K-Pop Demon Hunters: It's Amazing and Please Go Watch It

(This review includes spoilers for K-Pop Demon Hunters)

I never really thought much about K-Pop.

I don’t really go out of my way to expand my music taste often — to this day, I still listen to the one and only playlist I made back in 2015, and the last new song I added on there was like, maybe a year ago? Safe to say, I have a strict “comfort zone” when it comes to music, and K-Pop was not included. 

It’s not like I hated the genre, I was just never really interested in it. Until a 2025 Netflix release grabbed my attention and made me reconsider my judgement: K-Pop Demon Hunters, an incredible experience of phenomenal animation and writing, as well as music (except for this one annoyingly catchy song I dislike). 

Like with Nimona and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, I saw the trailer for this movie and was like, “Huh, this looks cool! I’ll check this out sometime,” only to forget to watch it over and over again. Luckily, this time was different. 

Every time I scrolled through Netflix and saw it appear on my feed, I didn’t circle through the same thoughts and scrolled past, but I found myself watching the trailers/snippets over and over again because I just couldn’t get enough. I was laughing out loud and loved how the animation reminded me of Spiderverse and Arcane, two of my favorite media. 

Then, just two days after finding out it exists, I just decided, hey, why not? 

And I could not look away. Except for when I had to pause it because it was one of those movies where you just get attached to the main characters so much that you don’t want to see anything bad happen to them. 

The plot, the acting, the humour, the songs — everything about it is just stellar! 

Firstly, the character designs. The main three — Rumi, Mira, and Zoey — are designed so beautifully, and their outside captures so well on what’s inside. While Zoey is my favorite character, my favorite design would have to be Rumi’s, since I do have a soft spot for purple, and her hair is just gorgeous! At first glance you can tell that she’s so headstrong despite the demon scars she’s fighting so hard to hide until she learns to accept herself. 

That might seem like a basic lesson on the surface, but to some people, including myself, that means so much more.

I have parts of myself that I’ve tried so hard hiding all my life: stress marks, scars, you name it. But over time, it’s been getting easier to accept my own beauty, and seeing something similar to my journey through this incredible film was nothing short of inspiring. I aim to be just like Rumi one day. 

Zoey and Mira are the type of friends you dream of having. Zoey is so adorable and positive, I couldn’t help but smile every time she was on screen! And Mira is so cool, I love her whole rebel look and personality, the woman is so funny! And both, along with Rumi, have their own scars, just in an emotional, backstory sense that would no doubt connect with a lot of people. 

What I love the most about these three is that they have so much more to them than their issues and fears. They’re so well-rounded that getting to know them was like making new friends of my own, which is what I love most about animated films. 

That, and also how they genuinely care about their fans. I’m glad they don’t have to deal with problematic people in their fanbase (except for maybe the tattoo guy in the beginning, but that’s probably tame from what idols have to deal with in real life, unfortunately). 

Now for the antagonists, who happen to be demons, a demon boy band, and their leader Gwi-Ma. For the most part, their whole schtick is simple: they want to break through the Honmon (a shield keeping demons from attacking humans) and take over Earth to feast on the human souls. Simple antagonist stuff, which is perfectly fine. 

But with one of them, it’s not so simple.

From the beginning, I saw Jinu as the rest of them, but he clearly had something going on with him. Turns out, he was a selfish son-of-a(n)-innocent-woman-who-he-betrayed-along-with-his-sister to get himself out of poverty. Emphasis on the “was.”

He clearly regrets his decision, but thinks the only way to seek relief is to have those memories erased entirely, pretty much sealing the deal on truly how much of a demon he is. However, Rumi sees that there’s no way that’s all there is to him, and it unlocks one of the rare Enemies to Lovers arcs that don’t have me pulling my hair out. 

The flow from them despising each other to finding out more establishes such a heartfelt connection that eventually led me into rooting for them to kiss. Which they were GOING TO DO in the CONCEPT ART but apparently THAT WAS CUT and I’m NOT SO PLEASED ABOUT THAT. 

Why was that cut. That would have ended Free perfectly, it’s not like kids can’t handle seeing a tiny kiss! That is about the only thing I didn’t like about the movie, but it’s not like it impacted its quality or anything, so I’m not calling it critique. Just frustration from a Rumi x Jinu fan. Oh well, if I can write blogs, I can write fanfiction of my new favorite couple getting the happy ending they deserve!

I don’t care if he’s dead, or vanished from existence, or whatever happened to him, I can delude myself into thinking otherwise. 

Anyhow, speaking of Free, did I mention that the songs were just so good? 

I said in the beginning of this blog post thingy that I don’t really listen to K-Pop and I never felt too comfortable moving into a new genre of music that wasn’t already a part of my little comfort bubble. Well K-Pop Demon Hunters has pretty much destroyed that way of thinking. 

If this is what K-Pop is, consider me a fan (who’s too afraid to interact with other fans because I heard some of them are a different breed of human beings). What It Sounds Like, Your Idol, How It’s Done, and Takedown are so good, it’s almost unbelievable. I’ve listened to all of these over and over and over and over again and I can never get tired of them — it always feels like the first time I’m listening to them. 

The only song I can’t really bring myself to enjoy is the Saja Boys’ Soda Pop. Yes, it’s catchy, I also find myself involuntarily moving my shoulders along with it, but I was not happy about it! 

And that’s what I love about it — it’s supposed to be so annoyingly catchy and have no substance compared to Huntrix’s music. So no, this is not a critique on the movie either; in fact, I’m praising it again for giving me more reasons to stay on the main character’s team. 

I also wanna give quick praise to Your Idol, a song also from the Saja Boys. Not only does it perfectly represent the evil behind the band members’ perfect faces (and abs), but it also symbolizes some real life relationships between idols and fans. 

It’s a song about suffering being used to elevate one’s popularity or power. Some idols may even go as far as to inflate parasocial relationships just to keep the income flooding in, as if to say that their fan’s one and only purpose in life is to make someone who doesn’t care about them successful. 

I could be reading a bit too into it, but also, what else could the lyrics “Thank you for the pain 'cause it got me going viral,” mean? 

The film doesn’t give too much or too little, but just the right amount to get you to keep watching. The pacing is handled so well, the characters could not be any more colorful and relatable, and the best part is, you can tell that the team had fun creating this piece of art. I loved the bit at the end where you see the voice actors smiling while working behind the scenes. 

Please watch K-Pop Demon Hunters. It’s very cool and good and such a great time.