Star Wars Visionswas a pretty wild idea tailor-made to appeal to fans who had dreamed of the franchise getting the anime treatment, showcasing a broad range of styles from some of the best in Japan. The upcoming second season seeks to go in a different direction,showcasing animation from around the globe, with only one studio based in Japan, and quite an exciting and unexpected pick at that: D’Art Shtajio.
Based in Tokyo, D’Art Shtajio is the first ever black-founded and western-owned animation studio in Japan, founded by New Jersey-born Arthell and Darnell Isom. As stated on their website, they have sought to combine Eastern and Western production styles to push the anime industry forward, while also striving for greater diversity in storytelling and production.
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D’Art’s Work
Not every studio can get up and running and immediately make a name for itself,likeMushoku Tensei’s Studio Bindor even Trigger, which gained a reputation before they’d even had a big hit inKill La Kill. D’Art is still young and many of their original works are exciting pilots and teasers for productions they would very much like to bring to fruition. Although, one of their music videos has been a major success.
Arthell himself directed the music video for “Snowchild” by The Weeknd, undoubtedly their most successful work, and where Isom’s inspirations are most plain to see. In interviews, he’s talked about getting into anime in his teen years thanks to works likeGhost in the Shelland a lot of the imagery evokes that franchise’s atmosphere. There are background shotsthat look indistinguishable from scenes inStand Alone Complex.
But in addition to their original concepts and their ideas for the future, D’Art has already been working on some pretty big anime since they hit the scene. They have done key animation on episodes ofAttack on Titan,Fire Force,Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure,Overlord, andTokyo Ghoul, to name a few. Additionally, they’ve done 2nd Key Animation - or, cleanup animation, on many of the same shows.
Their Upcoming Work on Visions
D’Art Shtajio is set to be animating an episode forVisionstitled “The Pit,” written and directed by LeAndre Thomas, a director who has alsobeen working with Lucasfilm since 2011. While not much is known about any of the stories for this upcoming season, the studios themselves are reason to be intrigued. D’Art’s involvement feels like a defining moment for the foreseeable future of this studio.
Visionswasn’t a project that had to try very hard to get audiences excited by the prospect of these studios’ involvement. Even if some viewers were new to these animators, the studios themselves were already proven. From the beginning,Visionswas a collection of the best of the best, but with the added benefit of seeing them tackleStar Wars, something that many of them had dreamed about doing.
And even with the new season, studios like Studio Mir from Korea arewell known for their work onLegend of Korra,Witcher:Nightmare of the Wolf,Lookism, and more. On the whole, however, there are a lot of studios from all around the world, not just America or Japan, that audiences might not have the same baggage with compared to Mir or the anime studios from Season 1.
D’Art Shtajio is the only anime studio featured in this new season, and that means big shoes to fill, but also an opportunity unlike anything else to get their name known. It could mean projects like Stephanie Metayer’sTephlon Funkor Arthell Isom’s adaptation of the comicXOGENASYSmight get some more traction and a platform to call home. A pilot for the latter already premiered at Anime Expo in 2018.
Anime For Everyone
D’Art Shtajio is an exciting studio, and some who might have not heard of it until the news aboutVisionsSeason 2 broke might be angry they didn’t know about them sooner. That is, effectively, the point of spotlighting them here. The fact that they’ve slipped somewhat under the radar isn’t surprising for a new studio, but it being a black-owned anime studio in Japan just feels too cool not to know.
There is, unfortunately, a contingent of the anime community that likes to deride attempts to create “black anime,” which feels as ignorant of the art form’s potential as any other dismissal of the medium’s merits. Black culture’s intersections with anime, be it through music, the art community, or the combination of hip-hop and sakuga on YouTube, are huge parts of western anime fandom. Anime is for everyone.
WithVisionsSeason 2,D’Art Shtajio will get a bigger chance than everto tell the world who they are and show what they are capable of. If Season 1 was about showingStar Warsthrough the lens of anime, then Season 2 is about introducing audiences to artists they may never have heard of. Fans will have to wait until May 4 to see how it stacks up to the first.
