Yeah, this isn’t creepy at all. The Glico confectionary company isn’t exactly widely known outside of east Asia, but in that part of the world it’s a household name. This is due in part to their sponsorship of something called AKB48, which is some J-pop version of Menudo except with Japanese schoolgirls instead of teenage Latino boys. AKB48 includes a lot of Japanese schoolgirls—fifty to sixty of them, at any given time. Each year girls compete to join various combos, and then move on once they start looking too adult to fill the role. Business as usual on planet Japan, yes? But Eguchi Aimi, the latest girl to join AKB48, is a bit different. Supposedly she narrowly missed joining the group in the twelfth competition, and was accepted this year. But Glico has revealed that Aimi is in fact a virtual composite, created in a not-at-all Frankensteinian way from the physical features of various meatspace members of the group:

The new girl is a virtual character and composite image of – bear with us, many young Hongkongers know these names – Minami Takahashi (face shape), Yuko Oshima (hairstyle), Atsuko Maeda (eyes), Mayu Watanabe (eyebrows), Tomomi Itano (nose) and Mariko Shinoda (mouth).

The Telegraph has a video showing precisely how this horrific feat was accomplished (a video which is a skosh light on the technical details, I might add). Credit where credit is due, Aimi comes closer to avoiding the Uncanny Valley than almost any virtual creation I’ve seen. There’s also a link to Glico’s website, where you can mix and match features from various members of AKB48 to create your own virtual Japanese schoolgirl. And while you’re working on that project, maybe you should just have a seat over there.