Contrary to popular hemming and hawing, the big problem with Oricon chart-dominating act AKB48 isn't their music. Their discography certainly contains misfires, but producer Yasushi Akimoto and company can pen great material for the dozens-strong group. Last year, they boasted two of the best songs in all of Japan: "Sugar Rush," one of the best songs Shonen Knife never wrote, and the surging "Uza." The real problem with the AKB48 model is how thinly stretched everything is. Besides the main group, the AKB empire includes many sub-groups and sister outfits based in cities across Japan and Asia. Osaka-branch NMB48's debut album "Teppen Totande!" highlights this problem, the majority of the songs sound like recycled ideas from AKB48.