Upscale anime and illustrations
without compromise 🍡

A browser-native 4× upscaler tuned for line art, cel shading, and illustration style. Your image never leaves your device — processing runs on your GPU via WebAssembly with the RealESRGAN-anime model.

Start upscaling — free How it works

RealESRGAN-anime 4× scale No upload NovelAI & SD friendly Free forever

Why generic upscalers fail on anime

Most browser upscalers use bicubic or Lanczos interpolation. Those were designed for photographs — continuous gradients where blurred output looks acceptable. Anime and illustrations live under a different physics: sharp contours, flat color fields, and deliberate line weight. Naive upscalers blur those contours and introduce gradient banding in color fields.

RealESRGAN-anime (the 6-block RRDB variant) is a model trained specifically on illustration. It preserves line sharpness, avoids halos around black outlines, and respects the stylization intent. We ship the anime model alongside the general one so you can pick by content type in one click.

General x4 vs Anime x4 — when to choose which

RealESRGAN General x4v3

Best forPhotos, realism
Size4.6MB
SpeedFast
Line artBlurs contours
Cel shadingFlattens detail

RealESRGAN x4 Anime

Best forIllustration, line art, AI output
Size18MB
SpeedModerate
Line artPreserves weight
Cel shadingClean edges

Rule of thumb: if the source has deliberate outlines or flat color fields, pick Anime. If the source is photographic (camera, real world, AI photo realism), pick General.

Comparison with Waifu2x and cloud alternatives

Waifu2x (original)

UploadRequired
ModelCUNet / UpConv
Max sizeTypically 5MB
QueuePublic

imagemochi (this tool)

UploadNever
ModelRealESRGAN-anime x4
Max sizeDevice-dependent
QueuePrivate, local

Cloud AI services

UploadRequired
ModelProprietary
Cost$10-30/mo
PrivacyServer processing

Workflow — NovelAI & Stable Diffusion output pipeline

Generate at native resolution512×768 or 832×1216 in NovelAI / SD. Don't upscale with the sampler — let the upscaler do it.
Upload to imagemochi UpscalerDrag into the 4× upscaler. Select "Anime" mode.
Optional: fine-tuneOpen in Photo Editor to nudge brightness, saturation, or sharpness.
Export for your platformWeb share? Compress to WebP. Print? Resize to the required DPI.

Use cases from our community

Fanart archivists — preserve decades-old anime screenshots at modern resolutions.
Print-on-demand sellers — turn SD/NAI outputs into 300 DPI poster-ready files.
VTuber asset creators — sharpen textures for OBS / Live2D scenes.
Manga scanlators — restore line weight after scanning.
Minecraft / Roblox texture artists — upscale pixel art with fidelity.

FAQ

Does the image upload to a server?

No. Your image never leaves your device. The upscaler runs in your browser using WebAssembly + ONNX Runtime Web. We cannot see, store, or transmit your artwork.

Which model should I pick for NovelAI outputs?

Always Anime. NovelAI outputs are illustration style and the anime model preserves the look. General mode will smooth the lines.

How large a source can it handle?

Depends on your device. High-tier GPUs can go up to 4096×4096 input. Lower-tier devices fall back to tile-based processing; the tool auto-detects and adjusts.

Why is my first upscale slow?

The model file (18MB) downloads once on the first run, then caches in IndexedDB. Subsequent runs start immediately.

Is there a cost?

The anime upscaler is free forever on the browser. Premium removes ads and increases the batch limit to 50 images. No cost for anime fans at any tier.

How does this compare to Topaz Gigapixel?

Topaz is a paid desktop product with several anime-tuned models. For single images, imagemochi is free and private. For multi-thousand batch jobs, Topaz wins on raw throughput.

Can I upscale videos?

Not in-browser yet. For frame-by-frame video work, export PNG sequences and process them with our batch mode, then reassemble.

Does it work on iPad?

Yes — Safari 16+ supports the WASM runtime. Tile size adjusts automatically for iOS memory limits.

Upscale anime and illustrationswithout compromise 🍡