VIDEO: AKB48 "Anata Ga Ite Kureta Kara"

In this new, tear-jerking video from Akihabara's super-idol-group AKB48, we see how the girls struggle to keep their chins up and smile but ultimately break down after coming to the realization that the best they can ever hope to achieve after they hit 16 is maybe a long, drug-addled career in the porn industry. Faced with the massive debt owed by their families to their gangster "agents," the young girls have no other choice but to remain in the seamy world of massage parlors, host clubs and human trafficking. Sure, maybe some day they will be able to climb out of the gutter, but memories of their daily brutalization will haunt their every move, causing them to fall back, time and again, into a downward spiral of fear, shame and crippling sadness.

At least that's what *I* think about when I watch this. You might have a slightly different reaction.