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AKB48's Team B Singers Create Anime Short for TV Show

Eight members of Team B from the 48-member female idol group AKB48 are producing at least one anime short for the group's regular television program, AKB48 Kami TV Season 2. Kazuno Urano, Aika Ōta, Yuki Kashiwagi, Haruka Katayama, Rino Sashihara, Haruka Nakagawa, Sayaka Makaya, and Mayu Watanabe are creating the new anime about a mascot character themselves; the eight members not only develop the anime's characters and stories, but also reportedly produce the storyboards, animation drawings, sound effects, and dialogue recording themselves. The two "B Men yo, Anime o Kake!" ("B Men, Draw Anime!") episodes about the making of the anime will premiere on July 31 and August 7 on the CS Family Gekijō channel.

The same Team B starrred in an unrelated online manga last year called AKB48 Sprout (pictured at right). The name of the overall AKB48 group is inspired by "Akiba" or Tokyo's Akihabara otaku shopping district. The first time many Japanese (who are not otaku) had heard AKB48 singing live was when the group performed during the heavily watched Kōhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Battle) competition on New Year's Eve 2007. Due to the ever-changing roster, there are actually less than 48 members in AKB48 currently.

AKB48 performed theme songs for the Deltora Quest and ICE anime projects. The contemporary artist and occasional anime creator Takashi Murakami illustrated the jacket for the AKB48 idol group's June 24 single, "Namida Surprise!" In return, AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto wrote the lyrics for the "First Love" tie-in song for Murakami's "Superflat First Love" anime short.

Source: Natalie