Japan’s newest pop singer is actually a CGI creation

By Andrew Couts June 22, 2011

Aimi-Eguchi-Ezaki-Glico-CGI — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Fans of the popular Japanese pop group AKB 48 received a shocking surprise recently when an entirely new member appeared with the group in a commercial for candy maker Ezaki Glico . The pretty new star’s name was Aimi Eguchi, according to her profile on the AKB 48 website, and everybody was frantically trying to discover more about this 16-year-old singer who had appeared suddenly in the limelight, seemingly out of nowhere.

It turns out, however, that Aimi Eguchi doesn’t really exist. The AKB 48 member is actually a 100 percent computer-generated character, created entirely for the Ezaki Glico ad campaign. Her look is a composite of all the “best features” from the real-life members of AKB 48 that appear in the commercial: a nose from one, eyes from another, mouth from another, etc. Her name is derived from the name of the candy company. And her alleged birthday, February 11, is, in fact, the date on which the company was founded.

The candy maker finally revealed its massive marketing prank this past Sunday when it released a making-of video that showed how Aimi Eguchi came into this world.

If you’re thinking that you’d be able to catch the fake, take a look at the video below and see the masterful CGI work by the commercial’s creators. Even after giving the quick (15 second) clip repeat viewings, knowing full well the truth, Eguchi still looks just as real as the rest of them.

Another mind-blowing factor that likely played a role in fooling AKB 48 fans is that the group has 61 (real) members. Yes, that’s right: There are 61 members of AKB 48. With that in mind, it doesn’t seem so improbable that fans would accept a new member just popping out of thin air.

While some fans were surely devastated that the new AKB 48 member was nothing more than 150 gigabytes of data, others reportedly took a more philosophical approach to the revelation.

“Although Eguchi is not a real person,” says Channel News Asia, “some observers say she possesses the purest essence of what an idol is – a completely artificial persona created by putting together the traits that fans love the most.”

Ain’t that the truth…

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…

Computing

Samsung’s crazy 57-inch curved 4K monitor is $700 off today

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch mini-LED gaming monitor placed on a desk.

Your investment in gaming PC deals will go to waste if you don't upgrade your screen, and if you're willing to splurge for the best possible gaming experience, you'll want to go for the 57-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 curved gaming monitor. It's pretty expensive at its original price of $2,500, so you're going to want to take advantage of any discounts that are available. Fortunately, Samsung has slashed its price by $700 so it's down to $1,800 -- it's still not cheap, but once you're playing your favorite games on this monitor, you'll quickly understand why it's worth every single penny.

Why you should buy the 57-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 curved gaming monitor
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 curved gaming monitor features a 57-inch screen with dual 4K Ultra HD resolution and a 1000R curvature, so it will fully immerse you in the worlds of the video games that you play with its lifelike details and vivid colors. It also supports HDR 1000 for better visual accuracy, and it uses Quantum Matrix technology for controlled brightness and improved contrast.

Computing

This Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with 32GB of RAM is 35% off right now

lenovo thinkpad t16 laptop deal april 2024 promotional render

Lenovo often has some of the best laptop deals around with the current price on the Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 2 one of the more appealing right now. Usually priced at $2,069, it’s down to $1,345 for a limited time only. Granted, the original price is one of Lenovo’s estimated value system prices so it may be overly optimistic but whatever the true discount, $1,345 is a great price for a system packed with great hardware. If you want to learn more about it, scroll down while we take you through everything.

Why you should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T16
Lenovo is one of the best laptop brands for business laptops and the Lenovo ThinkPad T16 Gen 2 is a perfect example of that for work purposes. It has an AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U processor along with a huge 32GB of memory. There’s also 1TB of SSD storage so you won’t run out of room for all your most valuable files.

Deals

This mini PC, and I do mean mini, has a Ryzen 7000 tucked inside for $200 off

Geekom A7 Mini PC with AMD Ryzen 7 for gaming showcased.

Computing, or small computing, has come a long way in recent years. Thanks to renewed interest in more manageable desktop sizes, even for PC gaming, we've seen a boon in the small PC world, namely with small form factor PCs (SFFPCs). For good reason, people are more interested in systems that take up less space, are more efficient, especially with energy usage, and can be placed in new areas, like their living rooms. There is now a whole category of small and mini PCs, and although they are bite-sized, they still pack a punch. Take Geekom's A7 Mini PC, which has an AMD Ryzen 7000 series tucked inside. That's no slouch on its own, but it also has 64GB of DDR5 RAM, WiFi 6E, and AMD Radeon graphics that supports up to four displays. All of that is packed inside an ultra-slim, space-saving case about the size of a book. Incredible. The top-tier model is currently $200 off, down to $649 instead of $849, when you use code digitaltrendsa7 at checkout. That code is valid in the US and the UK.

Why you should buy the Geekom A7 Mini PC