tl, dr, Beliftlab says Illit did not copy BlackPink, New Jeans and aespa.
I will spare comments on NJ and aespa.
However, about BlackPink, basically Illit is Rose 2.0 plus 4 members who cannot sing to save their lives
Park Minju would be part of BabyMonster, if Yang did not acquire the obsession on Thai members after Pranpriya Manoban.
However, after Teddy's departure the Baemon members sing a bit differently, while Minju, who did not really get additional training from Hybe as seen from the sorry vocal state of the members (Iroha was a JYP trainee so she sings better than other Japanese in Hybe girl groups) , still maintains the old YG vocal style.
The movie Untergang (Downfall in English), about the last days of Berlin in 1945, was mostly filmed at Petersburg, Russia, since while Berlin had been completely rebuilt, Petersburg, built by Germans in early 18th century, still retained a lot of the old German style architecture.
The city of Pusan, Korea, was often used by Japanese film crew to represent older Japanese cities since Pusan was built in the older Japanese style and retained a lot of the older style of Japanese architecture. (Pusan has remodeled a lot since then so the older architecture has largely disappeared. A reminder of such architecture is seen in Through the Night, filmed in a house (now used as a cafe) built by a wealth Japanese at Pusan, on the year 1943, when the Strange Creature was 1,264 years old.)
I have listened to Baemon and had to conclude that Minju has retained the old YG style of vocals the best. If there were still hidden singers and Rose had appeared , Minju would be a very strongcontestant.
Basically, at least in terms of vocals, Illit is BP 2.0. If Belift did not think about that it would not have brought Minju as a trainee to begin with.
