You may be familiar with AKB48, the ridiculously ubiquitous girl group with a ridiculously large roster of pretty young things. Seriously, these girls are everywhere; at the bike shop encouraging cycling safety, at the grocery store hawking vegetables, at Christmas there was even an AKB48 Cake available at every 7-11!

There have been a number of spinoffs and knockoffs. The initials stand for Akihabara, but there are Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka incarnations of the group. And now? Now Gunma has one too!

Welcome, AKG48! The G apparently represents Gunma, and the initials are also a reference to our own Mt. Akagi. Also, the ‘A’  represents akaruku or brightly, ‘K’ stands for kawaiku or cutely and ‘G’ stands for genkiyoku or cheerfully.

There’s 100 total members, with a huge range of ages (including some very, very young girls.) When I first saw Time Out Tokyo‘s story on the mega-Gunma Group, they mentioned that AKG beats AKB physically, 2.08 to one, so I was slightly worried that the AKG actually referred to kilograms. I’m relieved that it’s not a weight-based group, especially since there is actually one based on age!

Still, I bet our Gunma girls could take those Tokyo chickies in a fight. Gunma is famous for strong winds and strong women, and I’m sure our very own girl group is no exception. Even if their music is (probably) garbage.

Oh, and if you’re in the area AKG48 will be performing at Keyaki Walk (the mall in our town) this Friday at 2pm and 4pm! How, um, exciting. (I’m kind of hoping for a performance of Sandcastles in the Sand, myself…)