Korean studio VCAT says it made AI action scenes for TV Asahi

South Korean AI company VCAT says it handled the AI production on action scenes for TV Asahi's new period drama, a live-action ninja series that is streaming worldwide as of Oct. 24. The company describes a set of AI shots built to sit inside filmed action, not a fully generated episode.

The drama is Sanada Juyushi, released in English as Shadows of the Ten Ninja. TV Asahi produced it with the Japanese film studio Toei, shot it entirely on location in Kyoto, and gave it a seven-episode run in its Friday Night Drama Premium slot that premiered Oct. 23. It streams on Netflix in more than 190 countries, with multi-language subtitles and English and Spanish dubs. Snow Man's Hikaru Iwamoto stars as the ninja Sarutobi Sasuke.

VCAT says it took the action scenes where actors and cameras move the most. According to the company, its team designed the AI shots around the movement paths and camera work from the shoot, and generated characters, backgrounds and buildings against reference material for the Japanese Sengoku period. It says it combined AI with visual effects by changing backgrounds and adding characters to footage that had already been filmed. VCAT says TV Asahi's production team sought additional AI vendors after the workload grew and some scenes could not be handled by existing effects work alone, and that it was the only Korean AI company on the project.

TV Asahi's own statements describe the series as using AI, VFX and CG, but do not name VCAT or any AI vendor. General producer Ikuhide Yokochi told mdpr that fusing live action with AI is very difficult and that the drama "combines the tradition of period drama with the latest imagery - an entertainment unlike any before". mdpr reported separately that most of lead actor Hikaru Iwamoto's action scenes are performed by him. VCAT chief executive Jeong Beom-jin said, in comments carried by the Korean trade outlet Digital Today, that the company would build on capabilities proven on Japanese broadcast sets to set a new standard for AI video production in global broadcasting and entertainment.

Hikaru Iwamoto, the drama's lead, said he could only imagine the AI-driven visuals during the shoot, then was surprised by how they turned out in the first episode, in comments published by Oricon's syndicated news reports.

VCAT is not the only AI vendor on the project. The Japanese AI company aicrew said in its own release that it handled AI-based action scene production and generative AI work for some scenes in the same drama, describing AI as a way to extend human creativity rather than only cut production cost. aicrew's release does not mention VCAT, and neither vendor says how the series' AI-assisted cuts were divided between them.

VCAT also says it made a promotional video for the drama entirely with AI and no filming, that the video ran on a Times Square screen in New York on Oct. 19 local time, and that it appeared on a Japanese terrestrial broadcast program on Oct. 21. Oricon reported that a giant promotional video for the drama started playing in Times Square from Oct. 19 local time, but said only that generative AI was used in part of it, and did not name VCAT.

For creators, the claim that holds is narrow and real: generative AI shots now sit inside a prime-time drama from a major Japanese broadcaster, streaming to more than 190 countries. TV Asahi producer Takato Akiyama told the trade outlet Advertimes that the series puts AI-generated material into more than 1,000 cuts in total, in what Advertimes describes as the broadcaster's largest-scale use of AI to date. What is not public is how those cuts split between VCAT and aicrew, or whether either vendor is credited on screen.

Shadows of the Ten Ninja streams on Netflix in more than 190 countries, and airs on TV Asahi on Fridays at 11:15 p.m. Japan time.