In Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre argued that human existence is not defined by what we are, but by what we project ourselves toward. We are not fixed beings—we are always becoming, shaping our identities through imagined futures, chosen selves, and ideal versions of who we might be. In this sense, every Ghibli-style portrait is more than stylised nostalgia; it’s existential projection—a quiet act of longing. AI does not merely render an image; it renders a desire—like what we might see in the Mirror of Erised from the Harry Potter universe, which shows our deepest wants.