KPop Demon Hunters
by Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Hannah McMechan and Danya Jimenez
This guest squee is from Jeevani Charika! Jeevani Charika (also known as Rhoda Baxter) writes romantic comfort reads with a dash of fun. Her books have been shortlisted for multiple awards. Jeevani is British-Sri Lankan. She loves all things science geeky. She also loves cake, Lego and playing with Canva. You can find out more about her (and get a free book!) on her website.
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When Netflix suggested K-Pop Demon Hunters to me, I added it to my list immediately, based solely on the title. I know very little about K-Pop, but I love fantasy K-dramas. This show is a 100 minute animated film and the title is brilliant.
The setup is exactly what you’d expect from the title. The film is about a K-pop girl band who are…secretly demon hunters. In a world where demons prey on human souls in order to bring life force to their leader in the underworld (Gwi-Ma), every generation has a trio of female hunters whose voices can ignite a force in the hearts of their human listeners and generate a protective force field called the Hunmoon. Right now, the trio takes the form of the super popular girl band Huntr/x.
Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho) is the lead singer, whose voice feeds the Hunmoon, Mira is the main dancer and choreographer while Zoey raps and writes lyrics. They all work hard balancing performing and demon slaying. When they turn the Hunmoon golden, the demons will be trapped in the underworld forever.
Rumi has an extra reason to want to turn the Hunmoon golden. She has a secret that not even her bandmates know about – she is part demon, as evidenced by the symbolic patterns on her arms. Her mentor has told her that when the Hunmoon is golden, she will banish her demon side and become fully human. So, despite her voice sometimes failing, she pushes the band to release their next new single.
Meanwhile, Gwi-Ma is annoyed that his minions have failed once again. The Hunmoon is getting stronger and they need to do something. A demon called Jinu suggests a way to steal the fans away from Huntri/x and weaken the Hunmoon. His suggestion – a demon boy band.
Let’s just sit with that a minute. Demon. Boyband.
Suddenly, Huntri/x’s chart domination has some competition for the mysterious boyband The Saja Boys. The girls quickly work out that the boys are demons. If The Saja Boys win the International Idol Competition, it’s game over for Huntr/x and for the Hunmoon.
This is a kids’ animated film (rated PG). There is a hint of a romantic thread, though there’s no real romance in it, but don’t let that stop you. It’s still awesome. There is an uplifting ending (but, again, it is definitely not a romance ending). There is some violence and mild horror elements because of the demons, but it’s very cartoonish. In general it is bright and jaunty.
First of all, the girls. Rumi, Mira and Zoeyare accomplished performers on stage, but messy and real in private. The scenes where the girls are relaxing are some of my favourites – all they want to do is eat a huge amount of food, take long baths and lie around on the couch.
They are messy, chaotic and affectionate. The movie captures the divide between their ‘perfect’ external personas and the messy reality of being human really well. There is a lovely scene where, post-battle, the girls are bruised and scratched, but when they hear their manager coming up in the lift, there’s a flurry of activity, so that by the time the lift doors open, they’ve done their makeup and hair and are looking flawless again.
Next, the boys: The Saja boys are hot (how can animated characters be so hot?!). Jinu is voiced by the Canadian-Korean actor Ahn Hyeo-Seop, who K-drama fans will recognise as the male lead in Business Proposal. The rest of the Saja boys don’t get much air time, but they form a stereotypical boy band – the hearthrob (Jinu), the bad boy, the cute one, the mysterious one and the funny one.
Jinu has real depth. He is racked with guilt about his past, specifically about the people he betrayed when he took his deal with the devil, and if he succeeds in destroying the Hunmoon, his reward will be to have his memories wiped. Being in the real world (and spending time with Rumi) changes him subtly, but even at the end, he still has moments when he looks unsettling. He has a goofy magical tiger and a creepy black bird in a hat as companions.
The tiger is adorable. There’s a lovely scene where Mira asks about the hat the bird wears and Jinu mutters that he made the hat for the tiger, but the bird keeps stealing it. This is a lovely way to humanise a guy who is, essentially, still a demon.
The animation is mostly representations of the real world, but sometimes it veers towards anime and some of it is genuinely funny
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…like how, whenever Zoey sees the abs of ‘Abby’, her eyes start making popcorn (this made me laugh every time it happened).
A lot of the K-drama tropes pop up at various times – the wrist grab, the nosy ahjummas, the moment when the hero helps the heroine when she least expects it. I don’t know enough about K-pop to spot the references, but I gather there are K-pop easter eggs in there too. If you spot any, post in the comments! There are a lot of Korean cultural elements incorporated into the visuals,
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…most notably, for the final performance, when the Saja Boys wear modified hanboks and hats that make them look like mythical grim reapers.
Given that it’s a story about two rival bands battling it out for the hearts and minds of the fans, there’s a lot of music in this film. The songs are surprisingly catchy. It’s been a few days since I watched it and I still catch myself humming ‘Takedown’.
The messaging in the story is great for younger viewers: eat all the snacks, take long baths, trust your besties to have your back.
For me, it was 90+ minutes of pure, uplifting fun.
KPop Demon Hunters is available on Netflix.