A Japanese manga slandering K-pop girl groups who is successful Japan has drawn public outrage in South Korea. The manga shows K-pop girl groups bargaining over sex to survive in the show business world.

It is evident from the sexy marine outfit characters wear and posture for the routine known as Kara’s butt-dance, that the cartoon points to the Girl’s Generation (SNSD) and Kara, hugely popular K-Pop idol groups. The comic even directly mentioned two girl group’s names later.

Manga Depicting Kara and SNSD, Attribution Unclear, Image Leaked by Local Media, Captured from Korea Times

Girl's Generation with Sexy Marine outfit performing on the stage, Image by Woorissica.com, Required to attribute Woorissica.com, Any change to the images is strictly forbidden.

The manga, using voice of idol-turned-hostess character, claimed that the idol girl groups are forced to sleep with politicians and media/biz moguls to get famous. It repetitively used the words such as “Body-lobbying” and “Sex service”. The cartoonist, claiming the story is based on research, further gave out a conspiracy theory that the Korean government is pouring an astronomical amount of money on these girls to keep the Hallyu (Korean wave) alive.

A majority of South Koreans wre furious with the manga, which undermines one of the nation’s most adored girls as the story made headlines for several days. Korean net users argued that the real purpose of the cartoon is not to reveal dark aspects of show business as it claims, but to vilify Korean female singers who made very successful debuts in Japan and to further quell the Hallyu boom in Asian countries. They condemned the comic for belittling the K-Pop groups’ hard-won fame by crediting their non-existent sexual services. A lot of pop critics have acknowledged the  Korean idol groups’ strengths, often saying that they have demonstrated strong performance skills and energetic dance.
Last October, a Taiwanese actress, Lin Wei-ling said she was forced to sleep with officials and top figures to debut in Korea. Korean net users, however, casted doubt on the article. Local reports revealed that several of Taiwanese media had intentionally stirred up controversies and conflicts by publishing racy and entirely false articles to draw public attention.
To be perfectly honest, this gruesome theory is not at all new to Koreans. There are numerous rumors speculating a secret pact made between an entertainer and a chaebol. In exchange for sex, an actress receives huge sums of money wired directly to her account and gets to appear in several lucrative commercials and famous tv shows. The illicit collaborations and backdoor tradings between a rich old guy and a young beautiful actor-aspirant loom over every corner of show business in the world. And Korea would be no exception.
What is left at the final stage of the controversy would be a lawsuit. Kara’s agency, DSP Entertainment and SM Entertainment representing Girls’ Generation, are reportedly planning on taking strong countermeasure on the comic, local media reported.