General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Replay: The Moment (리플레이: 다시 시작되는 순간)

Replay: The Moment (리플레이: 다시 시작되는 순간, also translated as Replay: The Moment When It Starts Again) is a South Korean web drama about a high school band whose members become entangled in a love triangle, told by replaying the past within the present timeline. It aired as ten episodes on the LIKE THAT YouTube channel from January 26 to February 26, 2021.¹

Key fact	Detail
Native title	리플레이: 다시 시작되는 순간 (Replay: The Moment When It Starts Again)¹
Run	10 episodes, January 26 to February 26, 2021, Tuesdays and Fridays at 7 p.m. KST on the LIKE THAT YouTube channel¹^•³
Episode length	About 14 to 15 minutes per episode¹^•⁷
Director / writer	Ko Hee-seop (연출), Kang Min-chae (각본)⁴
Main cast	Miyeon of (G)I-DLE as Yoo Ha-young, Kim Min-chul as Gong Chan-young, Hwiyoung of SF9 as Lee Ji-hoon, Choi Ji-su as Im Seo-eun, Marco as Shim Tae-young³
Viewership	6 million cumulative views and over 380,000 watch hours in its one-month run²
Genres	Music, romance, school, youth; content rating 15+¹

Spoilers

Premise and structure

The story follows five eighteen-year-old students at a high school who form a band called Neon Paprika as their schooldays draw to a close. Yoo Ha-young is the lead singer, whose YouTube cover of a popular song became a viral hit, though she wants to be known for performing original material rather than covers. Lee Ji-hoon, her childhood friend, is the band's guitarist and bandleader; Im Seo-eun plays bass and is Ha-young's best friend; Shim Tae-young is the drummer. Gong Chan-young, a transfer student who studied classical piano at an art school before moving to a regular public school, joins as the keyboardist at his homeroom teacher's urging, and falls for Ha-young at first sight.¹^•⁵^•⁶

The title's "replay" refers to the narrative method: the drama alternates between the characters' high school days and their lives two years later, replaying the past in the present time. In the past timeline, Ji-hoon, who also loves Ha-young, lies to Chan-young that he and Ha-young are a couple; Chan-young believes him, withdraws, and leaves school in the middle of a band competition. Two years later, Chan-young and Ha-young meet by chance in a keychain shop, the misunderstanding persists, and the triangle resumes until they eventually find their way back to each other.⁵^•⁶ A secondary pairing develops between Seo-eun and Tae-young.¹

Production and release

The series was directed by Ko Hee-seop and written by Kang Min-chae, produced by Heart People together with D-Ocean Music, and planned and distributed by Music&NEW, the music subsidiary of the media group NEW.⁴^•⁹ The full version of all episodes was pre-released for a fee on OTT platforms including wavve, Seezn, and U+mobileTV from January 19, 2021, a week before the free YouTube run began on January 26.⁴^•³ Episodes were uploaded to the LIKE THAT YouTube channel every Tuesday and Friday at 7 p.m. KST.³

The drama served as the acting debut for Miyeon of (G)I-DLE and for Marco, with the remaining leads also early in their acting careers; Hwiyoung is a member of SF9.⁶ Special appearances included Kwon Hyuk-soo as Lee In-ho, Lee Do-yeon as the homeroom teacher, Jeong Hyeon-hwan as a workshop owner, and Lee Gyu-ho as Seo-eun's uncle.⁶

Reception

Viewership. The first episode exceeded 1 million views on YouTube, and each episode held roughly 400,000 or more views through the run. By the finale on February 26, 2021, the drama had accumulated 6 million views and over 380,000 hours of watch time in about one month.² A review site reported 2 million views within ten days and 6 million by the end of February, with the series entering the ranks of popular Korean YouTube videos and top web dramas on several portal sites.⁵ The production also released more than 40 supplementary clips, including behind-the-scenes footage and OST music videos, which the producer described as an unusually extensive slate of extra content for a web drama.²

Critical response. Reviews were mixed. Positive notices praised the light, warm tone, the visuals, and the soundtrack, calling the original soundtracks top-notch and noting that Cho Mi-yeon sings the ballad "Dreaming About You," with other OST contributions from Pentagon ("Honey Drop") and Kihyun of Monsta X ("O.M.O.M.").⁶^•⁵ Criticisms centered on the underdeveloped plot, average acting, limited character development, and awkward shifts between the past and present timelines.⁶ User ratings varied by platform: 7.4 out of 10 from 3,225 users on KoreanDrama.org,¹ about 6.6 to 7.0 on IMDb,⁸ and 9.0 from several thousand users on Rakuten Viki.¹⁰

Distribution and related versions

Beyond the YouTube run, the drama was distributed on domestic OTT platforms including TVING, wavve, Seezn, U+mobileTV, Kakao Page, and Naver Series On, and internationally in Japan, the Americas, and other regions.⁹ It is also available on Rakuten Viki, Prime Video, Apple TV, and Tubi.¹ A 124-minute compiled film version, listed under the same Korean title with a 2020 production year, circulates on some platforms and carries the same director, writer, and cast.¹¹

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026