Twins Brothers Are The Founders Behind Japan’s First Majority-Black-Owned Animation Studio, Which Has Created Work For Pokémon, Naruto, And More – AfroTech
These twin brothers flew across the world to pursue their dreams in anime.
Raised in Paterson, NJ, Arthell and Darnell Isom split time between their parents who lived separately. Their mother enjoyed writing, and their father was a musician who also doubled as an artist and liked to draw and paint, Arthell said in an interview with the BBC. Their father was also a carpenter.
“I described him as like he’s a serial entrepreneur. So anything that my dad could do, he would do it … And he would create like a whole like business from it,” Arthell said, according to the outlet.
It may come as no surprise that the brothers caught the creative bug. They didn’t have many toys, but that didn’t put any limits on their imagination. Arthell recalled to BBC that they would spend a lot of time together and create “fake movies” with their dogs as characters, filmed on a video camera. They would also draw superheroes using the abundance of paper from their mom’s home.
“We had like a big black binder, and so we would draw lots of superheroes. And we would come up with these stories with each other,” Arthell explained. “I feel like this is something maybe all children do, and then twins are really hardcore about it, rules of engagement, like how we would play with each other and how we would design our characters.
“We would split up the powers and split up what they could do,” he added, per the outlet. “And we would make sure that if I had a power, then his characters couldn’t use that. And then we would draw them in the book. If we were doing elemental characters, his team could have water on it and earth and wind, but then my team might have like lightning and fire.”
In high school, influenced by their father, the brothers shifted their studies towards music. They attended a performing arts high school with a major in music. However, they would still enter local art competitions, receive awards, and were able to score a visit to the mayor’s office.
The turning point for the twins came in their senior year, when they watched the Japanese animated film “Ghost in the Shell” (1995) on the Sci-Fi Channel. It appeared to be ahead of its time and also planted the seed for what they would do in the future.
“It was like cyberpunk and it was futuristic, and it was talking about AI and all these things that didn’t exist,” Arthell explained. “But I think even more than the characters and the storyline, it really gravitated towards just the style of art, like how realistic it looked.”
The two were emboldened to pursue careers as artists and animators. They even made a pact at 17 to pursue higher education in these fields, with the overarching goal of launching a company. Darnell studied practical effects, which would be helpful for live-action filmmaking, and Arthell focused on animation at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, according to GQ.
After college, Arthell recognized that to create the anime he wanted he needed to move to Japan. So he did. He wanted to learn from his hero, Hiromasa Ogura, the art director for “Ghost in the Shell.” After studying the Japanese language, he was admitted to the Yoyogi Animation Academy. In a full-circle moment, he later worked under Ogura at his company, Ogura Koubou Atelier. According to GQ, when applying for the job, Arthell scored a second interview and spoke directly with Ogura, who hired him. Arthell went on to work on iconic franchises such as “Naruto,” “Bleach,” and “Black Butler.”
It was later that he made Ogura aware of his goals to start a company, which did materialize in 2016.
D’ART Shtajio
The twins launched D’ART Shtajio, a 2D animation studio located in Tokyo. They made history in the process. It’s reportedly the first majority-Black-owned animation studio, according to the BBC, as well as “the first foreign-owned anime studio in Japan,” per Tokyo Weekender.
D’ART Shtajio has produced its own short films and has done work for “One Piece,” “Pokémon,” “Star Wars: Visions Volume 2,” and Spotify, leading to works produced by artists Flo Milli, GloRilla, and Ice Spice. D’ART Shtajio also worked on an animated video for The Weeknd’s “Snowchild,” which crossed 30 million views on YouTube.
Looking ahead, Arthell will serve as co-director of “Mfinda.” As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Mfinda is an epic fantasy film based on Congolese folklore that is being created in collaboration with N LITE, Jaden and Willow Smith, GKIDS, Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions, and anime producer Masao Maruyama.
“[N LITE is] a media company and animation studio based in the US and Tokyo. And I have to give my props to Arthell, because he was the first foreign person ever, not just a Black foreign person, to have an anime studio in Japan. So we’re following his footsteps,” Christiano Terry, founder of N LITE, said, according to Anime News Network.
