During the 2026 Spring Festival season, AI-generated comic short dramas emerged for the first time as the dominant force in the content consumption market. Hongguo App launched a dedicated "Comic Drama Theater" section; Kuaishou Xingmang Short Drama, powered by Kling AI, released its first AI-produced New Year comic drama anthology, Ma Shang You Xi (Good Show Ahead). Tencent Video introduced a standalone comic drama app, Huolong Comic Drama App, built around IP-driven competitiveness; and 360 unveiled its industrial-grade AI comic short drama production platform—the "Nano Comic Drama Production line"—designed to construct a four-dimensional audiovisual space.

Technology is accelerating the transformation of content production. Yet beneath the carnival lies a deeper question: once AI tools can deliver exquisite visuals at a fraction of traditional costs, how can AI-generated comic dramas move beyond technical spectacle and shed their sense of emotional coldness? How can they truly achieve what audiences crave—a genuine "a sense of aliveness"?

Left: "Comic Drama Theater" on the Hongguo App; Right: The interface of Huolong Comic Drama App

You scroll through 100 short videos, binge 10 episodes of a new series, click on ads from eight brands. But the moment you close the screen, your mind feels nothing. You saw everything, yet remember nothing. AIGC is reshaping the world at astonishing speed. It can generate an entire short animation episode in 10 seconds, produce 100 ad copies in one minute, and reduce production costs to one-tenth of previous levels. Content has never been more abundant, nor information more densely packed. AI-driven dramas stack trending elements—time travel, rebirth, revenge arcs, dramatic reversals—at rollercoaster speed. Yet once you finish watching, you struggle to recall the protagonist's name. Technology is speaking for us, but no one is expressing for us. Technology is choosing for us, but no one is feeling for us.

AI-produced New Year comic drama anthology, Ma Shang You Xi (Good Show Ahead) from Kuaishou

What Is "A Sense of Aliveness"?

"A sense of aliveness" refers to those moments in the digital age when you unmistakably sense: this was made by a real person; this character feels like someone who truly exists. It lies in flawed, awkward, stubborn Li Deshan from The Straw whose imperfections mirror our own. It lies in Jia Xiaoduo from Resurrection who wrestles with identity, confusion, and alienation in an era that objectifies and instrumentalizes individuals. It lies in the lovers from Immortal Legends torn apart not by contrived sweetness, but by authentic value conflicts that reflect the tensions of real relationships. It is not industrialized saccharine; it is emotional truth.

The Technical Bottlenecks: A Rift Between Visuals and Emotion

The current AI comic drama market exhibits a clear "technology–emotion" divide. While technical iteration advances rapidly, audience feedback reveals a striking absence of emotional resonance. According to the 2025–2026 China AI Short animation Industry Trends White Paper released by iiMedia Research, 46.6% of users report reduced willingness to watch once they learn a work is AI-generated, while 65.6% express concerns over copyright ownership and originality. Notably, 47.1% criticize inconsistent visual styles, and 46.7% cite emotionally flat voice acting.

2025–2026 China AI Short Animation Industry Trends White Paper released by iiMedia Research

The numbers point to structural challenges. In 2025 alone, 37,000 original AI comic short animation titles were released, yet 95% failed to surpass 2 million views. One major platform removed more than 170,000 highly homogenized AI titles in a single sweep. The technology met baseline standards—but the stories lacked emotional core.

Character Consistency: The Lifeline of IP

Character consistency has become one of the most pressing creative pain points. Diffusion models generate images through stochastic noise guided by text prompts, often resulting in noticeable deviations in facial features, costumes, or demeanor across scenes. The absence of structured, character-level annotations and cross-frame memory mechanisms further exacerbates the issue.

In practice, such inconsistencies undermine immersion. Viewers complain that "the character's face keeps changing, movements are stiff, and backgrounds look fake." Industry surveys show that 65% of users regard character consistency as critical to IP longevity and emotional attachment.

Launch event site of 360's "Nano Comic Drama Production Line"

To address this, technology providers are exploring multiple solutions. Seedance 2.0 from Jimeng AI allows creators to upload reference images to maintain character consistency across shots. Kling AI 3.0 pioneered "image-to-video + subject reference" technology, ensuring visual and narrative coherence across multi-shot storytelling. 360's "Nano Comic Drama Production Line" employs a "video world model" to build a four-dimensional space—three-dimensional scene modeling plus a temporal axis—equipping productions with spatial, asset, and visual memory capabilities.

Motion Fluidity: Bridging the Gap Between "Floating" and "Animated"

Another bottleneck lies in motion coherence. AI-generated movements often exhibit a "floating" quality or uniform pacing, lacking the rhythmic nuance of traditional animation—slow anticipation, rapid execution, decisive pauses. Without this dynamic rhythm, characters feel less alive.

Seedance 2.0 empowers the 2026 China Media Group's Spring Festival Gala.

Jimeng AI's motion imitation feature supports single-image-driven whole-body motion, achieving a measured restoration accuracy of 95% and covering diverse styles such as Japanese anime and Chinese animation. Seedance 2.0 has significantly improved physical consistency in motion, lighting, and material rendering. Its 15-second video usability rate reportedly rose from an industry average of 20% to over 90%, reducing per-minute production costs from tens of thousands of yuan to mere thousands.

Micro-Expressions: The "Last Mile" Problem

Micro-expressions and emotional transmission represent the final frontier in achieving true sense of aliveness. Stiff facial expressions, imprecise lip-sync, and inadequate emotional nuance remain widespread challenges. Open-source solutions demand high computational resources yet deliver blurry results, while commercial APIs often fail in multi-face or off-screen narration scenarios.

Zhan Xian Tai AI Live-Action Version

Seedance 2.0 has improved physical consistency in motion, lighting, and material rendering, making character performance and environmental interaction more realistic. After integrating Seedance 2.0, 360's "Nano Comic Drama Production Line" significantly strengthened emotional shot expression through technologies such as nine-grid camera setups and intelligent storyboarding, while maintaining character consistency. However, the naturalness of micro-expressions still requires further breakthroughs. Audience feedback on Zhan Xian Tai AI Live-Action Version—describing it as "natural micro-expressions, emotionally delivered lines, not as stiff as earlier AI"—highlights the rarity of such progress, with works of this caliber accounting for less than 5% of the total.

Beyond Technical Showmanship: The Industry's Reflection

An overemphasis on technological prowess has produced diminishing emotional returns. Many AI comic dramas works prioritize high resolution, elaborate expressions, and dazzling scene transitions, yet audiences respond: "It's beautiful—but forgettable."

Comic Drama Assistant, a one-stop AI creation platform for comic short dramas.

This "technology-first" mindset has led to a large number of AI-generated comic dramas relying on "feeding" off hit templates, resulting in highly homogenized content. Almost all works are confined to a limited set of genres—such as "the return of the war god," "the CEO's beloved wife," and "time-travel underdog turnarounds"—forming an "echo chamber of infinite self-replication."

As Professor Tang Qiao of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences observes, prompt engineering alone is insufficient. AI creation demands comprehensive aesthetic literacy, narrative skill, and cultural competence. Without strong scripts and creative vision, advanced tools risk generating what she bluntly calls "AI slop."

From Short-Term Thrills to Lasting Tears: The Next Frontier in Storytelling

To cultivate human presence, AI short animation must shift from stacking "thrill points" to crafting "tear points." Breakout successes demonstrate that emotional resonance—not technical novelty—is the decisive factor.

From Instant Gratification to Emotional Resonance

High-performing titles often combine wrongful accusation arcs, identity reversals, and anti-privilege narratives that tap into contemporary frustrations. Familiar mythological IP lowers entry barriers, while strong character motivations—loyalty, familial bonds, moral courage—infuse the narrative with authenticity.

One widely cited case achieved over 1 billion views on a 150,000 RMB budget, yielding a return on investment of 600:1. Its success underscores a simple truth: without immersive storytelling, audiences notice flaws immediately.

Similarly, AI-produced Spring Festival anthologies exploring themes such as Good Show Ahead, workplace anxiety, and family reunion signal a move toward universal emotional touchstones—nostalgia, belonging, dignity, love.

AI-produced New Year comic drama anthology, Ma Shang You Xi (Good Show Ahead) from Kuaishou

What these stories have in common is that they are no longer mere accumulations of "thrills." Instead, they seek to tap into more universal emotions: nostalgia, belonging, dignity, and love. As declared in Ma Shang You Xi, "Mortals don armor; wanderers return home." Each story points toward the same warm destination: homecoming and reunion.

The Rise of AI Live-Action Simulation

AI-simulated live-action dramas have emerged as the first major growth driver of 2026. According to DataEye, the share of such works in the top 100 comic dramas rankings rose from 7% to 38% year-on-year, with cumulative views exceeding 2.5 billion in January alone.

AI live-action simulation drama Doomsday Cold Wave: I Have a Mobile Fortress—Who Am I Afraid Of?

The reason AI live-action simulation dramas enjoy higher acceptance is primarily that AI "character modeling" has become increasingly realistic, with the uncanny valley effect noticeably diminishing. According to data from Ocean Engine, the two comic drama types currently generating the highest revenue are AI live-action simulations and 2D animation. Among them, the AI live-action drama Feng Shui King has accumulated over 370 million total views, 1.1 million favorites on Hongguo, and total revenue reaching 1.7 million yuan.

Industry professionals are more optimistic about AI-powered production in 2026. Zhang Zhihan, CEO of Daogu Culture, and Ye Ping, head of operations at Mofang Comic Drama, both believe that "AI live-action dramas will completely eliminate the AI feel in the first half of 2026, ushering in a production boom." Wu Haiming, CEO of Huasheng Short Drama, added, "The core of Seedance 2.0 is solving multimodal challenges such as camera movement, editing, and sound effects. It's a video model that transcends eras, and in the future, it may allow a single person to generate a high-quality comic drama in a single day."

Traditional high-quality male-targeted short dramas can cost over one million yuan per production, whereas using AI technology may only require several hundred thousand yuan. Ye Ping, head of Mofang Comic Drama,noted: "In the past, producing a high-end fantasy drama could cost two to three million yuan. But with AI technology, it may only take several hundred thousand to complete." The production difficulty and costs are greatly reduced, experimentation with genres is more diverse, and AI can almost completely replace live-action filming.

Mofang Comic Drama's Spring Festival season AI live-action simulation short drama Wuji Tianzun: Divine Realm Arc

The breakthrough in AI human simulation technology not only lowers cost barriers but also holds the potential to open up a broader user market. According to data from Ocean Engine, the current comic drama market is predominantly male-oriented, with male users under 40 accounting for over 65% of the audience. However, as technology matures, the production of high-quality female-oriented content will become feasible. AI-simulated human dramas offer distinct advantages in emotional expression and character development, making them more effective at attracting female users.

The overseas market is also set to become a new focal point for the industry. With the support of AI, the difficulty of localizing elements such as casting and dubbing for international productions will be greatly reduced. Zhang Zhihan noted, "This will significantly cut down on cross-border coordination challenges, drastically shortening production timelines while improving quality and reducing costs." Ye added that the ultimate breakthrough for AI-driven human dramas is likely to occur overseas, given the currently low penetration rate of short dramas in international markets. Once AI resolves localization challenges, the potential for growth will be immense.

Democratizing Creation: More Voices, More Stories

Another key observation from the 2026 Spring Festival box office season is the growing integration of AI-generated comic dramas with cultural tourism and intangible cultural heritage (ICH) scenarios, transforming a broader range of cultural resources into content offerings.

For instance, the Tianjin-produced AIGC short drama Chentang Genesis Love in Fallen City utilized AI to generate highly complex mythological scenes such as "The Eye of the Abyss" and "The Mysterious Bird Descends." Shandong provincial ICH project, the "Panlong Bangzi Opera Troupe," launched the AI comic drama Judge Bao: Hearing Cases, which preserves traditional singing styles, music, and dialogue while integrating animation and AI technology. Meanwhile, the AI comic drama Ahu Celebrates the Lantern Festival incorporates Spring Festival folk customs from Zhuhai and Foshan—such as fishing boats, plum blossom cakes, and sugar paintings—into its animation. These examples demonstrate that the content supply of AI comic dramas is opening up to a wider array of cultural resources, offering significant potential as entry points for diverse cultural applications.

The Tianjin-produced AIGC short drama Chentang Genesis Love in Fallen City (Source: Jinyun)

Behind this "creative equality" is the dramatic lowering of production barriers brought by AI tools. The "Orange Star Dream Factory" platform, launched through the collaboration of Fengxing Online and Alibaba Cloud Tongyi Large Language Model, leverages eight intelligent agents working in coordination and end-to-end closed-loop production. This reduces the cost of creating a single comic drama episode by 90% and compresses the production cycle of film-quality content from several weeks to minutes. Users only need to follow three steps — "select a script → choose a style → fine-tune parameters" — to generate dynamic videos, with the cost per storyboard as low as 0.6 yuan and 50 yuan enough to produce seven minutes of film-quality content. Currently, AI comic dramas on the platform have accumulated over 1 billion views, with more than 100 works exceeding one million views each.

The drop in production costs has led to greater diversity among creators — small studios of three to five people and individual creators are entering the market, becoming a new force on the supply side. Data from the Kuaishou platform confirms this trend: by the end of 2025, accounts leveraging organic traffic for short drama revenue sharing grew by over 200%, and the number of short dramas participating in revenue sharing increased by 150%. Many short drama distributors and agencies have transformed into original content creators with the help of AI tools.

Indeed, some creators in the AI sector have already begun experimenting with individually produced short dramas, emerging as new players in the field. For example, on Xiaohongshu, @Juzi Wuyun started DIY the short drama She Walks Out of the Painting in November 2025. So far, eight episodes have been released, with the highest likes for a single episode reaching over 3,000.

The self-made short drama She Walks Out of the Painting by @Juzi Wuyun on Xiaohongshu

But a lower entry barrier does not mean that content differentiation disappears. Ye Ping, head of Mofang Comic Drama, pointed out: "If there isn't good content to immerse the audience, the first thing they notice is the flaws." This statement captures the essence of content creation in the AI era — technical imperfections can be tolerated, but emotional emptiness cannot.

Human–Machine Collaboration: Rebalancing Roles

Achieving authentic human presence requires more than better algorithms; it demands effective human–machine collaboration. AI excels at standardized, repetitive tasks—scene generation, asset modeling, compositing—while humans remain indispensable in conceptualization, emotional calibration, and final decision-making.

A Scientific Model for Human-AI Collaboration

In the realm of content creation, AI excels at handling repetitive and standardized tasks, while humans are responsible for creative conception, emotional infusion, and final decision-making. The 360 "Nano Comic Drama Production Line" exemplifies this philosophy—integrating processes such as script analysis, asset generation, storyboarding, and dynamic compositing into a unified workflow, systematically returning creative control to the creators.

The 360 "Nano Comic Drama Production Line"

This collaborative model maximizes the strengths of both sides. In AI comic drama creation, AI handles the generation of basic visuals and motion sequences, while human creators take charge of emotional expression and narrative coherence. The "validation of certainty" strategy explored by Mofang Comic Drama—using low-cost versions to test market feedback before committing to high-quality production upon success—is, at its core, a process of repeatedly refining content value. This "counter-efficiency" is not true inefficiency but rather a more advanced form of efficiency: concentrating limited resources on stages with higher certainty, thereby improving overall production efficiency by reducing the cost of trial and error.

Practical Advice on Collaboration Tools

For AI comic drama creators, selecting the right collaboration tools and mastering their proper use is key to achieving efficient human-machine collaboration. The 360 "Nano Comic Drama Production Line" boosts production speed to over three times that of mainstream tools, compressing the production time for a single episode to between 30 minutes and one hour. Its material generation success rate exceeds 90%, far surpassing the industry average. This means creators no longer waste time repeatedly "drawing cards" (generating assets) to produce high-quality comic dramas, allowing them to focus more on storytelling and creative expression.

The "Orange Star Dream Factory", meanwhile, addresses "script shortage" by integrating over 10,000 exclusive licensed novel scripts and has launched four support programs to incentivize creators. The platform also introduced an "AI Director Lab," opening up user-customizable AI agent training features. Its goal is to "make technology recede into the background, allowing creativity to take center stage—so that in the future, everyone can use AI to create their own 'Oscar-worthy short film'."

Core Functions and Services of Orange Star Dream Factory (Source: Alibaba Cloud)

Industry Trends: From "Technology-Driven" to a Return to Humanism

The AI comic drama industry is undergoing a transformation from rapid expansion to deep quality cultivation. According to the White Paper, the evolution of the AI comic drama sector is expected to follow these trends: The "quick-consumption model" of simply adapting hit online novels will give way to deep IP incubation and long-term development. Comic drama IPs featuring highly distinctive characters and strong emotional connections will possess greater potential for cross-media adaptation. AI will shift from "replacing human labor" to "empowering creativity," with creators' focus moving from "how to generate" to "how to express." Community atmosphere, interactive features, and derivative creation ecosystems will become key factors influencing users' choice of platforms.

On February 12, the Douyin Group Copyright Center released its latest revenue share coefficient policy, sending a clear signal of increased investment in premium content. Under the new policy, the coefficient for AI simulated-human dramas is capped at 60, while coefficients for 3D animated comic dramas, 2D animated comic dramas, comedic comic dramas, and static (voice-over) comic dramas are 50, 40, 10, and 1 respectively. In contrast, the coefficient for AI (voice-over) dramas, which currently hold over half the market share, is only 5. This policy adjustment aims to guide the industry towards a greater focus on quality and excellence.

The Douyin Group Copyright Center released its latest revenue-sharing coefficient policy.

For platform operators, the White Paper suggests transitioning from "traffic distributors" to "ecosystem builders," strengthening the integrated operation of "content + community + merchandise," and building a reach system that balances precise recommendations with user emotional connection. For content producers, the priority should shift from "production capacity" to "quality." On the basis of AI-assisted production, mechanisms for manual refinement and creative oversight should be established, focusing on solving prominent pain points such as art style consistency and emotional nuance in dubbing. For technology providers, the focus should move from "feature development" to "scenario comprehension." Clear technical ethics norms and content attribution mechanisms should be established regarding copyright definition and creative ownership, in order to alleviate users' copyright concerns and identity value crises.

Liu Yi, a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Literature, offers a cautionary perspective from the angle of talent cultivation: Future cultural and artistic creation may diverge into two main paths. One path will involve relatively formulaic works that can be completed by AI. The other path—creations possessing strong individuality, unique aesthetics, and innovative thinking—will still need to be carried by human artists. This implies that the demands on creators in the AI era are higher, not lower: they must not only understand technology, but also grasp human nature; they must not only be able to generate, but also be able to express.

Conclusion

The 2026 Spring Festival season marks only the beginning. As AI tools continue to evolve, production efficiency and quality ceilings will rise. Yet a fundamental question remains: when AI can generate hyper-realistic images and simulate any narrative structure, what constitutes the irreplaceable value of AI comic dramas?

The answer may lie in what cannot be computed: sincerity and love; ordinary individuals struggling with dignity and belonging; the timeless search for meaning. Technology determines how a story is presented. Storytelling determines whether it is worth watching.

In an age saturated with algorithmic perfection, "human presence" has become scarce—and therefore precious. Ultimately, what will define the height of AI comic drama is not the sophistication of its tools, but the creator's understanding of human nature, mastery of emotion, and commitment to storytelling craft. Those who remain grounded amid technological fervor will find the true convergence of innovation and humanity.

(Author / Wen Yanqing, Editor / Cheng Yingzi)