KPop Demon Hunters Stole My Soul

Intro:

Huntrix don’t miss, and neither does Sony Animation apparently. Because once I watched KPop Demon Hunters out of sheer curiosity - and mild death threats from my server - I IMMEDIATELY saw why it’s inescapable.

In terms of animation, its use of stylized 3D animation with 2D elements is immediately similar to the Spiderverse films, albeit with less influence from comic books, and more from anime. We’re talking goofy exaggerated facial expressions with some of the most creative representations of being down bad I’ve ever seen. Whoever came up with the popcorn eyes? You deserve a medal of honor. Cynically, I’m resigned to it probably having been produced under terrible working conditions just like Spiderverse, but given we’re all suffering in the 2020s, today I’m just gonna focus on how much I loved this before reality fully sinks in.

But even beyond that, it’s clear just how much passion went into this project. I’m not a KPop girlie, but even I could tell this was made by people who know their shit, and the KPop girlies in my server can confirm they do. A unique premise that’s accessible and enjoyable by all, but especially by those who can understand the little Easter Eggs to the actual KPop scene. And from what little cursory knowledge I have, even the story itself can apply to the darker aspects of the industry; I won’t be covering that comprehensively, but I will definitely mention it later for the sake of further discussion.

From animation to music, to characters, to writing and pacing, this movie is firing on ALL cylinders. And so today, I wanna yap about it. Why I adore this movie, how I interpret this story about the demons within us all and the mistakes we’ve made, accepting even the messier, darker aspects of our nature, and some small critiques that I think could be ironed out with some more media spun off from this movie. Cuz seriously, THIS NEEDS TO BE A FRANCHISE STAT.

The Animation:

If 2D animation is dead, its spirit lives on in this era of heavily stylized 3D. There’s been a lot of backlash towards Disney for its bad corporate practices and mountains of slop in recent years, and by extension, the reuse of the same, tired Pixar-style animation seen in both Pixar and 3D Disney films. Turning Red at least experimented a bit, but it has been cathartic seeing Disney get its crown snatched by movies finding ways to marry the best of both 2D and 3D, focusing less on realism and needless detail, and more on expressive character animation and vibrant, creative worlds.

The movie wastes no time in getting you invested in the girls and their personalities, and I think most of that is owed to the way they’re animated. Their petty annoyance towards having their plane hijacked and totaled by demons, their love for devouring food by the truckload and couchrotting, and their bad bitch energy in not only their choreography, but how they so effortlessly style themselves in the middle of their fights. All of this works in tandem with the writing to help you understand and relate to the characters right off the bat, making sure you’re seated for the show.

It’s not easy to pull off the usual comic deformations seen in anime in 3D, but they managed it here. The girls look fabulous, and I appreciate that they’re proudly feminine while still kicking so much ass, but the movie also isn’t afraid to make them look silly or berserk or messy to help communicate what they’re feeling. It’s nice seeing 3D animation lean into this kind of expressiveness, especially for women lead characters.

Obligatory Winx confession here: God I wish the reboot looked like this. KPop Demon Hunters embraces its uniqueness in every aspect, showing love for its influences while using it all to craft something we’ve never quite seen before, just like original Winx did back in 2004. And what does the Winx Reboot do? Sacrifice its uniqueness on the altar of looking like a knockoff Miraculous Ladybug with inexpressive, uncanny character models and AI-generated rags… at the same time that other show is upgrading its visuals. I know there’s mentions of KPop fashion influencing the Winx’s new looks, but after seeing KPop Demon Hunters, that’s an insult to KPop fashion. Rumi would never touch that abomination Reboot Bloom calls a skirt.

The animation especially pops off in fight scenes, which also serve as the musical numbers. With our story being about KPop idols, the effort put into weaving the music’s importance into everything else is commendable. We’ll talk about that in the music section, but as for how it applies to action, I appreciate how the action is not only well choreographed and easily readable, but also timed perfectly with the music. Seeing the girls summon their weapons out of the Honmoon strings in time with the beat? AMAZING.

And speaking of the Honmoon, it really signifies the expert visual storytelling going on here. Those first 15 minutes do such a great job explaining the premise of the movie to you, and establishing what visuals represent what. The blue strings emitted from the girls’ music, invoking blue light from the people’s hearts, pushing back the demon tides, really help to provide a visual for how successful the girls are at fighting back against Gwi-Ma’s forces throughout the movie.

The use of color in particular is phenomenal. The movie as a whole is unashamedly vibrant, but specific colors are tied to specific characters or ideas. A calm, soothing blue is associated with the Huntrix girls, this fiery, ominous magenta is associated with Gwi-Ma and the demons, and then gold is used as the ideal the girls are striving for. All the environments are soaked in these colors, not only creating mesmerizing, unique visuals, but also helping to set the tone and carry the story in ways your brain instinctively registers before you even have to put it into words.

The Music:

As a non-KPop girlie, I have to say… this soundtrack slaps. And all the KPop experts I know can confirm this soundtrack would easily pass for actual KPop, so… slay. I can see this easily being a person’s gateway into actual KPop music, but on its own, these are all Spotify playlist worthy. I’m an album girlie, but rest assured, this will be blasting in my car at max volume for the next month at least.

But it’s not enough for the music to be good. Here, the songs all advance the story, helping you to understand the characters’ personalities and goals, while also advancing their relationships and conflicts. That is the sign of a truly great musical. This movie wouldn’t work without its musical numbers, neither in terms of function or theming, nor would it be anywhere near as fun or engaging.

Thematically, I appreciate how music is used here as a tool for healing, self-expression, and connection. If demons are the dark, negative, destructive forces of the world, then music is used to shield people from it and help forge relationships between them all. I mean, just look at the world right now, and tell me you haven’t been clinging to your favorite albums to help you either escape from it, or try and make sense of it. Music is by far one of the best things humans have created, and one of the few things that convince me that there is indeed some good left in us all.

When Rumi is trying to sing about no longer hiding and accepting who she is in “Golden,” and unable to hit the high notes, I LOVE it. Because hello? She’s not living up to that at all. She’s hiding who she is from her friends, from the world, and wanting to eliminate her demon half rather than accept it. In terms of story, it’s perfect in helping you understand her conflict and connecting to her, and in terms of real-world application, I feel called out. Like, how often do we connect to the truths we find in music - or art in general - and then never apply that to ourselves for whatever reason?

And likewise, her not wanting to sing “Takedown” is not only her being wary of singing about the lack of humanity in herself as a half demon, but also what she and the others have been taught about demons as a whole. What the song is saying not only doesn’t resonate with her, but goes against what she’s viscerally feeling, and thus she can’t go along with it. MUSICAL STORYTELLING, BITCH.

I could also go on for hours about most of the songs, because not one of them is a miss. It’s less a question of what’s my least favorite, and more what song has corrupted my being the most. “How It’s Done” is SUCH A GOOD INTRO SONG.

It’s a bad bitch anthem that sells you on the premise of the girls as both icons and hunters, and works perfectly as a hook for the movie. My personal favorite bits of the song are when the girls summon their weapons on the plane, and when they’re doing their makeup while falling from the sky. Like, Mira having a NAPALM ERA?! HELLO?!

Also, random fire bars. “Bleeding isn’t in my blood,” FUCK YEAH. And I have no clue what they’re saying when they randomly sing in Korean, but it sounds gorgeous, and I love it every time.

“Soda Pop” is brainless, but THAT’S WHY IT’S SO CUTE. Like, “My little soda pop” is such a cute turn of phrase that hooks you on the Saja Boys just like their audience. It’s a goddamn earworm meant on sticking with you because that’s their goal - not to say anything deep or true like the girls’ songs, but just to get and keep your attention.

That was actually something brought up by a girlie in my server - you know who you are - on this being reflective of misogyny in the KPop industry, and honestly, the music industry as a whole… well, every industry. That men can be mediocre and do the same mindless shit over and over and be lauded and adored for it, but women have to bust their asses and reinvent the wheel constantly to even continue being acknowledged.

“Free” is SUCH A CUTE DUET. Even though Jinu is lying through his teeth, you can still feel him wanting to believe he can be saved just as Rumi does. That chorus of them singing together, their voices going up higher and making you feel like you’re floating free through the clouds, is absolutely heavenly.

Now for my top three songs: “Golden,” “Be Your Idol,” and “This Is What It Sounds Like.” For starters, “Golden” is absolutely gorgeous and heartwarming. Hearing where each of the girls have come from, with specific attention given to Rumi’s self-hatred and suppression, and how they’re striving for a better, happier life together? Oh it’s immaculate. It’s not just about making the Honmoon gold - it’s about seeing the gold in themselves. Truthfully, this is giving the KPop Demon Hunter equivalent of the Golden Girls theme song, and immediately, I need to see a song swap for these two treasures of media. Also, Rumi is Dorothy, Zoey is Rose, and Mira is… well, not quite Blanche - more Sophia, honestly.

Now, is my gayness to blame for liking “Be Your Idol”? Yes, quite a bit. Look, the men are gorgeous, and as much as we all like to make fun of the obsession with the enemies-to-lovers trope, IT WORKED ON ME, OKAY? Jinu can have my soul… whenever I find it, of course. But beyond the pretty men, it’s also just a dope villain song, with the Saja Boys talking about loving the listener for their sins. So much of the movie is about the shame in us all, so it makes sense this song - at the darkest hour - is trying to exploit that with this kind of self-destructive, dark escapism.

And yeah, I bawled my eyes out with “This Is What It Sounds Like.” A final battle where the girls accept who they are, belting their hearts out as they fight through literal demon hordes to get back to each other? BITCH, I’M SOLD. I love the story in the lyrics about being broken, but finding beauty in that brokenness. The way the light catches the broken glass, almost like we’re all mosaics of everything we’ve been through, good and bad? Ugh, this is right up my alley. Also, don’t think I didn’t catch the “Golden” leitmotif coming back as the crowd vocalizes. I heard it, and it sent SHIVERS UP MY SPINE.

I’m still so bitter this movie wasn’t in theaters, mostly cuz I need to hear all these songs booming from cinema speakers, THAT FINAL SONG ESPECIALLY. OH MY GOD I NEED TO CRY IN PUBLIC TO THIS FUCKING MOVIE.

I Love My Girls!:

At its core, the movie is about the Huntrix girlies. Their friendship, their struggles, and how their music represents the connection that unites and strengthens them, not only as warriors, but as people. Zoey and Mira are archetypes we’ve seen before, and I wish they got more to work with, but to me at least, the level of expressiveness we see in them, and hints at their inner demons, do most of the leg work to make them as lovable as they are.

Overall, I adore the girlies being into fashion and makeup, without that taking away from their badass, cooler-than-you vibes, and all the while letting them be goddamn dorks when they’re off the clock and just having fun. Like, DO YOU KNOW HOW RARE IT IS TO SEE ALL OF THAT TOGETHER?! Ugh, God this movie is perfection.

Mira is so blunt and unapologetic. Like, I WISH I had her level of unbothered energy. She calls things as she sees them, and if you cross her, I have no doubt she’d rip out your spine and use it as floss.

But that doesn’t make her mean or cruel. She’s just as loving as the others, and a lot of her animosity towards Rumi throughout the movie I think is more from betrayal at the thought of not being trusted by one of the few people that’s ever loved Mira for who she is. Almost like, “You accepted me as I am, yet you don’t think I would do that for you?”

And Zoey is ADORABLE. She’s so cute and eager and high on life, but that also makes her worried that she’s unlovable for being “too much.” She and Rumi both have a very, “I need to be over-productive in order to be worthy of love” kinda vibe.

And real quick, can we talk about how Zoey is literally what Reboot Musa should’ve been? The hair, the looks, the vibes? Just… EVERYTHING. No whitewashing, clear East-Asian features and fashion, and a lovely blend of feminine and tomboyish fashion. I need Musa with music-note throwing knives and baggy pants STAT.

But while I do love these two, I wish we got more into their pasts. Hence why I’d love a KPop Demon Hunters show, where we can get entire episodes dedicated to each girl and her own stories and struggles. I’d love episodes where we get to meet each girl’s family and how she joined Huntrix.

Now, Rumi is by far the most complex, obviously since she’s the main protagonist. It’s a lot harder to slot her into a pre-existing archetype compared to the other girls. And she… IS MY FAVORITE. Mostly because I see a self-suppressing, self-denying character, and my queer heart goes, “Oh yeah, I know that song and dance all too well (10 minute version).”

She’s been hiding who she is, believing her existence is an evil mistake for her entire life, and while she is striving to protect people from demons, she’s also doing it to justify her own existence. Like she has to balance the scales for her birth. She has to go the extra mile to make up for the fact she, in her eyes, never should’ve been born. She doesn’t believe she’s worthy of love, but is instead working so that one day, she will have earned the privilege of being loved.

Even the fact that her hiding her patterns means she can’t relax in the spa with the other girls. Like, she can’t just relax and let her walls down until she’s made herself this unattainable ideal that removes half of who she is. Like, DAMN that hits so hard.

My only real issue here is that we don’t go into the details of her past. Like, who her mom was (I’m assuming the braided member of Celine’s trio), how she met her demon dad, what her demon dad was like. We don’t really need all these details, but I do feel like they’d help to further contextualize the kind of self-hatred Rumi has.

Even Celine, the mentor figure, has… very little presence in the movie. I kinda expected her to almost be a boss the girls report in to, but… nah. She’s just a non-presence that disappears until the end of the movie. And to be fair, that scene at the tree where Rumi demands to know why Celine couldn’t love all of her, and Rumi says she’s glad that old Honmoon born of denying who she is gone, does hit me like a semi-truck.

But it feels like huge chunks of the story are missing. Perhaps there are deleted scenes that went a bit further into Celine’s role in the story, and truthfully, the movie still excels even with this absence, but it is still quite noticeable.

Really, it boils down to the fact that… I NEED MORE KPOP DEMON HUNTERS. This movie is amazing, and truthfully feels like a killer pilot meant to sell us on an entire show that goes more into depth about the characters and their world. Which I would absolutely be seated for.

Oh, also love Bobby. Best manager ever, and I wish all managers were like him. Taking such a small fee, always defending his girls’ right to rest, and being an overall icon. We love Bobby.

Broken Demon Glass:

Now, as for the demons, let’s talk about what they represent. Cuz I’ve mentioned it before, but the idea of the darkness and shame within us all runs through this movie, along with the question of what we do about those forces. Do we try to orphan them in the hopes of living up to some ideal, or do we embrace them as parts of us worthy of love? The answer is obvious, and yet most of us live the way Rumi does for most of the movie.

Jinu really puts it best in his conversations with Rumi: that Gwi-Ma is that voice at the back of your head trying to confirm your worst thoughts and fears about yourself. That you’re unlovable, that you’re rotten to the core, that everything you do is a mistake and evil and wrong, and that no matter what you do, you’ll never escape the worst parts of yourself. We all have a Gwi-Ma in our heads, and he never shuts the fuck up. Ever.

I’m not sure whether all the demons used to be human like Jinu, but it’s important to remember that East-Asian views of demons tend to be quite different from western, usually Judeo-Christian ideas of demons. For the sake of simplicity, let’s just lean into the idea that all the demons are indeed like Jinu, or at the very least, represent the negative forces of the world that can incite the negativity within ourselves.

In this case, Jinu and Rumi are vital for the movie’s theme of self-acceptance. For Jinu, I was utterly engrossed as he told Rumi his backstory, and absolutely GAGGED at the reveal that he lied, intentionally abandoning his family for temporary wealth and luxury before becoming enslaved to Gwi-Ma. You wanna root for him, but he keeps making terrible, no-good choices, because he believes he’s rotten to the core, so why try to be better?

But while his end is tragic, his sacrifice does atone him. It’s him making up for everything he’s done to save Rumi, to give her a chance at her happy ending, while also in a way freeing him of the shame and guilt that have kept him in demonic chains for 400 years. A reminder that no matter what you’ve done, what mistakes you’ve made, there’s always good in you, and it’s never too late to try and do the right thing.

Also, apparently the sword Jinu’s soul becomes at the end is based on the Four Tiger Sword: a Korean blade believed to ward off evil spirits. Immediately made me sob, and also love that weird-ass tiger even more.

Rumi, meanwhile, at first denies and hates the demonic part of her, but later on comes to embrace it, no longer hiding her patterns. Personally, I’d love to see her using some demonic powers in her fighting style, but I still adore this kind of theming. Of embracing all parts of yourself, light and dark.

And even beyond demonhood, the way the girls are encouraged to hide their imperfections as KPop idols - to hide their humanity from each other - I think really drives this theme home. How this refusal to open up and be vulnerable about the messier parts of who they are hurts and nearly destroys their friendship, and themselves. It makes them far more vulnerable to Gwi-Ma’s influence, whereas embracing their darkness immunizes them.

And the queer coding I think is kinda obvious as well. Hiding a part of yourself that you’re taught is inherently evil and shameful, wanting to be seen and loved for who you are rather than this ideal role you’re told you have to embody. Sadly very relevant in the terrible, no good era that is the 2020s.

I really love that line in “This Is What It Sounds Like” where they go, “So we’re not heroes - we’re still survivors.” Sure, we’ll all call them heroes, but the line is meant to communicate that even if they may not live up to this heroic, perfect ideal, the girls are still out here doing what they can to make a better, safer, happier world. They don’t have to lose their imperfections and identities for the sake of their goal.

Now, I’m not entirely sure if the Honmoon is entirely sealed by the end of the movie. I don’t think it is, given it’s not the shining gold we caught glimpses of earlier, but I hope it’s not. In reality, you can’t do away with all the evils and darkness of the world, because… that’s not how the world works. I’m a duality girlie. Light and dark go together forever, and are codependent. Sure, the girls will have to keep fighting, but it’s worth it to remain who they are, especially Rumi.

Conclusion & Outro:

If it’s not clear at this point, I ADORED this movie. I really hope we see more of the girlies, be it through sequels or a show. I wanna know more about them and their world, I wanna know more about the previous girl groups, and dear god, I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT RUMI’S PARENTS. PLEASE.

This movie came outta nowhere and took the hell over, and I’m so glad it did. We need more art like this, taking chances and bringing out-there concepts to life for the sake of not only pushing boundaries, but telling amazing stories that rip out your heart, dance all over it, then hand it back to you. Especially if it’s by a pretty demon boi.