What You Need to Know:
- Yesterday, it was announced that the popular Japanese toymaker, Good Smile Company, is being sued by two former executives of the company for selling "oversexualized" products of underage characters in anime to the public without an age gate.
- This is brought to light after a cross-complaint was filed against the company in California by former employees, Guy Brand and James Young-sik Kim after Good Smile Company sued the two former executives last year in 2020 for an alleged breach of contract.
- Guy Brand and James Young-sik Kim were working on a campaign for Good Smile Company when they allegedly secretly stole inside information to use and promote their own company behind Good Smile Company’s back. This led to Good Smile suing them for stealing sensitive information and also stealing a major client from them during a campaign deal.
- In addition, Good Smile Company alleges the two former executives of the company also stole other opportunities for their own secret company, Imaginary People, involving making masks and hats during the pandemic.
- With that, it looks that former employees, Guy Brand and James Young-sik Kim, are counter-suing Good Smile Company saying they promote and profit off of underage and oversexualized characters in the anime industry, claiming they do not have an age gate nor require consumers to be of legal age to purchase such products.
- Furthermore, Brand and Kim are also claiming that Good Smile Company has invested heavily in the popular and controversial forum, 4-Chan, for the companies personal gain. This is disregarding the fact that 4-Chan allows very controversial content in the forum including white supremacy/nationalism and Q-Anon.
- Brand and Kim have said during their tenure at Good Smile Company, that concerns regarding certain licensors like Nintendo, Hasbro, and Disney would likely distance themselves if they saw such oversexualized content/products next to their own IPs via Good Smile Company.
- As of now, everything is up in the air but the lawyers for Brand and Kim say that their lawsuit “speaks for itself”.
Source: Polygon
Oh, boy... This doesn't look good for Good Smile...
In a way, I'm not too surprised by this since Japanese had already begun cracking down on such topics in the industry...