A look back at Good Smile Company's 20th anniversary! Online Event "WONDERFUL HOBBY LIFE FOR YOU! 32", a long interview with Takuro Akiyama, Director, Part 1!

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. The event will be held online.

The event will be held in conjunction with Good Smile Company's online exhibition of new Good Smile products and information, as well as online sales of limited-edition goods and a live broadcast program, and will be as rich in content as 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.

The long interview, which runs to about 25,000 words, is divided into two parts.

─ ─ This time, as Good Smile Company is celebrating its 20th anniversary, we would like to ask Mr. Akiyama, who has been a member of the company since its establishment, to look back on the history of the company. Please give us your best wishes.

Akiyama: Thank you very much. Good Smile Company was founded in 2001, wasn't it? Takanori Angei, our current president, and Junko Osawa, our director, were the founding members, and we started out as an entertainment production company. Originally, before founding the company, Angei was involved in the talent business of Banpresto and was running a voice actor production company. At that time, I was in charge of "KiraKira Melody Academy.

─ This is the legendary voice-over idol unit in which Masumi Asano, Mai Kadowaki, and Yui Sakakibara participated, isn't it?

Akiyama: That's right. The producer was Angei, who had 50 to 60 talents and had them form groups to compete with each other and do various projects.

─ Isn't this completely like AKB48?

Akiyama That's right. You could say that we were the pioneers of AKB48. At the time, while managing voice actors, we created a floor called "Contontown" in the basement of "Piazza Matsudo," the building that housed the headquarters of Banpresto in Matsudo, where various manufacturers and stores were located. One of the shops was a space called "Plastic Model Dojo," and the owner of the dojo was MAX Watanabe. This is where Mr. Watanabe met Mr. Angei. This was around 1998-1999. The two became closer and closer friends here.

I was a newcomer in the Location Business Department of Banpresto, which operates "Contontown" and was a clerk at "Contontown. It was there that I met the two of them and came into contact with the hobby.

At the time of its establishment in May 2001, only Osawa was still with the company, and Angei had left to join the company after that. soon after he left Banpresto to join Good Smile Company. We started the business in a small two-bedroom apartment in Shinmatsudo.

─ So it was a talent agency at first?

Akiyama That's right. I was transferred to Banpresto Hong Kong at the time and left "Contontown" for a while, but during that time, Angei was transferred to Good Smile Company, and MAX Watanabe was also writing and giving lectures, so while working as a talent affiliated with Good Smile Company, I was also involved in my main business, the hobby company "Max Factory". Max Watanabe was also writing and lecturing, and while working as a celebrity for Good Smile Company, he also ran his main business, the hobby manufacturer Max Factory.

Good Smile Company started the hobby business as a way of assisting MAX Watanabe and Max Factory, but it fell apart due to various problems in talent management, which was the company's main business. Then, around 2003, we began to turn our attention to producing Max Factory, a group of creators.

Representative Takanori Angei and MAX Watanabe ( quoted from the official ONEHOBBI website; photo taken in 2010)

───So you suddenly had a setback, or rather, you failed in your initial business.

Akiyama: I heard that you had a painful failure. He was really doing a lot of things at that time. Before I joined him in 2003, he was also helping to run "Tsuri Samurai," a nationwide fishing tackle shop. When the store was busy, Angei went to help out, and he was so skilled that he could scoop out 80 grams of aoishome without using a scale or anything.

While doing this, when he received various interesting consultations, he would not refuse them, but rather would support the creative process and produce interesting things in a "let's do it together" style. I think he has always had that kind of nature, or perhaps he really is a producer at heart.

So around 2003, I was still helping Max Factory with sales, manufacturing, and licensing, and we had not yet started up as a manufacturer.

Participation in Wonder Festival and holding stage events!

─ ─ And finally, Akiyama-san, you joined Good Smile Company.

Akiyama: The first figure I worked on was an early masterpiece called "Genesic GaoGaiGar," a MAX Alloy from Max Factory. It was a crazy product, heavy like a blunt weapon and full of sharp parts, and there were over 400 prototype parts alone. My first job was to check all those parts, make specifications, and contact the factory.

MAX Alloy GENESIC GAOGAIGER FINAL Ver." released in 2008.
The first version released around 2004 was brushed up and re-released.

After that, I was approached by a team of people who had been planning and producing figures for other manufacturers and who wanted to start their own company, and I suggested that they stay with us for a period of time until they were ready. This led to the creation of Good Smile Company's Akihabara Studio, where prototypes were made.

It was Angei's idea that there should be a wider variety of products, ideas, and styles in the hobby, and that it would be better to have a more diverse range of products.

Our first own-brand figure was the 1/8 Otome Asakura from "D.C.: Da Capo. We also made figures for "Fate", and when we were ready, the team became independent, and that's how the current members of "Alter" came to be.

─ ─ So that's where it all leads to now! I get the impression that you are accurately responding to the advice you receive.

Akiyama: I don't think they know it from the beginning, but for example, the prototype designers don't really realize how great they are. But from Angei's point of view, it's like, "That's great, isn't it? We should get this to more people," and so we helped them out in that style.

It was around 2005 to 2006 that Good Smile started to have a production team that could make prototypes, and in the process of forming as a manufacturer, we started to put together functions as a manufacturer, such as a sales team, an advertising team, and a manufacturing team.

─ ─ It was during this period that you quickly established yourself as a hobby manufacturer.

Akiyama: That's right. As a side note, it was in 2004 that we participated in the Wonder Festival for the first time. In the beginning, we had a space equivalent to two tables. At that time, unlike today, there were no corporate halls. At that time, no one was putting up trusses, and there were only dealer booths that had made a frame that looked like something you bought at a home improvement store and put up a banner on it to make it stand out a little. We were selling "Fate/stay night" accessories, not figurines at the time. We sold out about 30 of them. We were so excited (laughs).

After that, I applied for a table so that the place would be a square island, and I asked KAIYODO if I could take away the desk, saying, "Then you don't need a desk, do you?" I asked KAIYODO if I could stand up a truss to make the desk stand out instead of leaving it there and make it taller.

─ So you were conscious of how to stand out among similarly constructed dealer floors.

Akiyama: Yes. That's why we talked about inviting more people next time. People know that there are a lot of great works, but we want more people to know about them. So, first of all, we wanted to invite more people. The first thing we prepared for that purpose was a limited edition product. It is commonplace now, but the reason why we prepared limited items that could only be purchased at OneFest was because we wanted people to come to OneFest.

─ ─ Until then, there were no onefest limited edition goods?

Akiyama: Of course, the dealer's items could only be purchased on that day, but the manufacturers did not do that. We also had a stage in the booth, and invited guests to sing songs and give talk shows to introduce new anime. It was around 2005 to 2006 that we started to do these kinds of things to get people to come to the show and get to know each other.

I think this is where Angei's experience as a sales representative for entertainment production companies and game makers came in handy. I had experience in how to showcase show business in this area.

─ How was Kaiyodo's reaction?

Akiyama: They were very reluctant at first. They said, "What are you doing by inviting guests on stage? They said, "What are you going to do with a guest on stage? The first time we sang a song, they warned us to turn down the volume because it was too loud! I was warned to turn down the volume. So I would secretly turn up the volume when the staff left the stage (laughs).

A scene from the stage at "onehobbi 11" held in 2010 ( *Quoted from the official onehobbi website:)

─ ─ Ha-ha-ha. But the audience was pleased with that, too.

Akiyama: Yes. I am only talking about the event now, but for the past 10 years or so, it has become the norm for hobby products to be supplied in response to orders, but this was never the case in the hobby industry, which we just entered. When a manufacturer launches a product, they first make several thousand units, and after or during the production process, they take the products to wholesalers for purchase. If there is not enough, the wholesaler says, "Sorry, we don't have any stock.

But this doesn't grow the market. If there is a shortage, it is a lost opportunity, and if the product is in stock, the customer's demand is unknown.

In response to such a situation, the company decides to advertise well in advance and take orders properly. If we can obtain customer reactions to the orders we receive through events such as the One Festival, we can accumulate sensory values and data, which will help us make better predictions. We can then communicate the responses to production and make preparations for the factory. As a place to obtain such important information, the importance of Wonder Festival was increasing rapidly.

─ ─ At that time, there were still very few figure manufacturers, and the industry had an indie feel. I have the impression that the upstart Good Smile Company destroyed the industry's preconceived notions and pushed figures from being something only for enthusiasts to being a major hobby.

Akiyama I am glad to hear you say so. The term "figure" itself was not even a major one, and at the time, the term "figure" meant "chocolate egg? Until about 10 years ago, people had the impression that the finished product came out of a small bag, but over the past few years, I think the image of figures as large, detailed, colorfully painted, expensive character products has finally taken root.

The birth of the hit series "Nendoroid!

─ ─ In 2006, the "Nendoroid" series was launched.

Akiyama: At first, we didn't even have a name for the "Nendoroid" series. Originally, one of our staff members said, "Neko Arc," a character from "Tsukihime," was so funny and cute, wouldn't it be really cute if there was a figure of her in this size? I said, "Wouldn't it be really cute if there were a figure of this size? I made one as a trial and it was so cute that I decided to sell it at Onefest.

We thought it would be fun to reproduce special moves and play with it by replacing parts, so we tried selling it. We tried to sell them, and even though we had announced it in advance, they sold out immediately and many people said, "I can't buy them!

Neko Arc" is not so distorted from the original design. However, we felt that the balance of the body size and the size of the figure was very pleasing and cute, and from there the "Nendoroid" was born. The name "Nendoroid" is a combination of the word "Nendoroid," which refers to the soft lines of the figure, as if it were made out of clay, and the human shape.

This is the first commemorative Nendoroid! Nendoroid Neko Arc: "Conversion! Boo-Boo Face" version

─ ─ When it comes to deformed characters and their figures, there have been "Bikkuriman" characters and "SD Gundam" before that, but the body shape is different from those, isn't it?

Akiyama: I also think about the history of deformation, and the "Bikkuriman" and "SD Gundam" figures have an "A" silhouette with slightly spread limbs, but the "Nendoroid" has a large head and thin limbs. This kind of balance has not been seen before, but with the expansion of the Nendoroid line, I feel that it has become a standard format.

─ ─ And yet, the figure's limbs are still movable. This format is a great invention, isn't it?

Akiyama: At first, however, the Nendoroids were not well known, and I was often asked, "My name is Good Smile Company, and I'm a member of the Nendoroid series. I have a series of Nendoroid products." When I tried to sell them, I was often met with the response, "I don't know what they are, so I'm not going to do it this time. It was certainly difficult for us to get people to know about us at first. Figurines are hard to find on the shelves of toy stores, aren't they?

─ ─ At that time, even electronics mass merchandisers did not carry as many hobby-related products as they do now.

Akiyama That's right. Therefore, we had to find a place and a method to convey information to the customers in advance. We would take orders there, offer the products properly, and reprint them if there was demand, which is common practice now, but we started to do this around that time.

In 2007, we started a video distribution service called "Live One Hobby TV until Morning," which we also started because we thought it would be better for us to directly see users' reactions and gain a deeper understanding. Incidentally, we had been making Internet programs before this. This was before Nico Nico Douga was launched.

─ That was quite early on.

Akiyama: We also created an official Twitter account around 2010. I think we were the first hobby manufacturer to do so. At the time, we had created a page to introduce how to use Twitter, and we were the ones who encouraged people to use the hashtag "#WF" with the year and the words "winter" and "summer" to tweet about OneFest-related matters. In other words, we started it on our own. Hahahaha (laughs).

───Let's go back to the Nendoroids. In the early days, they were sold in various ways, such as in magazine supplements.

Akiyama: Yes, they were. We also released a small size "Nendoroid Petite". This was a measure to promote awareness of the Nendoroid line, and it was very effective. Now that we are doing more of our own projects, we don't do so many supplemental projects.

One of the most memorable Nendoroid appendices and bonus projects is the "Rofuko-chan". The DVD of "Yawaraka Sangokushi: Stick it! If you bought all the DVDs of "Yaraka Sangokushi Rofuko-chan," you got the "right" to buy a "Nendoroid Rofuko-chan OVA Ver," which was a bit of a hurdle to overcome and became a "legendary Nendoroid" (laughs).

At the time, I was in the mood to make Nendoroids of any cute and interesting character that I had the chance to.

Nendoroid Rofuko-chan OVA Ver.

─ But as you gained more and more experience, you became aware of what would and would not sell.

Akiyama: Yes. We also became aware of what kind of sales methods were best, and we settled on the fact that the best way to sell Nendoroids was to make them available for purchase at any time. At the time, "Nendoroids" were priced at about 3,000 yen, but the price of purchasing all DVDs was fairly reasonable ("Yawaraka Sangokushi" was in 4 volumes). For example, if the price of the "Nendoroid" was about the same as the price of the "Nendoroid" in addition to the Blu-ray, I would feel satisfied, but if it was more than that, it would be tough, or we haven't done much since then in the way of lottery-based sales, where you have to clear some kind of lottery to be able to buy the DVD.

───The appeal of "Nendoroids" is that they are casual and can be bought whenever you want to buy them, isn't that right?

Akiyama: I think ease of purchase is important. At the time, we were willing to do anything to reach new users. Looking at the initial lineup of Nendoroids, many of them were PC game characters. As we moved away from the "maniacal" characters and started to commercialize characters that everyone was familiar with, we began to think more about sales methods and ease of purchase.