Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chloe Trent & Sydni Cunningham . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Chloe Trent & Sydni Cunningham thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Chloe Trent is an artist who got her BFA in Graphic Design and MBA in Business Management from the University of North Texas. Sydni Cunningham is a producer/ writer who earned her BFA in Broadcast Journalism with a concentration in Digital and Broadcast Media. Since their friendship started in middle school, they have loved anime, cartoons, storytelling, manga, and more. They both loved art and always enjoyed making doodles, with Chloe pursuing her passion by studying graphic design. Sydni said she discovered her love for writing when she learned about the joys of writing in grade school. She was inspired to apply those scenarios to her writing and improve on them through her love of watching anime series. Sydni said, “These factors were the perfect storm to create a story. We came up with the idea for Youso to Sekai when we were waiting outside our High School band hall after band practice”. Sydni was swinging around a beaded bracelet when Chloe joked that it would be funny if they could step on the beads and summon spirits. After that, Sydni did some research, and after some discussion, they decided to create a story based on the idea of summoning spirits through a beaded bracelet. As their passion for storytelling grew, they quickly developed characters and stories that reflected what they enjoyed the most. They began crafting character designs and researching cultural history to build their narrative. The story’s underlying theme is influenced by Sydni’s fascination with death and rebirth. The villains are influenced by their religious backgrounds, which illustrate the seven deadly sins of the Bible. Since they attended the same University and were roommates, they developed the story further during their free time, and Youso to Sekai was born.

Chloe Trent & Sydni Cunningham , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We decided to push the story further by creating a light novel, with the first volume to be released in 2024. We want to have all six volumes of the series completed by 2032. At the same time, we will release a webcomic, which we plan to turn into an animated series by 2035. We are aware this is an ambitious project, but we must put effort into that dream to make it grow.

Youso to Sekai is a fantasy with historical influence from different cultures and periods. It has a range of archetypes but no definitive good or bad guys, just people striving to do what is best for their cause. After all, human nature is not always black or white, and there is a reason for every action. The story delves deeper into the psychological breakdown of human nature through characters that have suffered through the loss of family members, childhood abuse, slavery, and more. It hurts to create characters and stories about people that have suffered so much, but it is essential to learn from serious topics and make the audience reflect on the stories shared. Youso to Sekai is an innovative product that is entertaining, compelling, and teaches morals.

We are truly grateful to continue this journey with each other. Despite having busy careers and facing everyday obstacles, we have stayed persistent in developing our craft. We are most proud of our various characters, with different personalities, and how they handle serious subject matters faced by men and women in society.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The Youso to Sekai series focuses on characters with different backgrounds, and historical events are involved. Sydni loves history, and we found it inspiring to create characters with names that tie back to a particular culture. Each character’s name has a special meaning that ties back to the show’s theme or background. For example, each Youso spirit’s name is tied to their element, and Sydni said she used the origin of their names to build their backgrounds. “Topaz means fire and has an Old English origin, and Shant comes from the name Shango which means Thunder God and has an African origin. Since they are siblings, I decided to fuse these two factors to give them a British/African ethnic background and designate them as the fire and lightning spirits. Orfeo means darkness in Italian, so Feo becomes the darkness spirit with Italian origins. Anila means wind in Hindi, so she was given the title of the Youso Wind spirit. Knucker means water dragon in Old English, but we altered his origins to be french. Suzo comes from the name Suzon which means lily in Hebrew, and lastly, the Youso Light spirit was given that title due to her name meaning light in Japanese. The main protagonist’s name Tatsuya means master in Japanese, and his last name, Minamoto, means origin, which relates to his family’s role as the guardians who created the Youso bracelet. The heroine, Suna, means star, which ties into her family’s role as watchers of the Minamoto family. The villains’ names are always tied back to the theme of the story. Michika means ambition and hope, which ties into her relationship with her older black sheep brother Masato. His name means true man illustrating his parents’ intention of having him be their one true heir. Their surname Kurayami means darkness which reflects the nature of their family’s deeds.”

Although multiple characters will be present throughout the series, seven of the characters are elemental spirits (Translation: Youso to Sekai) who are reborn to protect humanity. Two characters (the lightning and fire spirit) lived through American slavery in the 1800s and were stolen from their home in West Africa as children. To understand the context of what these two characters would face as enslaved people, we had to do extensive primary and secondary research to help the reader understand the painful and traumatizing experiences of American slavery. In Youso to Sekai, there is another character, the darkness spirit. He was an Italian runaway living in Japan in the 1980s and later became entangled in the Yakuza. This character was forced to do tasks that endangered his life on multiple occasions, which led to his sister being assaulted by someone the character viewed as a brother figure.

We both don’t have any Japanese background, so we had to read articles to learn about Yakuza customs and how they influenced Japanese culture in the 80s. Another character was born in France during the French Revolution and came from a noble family. To properly develop this character, we had to explore the french language, entertainment, clothing, food, and much more to craft a character that accurately showcased a person from that time. Therefore we plan to conduct interviews and questionnaires for people who regularly travel or are still heavily involved with their country. We also plan to go to various countries outside of America to learn the culture for ourselves and gain more historical context to support our story.

Finally, we both came from religious backgrounds and decided to use our Christian upbringings as inspiration for some of the main themes seen throughout the story. Our story will involve Bible themes and display the destructive nature of humans driven by emotions, desires, and pain. This story element is further illustrated by the main antagonist, who comes from an organization that creates demons to terrorize humans. The central villain organization falls under seven households, representing the seven deadly sins.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Research the best methods based on where you want to take your brand

Know what platform your brand would do best on

Numbers are good, but they don’t determine your success or dictate the value of your content.

Make sure to build content to post on social media; perfecting your craft or product is the best thing you can do before promoting your business.

Use other people in your niche area as a guide for your platforms, but avoid getting caught up in all the methods they try; what works for them may not work for you.

Take your time with your content; sometimes, you must post to see what works.

Have a consistent posting schedule, it doesn’t have to be every day, but it needs to be the same days, at the exact times, every week.

Different platforms require different methods to make posts go viral.

Hashtags are excellent, but Instagram said they are no longer a way to make posts go viral, this only goes for some platforms, but if you want to start on Instagram, this is helpful to remember.

Video content may be a growing form of content on sites like Instagram, Youtube, and Tiktok, but photos are still lovely to view from time to time.

Remember to make the content you genuinely enjoy, have fun, and don’t sweat the small stuff
When you go out and meet people who seem to have similar interests that could relate to your brand, try to introduce them to your brand

Contact Info:

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• Twitter: @yousotosekai
• Other: TikTok -yousotosekai22