ILLIT’s New Dance Tutorial Sparks Fierce Backlash From NJZ (NewJeans) Fans
New content released by ILLIT has sparked a fiery debate online, with NJZ (NewJeans) fans calling out its close similarity to the latter’s previous release.
The content in question is a dance tutorial poster released by ILLIT for their new title track, “Not Cute Anymore.” The poster features all the members in black-and-white outfits, demonstrating the key moves of the choreography with accompanying textual explanations.
The issue began when a fan made a post on X (former Twitter) calling it a very uniquely creative content. The post quickly went viral, with NJZ fans rushing to point out that the older HYBE girl group had already done the same promotional content for at least two of their songs, “Attention” and “Cookie.”
"never seen anything like this" SURE https://t.co/MzKRy4MVQe pic.twitter.com/4Hkgahq7pb
— ً (@njzforever) November 26, 2025
Am I going crazy?? https://t.co/0yGcPNaVLb pic.twitter.com/464uxQ8zk9
— think in hats (@thinkinhats) November 26, 2025
As these posts started gaining traction, many chimed in to argue that NJZ was not the first HYBE group to release such posters. In 2015, BTS did the same for their Japanese single, “For You,” and also for their Korean track, “I Need U.”
Tokkis really have a superiority complex, they think that newjeans invented every fucking thing in existence it's insane 😭 mind you BTS did it first quite the gaslighting and free ILLIT from y'all mass psychosis https://t.co/1seIlueJe5 pic.twitter.com/xMFoksanSy
— 🍊 (@jellyouzz) November 26, 2025
Min hee jin, is that you? https://t.co/u5kuMH1dyM pic.twitter.com/sEElqTVH9M
— Wonroha NOT CUTE ANYMORE (@i_wonroha) November 26, 2025
Many again countered this argument by pointing out that Min Hee Jin created similar dance illustration content when she was working with Girls’ Generation under SM Entertainment back in 2010.
mhj did it first for snsd in 2010
it always circles back to her
now give me another excuse why belift is consistently copying newjeans work 😂 https://t.co/FZ4GOVmw0C pic.twitter.com/BT5umA0h5e— zya (@haerinerr) November 27, 2025
This claim was then met with the response that such content was originally inspired by old-school dance posters.
It’s clear that both groups where inspired by THESE kinds of posters. Ideas can coexist not everything is copying damn https://t.co/lEiy54nTLk pic.twitter.com/JvXBIZkVzQ
— 𖨆 🍅 𝗡★𝗧 𝗖𝗨𝗧𝗘 (@skadis7) November 26, 2025
so… New jeans invented infographics?
because https://t.co/fFTG0ZHSLW pic.twitter.com/f7KT8BO0Ut— 𖹭 (@seratosono) November 26, 2025
However, many fans argued that the concept itself was not the issue, but the visual similarities in the color schemes, typesetting, and styling were too identical for it to be coincidental.
Let's put the photos together and compare them.
Visual matching with clothing, color and typesetting. The last two are just like a group. https://t.co/6woLTGK42A pic.twitter.com/hVLsJHfUPc
— lapppe🪺 (@pitstopppe) November 26, 2025
Sister Hong is still doing plagiarism and still extremely obsessed with NewJeans. How can she use the exact same concept, the step-by-step choreography explanations, the same color palette, the same font? Cok, you can copy the concept but not the achievements https://t.co/f9IMhrb1l1
— vy (@renebxebxe) November 26, 2025
The accusations against BELIFT LAB of copying the creative direction of NJZ is not new. Min Hee Jin herself levied the allegation against the label last year, triggering multiple comparisons between ILLIT and NJZ.
A “Compilation” Of ILLIT’s “Plagiarism” Of NewJeans Becomes A Hot Topic
