The popular Japanese girl group Hinatazaka46 is facing allegations of copying the entire music video catalog from TripleS. On August 19, Hinatazaka46 released the music video for their song "Zettaiteki Dairokkan" on YouTube, delighting fans. However, some viewers stated they noticed striking similarities to other music videos and began to raise concerns.

Their suspicions gained traction when, on August 20, a post titled "A Japanese popular idol group plagiarized Triple S's entire music video catalog" was shared on Nate Pann, sparking a debate among fans and netizens about the originality of the Hinatazaka46 video.

The netizen shared side-by-side screenshots of scenes in the Hinatazaka46 music video and various TripleS music videos with both groups wearing similar clothes and in similar settings.

They also added that the most irrefutable part was when, in the "Generation" music video, a grandma walks past the camera, and the members all look surprised.

The 1:21 mark in the MV:

In the "Zettaiteki Dairokkan" music video, the grandma is replaced by a cat, and the members all look surprised.

The 2:17 mark in the MV:

Netizens reacted:

"These days, Japanese idols are pretty much copying the K-pop style and sales methods, which is leading to plagiarism issues. What's more, K-pop nowadays isn't the same as it used to be with tacky and cheesy elements; it's now very sophisticated and aesthetically appealing, so they’re trying even harder to imitate it. The problem is that they can't match the quality, so they end up achieving nothing. Their dance and singing skills, visuals, and song quality are significantly lower than that of Korean idols, so Japanese fans prefer to follow Korean idols instead of sticking with the downgraded Japanese ones. They’ve lost the unique charm of Japanese idols, and they can't reach the quality level of Korean idols. I like Japanese idols because I enjoy the melodies of their songs, but looking at the current situation, it’s disappointing."

"Japanese idol fans are absurdly getting angry and saying stuff like, 'We should be grateful that our great Japanese idols are paying homage to K-pop,' which is so ridiculous. Normal Japanese K-pop fans are the ones getting angry on their behalf. But what do they gain by claiming they’re paying homage to K-pop? It’s not like it benefits K-pop groups at all. Tsk tsk."

"The visual aesthetics of tripleS's music video are amazing, and Japan's portrayal of it in such a simple, bright manner is really basic. The song expresses the darkness and reality of teenagers."

"If the situation were reversed, anti-Korean sentiments would have exploded with outrage."

"It’s hilarious how they knew that Jung Byung-gi (Jaden Jeong)’s aesthetics were good and decided to copy them. They didn’t even copy popular groups like NewJeans or IVE, but instead chose to imitate tripleS. Did they think it would be okay since they’re not as popular?"

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