A Popular Female Idol Was Temporarily Replaced With A Fake

The producers of a popular idol group found themselves between a rock and a hard place after their star performer became too ill to perform. This difficult situation resulted in an unconventional solution.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 松井珠理奈　Jurina Matsui (@jurinamatsui3)

Idol and actress Matsui Jurina is a former member of Japanese girl groups SKE48 and AKB48. Fans of the K-Pop survival show Produce 48 might remember her as one of the show’s standout contestants. Unfortunately, a few months after Jurina joined the show in 2018, she collapsed on stage during a concert for AKB48’s election process. Through the election, voters chose the member who would be AKB48’s new center: Jurina.

unnamed (1) — Matsui Jurina (center) during “Produce 48”

Due to health concerns, Jurina halted all activities–including Produce 48–and began a brief hiatus just a month after earning the center position. At the time, AKB48 had dozens of members, but not a single one could replace Jurina in the group’s next music video due to how AKB48’s voting process worked. Fans had been encouraged to buy multiple copies of the same AKB48 album to earn more ballots to vote in the election. In other words, the people who had spent money to elect Jurina as center might not have been too pleased to see another member take her place.

Still, the show must go on. Instead of replacing Jurina with a fellow member, the producers for AKB48’s “Sentimental Train” music video temporarily replaced her with manga-style storyboard illustrations and CGI. During dance scenes, a CGI version of Jurina was added to the center of the formation. Her spoken dialogue was replaced by subtitles, and close-ups of her hands were reportedly those of a body double.