Good Smile's 20th year of renewal, what is its aim? In commemoration of the online event "WONDERFUL HOBBY LIFE FOR YOU! 32", a long interview with Takuro Akiyama, Director, Part 2!

Good Smile Company, which has been pushing the cutting edge of all kinds of Japanese pop culture, including figures, plastic models, anime, goods, and games, will celebrate its 20th anniversary in May 2021.

During this anniversary year, from February 11 to 23, 2021, the online event "WONDERFUL HOBBY LIFE FOR YOU! 32 (a.k.a. One Hobby 32)" will be held from February 11 to 23, 2021.

This event was originally scheduled to be held within the "Wonder Festival 2021 [Winter]" on February 7, 2021, but following its cancellation due to the declaration of a state of emergency following the spread of the new coronavirus, Good Smile Company (hereafter, Good Smile) has decided to hold the event on its own. Good Smile Company (hereinafter referred to as "Good Smile") has decided to hold its own event.

The event will feature new Good Smile products and information online, as well as online sales of limited-edition goods and a live broadcast program, and is expected to entertain hobby fans around the world with content as substantial as that of the real event.

Prior to One Hobby 32, Akiba Research Institute conducted an interview with Takuro Akiyama, director of Good Smile, who has been with the company for 20 years, and talked for two hours about the history of Good Smile and its future.

We hope you enjoy the second part of the interview as much as we did the first part.

In 2012, we reached a higher stage as a company

─ In 2012, you began hiring new graduates. The start of new graduate hiring gives a sense that the company is moving to a higher stage.

Akiyama: The company has grown as well. Up until then, we had been building a team of immediate workers by recruiting experienced people or asking them to introduce their acquaintances to take on the job, as if we were patching a problem where there was something they wanted to do but they did not have enough people to do it. However, by this time, we had all the functions we needed as a manufacturer, so we decided to let new graduates join the company and work in the Good Smile style, or rather, let people who have acquired a firm grasp of Good Smile's thinking play an active role. We are starting to let people do what they want to do with the company's functions in a more free and challenging manner.

I think that if you keep doing the same thing professionally for a long time, your ideas can become rigid.

─ ─ In 2013, ULTRA TOKYO CONNECTION, LLC was established for the North American market. Following China, we have embarked on the American market.

Akiyama: Good Smile Company has always had a very strong overseas orientation, but in order to respond to specific needs, it was inevitably too far from Japan, so we established a company locally to increase conversations with local people and conduct sales.

─ Around this time, you have a variety of series, and now you are trying to expand them to the rest of the world, isn't that right?

Akiyama: That's right. There are people all over the world who want goods from Japan, including those handled by Good Smile. But if you go to China, for example, there are local works that were born in China, and an increasing number of young Chinese people today have been watching only Chinese anime since they were small children.

The same goes for the United States. There are many more works in America, so people who like Japanese works are rather niche. In America, there are local movies, cartoons, and games. At first, we wanted to commercialize Japanese characters in a cute, fun, and beautiful way and deliver them to people all over the world, but gradually we realized that if we could take our ideas, our ability to create, and our ability to mass produce beautiful products and deliver them to fans in other countries, we would be able to create more Gusma fans. I am beginning to think that we can create more Gusma fans and that they will be pleased with our work. So in 2018, we established Good Smile Arts Shanghai in China, a manufacturer that aims to discover Chinese content and talent. What we make there are almost exclusively figures of Chinese works.

Nendoroid Iron Man Mark 42: Hero's Edition + Hall of Armor Set

─ It is true that in recent years there has been an increase in the number of items with overseas content, such as Chinese works and Marvel products.

Akiyama: Yes. If you want, I don't think we need to develop the "Nendoroid" format anymore. We are a company that has grown through the Nendoroid business, and we want people to know that, but if there is a project or design that will please local people, we would like to do it innocently.

─ ─ Or maybe we could make three-dimensional versions of popular characters from various countries.

Akiyama: I think of that as part of my mission, too. (laughs).

─ ─ That is why we sometimes produce mysterious products that make people wonder, "Will this sell in Japan? (laughs). (laughs). That's the depth of the company's nostalgia, isn't it? I would like to take this opportunity to ask you, but Good Smile Company's recent commercialization has been so maniacal that I have lost track of the line that says, "As expected, this can't be commercialized. Could you tell us what you consider to be the NG line for commercialization?

Akiyama: That is ...... almost never. However, even if we create products under the same challenge framework, one of us is willing to do it. If the other side says they did it because they were told to do it under the challenge framework, the one who is not enthusiastic will not give the OK. There is nothing to gain. Even if the result is the same, the person in charge of the project will gain something if he or she has a strong passion for the project.

When you try your best to sell a product, you think of various things and try them out. If they succeed, of course, but even if they fail, there is something to be gained.

Nendoroid Nezatsu DX Ver. Nendoroid Nezamu is a character from the Chinese film animation "Nezamu: The Descent of the Demon Child".

Unexpected increase in female users

───And in 2014, Nendoroid number 500 will be released.

Akiyama: Is it still number 500? Around this time, the Rakugetsu factory was established in Tottori. The Nendoroid Sakura Miku Bloomed in Japan was produced there.

Nendoroid Sakura Miku Bloomed in Japan, the 500th Nendoroid

─ ─ In 2015, the first "Chain Bar" from the mecha figure series "GOOD SMILE ARMS" was released, and the "Oranger Rouge" brand specializing in male characters was also launched.

Akiyama: "Oranger Rouge" is a brand specializing in male characters and has a high percentage of female users.

My personal impression was that until then the figure market was dominated by male-oriented bishojo figures, but I was surprised that a brand targeting mainly female customers had emerged, and wondered if such an era had finally arrived.

Akiyama: I was surprised, too. Mikazuki Munechika from "Sword Dance: ONLINE-" sold particularly well, and I was genuinely surprised that women were now buying figures.

POP UP PARADE Ryunosuke Akutagawa" is scheduled for release in May 2021 from Oranje Rouge.

─ ─ When did you feel that the number of female users in particular had increased?

Akiyama: It was "Sword Dance: ONLINE-", after all. When we released the Nendoroid and scale figures, I realized that the number of female users was really increasing.

At the time, I thought the number of people buying figures was decreasing in Japan. It was the heyday of shadow games, and men, especially high school students and men in their 20s, were spending more and more money on gacha, and although the scale of the figure industry seemed to be flat, product prices were slowly rising, so I felt that even if the number of figures sold was decreasing, it was balanced out by the fact that the number of figures sold was also increasing. But in fact, it was the sales that were supporting the company's sales.

But in fact, it was the female fans who had started to buy new figures that were supporting our sales. This became clear to me when I saw the sales of "Sword Dance: ONLINE-" and Oranje Rouge.

Until then, there were female fans who bought figures of their favorite bishojo characters. However, I think a different demographic has become figure users. I think the female figure market expanded dramatically during this period.

*Quotes from the Nendoroid 10th Anniversary Special Site

─ ─ In 2016, the head office moved to its current location. Then anniversary-like events were held, such as the "Nendoroid 10th Anniversary LIVE" event at the Makuhari Event Hall and the "Good Smile Company 15th Anniversary Exhibition" in Akihabara. Finally, the company entered the game with the smartphone RPG "Grand Summoners (Grasshopper)".

Akiyama: We launched it. And soon after the launch, it was out of the top 200 (laugh). (Bitterly.) Ordinary companies would have given up there, but Good Smile Company has been updating and maintaining the game for a year and a half, and now it has a fixed fan base and is gaining some popularity overseas as well.

─ ─ That's what's so amazing. Even if you fall down, you don't just get up.

Akiyama: There are a few staff members who are still involved in the company, but at that time, there were only three of us, including executives Angei and Iwasa and one game-loving staff member, working together with NextNinja, a development and management company. And the whole time we were playing the game, we were following the users' conversations on Twitter and talking about improvements all the time. Even during meetings, I kept my phone by my side and kept "Glassama" running.

─ Even though you have become a large company, you have never stopped your steady efforts, and that is a good thing, isn't it?

Akiyama: I guess people still want to know. No matter what results are achieved, there are always reasons and processes that lead to them. Knowing this, we come up with hypotheses about what we can do next, and then we want to try them out. We look closely at the numbers, but we also focus on the emotional aspect of the user, and our preferred approach is to follow both sides of the equation as we explore.

─ ─ Thinking from the perspective of the fans in particular is a Good Smile Company approach that has never changed, no matter what era or content.

Akiyama: I hope that is the case for all of us. Whenever I attend an event, I always look to see where the customers are running to first, but I don't know why, so I ask around about why it is so popular.

Good Smile's lineup further expands with plastic models and alloy toys

───The Akiba CO Gallery opened in November 2017.

Akiyama: We held an event there called the "Fate/Grand Order Figure Gallery" and called on more than 20 companies in the industry to display their "Fate/Grand Order" figures.

I planned this event on my own, but when I go to Comiket and other events, young people ask me, "Do you know about this? Fate" was originally a PC novel game ( "Fate/stay night" was released in 2004 as a visual novel for PC )," and I thought, "Of course that's true," but the only thing they were interested in was "FGO But the only thing these young people were interested in was "FGO. They only knew "Fate" as a social game. I wanted them to know that there were more products like this, and that there were also figurines, so we held the event with the cooperation of the publishers and manufacturers. As a result, we had about 10,000 visitors in one month.

─ You also established "Good Smile Film," a company that produces animation works.

Akiyama: We have Ultra Super Pictures, which is in charge of production, as well as other studios within the group, and it was a time when we were planning to get more deeply involved in animation production. We decided to establish the company.

─ In December, the doll brand "Harmonia bloom" was launched.

Akiyama: That's right. I had been interested in dolls for a long time, and one of our employees, a new graduate who really likes dolls, was very passionate about them, so we decided to do it. Dolls are very expensive, and I think it is a particularly difficult category of character merchandising, including figurines. However, I think that our strength lies in the fact that we can produce a wide range of products, from capsule toys priced at 200 to 300 yen to dolls priced at 50,000 to 60,000 yen.

Harmonia bloom rose

─ I have the impression that the population of dolls has increased over the past few years.

Akiyama: I think it has increased, and the word "doll" itself is being used more and more often. Until now, I had the impression that the world of doll events and doll fans was a closed one, but as a result of the community that has been fostered through the Internet, where photos are posted, shared, and conversations are started on SNS, I have the impression that awareness has increased significantly. I have the impression that this has resulted in a large increase in awareness of the company.

─ You also started a plastic kit series called "MODEROID," which includes robots and other items.

Akiyama: A producer named Hiro Tanaka, who originally developed toys for Bandai, joined our team, and plastic models were released by Good Smile Company. I didn't know much about mecha models, so I asked him to do what he wanted, and he came up with more and more interesting ones.

─ ─ I am always excited to see what will be released next in this series.

Akiyama: That's right. What is interesting is that the range of Hiro's tastes is right in line with the target audience of people in their 40s and 50s. The key points are that the creator and the users share the same original experience and that, although it is a bit guerrilla-like, they also offer lineups that are not offered by major manufacturers. Goodsma is able to commercialize products with a quantity and sales level that would not be possible with a major company. Conversely, MODEROID has started working on characters that there are a certain number of people who like, but have not been fortunate enough to commercialize, and I think people are surprised and pleased at the same time.

However, when it comes to the "Great Zeorimer," which only appears in the "Super Robot Wars" game, I thought that was a bit too much (laughs).

MODEROID Great Zeorimer

─ ─ When I saw "Great Zeorimer," I wondered what Good Smile Company's NG standards were.

Akiyama: We often do questionnaires on what we would like to see merchandised. We have a vague sense of the age groups and user segments, and when we look at the survey numbers, we realize that there is a connection between here and there, and when we announce the commercialization of a product, we always get a response. Then, when we announce the commercialization of the product, we always get a reaction, like, "Oh, I knew it. If there is this kind of relationship, then this one from this time period would be good, too. It's like that.

Good Smile Company is now more like a general hobby company than a figure maker.

Akiyama That's right. Figures are our main business, but I think our image as a hobby manufacturer that develops a variety of products is getting stronger.