K-Pop Demon Hunters: Why It's A Big Deal

K-Pop Demon Hunters was another original release for Netflix in June of 2025, but since it came out during the middle of the bustling summer blockbuster season the masses didn’t pick up on it at first. Most movie goers were either checking out the latest superhero or dinosaur flick in the theaters and didn’t bother watching anything at home on their own streaming service. K-Pop idols were popular enough with fans all over the globe, however taking that concept and having the singers lead a double life as blade-wielding beast busters was an inspired idea.

Maggie Kang was a storywriter and animator who worked on films such as The Grinch, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Trolls, and Rise Of The Guardians. She also worked on various movie franchises like The Croods, Rio, Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, and Despicable Me. Maggie grew up as a Korean girl living in Canada and worked with Shrek creator Aron Warner who had joined Sony Pictures Animation after leaving DreamWorks to make the animated movie Wish Dragon to which she pitched the idea for Korean pop singers fighting demons. Warner got the project greenlit in 2021 and Sony was riding high from the success of the Spider-Verse movies, even though Sony was hesitant to put the animated film in theaters, especially with a production cost of 100 million dollars. Korean culture was on the rise, and Netflix was quick to recognize this as they knew how tremendous shows like Kingdom and Squid Games were, so when Sony went looking for distributors, Netflix snatched it up. Sony got paid only $20 million from Netflix for the streaming rights, however they didn’t expect how huge K-Pop Demon Hunters would become. Over the summer of 2025, the movie gained more traction through word of mouth as it became the #1 original title in Netflix history with a bestselling soundtrack. Sony does still have the contractional rights to do further installments, so it's possible this might lead to a bidding war as the direct-to-streaming cartoon movie grew into a genre-blending juggernaut. This led to theaters having special singalong screenings which is a big landmark for breaking out of the streaming format.

Maggie Kang directed KPDH with Chris Appelhans, a former children's book author turned animator that just finished directing Wish Dragon. The story for KPDH is an original premise not based on any existing source which highlights the K-Pop industry and merges it with supernatural adventure. The anime-styled action has martial arts and synchronized dancing, making each fight scene into its own mini-music video. The other big attraction was the musical numbers which help distinguish the film as a musical where some pieces are done as a performance while simultaneously operating as their own stand-alone vignette.

Korean folklore might seem like the central premise for the story, however the thought of spirit warriors fighting against demonic forces can be applied to dozens of historical cultures. Demonology itself is applicable to numerous mythologies. The Honmoon concept made specifically for the movie that acts as a barrier between the human and demon realms which is essentially placing a harmony-based sound wall to keep the demons underground, even though the film never explains the dynamics of this forcefield powered by people’s moods can repel the literal forces of Hell. The demon king Gwi-Ma is a formless entity but does have the presence of a Satan archetype using deception to achieve his goals, although the film doesn’t really come out and say if any of the victims of the soul-stealing demons are in fact dead. Other spiritual beings in the movie are “yogoe” which are generic Korean spirits that interact with humans and demons which take no specific sides are represented by a grinning blue tiger and a multi-eyed magpie. Yogoe are neutral and not affected by empathy or hostility which is why both spirits are still around in the human world after the new Honmoon is created at the end. The Honmoon itself is executed through music which was an instrument used in ancient Korean exorcisms.

Music is a key ingredient in KPDH as it is the weapon of choice used by both Huntr/x and the Saja Boys. Huntr/x uses music to lift people’s emotions and find confidence in themselves to not give into darkness. The Saja Boys instead implement music to coerce humans into lowering their defenses, making them subject to suggestion which in the movie translates into just your average evil brainwashing scheme. The Honmoon is powered by the syntropy humans generate when their hearts are united all listening to the same harmony. Depending on the performers, this music can either be a valuable weapon or a deadly weakness, so when Rumi’s demon side is finally revealed, Mira and Zoey turn against her, thus disrupting their euphony which ultimately leads to everyone falling under the Saja Boys’ spell. Rumi eventually finds the harmony inside herself, allowing her to synchronize with her bandmates and defeat the Gwi-Ma which shows that people need to discover their inner strength to be part of a larger circle.

For many fans, another factor of KPDH’s appeal is that of representation as they interpreted Zoey’s random and insecure nature as being autistic, or Mira’s rebellious attitude attributed to not fitting in with abuse she received from her family. The largest allegory is Rumi’s demonic nature being seen as an example of gender expansion hiding their inner gay nature. These are all acceptable comparisons, although the downside to any fan theories regarding a character's backstory is that very little of it is really brought up in the film. Unless it's stated that this character is gay, or has ADHD, or was a recovering addict, then we as the audience have little to no clue to confirm this. Representation does matter, however if the story doesn’t take the time out to define any of that, then how much it matters doesn’t register enough to be recognized. Rumi’s birth was because of the interaction between her human mother and her unknown demon father, so the possibility exists that Rumi’s mother was the victim of a sexual attack. This is why there was much speculation behind Huntr/x’s mentor Celine who knew the truth of Rumi’s heritage, which is why she wanted it to remain a secret from everyone else. The fact that this largely an all-ages feature film doesn’t allow the audience to know the dark underbelly of the demon hunters’ lives, although this takes away from the representation most fans were looking for if it never addresses it. There might have been more room for this if they weren’t set on having the running time being only 96 minutes.

Speaking of being short on time, one last aspect that caught more attention from fans than what was given was the made-up romance between Rumi and the demon Jinu who is only doing all this to have the memories of his former life erased by Gwi-Ma so he can enjoy his eternally damned afterlife in peace. Rumi is desperate to keep her demon history a secret, and Jinu is the only one she can talk to about any of this even though she should have been smart enough to know that trusting him was a bad idea. Even the music number the two of them have seems forced, plus Jinu’s sacrifice at the end is too little too late as he just would have been sent back to the underworld anyway which isn’t any better than giving up your already cursed soul. It’s not that the fans who fell for this romance are simps, but they should have seen the flaws in it

Sony Pictures Animation efforts will hopefully lead to future original Korean animated productions making their way to English-speaking audiences. Manhwa, the Korean equivalent of manga, has been largely successful with Americans, particularly with the advent of Webtoon. Korean animation on the other hand has had little exposure in America. Movies like Seoul Station, Red Hawk, Sky Blue, and Ghost Messenger have all gotten Western releases but never stood out among other animated releases. Most of the Korean animation that has been translated into English were underground rip-offs of already established Japanese anime such as Gundam and Dragonball, including some American properties like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Tron which hasn’t helped establish any trust between nations. However, a month before Netflix premiered KPDH, they released the original animated movie of Lost In Starlight by Han Ji-Won which was a science-fiction romance done in the spirit of Makoto Shinkai films such as Your Name. It is possible that Netflix picked up Lost In Starlight to help familiarize Americans a little more with Korean culture, although KPDH goes its own direction modeling itself more like a Marvel movie. Hopefully, there will be further efforts to bring more Korean cartoons over to this side of the ocean as the triumph that KPDH has become might help give this untapped resource more exposure.