Aespa’s Karina Continues To Get Comparisons To Bang Si Hyuk’s “Creepy” New “Girl Group” Member

On July 3, aespa made their highly anticipated Japanese debut with the song “Hot Mess”.

The girl group kept to their signature sci-fi, techno concept for the debut, with some of their outfits giving Gundam-like aesthetics complete with robot-esque accessories that made the members look even more anime than usual.

For Karina‘s costume, she was given horn- or ear-like head pieces along with mechanical wings, keeping to a white and purple color scheme.

While she looked great, some people couldn’t help but notice that the outfit made her look even more like the member of a new “girl group” recently revealed by Bang Si Hyuk: Canary of virtual girl group SYNDI8. The headpiece, in particular, is eerily similar.

Bang Si Hyuk and other HYBE Labels staff already came under fire for allegedly basing the member off of Karina. One reason is their similarity in names: Karina (카리나) and Canary (카나리), which have the same syllables, just in different orders. Canary’s MBTI and height are also the same as the aespa member’s.

The similarities have led to netizens criticizing Bang Si Hyuk for his alleged “disgusting” obsession with Karina. As a whole group, SYNDI8 has also come under fire for various reasons, such as emphasizing the members’ crotches and “disguising” one of the members as a woman when he’s actually a man.

Do you think these similarities are just that — similarities — or is there something more unsettling involved?