The prestigious animation school Gobelins has set its sights on the Korean label Mystic Story. The reason is the teaser for the K-pop group Billlie, which, according to the French institution, almost identically copies the student short film Niccolò (2025). The formal accusation of plagiarism comes with a threat of legal action that has shaken the entertainment industry.
When animation becomes a digital carbon copy 🎨
At the center of the conflict is the teaser sequence, where a female figure moves through a dreamlike environment with a pastel color palette and very specific volumetric lighting. Gobelins argues that the camera choreography, background design, and scene transitions match point for point with Niccolò. The original short used 2D digital animation techniques with brushstrokes that imitate watercolor, a style that Mystic Story allegedly replicated without permission or credit.
K-pop, now also an expert in other people's animation 🎤
It seems that at Mystic Story they thought the saying copy to learn also included releasing the result as an official teaser. The funny thing is, if they were going to borrow someone else's work, they could at least have changed the character's eye color. Now the Korean agency will have to explain whether its creative department confused the mood board with a direct order to plagiarize this as is. Billlie's next single might be called Copyright Blues.