of how to use someone else’s style never goes away.
The style is something the team has built up over decades. The tech can push it to the point where it’s indistinguishable from the real thing, but that’s not yours.