Phoenix Tillman, Arts and Entertainment Editor
Three stars fell from the cinematic heavens to bless our screens with a badass, soul-touching cinematic masterpiece. These icons, garbed with cultural significance and oozing colorful charisma, are none other than the Korean stars of Netflix’s most watched title in history: “KPop Demon Hunters.” Arriving on Netflix on June 20th, the film quickly became well known for its innovation in everything from animation style to the soundtrack. It holds artistic and cultural significance laced together in a way that has touched the hearts of innumerable people.
The movie follows three Korean pop stars who live secret lives as demon hunters, their songs possessing special magical abilities to inspire hope and hold back the demon lord’s armies. Unchallenged, they grow close to sealing away the demons forever. However, the demon lord Gwi-Ma who thrives onthe souls of others devises a plan to stop Huntr/x: a demon boy band. Meanwhile, the main singer of Huntr/x, Rumi, is struggling with her own identity and role as a hunter. As the story progresses, the characters learn that their flaws aren’t something to be hidden, rather parts that can also be seen as beautiful. They find that shame only grows stronger in the dark, but they grow stronger by bringing those things to the light.
The story was conceived by producer Maggie Kang. Kang was inspired by her Korean cultural heritage, and wished to incorporate that into a story while exploring elements of demonology, mythology and more modern K-pop culture. In an interview with Crystal Bell on Mashable, Kang said, “It came from really wanting to see Korean culture represented in feature animation. And demonology was something I just really leaned into, and that naturally led to demon hunters… And so it was like more of a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”-type of demon slayer group, and the K-pop of it came last. It was another Korean thing that I could add in and have it be their public-facing persona. And that made it a great pitching point and gave it that spectacle and brought scale, and obviously made it a musical,” (Bell, 2025). The movie’s cultural inspirations gave it a personal layer that added to the storytelling in a powerful way. This can be seen in the design of the demons themselves, resembling traditional Korean artwork depicting demons. Huntr/x themselves were inspired by “traditional Korean mudang dancers— women who performed these beautiful, protective rituals… It gave us a foundation for the girls’ identities, their costumes, the mythology, even the stage visuals.” (Bell, 2025)
Music plays a central role in the story of this film, and the soundtrack provides everything from catchy beats to commentary on lyrical depth in the music industry. The general soundtrack had a dense richness where melodies and elements from different songs are blended together to emphasize different moments. The actual K-pop songs drew inspiration from a variety of bands: “With HUNTR/X, we were working closely with THEBLACKLABEL, so naturally, YG groups were an early reference — 2NE1 and BLACKPINK, of course.” (Bell, 2025). The Saja Boys drew more from the generalized tropes the members of boy bands tend to fill, which adds to the contrast between them, an attractive but hollow “band” of demons, and the vulnerable, powerful songs of Huntr/x. The demon hunting also gave importance to this contrast: “the demon-hunting aspect naturally became a metaphor for the messier parts of the industry — the pressure to be perfect, to hide your flaws, to perform a polished version of yourself, not just for the public, but even within your own group.” (Bell, 2025).
Another primary, striking aspect of the film is the animation style. The style has a wide range. They had to animate very silly, weird, chibi elements to serious, heart wrenching and even creepy scenes. Kang said “Animation lets you push emotion to the limit. A lot of those expressive moments, like the girls going chibi or overreacting, came from our animators just having fun. Anytime someone in a review said, “This is so stupid,” we took it as the highest compliment.” (Bell, 2025).
“KPop Demon Hunters” rocked the film world. It is culturally rich and artistically brilliant, with a moving message that touched the hearts of many watchers. In an increasingly divided culture of shame, movies such as “KPop Demon Hunters” can remind us to keep hope, and embrace vulnerability, combatting shame and encouraging love. It is a beautiful film about bringing your full self to light and uniting in love, support, and killer music.
References: Bell, C. (2025, July 9). How ‘K-pop Demon Hunters’ became a love letter to k-pop and its fandom. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/k-pop-demon-hunters-maggie-kang-chris-appelhans-interview