Imagine that you work for a local tourism board, and shrinking budgets in addition to less travel is putting a hurting on your city’s economy. You need an attraction! Or, at the very least, a way to convince people from near and far to come and spend their hard-earned yen on your delicious local food and take in the spectacular local sights … HOLY CRAP YOU KNOW WHAT WE NEED?! IDOLS!*

Just get a look at this (via @AshLikeSnow):

Well, and listen to it, too, as it’s perfectly cromulent idometal-meets-animetal. But holy hell, this is an idol unit that exists to talk about regional history and culture? Like Tengger Cavalry, but idols? I’m in.

This is Fukuoka Kanbe Girls (Twitter | Facebook). Some iteration or another of the group has actually been at it for a while now, going back three whole years.

I think this one might be more in their wheelhouse:

Here’s a fairly recent live set, to give you an idea:

They’re releasing their first official single (I think; the announcements read a little weird to me) next week, and there’s an expedition to play Tokyo coming up at the end of the month. They’re going places!

It’s like, I enjoy the occasional subtle dig at tradols because that’s the kind of space this is, but actual Tradition Idols? Delicious.

*If Negicco can’t prove the efficacy of this strategy, nothing can, because nobody’s ever been better at being local idols than Negicco, and also because Negicco is a gift from heaven.