Weekly Shonen Magazine put Hinatazaka46 member Manami Ono on the cover, the issue hit stands on September 2, and fans immediately zoomed in on her hand. It looked like she had six fingers.
That’s become the internet’s favorite “gotcha” for generative AI, so the magazine caught heat for supposedly “improving” the photo with AI. They ended up apologizing for an editing mistake and putting out a corrected version. Too late for the printed copies, though.
The actual explanation is a lot less sci-fi. The extra digit was her other hand. An editor lightened the edge of the front hand so hard that the two hands blended together and looked like one weird paw.
Ono is 19 and joined Hinatazaka46 last year. This was a normal gravure-style magazine cover, not some experimental AI project. Still, the reaction says a lot about where people’s heads are right now. Extra fingers, melted jewelry, and floaty anatomy have trained everyone to assume AI at the first odd detail.
That’s extra sensitive in the idol and gravure world. Fans are used to 2D characters and VTubers, but the selling point of a real group member is that she’s an actual person. Heavy Photoshop already makes some people itchy. AI on top of that feels like it undercuts the whole “girl next door you can cheer for” idea.
So this one was basically a sloppy retouch that went viral for the wrong reason. The corrected shot is out. The printed magazines are already in stores with the original. And the next time a hand looks slightly off in a cover photo, expect the same six-finger discourse all over again.
