Interest
WIRED: Good Smile Company Invested US$2.4 Million in 4chan
posted on by Kim Morrissy
WIRED obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. The New York Attorney General's office had requested the contract from 4chan as part of its investigation into the website's involvement in inciting the May 2022 mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.
The text of the deal also indicates that Nishimura invested US$800,000 of his personal funds. Kadokawa Dwango (then Dwango) invested $4.8 million; Nishimura served as Director of Niwango Inc., a subsidiary of Dwango, until 2013.
WIRED reported last May that it had obtained documents detailing a nondisclosure agreement involving Nishimura, Good Smile, and Kadokawa Dwango. Nishimura confirmed the relationship between Good Smile and 4chan in an interview with Shueisha Online last December. He stated that he and Good Smile president Takanori Aki met at an anime convention and became friends, but added that Good Smile Company is in the process of leaving the agreement.
According to an anonymous source at Disney interviewed by WIRED (not corroborated by ANN), Good Smile's licensing agreement with Disney will end in May. The source claimed that Disney has decided not to renew the deal after WIRED alerted the company of Good Smile's relationship with 4chan.
Good Smile is the company that develops the popular Nendoroid and Figma figure lines. Nendoroid figures are small figures of anime, manga, and pop culture characters portrayed in a super-deformed style and may have limited poseability and swappable faces. Figma is an action figure line of anime, manga, and pop culture characters focusing on high articulation and poseability.
In 2021, two former Good Smile employees claimed that the company funded 4chan in a cross complaint within a larger legal battle about their employment with the company. The former employees also accused Good Smile of distributing "potentially obscene sexually explicit anime products and merchandise" of underage characters, engaging in false designation of corporate officers as independent contractors, tax evasion, and improper licensing practices. According to WIRED, the lawsuit was settled out of court.
History of 2channel, 4chan, and Kadokawa Dwango
Nishimura founded the anonymous imageboard 2channel in 1999. The imageboard allows users to post images and messages anonymously and has more than 600 active "boards" dedicated to broad topics. The Densha Otoko story originated in the site, as well as multiple other social phenomena. Nishimura resigned from the 2channel company in 2002.
Inspired by 2channel, Christoper Poole founded the 4chan anonymous imageboard in 2003, initially to discuss anime. The site is the origin of many Internet memes and social phenomena. The site has gained notoriety for being the origin of the Anonymous hacktivist group and its open acceptance of offensive slurs and hate speech. Poole stepped down as the site's administrator and sold it to Nishimura in 2015.
Nishimura previously served as Director of Niwango Inc., the company that launched Nico Nico Douga, until 2013.
Dwango is the corporate parent of the game companies Spike Chunsoft and MAGES., as well as of Niwango. Nobuo Kawakami founded Dwango in 1997. After Kadokawa and Dwango merged in 2014 to form Kadokawa Dwango, Kawakami served as chairman of Kadokawa Dwango. Kawakami then switched positions with then-President Tatsuo Satō to become president of Kadokawa Dwango in June 2015. Kawakami stepped down as chairman and chief technology officer of Dwango in 2017.
Source: WIRED (Justin Ling)
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
