With elections being held for stray cat idols, it was only a matter of time before some keen producer put together an official idol group. Online cat shop Felissimo has created NKB48 (NeKoBu48), an idol group made up entirely of cats.

An obvious take-off of idol supergroup AKB48, NKB48 also hold elections to determine which cats are the cream of the crop. (Get it? Cats love cream? Cream of the...nevermind.) The winner of last fall's election was April, a cat from Osaka that is "a baby face, but can look after the house," according to Felissimo.

Of course, there's more to it than just looking at cute cat pictures online, because that's 50% of what anyone does online. The top ten ranked cats get their own merchandise, from profile cards to sticker sheets to microfiber hand towels. It makes sense that if you get worked up enough to vote on which cat is totally the cutest, you might be inclined to pick up some products with that cat's face on them.

With a few idol groups both real and virtual getting their own anime, I wonder if we'll ever see an animated version of NKB48. Would it be like Chi's Sweet Home multiplied by 48? Or would it anthropomorphize the cats into sexy catgirls? Actually, either seems probable.

[Via Crunchyroll]