Vietnamese girl group SGO48, sister group of the famous Japanese idol group AKB48, is currently under fire after Korean netizens noticed the uncanny similarities of their newly released photo teaser to the photo concept of the K-pop group IZ*ONE that was released last month.
Netizens are claiming that from the background to the idols' outfit, SGO48 undoubtedly plagiarized IZ*ONE's concept for their album, "BLOOM*IZ." The idea of IZ*ONE on their recent album was breaking the female idol's stereotype of cutesy concept by wearing suits, and at the same time, incorporating the woman's power associated with flowers. SGO48 is also about suits and aesthetic flower, similar to IZ*ONE.
K-netizens then began throwing hateful comments to the Vietnamese group such as the following:
"This group lacks originality."
"The concept is not just similar, but it's the same."
Speculations of plagiarism is already a huge issue. However, online users reached the extent of attacking the SGO48 members' visuals.
Below are some of the few harsh remarks against the Vietnamese group.
"They look like old aunties trying to become [idols]."
"How do they even find these kinds of people?"
"Korean female idols are beautiful; their [faces are] different. They can't copy prettiness."
"I searched them on the internet, and they are ugly."
In addition to these, the group also became a target of racism, wherein they were physically-shamed by the Korean netizens, claiming that no matter how hard they try to copy Korean idols, they are Southeast Asians and it won't be easy to erase their distinct attributes.
Moreover, SGO48 was accused of naming their group "SGO48" because of IZ*ONE who debuted from the show, "Produce48." It is true that the K-pop group debuted prior to the Vietnamese group. However, SGO48's fans explained that the group is a sister group of AKB48, which debuted before IZ*ONE did. They also expressed their disappointment to K-netizens, for IZ*ONE and AKB48 are sister groups under the same label, "AKS" (hereinafter "Vernalossom"), the Japanese agency that exclusively manages IZ*ONE's activities in Japan, as well as other foreign sister groups, such as SGO.
This is why some fans are guessing that copying is an exaggeration and that SGO48 just took inspiration from its sister group's photo theme.
SGO48's fans and WIZ*ONE (IZ*ONE's fandom name) were disappointed with the Korean netizens' hateful words to the Vietnamese group because these can spark fan wars and might affect the SGO48 members' confidence and self-esteem. Worse, their mental health.
Fans are also worried because IZ*ONE has three Japanese members - Miyawaki Sakura, Hitomi and Nako - which is why it's a shame that some netizens were letting out derogatory remarks about their sister group.
Meanwhile, IZ*ONE's song "FIESTA" from their album "BLOOM*IZ" gained lots of positive feedback in spite of their hiatus following the controversy they faced from the "PRODUCE" show's rank manipulation issue. The festive song and future house style dance of the group were loved by many fans and is one of the top songs in the first half of 2020.
