3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): KPop Demon Hunters

2025, Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang (animation dept type folks) -- Netflix

Yeah yeah, I watched it. It was getting so many surprised "it's actually good!" reactions out there, that I just had to see for myself.

Aaaand so did Kent, and wrote about it before I did, because he is focused and works hard on his posts,  while I procrastinate and question my purpose and .... oooo shiny new thing !

I have nothing against KPop, but like Kent I am most definitely not its demographic, and even if I was a Gen Z'er, I would not be interested in a key example of manufactured genre music. KPop, and its predecessor JPop (which never took off like KPop did in North America, where I live), as well as many of the other imitators (not just Asia, there are such in the US as well) is at the other end of the spectrum of music I admire, enjoy or even tolerate. And really, the only time I have ever been truly exposed to it was on the screens in the KFC restos (Korean Fried Chicken) where coworkers and I have gone after work. 

Don't forget to mention that you surprised a bunch of Gen Z coworkers by actually recognizing BlackPink (sorry, BLACKPINK) in their little "can the old people identify Gen Z phenomena?" game. What can I say, I absorb pop culture even when I am not trying. P.S. Rosé over Lalisa.

At first glance, first frames, KPop Demon Hunters is more Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse than anime (or Aeni in Korea; but really, Manhwa/Webtoon [vs Manga] dominates over animation in Korea; at least, from a Western perception....) but also, in style and the tone of the story telling, it was reminiscent of Trollhunters, the Netflix animation based on children's books from Guillermo del Toro.

This is where I admit, I barely remember the story.

The background is that in the olden days, demons hunted human souls to feed their master Gwi-ma, but then three women warriors rose up to fight the demons and banish them back to their demon dimension behind the Honmoon barrier.... via... song. Think the Buffy musical episode but that's their strength, not their curse.

Into each generation a new trio is born, until now, we get the Kpop group Huntr/X, a typical mega-popular phenomena who are close to conquering their world with a Golden Honmoon, masked behind a live performance of their mega-hit "Golden". 

The girls are Rumi their leader, with a dark secret -- she is part (gasp!) demon, Mira the intense, gothy one, and Zoey, the nerdy, booky one. To foil their plans, Gwi-ma creates a demon boy band called Saja Boys, which are typical effeminate dreamboats and who start to pull fans away from Huntr/x. Saja Boys is led by the emotionally sympathetic once-human Jinu. The two leaders are immediately attracted to each other, and to further complicate matters, Rumi is losing her voice as her demon heritage emerges. The battle for supremacy, the establishment of the Golden Honmoon, or it falling entirely, will all be via the Ultimate Battle --- a sing off at the Idol Awards ceremony !!!

Its a fun movie, mercifully minimally "musical" stylized -- one spontaneous song is Jinu and Rumi pining for each other, but the rest are the actual pop numbers with flashy dance moves. The animation is top notch as are the characters, but despite the lauded opinions of the Internet, it was just OK. I was honestly hoping for more, something more, something properly epic, something that would wow me like Spider-Verse did but what I got was just passable. If anything, the music was leaps & bounds above anything Disney has produced of late.