AKB48

Grinwout's saw a squib somewhere that AKB48 was in Washington, D.C., recently, to give their American fans a chance to see them live. This group, according to The Washington Post, is among the highest earning musical acts in the world, pulling down $200 million last year from CD and DVD sales alone. By comparison, Taylor Swift earned $35 million. Now, if there were 56 more Taylor Swifts... Yep, not only do they make a lot of money, but there's a real lot of them:



AKB48 is something of a cross between the Rockettes, Lolita, and whatever comprises Tin Pan Alley these days. American groups are lucky to have 3 or 4 members. AKB48 have had as many as 90. And I know what you're thinking: they seem interchangeable. Which might explain Aimi Eguchi:



Yep again. So interchangeable that she's not real. I guess when all 57 of the AKB48ers are too busy elsewhere, you call in the clones. Made thus:



If you want to make your own Aimi Eguchi, there's a website for that. We at Grinwout's, with our limited knowledge of the Japanese language, didn't get too far. Which, when all is said and done, might have been a good thing. There's something scary about this whole enterprise. This is way too uncanny valley for the likes of us.