aespa’s ‘Savage’ plagiarism controversy: Concepts allegedly resemble Japanese and British designers

SM Entertainment’s rookie girl group aespa has stirred up another plagiarism controversy. This time, the creative theft is about their upcoming first comeback album Savage. On September 30, netizens worldwide claimed aespa’s stunning concept teasers for their future release are plagiarized.

Especially member Karina’s concept photo looks eerily similar to the Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama’s work. Even the masked version of the concept images was allegedly plagiarized from British designer James Merry's collection.

SM Entertainment’s aespa gets embroiled in a plagiarism controversy with ‘Savage’

October started on a bad note for the four-member rookie group, aespa, as they’re now the talk of the town, albeit not for good reasons. Netizens found a similar work of aespa’s Karina’s concept teaser to Hajime Sorayama, a Japanese illustrator’s work, claiming that the group has plagiarized his work.

In the concept teaser, Karina lies upside down in the air while an insect-looking robot, representing Black Mamba here, has wrapped its body around her. Hajime Sorayama’s illustration is similar to Karina's photo, an insect-looking robot wrapping itself around a naked woman’s body. The style of the robot and the pose of the woman match as well.

Readers can check out Hajime Sorayama's work in the second image on this website.

aespa's masked concept teasers accused of plagiarism

Savage’s other concept photos are also accused of plagiarism. In the teaser images for the album, all members wear straight-out-of-fantasy-world masks.

James Merry, a British designer, has been creating futuristic headpieces in masked fashion for a few years.

The hype created by SM Entertainment for aespa’s Savage has now done a backflip and gone back to zero. For a rookie group who hasn’t even passed their one-year anniversary, this is the fourth time they have made headlines due to plagiarism controversies.

While K-pop stans jointly agreed on the previous allegations, they stand divided this time. Some fans think the work has been plagiarized, while others defend the group, stating that it’s nothing but an inspiration.

On the other hand, some fans believe that plagiarism has become synonymous with SM Entertainment.

Previously, aespa’s debut music video Black Mamba was accused of plagiarism as some scenes were the same as German visual artist Tim Helgert’s work and K/DA. Another artist Bryan Hyunh accused SM Entertainment’s teams of copying his designs for the Black Mamba comeback. The company later hired him and worked with him for the group’s next release, Next Level.

SM Entertainment hasn’t responded to the latest Savage plagiarism allegations yet.

About the author

Afreen has been a K-Pop Content Specialist at Sportskeeda since 2021. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, along with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. Afreen has over 4+ years of working in various positions including being an entertainment content writer with Pinkvilla’s K-pop division Hallyutalk and CineDope, and as a copywriter at Flying Cursor.

As per Afreen, she loves her work because she gets to write about the things she is obsessed with. Her thorough research and following the two-genuine-source rule of journalism helps her produce the most accurate content, along with helping her be up-to-date with the industry.

Afreen has had the privilege to interview The Rose's frontrunner, WOOSUNG, and LIONESSES, K-pop's first openly LGBTQ+ group. She is a big fan of SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, BTS, and The Rose for their hard work, sincerity, and the comic relief their shows provide.

When she is off her shift, Afreen explores the streets of Nottingham in the UK, cooks, and listens to new music.

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