I was first introduced to the world of Korean and Japanese pop and rap music in the mid-2000’s. 

I was dating a girl who was enamored of the stuff, and her iPod was loaded with songs from artists like m-flo, Se7en, BoA, Namie Amuro, and more. Whenever we went places, that was what we listened to, like, 90% of the time. That or Tenacious D. 

After we split up, I still listened to some of what she had introduced me to because hey… it’s pretty fun stuff. The genres have a really infectious tune to them, and the performers aren’t lacking for charisma.

At this point, it’s been a long time since I’ve really invested any time in those artists or songs, but in the intervening years, K-Pop in particular has started taking the Western world by storm. Artists like PSY, BTS, and Blackpink have ascended the worldwide pop charts, and now everyone knows of their existence.

Hot on the heels of this musical domination is the newest Netflix animated picture, K-Pop Demon Hunters. It’s a cross inspiration of Eastern artforms, as it is not just drawing from the popularity of K-Pop, but also of manga and anime like Demon Slayer. I’m a long-time fan of the latter and am always looking for more work drawn from that world. So to me, this movie seemed like a match made in heaven. 

K-Pop Demon Hunters is the story of a girl band trio–Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, collectively known as Huntr/x–who are the current in a long line of warriors who battle the forces of evil not just with fantastic energy weapons, but also with songs. In an early montage, we see their predecessors develop across time, leading us to this iteration of pop stars. 

After all of the years, the girls are close to finally closing off access from the demon realm for good, and one or two more hit songs ought to do it. But the demon king, Gwi-Ma, has a final secret weapon to fight back against our protagonists: a K-Pop boy band of his own!

When the Saja Boys are released on the mortal realm, the demons begin feeding on souls and gaining more power. It all builds to a final showdown between The Saja Boys and Huntr/x to see which side will decide the fate of all of the souls on Earth. 

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

The songs are catchy and fun. I could see myself listening to these tracks outside of the movie now that I’ve watched it. K-pop in general is a really fun and bouncy genre of music, so if you add in some lyrics about saving the world and thwarting demons, you’ve really got something cooking.

This starts right away, too, with the first song of the movie being, I believe, “How It’s Done”. As it was playing, I immediately thought “Oh, I’m going to have to look this soundtrack up on Spotify, aren’t I?”. And it stays at a pretty high level from there. “Golden”, “Soda Pop”, “Takedown”, and “What It Sounds Like” are all bops from this flick. 

For whatever reason, I somehow didn’t expect a movie called K-POP DEMON HUNTERS to be just as song heavy as the movie actually is–that’s on me, obviously–but thankfully it is reliant on a lot of tunes. And it’s a better offering because of that. 

The animation was a nifty cross between classic anime and modern style CGI. It had a lot of the anime tropes you see a lot in that form, but in a different mode than usual. You get the characters crying streams of tears or having objects replace their eyeballs or falling over dramatically. It’s all the types of scenes you are used to seeing in more comedic anime outings, but delivered in three-dimensional computer generated effects. It’s a blending of styles that seems so obvious, but I just never imagined it before. I’m glad the creators of K-Pop Demon Hunters thought of it, though, because this flick ends up being gorgeous. 

There’s nothing new here. It’s a bland story about embracing your flaws and being true to yourself, and it’s not going to change the world. There is an enemies-to-lovers trope. Betrayal. A babyface turn. And a reunion of our heroines. It has all the beats you expect it to have as soon as you start watching. It’s a predictable movie with a vanilla plot. 

The Characters

That’s not always bad, of course. You play the classics because they are classic for a reason. And animated movies aimed for the whole family aren’t often where a lot of experimentation takes place. But where you see the fun art style, and you get caught up in the joyful songs… you just wish the story had been a little ballsier. It could have elevated the film to true greatness.  

Mira and Zoey lack in the characterization department, especially compared to Rumi, who is the real star of the show and who gets all the plot-driven attention. Mira and Zoey get 5 combined seconds of historical backstory in the form of an early exposition dump, and that’s supposed to be enough to pay off the third act when they feel emotionally defeated and can be manipulated.

This almost feels like it’s meant to be more of an ongoing series than a one-off movie. Like this initial tale was Rumi’s story and sets up who our heroes are, but the next outing will focus more on Zoey and who she is. Then, after we resolve that story, we can get a Mira-driven arc. And so on as the universe builds and we see more of the girls in action. 

But as it stands, K-Pop Demon Hunters is probably a single shot entry into the world, and it left two-thirds of the protagonists feeling underdeveloped. I wish it had been a bit longer so we could have had all three girls go through a change.  

OVERALL: 3.5 Out Of 5

K-Pop Demon Hunters lives and dies on the strength of its soundtrack and its ability to be cute and adorable, both in terms of animation as well as in its characters. And it, frankly, succeeds at all of that. The generic story beats and the underdevelopment of Zoey and Mira hurt the overarching tale of it all, but it’s still a blast to dip your toes into for 90 minutes.