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Interview Video

Interviews

Shunsuke Ochiai
Hi, I’m Shusuke Ochiai, and this is World Insight interview. Today we are joined by Arthell Isom. Arthell is the owner of the animation studio in Japan. Let’s find out about his journey in Tokyo. So. Hi, Arthell.

Arthell Isom
Hey. Hello, Shusuke, and hello, world.

Shunsuke Ochiai
How you been?

Arthell Isom
No, yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me here today with you all. And I’m really glad, I’m excited and honored to be a part of this conversation with you. And, yeah, we had a little bit of snow, and I’m ready for this year of the dragon.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah. So, yeah, we’re just beginning of the. Yeah. So, start out the interview. Tell us your background. You’re originally from New York, right?

Arthell Isom
So, I’m originally from the east coast. Originally from New Jersey.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh, New Jersey.

Arthell Isom
Sorry about New York, New Jersey. And New Yorkers now got to represent from New Jersey, some from New Jersey and from Patterson. And, yeah, now I’ve been in Japan for almost close to 20 years, I guess. Close to two decades.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. 20 years in Japan. So, yeah, when you were growing up, what were the anime or cartoons you were watching? Because was it a thing when you were growing up? Now you’re in Japan owning an animation studio, but what was it like back in New Jersey when you were growing up? Were there, like, animes and Japanese animes around?

Arthell Isom
So, you know, I’m always really envious of the current generation and just animes everywhere. And then it’s cool to throw out a name of your favorite character, like Sasuke or something like that, and no one makes fun of you or beats you up in the back of an alley or something like that. I think it’s so interesting that the current times where you can just flip on your TV or pick up one of your mobile devices, and there’s just anime everywhere, where when I was growing up in Patterson, there was no anime. Right? Like, no one even knew what that was. The term wasn’t even in the zeitgeist yet. It was interesting because I guess the way I even discovered anime was. So, this was my last year of high school, and I just did a program to try to introduce anime to the west. And there were two. There was one on the Sci-Fi network and then one on. What was the other one? I think one was on a cartoon network or something like they. But both of them had two different approaches to what type of anime they were going to show. And so that was my first time watching anime. And it was interesting because it was so different than what was used to watching the Saturday morning cartoons. And Warner and Disney, although I love Warner and Disney. Stuff’s great, but it was just its own Japanese animation, its own space. But even then, it was still new. So, when we go to school, we’re like, hey, man, did you watch Lens Man? Did you watch 8 man After? People are like, what, man? Got time for cartoons? We got to play sports or something else, right? So, it was a challenge to get into anime. So, at that time, we had little. That was my last high school. So, I went to college the year after, and we formed our little groups. It was kind of like we were doing. I got that Ghost In The Shell. I got that trying to trade anime under the table, right? And then we would all sit in our rooms, in the dorm rooms, and just watch anime together. But then, of course, people are like, why are you guys watching anime? But it was crazy times. But it was fun.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah. So, what were the titles? You mentioned Ghost In The Shell, but what were the titles like? The first.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, the first titles that was shown, I think, was Lensman. Lensman, yeah, the Lensman.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow.

Arthell Isom
Yeah. I don’t even know if anyone, this current generation even knows. I think that was a movie, too. I don’t even remember what it was about, actually. It was so long ago that I watched it. I only watched it that one time on tv, but I think it kind of followed along with all the others because it was 8 man After, Lensman, and there was one other one, and I can’t remember what that was.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Lensman and 8 man.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, 8 man After.

Shunsuke Ochiai
8 man After.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, 8 man after and 8 man After. He was. I guess he was like a strong.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Number 8 man.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, the number 8 man, at least, if my memory serves me right. He was wearing black and white, and he had, like, this huge 8 on his shirt, I think just, like, search here and save that.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay, 8 man. So this is, like, really classic.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, 8 man After was super classic.

Shunsuke Ochiai
This is like our parents’ classic.

Arthell Isom
Yeah. I don’t know why, because this was really old, but this was one of the first ones that was shown during that time. Maybe just now we’re in the production and we understand getting rights and things like that, so I think perhaps they just had access to it. Although when I was at that time, I was just like, oh, man, that looks pretty cool. It seemed fun.

Shunsuke Ochiai
I remember MTV playing Speed Racer. Yeah, so Speed Racer, that’s old school Japanese anime, too.

Arthell Isom
Yeah. Speed Racer is crazy, but speed Racer, similar to Astro Boy, they actually had irregular runs on TV, though.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah, MTV had.

Arthell Isom
For, like you said, our parents’ generation. I’ve actually never watched Astro Boy because I didn’t even know that that was a thing on television. But I guess the more popular anime, things like that. Not that Astro Boy is not popular or even like Speed Racer, but I guess the movies and things like that were then shown on during this summer, this summer festival. And I think it was that that really pushed anime into the current, what it is today.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Right. It was the origin. It was the origin because, of course.

Arthell Isom
The first anime in the west, I think, was Astro Boy, which was shown TV. Yeah, but that was in, like, I don’t know, the. Something like that. Yeah, I think it was. All the episodes were shown on tv.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Astro Boy was one of the first animation series that were shown on tv in Japan as well, by Osamu Tezuka. But when did you start drawing your own stuff?

Arthell Isom
We’ve been drawing foerever, my brother and I. We’ve been drawing since we were two years old. Yeah. So, I’ve been drawing forever. I’ve always been interested in art. We did the whole circuit thing, especially Robert Patterson. You enter all the art competitions at school? The local competitions, the local city competitions. My brother found an article recently that was from when we were 8, I think, where we won art show. So, I’ve been drawing for a long time and just into art, into animation. I think when we’re kids, our whole thing was like, thinking we’re just going to work at Disney or something.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay. Yeah. But you ended up moving to Tokyo.

Arthell Isom
Yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So, you mentioned your brother, but you have a twin brother, right?

Arthell Isom
Yeah, we’re identical twins. And he also works in this entertainment industry. But now he’s one of the directors of the studio, but he also works at Legacy Effects, and he’s a lead concept artist.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay, so tell us, when did you move to Tokyo? Was it by yourself or did you move with your brother?

Arthell Isom
No, no. Yeah, I moved out here by myself. He didn’t come out so much. I. So we were living together in college, and right after I graduated, he moved to LA. And it was crazy. We just sold everything, threw everything away in our house, and we’re like, all right, I’m going to move to Japan. And then I just got on the airplane and flew out here. I didn’t even have a plan. I knew I wanted to go to school here, and I wanted to work and figure out because, yeah, I had watched Ghost In The Shell, so that was the thing that got me to come to Japan, was I really wanted to work for the art director of Ghost In The Shell. And so, I just moved here right after I graduated, like, literally the next day. But I had no other plan other than that I didn’t even have a visa. I didn’t even know what I was going to do. I just kind of landed here and then tried to find a place and then tried to go to the school, which is the Yoyogi Animation Gakuin. It was definitely an adventure because the school didn’t offer visas for foreigners. I was, like, one of the first foreigners to actually even go to that school. It was crazy. Now everyone knows how to travel. You can search things. By that time, I had no idea.

Shunsuke Ochiai
You just came into Japan with a Traveler sightseeing visa, which is only valid for three months, right?

Arthell Isom
Yeah. Just three months? Yes.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So how did you work that out? First you entered Yoyogi Animation School?

Arthell Isom
No. So I couldn’t go to Yoyogi because I didn’t have a visa. Right, because you can’t.

Shunsuke Ochiai
You didn’t have a visa, so they didn’t let you in?

Arthell Isom
No. Yeah, because you can’t enter with a tourist visa. And also, I couldn’t speak Japanese, so I couldn’t enter the school for that reason either. But I was super determined. I was like, no, I want to live here. So I found a job. I found some friends who kind of, like, there were other foreigners here, a few. And they helped me. They were like, oh, you got to get a visa, man. They totally figured it out. So, I got a job, like a full-time job. And then, because I had the full-time job, I could get a visa, a working visa. And then I took a year and studied Japanese and was practicing Japanese every day. And then with that, because I had a working visa, the next year, I went back to Yoyogi, and I was like, okay, I can speak Japanese now, and I can write Japanese now, and I got a visa. Can I come to school? And then, yeah, then I was able to enter the school.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, this all happened within a year?

Arthell Isom
Yeah. So, I went to the school the year later, so I came here, and then I did go to the school’s open house, but of course I couldn’t. They were just like, yeah, you got to speak Japanese and things. So, within that year, that was when I kind of got it all figured out.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, within a year, you were able to communicate, speaking wise, and then you were able to read and write.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, I wasn’t great at it, but I was able to at least understand a little bit of what the teachers were saying at that time. I had to record everything that all the classes had to record it. And it took me forever to do my homework because Japanese, the dictionary is insane because you have kanji is in the dictionary. But then the thing you’re trying to figure out is in Kanji, it took me forever to do my homework.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. I still sometimes struggle reading Kanji as myself as well. So, yeah, I could imagine how hard you worked. So, the work you were offered, the first job, was it animation related or. It was totally different.

Arthell Isom
Oh, you mean within that first year? Oh, no, nothing to do with animation. So, my first job here that I found was teaching English. And I always kind of people like, that’s the easiest way if you can teach English. Which was really fulfilling, though. I really liked work. I really liked teaching English. I had, like, these cute little kids. That was pretty cool. So that was my first job.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay, so now you graduated Yoyogi animation school. After all that, how did you start your career as an animator? Were you able to land a job at the studio that made Ghost In The Shell?

Arthell Isom
Yeah, actually. So that was my first job. After graduating from Yoyogi Animation. Well, while in the school, you send out your portfolios, and that was a funny story because the teachers here, they ask you when you first start school, actually, on your first day. Okay, everyone, you make a journal, because then they try to help direct you and direct your kind of art career in the school for what type of stuff you should be learning and focusing on. And they ask you like, okay, where do you want to work? What’s your dream job? And I only had one. Everyone else in class was like, they just listed probably every animation studio. They were, like, oh, I want to work here and here. But I was like, I just want to work for Ogura San. Ogura Kobo. Yeah, he’s the art director of Ghost In The Shell and everything else. Great. So, I was just like, yeah, this is where I want to work. And I remember my teacher saying, oh, no, that’s, like, one of the hardest anime studios to get into. They only hire, like, one person a year. So, you should put some other names on this list. And I was like, no, this is where I want to work. This is the only place. I don’t have any other names or studios that I want to go to. And then, yeah, two years later, once I graduated, that was the first job I went in for my interview for. And then, yeah, then they hired me too, which was pretty cool. And then even to this day, obviously, we’re still very friends, and I would meet time to time, one of my mentors.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So how long did you stay with them?

Arthell Isom
I stayed at Ogura Kobo for five years. A little bit over five years. So about five and a half, six years I stayed there.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So, the studio’s name is Ogura Kobo.

Arthell Isom
Yeah. So, Ogura San was … Like, I guess up to that point, they had only mainly been working with production. And although they’ve done art direction for a lot of other studios, but then started his own studio, which is just a background painting studio, which is called Ogura Kobo.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay. And yeah. What was it like working in Japanese anime studio? The work environment is very different from any other industries, I heard.

Arthell Isom
Yeah. It’s only different than any other industry, and it’s totally different than the west. So, there’s two things that probably helped me to stay because I feel like in the other westerner point of, like, especially at that time, the studios have, like, you know, the industry has slowly changed now, how the working conditions in Japan has changed. But it was crazy experience. It was fun, and I loved it, and I do it. If I had a chance to do it again, if I had the option of do you want this or this? And I would do it again in a heartbeat. But I think the things that helped me to stay was that was actually my first experience working in the animation industry, so I didn’t have anything else to compare it to. Like, I had no jobs in the west when I was in college in America, but that was my first time in industry, so I just thought, okay, well, I’m here. This is how it is. Yeah, I remember my first days. You know, Sempai, in a culture, work culture, you can’t go home before your Sempai.

Shunsuke Ochiai
That’s so Japanese.

Arthell Isom
Yeah, I’m doing my work, and then obviously I’m still a Shinjin, a rookie worker, so I wasn’t good. Right. But I’m like, okay, I’m finished. I’ve been working for about 8 hours, and I just get up, but no one else in the studio is moving. Everyone else is still just painting and painting. And then they look at you, and I was just like, I just sat back down, I guess no one’s leaving. And I didn’t even finish my work. Am I going to leave? And I didn’t even finish my Sempai. They’ve painted like five paintings already. I’m still just training. So, I wasn’t working on any production yet. I was still just doing practice, practice things. And so, I was just like, okay, well, let me just sit here. The beginning, it was a little bit. Okay. There was a little bit lenient because I was still only training. So, I remember my Sempai was like, okay, you’ve been here for about 14 hours now. You worked hard enough to go home, but they’re still there. It’s like 14 hours.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Crazy work, right? Yeah. And then you started your own studio. D‘Art Shtajio. Yeah. What is the meaning behind the D’Art Shtajio? And what are the works that you’ve been doing lately?

Arthell Isom
Oh, yeah. So, after that, we started the D’Art Shtajio. We have many meanings. It’s like D and ART. And so, we like to use D means so many things, like diversity and dramatic, but it also just simply means The Art. Yeah. So, The Art. And then Shtajio is a Japanese way of saying studio. Like, the art studio is, like, the simplest way, but we spell Shtajio differently than even the Japanese spell studio because I used to work at the background studio. In the background painting, the kanji, we say Shitaji, which is the under painting. So, I thought, oh, okay. So, we use that kanji or Shitaji, which for us means the foundation, like the underpainting. And then so we spell it Shtajio. For us, it means, like, the foundation of art. We’re building this studio here, and we’re building who we are and what we represent in the anime space. And so that’s kind of why we spell it that way. So that’s what it means. Great. It’s interesting because whenever I explain to Japanese people, at first, they’re always like, oh, you spell. Whenever I give my business cards, they’re like, you spelled Studio wrong, because Studio in Japanese is spelled with Katakana. But when I explained to him, they’re like, oh, yeah, of course. That makes sense.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yeah, that made sense. So, yeah, your studio has been working with many popular anime, like One Piece and stuff like that. But lastly, there was announcement made that you are going to take part in a huge project. Could you share that with us?

Arthell Isom
Yeah. Like you said, we’ve worked on a ton of things, but now one of our biggest productions that we’re blessed to work on is this feature film, which is kind of going to be the first of its kind because it’s anime and we have these great production partners. The feature film is called MFINDA. MFINDA? Yeah, MFINDA. And it’s a story about these two Congolese girls that circumstances and things like that happen. One of them gets transported back in the past, and she’s just on this journey to get back home while also discovering herself and helping to save this world that she kind of inadvertently messed up in the past. And so, it’s this crazy fantasy story, like this African fantasy story or Congolese fantasy story, but it’s going to be done in Japan within the anime style. So, it’s definitely going to be the first of its kind. And we’re working with. So, the story and the production is by N LITE Studios, and then I’m directing this. And our production partner is juvie, and we’re also working with M2 and Maruyama San. It’s got some great people involved.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So, this will be released in U.S?

Arthell Isom
It’s going to be released worldwide in the theater. So, it’s a theatrical. We’re doing it for theatrical. So please, everyone watch it and support us. I know it’s going to be in most of the countries that we can get it into.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. Great. MFINDA.

Arthell Isom
Yes.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay. Congratulations. Well, I’ll be looking forward to watch that film.

Arthell Isom
Cool. Thank you.

Shunsuke Ochiai
All right. Thank you for your time, Arthell.

Arthell Isom
Okay. Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Thank you.