Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Demon Hunting KPop Style
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 5187 Location: New York |
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I can only imagine how different the world would be if Reba Wilson’s Seoul Girls script (which judging by everyone who read it, was basically K-Pop Sucks: The Movie) had not been derailed by COVID and filmed. It would have likely rendered this film unreleasable.
Instead, I’m hearing Huntrix songs on the radio and even on the in-flight radio on airplanes. The film may not win, but it has launched an awards campaign for animated films and its soundtrack. And it’s on track to be one of if not the most watched Netflix original film ever, having been the most watched for a month, only briefly ceding #1 to Happy Gilmore 2. At its core the movie is simple but very well told and it’s fun to see all the advances in animation from Spider-Verse being used in a motif outside of Western superhero comics, as much as I like them. And of course the soundtrack works, which this film needed to nail. A sequel is inevitable but thankfully the rumors of a live-action adaptation were debunked. As fun as this movie is, I don’t need to see the live-action version that has Adam Sandler as their manager. Last edited by Beatdigga on Thu Aug 07, 2025 1:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mdo7
 Posts: 8262 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Hi, long time K-pop fan here (I've been a fan since 2013). But yeah, I never thought a K-pop themed animated film would become a big hit on Netflix. This is in comparison back to 2013 or late 2000's when K-pop (along with K-drama) was super-niche (even more niche then anime) back then. I mean even today, veteran K-pop fans (as in someone that was in the K-pop fandom before PSY's Gangnam Style, BTS, and Blackpink) were so surprised and shocked that a music that was once super niche has gone mainstream some 15 years later. You can read these perspectives from these veteran K-pop fans via Reddit. When you read them, you'll understand how K-pop went from almost unknown in the US to K-pop idols appearing on US mainstream news like People Magazine, Entertainment Tonight, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Billboard. That is something that you would never see back in late 2000's.
When I became a new K-pop fan back in 2013, I was so shocked to see that music genre was able to gained a larger international fanbase compared to their J-music/J-pop counterpart that I wanted to know why despite the popularity of anime/manga, J-pop and J-music in general couldn't catch up to K-pop to the point where several former J-pop idol crossover to K-pop (ie: like in the case of several former AKB48 singers joining Kpop groups), it did at one point became an obsession to me as both as a K-pop fan, and a anime/manga fan myself. International J-pop fans have in the past complained about the lack of accessibility of J-music/J-pop compared to how K-pop was able to do this and also to this day was baffled why didn't Japan give J-pop/J-music the same push it does to anime/manga to compete with their K-pop/Korean counterpart back in mid 2010's. Here's what I wrote back in 2023. So yeah, I never thought that ANN would dived down into K-pop territory starting this year and going as far as to review the movie itself. Throughout my many years as a ANN forumite, it's a far cry from what I saw in 2013. [EDIT: No need to quote so much, when you're also already linking the post itself. It just adds more walls of text to an already crowded screen. -TK] |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2574 Location: Online Terminal |
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I push back on the notion that the tiger & bird were designed to be adorable and marketable because all kitties and birdies look adorable and marketable.
This is an interesting viewpoint because I had seen a positive review about how KDH isn't broad, but that was in comparison to people like Disney trying to make 4-quadrant crowd-pleasers. I guess that's the difference between reviewing it as a film vs. reviewing it as anime. While KDH may not be a complex narrative, it is uniquely and unapologetically itself, and that ends up resonating, too. Also, as I've been thinking, I've become sad as to how quickly Turning Red has likely disappeared from the collective nerd consciousness. |
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FishLion
 Crazy Fangirl Posts: 861 |
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I kind of felt this way too, I loved almost every moment of the film from an art perspective and the jokes hit, but the characters weren't developed enough for my taste. Like, there is that whole part where spoiler[the band almost falls out because of suspicious demon nature hiding behaviors] and that would have felt so much more earned if we got to know the rest of the band more. Like if knew anything but the most vague "we've always been friends" backstory for the other members of Huntrix this would have been an A+ for me, but instead it ended up a feeling a little shallow after the cool fights and performances were through.
I was also reminded of Turning Red! The plots are very different in terms of events but the broad strokes of "My family doesn't understand me but my friends do and if I'm brave I can be myself and make others understand me too!" was very similar along with the story ending at a massive concert where people have to work together but the main character decides to stay connected to the different part of her. That might be part of what made me not enjoy it, because I felt like Turning Red did a great job of showing what united the friends in the story and what was being betrayed when they had their tiff while I really felt like I didn't know the specific details about the members of Huntrix outside of their desire to be a team, stop demons, and go the spa. They just didn't feel fleshed out in comparison and I adore Turning Red so I'm not surprised I thought of it. I do also wonder about the film vs. anime comparisons. Because when I compare it to anything American animation/film in general has produced recently outside of Spiderverse itself it does seem head and shoulders above many works and it does even seem specific compared to those 4 quadrant type shows, but when I watched it I also thought of anime about girl bands and how much focus we get on the characters in those and it made KDH feel really underdeveloped by comparison. I also think at the end of the day it was just really over hyped for me. If I stumbled across it and found it without so much buildup my expectations wouldn't have been so high, but coming off a year of great girl band anime and being told it was incredible I just didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped. I am hoping the newer movies can be longer or more character focused so that it doesn't feel like we are jumping between so many big story moments without getting to know the characters. All that said I'm glad it's doing well! I loved a lot of the little moments and will always be happy about people enjoying and supporting animation even when it isn't my thing. |
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Oggers
 Posts: 470 Location: Ontario, Canada |
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I enjoyed KPop Demon Hunters a lot. It's not perfect in terms of writing (I agree that the Huntrix girls' relationships with each other could have been fleshed out a little more), but it's a lot of fun in regards to its animation, action scenes, gags and songs. "Your Idol" is probably the best villain song I've heard in a while.
Hilariously, this has led to the fan theory that 4*Town was the Canadian boy band equivalent of Huntrix back in the early 2000s, considering how the band apparently doesn't need much convincing to help Mei out in the end. |
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Purple Tentacle
Posts: 52 |
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I haven't watched this film and have no desire to do so but I find it fascinating when American productions of foreign cultures get more praise and billing than works from said country that could be promoted instead. It's not like Korea is lacking in relevant films or TV shows. It's also strange seeing its songs rank higher than actual K-POP bands like BTS and BLACKPINK in the US but still being billed as K-POP despite not even being written or sung in Korean... or being a real band. I guess Americans were just waiting for a chance to make K-Pop their own thing and capitalize on it. Gentrification? Cultural Appropriation? I'm not sure what the right word to use for this is.
More strangely is this isn't even a Japanese production or related to Japan in any way so I'm not sure why it's being talked about on an anime website. |
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FishLion
Crazy Fangirl Posts: 861 |
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That is pretty funny, there are a lot of bands fighting spirits, I wonder if music is just good at soothing incorporeal beings or maybe ensemble music groups are just the ideal way to focus fandom power? Either way we definitely need a story about special ops trained ensemble music groups fighting demons, like if we crossed Love Live with Neon Genesis Evangelion or something. If that's the next KDH maybe they will pull me in. |
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mdo7
Posts: 8262 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Uh, not according to South Korea and Los Angeles Times, the animated movies does get a lot of love over there too, and one of the song from the movie charted high on the Korean music charts. I don't know why you would think that way.
Judging from you joining ANN recently, I have to ask: how long have you been in the anime fandom for? Because were you not aware that ANN has been talking about K-pop, and Korean stuff including webtoons/manhwa and anime based on webtoons/manhwa for quite a while now. I can't tell if you're trolling or not. |
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Joe Mello
Posts: 2574 Location: Online Terminal |
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Being "on tour" allows for a range of different locations and story types, and being a band allows for multiple characters for ideas to bounce off of. You can certainly do things with a solo musician, but I think it becomes a different type of story (just like how I think a KDH that was more skeptical of the Asian Pop megaliths would be a completely different film, although that may be an in to write a sequel). But the touring pop band dynamic may help to explain back when cartoons were also aimed at older teens/adults, we had multiple attempts to combine the two tastes together, up to and including The Beatles. |
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The Scream Man
 Posts: 316 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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This review needs more mentions of the Greatest Kpop group currently working: Twice. Twice(Or three of the group) did the end credits version of 'Takedown" you see in the film, and their song "Strategy" is briefly heard earlier in the film, as well as a couple of visual references here and there (And one poster for 'Meovv' another great girlgroup that hit late last year).
ANyway listen to Twice. |
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Animeeightoh
Posts: 23 |
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So... this is a story about stuff like acceptance and believing in yourself, right? And um... they are using kpop to present this...kpop? Kpop, which is known for it's overwhelming high use of plastic surgery and how it sells itself based off the singers appearances.
Didn't the writer of this create this story because she wanted to be a kpop star but gave up on it cause she reached an age where she wouldn't ever be considered..? Welp, I'm glad they are packaging all that in an animated lie to sell to the impressionable and your kids to insure the success of kpop songs for Sony music entertainment to continue promote and profit off of. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 872 |
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I mean you're not wrong, but it's a comedy movie primarily aimed at kids first and foremost. You might as well accuse every movie/TV show (that's not a documentary or serious drama) about music/musicians (or heck, you can extend that any about any profession you can classify as "show business" in general) of the same. I would venture to say the, y'know, demon hunting is probably a good indicator that the film is not reflective of the real world. |
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dmanatunga
Posts: 128 |
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While the songs are English, they do have Korean lyrics weaved in. Also, EJAE who does the singing voice of the main character and wrote a lot of songs is South Korean as well as American and has done a lot of past work on writing songs for KPOP groups. Yes, America has a habit of appropriating other cultures, but I don't think KPOP Demon Hunters is a good example of that. |
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Varkias
Posts: 43 |
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Like quite a lot (nearly all) of popular fiction, it's a form of wish fulfilment and fantasy. Down to people in most movies and films living in spaces that are outside of what would realistically be their budgets. |
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Haterater
 Posts: 1744 |
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No way they thought this was going to be a hit, or else they would have way more merch at the ready. Only having just that cat for a long while.
I fear the moment the movie jumped in popularity, the suits would come up knocking. Hoping they won't push stuff and ruin a good thing here. |
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