Aimi Eguchi, the latest star of the popular girl band AKB 48, told fans on her website that she was a normal 16-year-old from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo who enjoyed track and field sports. Her cute features made her a fan favorite and quickly created a buzz. She soon took center stage in this candy commercial.
Miss Eguchi blogged that her goal is “to become a new idol like never before by taking the best parts of my AKB big sisters”. This was true, but in a creepy-Frankenstein kind of way.
Turns out that Aimi Eguchi is in fact a composite CGI creation using the body parts of the other 7 band members.
“Her less than organic origins were exposed when fans of the band became suspicious about the appearance of its newest member, remarking that she bore a striking similarity to some of her band-mates. While it is not unusual for new faces to join AKB – the band has 48 members with older girls often being replaced by newcomers when they “graduate” onto modelling and acting – something was obviously amiss.
And there were other clues. Her birthday – February 11 – is the date of the founding in 1922 of confectioner Ezaki Glico and rearranging the letters of her name in Japanese spells out the company’s name.
