LE SSERAFIM Slammed With Viral Red Velvet Plagiarism Accusations, Korean Netizens Baffled 

LE SSERAFIM‘s recently shared teaser images and trailer for their upcoming Japanese comeback have been met with backlash from both international and Korean fans. The group was hit with fresh accusations of stealing the photoshoot concept from Red Velvet — the allegations started on X (formerly known as Twitter) and then went viral, reaching even Korean forums.

| le_sserafim_jp@/X (formerly known as Twitter)

LE SSERAFIM are set to release the Japanese version of their hit song “Crazy” on December 11. As with most Japanese comebacks, the girl group has already started teasing their return with a set of beautiful images and clips. However, the reception was not what the group and their agency had expected.

| le_sserafim_jp@/X (formerly known as Twitter)

The minute the teaser mages — showing the members dressed in black and white gear with vintage-like filters and an eerie atmosphere — many K-Pop fans drew comparisons between LE SSERAFIM’s concept images to Red Velvet’s iconic “Chill Kill” concept and its viral teaser images.

| @RVsmtown/X (formerly known as Twitter)

Back in 2023, the SM Entertainment girl group once again made waves due to their unique and original concept when “Chill Kill” images hit the internet. Red Velvet are popular for their ability to pull off most concepts, with hauntingly beautiful atmospheres being amongst their most liked. As such, it was not a surprise when “Chill Kill” went viral and earned massive praise.

| @RVsmtown/X (formerly known as Twitter)

Now, in 2024, LE SSERAFIM are facing accusations of stealing the concept for their teaser images. Many fans and netizens online seem beyond disappointed. On TheQoo, a post calling out the similarities has reached over 50,000 views and hundreds of comments, becoming one of the hottest topics of the day.

| le_sserafim_jp@/X (formerly known as Twitter)

According to Korean netizens, not only is the concept a copy of Red Velvet’s, but it’s also much lower in quality.

| TheQoo

• “Now they’re trying to brush it off by saying it’s just because the writer is the same.  Why do these issues keep coming up? If it were just a couple of times, we could ignore it, but by now, it’s clear this is intentional.”
• “Here they go again, LOL. No originality, so they’re constantly doing this.”
• “Even when they copy, the quality is always low… ugh.”
• “I have no idea why they randomly slapped that concept onto ‘Crazy’ in the first place. It looks like they wanted to copy something, and this is the result. It’s not like they don’t know the original song, so why suddenly horror?”
• “You can clearly tell it’s low quality.”
• “Wow, in the first picture, I seriously thought it was Red Velvet for a second.”
• “The quality is just… meh.”

Similarly, K-Pop fans on X (formerly known as Twitter) have also called out the similarities between the two photoshoots and concepts.

honestly i don't understand hybe. I'm not saying they copied red velvet but i think it's really weird how there's no effort in their concept: just taking whatever's trending or from sm's pocket. https://t.co/fBHZIb9JOH

— 十 (@preciouwss) October 31, 2024

close enough welcome back red velvet chill kill era https://t.co/DEV8sDpYOj pic.twitter.com/AhNoC9Rklp

— su (@sasuvno) October 31, 2024

They will never be like these iconic queens https://t.co/1czA8Frfyt pic.twitter.com/Qh0jFJHRj7

— tami (@luvietullie) October 31, 2024

As a result, a heated debate started between fans of both groups. LE SSERAFIM fans argue that the reason behind the similarities is the use of the same photographer, Cho Gi Seok. The renowned artist has worked with LE SSERAFIM before for their UNFORGIVEN comeback teasers.

While most of the accusations surround “Chill Kill,” certain parts of their concept clip have also been called out for similarities with another Red Velvet comeback, “Birthday.”

Red Velvet “Birthday” concept clip. | SM Entertainment

LE SSERAFIM “CRAZY” (Japanese Version) concept clip. | Source Music

It remains to be seen how this latest plagiarism scandal will affect LE SSERAFIM and if Source Music will address the accusations. You can watch both “Chill Kill” and “Crazy” trailers below: