Japanese toy maker Good Smile Company finances the controversial, often hate-filled message board 4chanaccording to new documents discovered by Wired.
The toy company, which does business in the United States, is best known for its anime and game characters. The Nendoroid and Figma lines in particular are popular with collectors for their licensed figures: Good Smile has toy lines for games such as Overexpected, League of Legends, Horizon zero dawnAnd Cyberpunk 2077. Both Nintendo and Sega have licensed their characters for toys based on franchises such as Kirby, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Sonic and Animal Crossing. The Walt Disney Company is also a major partner, supplying dozens of Nendoroid toys for its various franchises, including Marvel and Star Wars.
Good Smile had to file documents with the New York General Attorney’s office during an investigation into 4chan’s role in the 2022 racist mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, which killed 10 people and injured three. These documents outline how 4chan owner Hiroyuki Nishimura got the bulletin board, inspired by the Japanese message board 2channel that Nishimura founded, from 4chan creator Christopher Poole in 2015. Nishimura donated most of the money for 4chan; Good Smile Company bought a 30% share of a $2.4 million investment, Wired reported, and has been quietly involved with the website for years.
A Good Smile representative confirmed to Polygon in 2021 that the toy company was a “passive investor” in 4chan, but did not share the scope of the deal. News of the Japanese company’s investment was first alleged in lawsuits obtained by Polygon; Good Smile and two of its former employees have sued each other over a contract dispute involving a Stranger things drive thru event. Guy Brand and James Young-sik Kim, the two former employees, also accused Good Smile of tax evasion, discrimination and selling “oversexualized anime characters depicting minors”. That’s where the 4chan connection also came in – Brand and Kim invoked the anonymous image forum for its associations with mass shooters, Q-Anon and white nationalism. The two claimed that Good Smile had a 4chan office in its Tokyo headquarters and took advantage of the location. The lawsuit was later settled out of court.
New York Attorney General Letitia James will not pursue criminal charges against 4chan or its owners, but “at least one other law enforcement agency is still investigating the website,” Wired reported.
4chan has been a controversial site for years, but was brought to the fore after the shooting in Buffalo. From the shooter Manifesto of 180 pages references to racism and anti-Semitism removed from the site. Some also credit 4chan as a breeding ground for QAnon conspiracies, white supremacy and propaganda. On a surface level, the forum isn’t just used for those reasons – it also has gaming, cooking, and entertainment boards. But that influence is a dangerous current that runs through the entire site.
Good Smile would like to divest from 4chan, according to the report.
Good Smile’s connections to 4chan have made partners “anxious,” Wired said. Disney, one of Good Smile’s largest partnerships, will not renew its deal with the toy maker after Wired notified the company of its involvement with 4chan, the report said. Polygon has reached out to Disney and several other companies – Riot Games, Sega, Blizzard Entertainment and Nintendo – who have licensed characters for Good Smile’s toys. We’ll update this story when they respond.