Founded by brothers Arthell and Darnell Isom along with Henry Thurlow, D’ART Shtajio is the first black owned animation studio in Japan. They sought to bring Westernized elements of art and storytelling to the Japanese animation industry.
In 2020 with the world shut down by covid there was an explosion of animated music videos. The Weeknd tapped Arthell and his studio to animate Snowchild.
Snowchild hits all the notes beautifully fusing anime, soul, and r&b! Arthell and his team are assuring that black faces are represent in animation world wide.
You can see more of their work by following them on instagram at dartshtajio