Good Smile Company

• 1. Introduction

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  Good Smile Company sells some of the most recognizable figurines in the world, yet the company began not as a toy manufacturer but as an event management and talent agency. Takanori Aki founded it in May 2001, and within a few years the business had pivoted so completely toward hobby products that its original purpose is almost a footnote today. How does a company go from managing events to sponsoring Formula One drivers, co-financing anime, and buying a stake in one of the internet's most controversial message boards? That is the question this documentary sets out to answer.

• 2. From Events to Figures

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  Takanori Aki's original vision in May 2001 was talent and event management, but an early working relationship with Max Factory pulled the company toward hobby products. That partnership proved decisive. Good Smile Company shifted its energy toward planning, producing, manufacturing and selling accessories, figures and toys, with Max Factory becoming a company it also distributes rather than merely collaborates with alongside FREEing and Phat! Company.

  The two companies grew so intertwined that by June 2012 they shared a single headquarters, moving together from Matsudo, Chiba into the Tokyo Skytree's East Tower. The Nendoroid and Figma product lines became the company's most visible calling cards, with most pieces cast in PVC and based on characters from anime, manga and video games popular across Japan, China and Western markets. Properties as varied as Hatsune Miku, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Masters of the Universe all found their way into the catalogue, a range that speaks to how deliberately the company looked beyond its home market.

  At industry events like Wonder Festival, Good Smile Company and Max Factory regularly shared booth space, a public signal of how tightly their fates remained linked even as both grew into major brands in their own right.

• 3. Racing Under Miku's Colors

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  In 2008, Good Smile Company became the primary sponsor of Studie GLAD Racing in the GT300 class of Japan's Super GT series, wrapping the car in illustrations of the virtual pop star Hatsune Miku. The partnership with Studie lasted only two years before Good Smile split off to form its own independent entry, Good Smile Racing, in 2010.

  The team's debut season was modest. Drivers Taku Bamba and Masahiro Sasaki piloted a Porsche 911 GT3 and found little success. The second season rewrote that story entirely. Fielding a new BMW Z4 GT3 and bringing in Nobuteru Taniguchi alongside Bamba, the team won three of eight races and took the 2011 GT300-class title.

  Taniguchi stayed central to the team's fortunes for years afterward. Paired with Tatsuya Kataoka, he drove the team to further GT300 championships in 2014 and 2017, making Good Smile Racing one of the most successful GT300 outfits in Super GT history.

  In 2017 the team pushed beyond Japan, becoming the first Japanese GT3 team to enter the Spa 24 Hours of Intercontinental GT Challenge. The driver lineup that day included former Formula One driver Kamui Kobayashi alongside Taniguchi and Kataoka. That connection with Kobayashi runs deeper than a single race: Good Smile has been a personal sponsor of his since 2011, with the company's logo on his helmet and multiple figures bearing his likeness released during his Formula One career. For the 2019 Spa 24 Hours, Good Smile Racing expanded to three Mercedes-AMG GT GT3 cars in partnership with Type-Moon Racing, TRIGGER and German team Black Falcon, running liveries for Hatsune Miku, Fate and Promare. Maro Engel drove the Promare car to pole position and finished third, while the Hatsune Miku car placed third in the Silver class.

• 4. Anime and Ultra Super Pictures

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  Good Smile Company joined the production committees of numerous anime series beginning with Penguin Musume in 2008, a role that gave it both creative influence and commercial stakes in shows it could then merchandise. Titles ranged from CANAAN in 2009 to One Punch Man in 2015, with the company's Black Rock Shooter property appearing both as a 2009 pilot game and as a 2012 anime series it co-produced.

  Beyond individual shows, the company played a central role in consolidating smaller studios. It helped bring together four animation companies, Sanzigen, Trigger, Ordet and Liden Films, pooling their talent under a holding company called Ultra Super Pictures. That venture was designed not only to produce high-quality animation but also to handle licensing, general management and the training of new staff, all with an eye toward reaching audiences worldwide.

  The breadth of Good Smile's anime credits, from Dog Days and Symphogear to Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, reflects how thoroughly the company embedded itself in the production side of the industry it was simultaneously selling merchandise for.

• 5. The 4chan Investment

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  In 2020 Good Smile Company filed suit against former executives, a legal move that backfired in a very public way. The defendants countersued, and in doing so alleged that the company had invested in 4chan. That allegation was not just a legal claim; it was later confirmed by a partnership agreement obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

  The document revealed that when Hiroyuki Nishimura purchased 4chan for $8 million in 2015, Good Smile Company contributed $2.4 million and received a 30% share in return. The revelation attracted significant media attention, placing a company known for colorful figurines squarely in the middle of a debate about corporate responsibility and platform funding.

  Good Smile Company responded by publishing a statement characterizing its relationship with 4chan as limited. It also announced that the relationship had been severed in June 2022. The following year, in August 2025, the company made headlines again for a different reason, temporarily halting all shipments to the United States after the US government suspended the "de minimis" import exemption, a policy change that disrupted hobby product importers across the industry.