Review of 'KPop Demon Hunters'
A sensation on Netflix, I decided to give “KPop Demon Hunters” a try. I will watch pretty much anything and this was a lot of fun…
Long ago demons preyed on humans, feeding their souls to their ruler Gwi-Ma (voiced by Lee Byung-hun) but these are kept at bay by subsequent generations of three women who use their singing to create a barrier to protect the humans - The “Honmoon”. The current generation of “Demon Hunters” is the K-Pop rock sensation “Huntrix” - lead vocalist Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho; singing voice Ahn Hyo-seop), rebelious Mira (voiced by May Hong; singing voice Audrey Chu), and rapper/lyricist Zoey (voiced by Ji-young Yoo; singing voice Sarah Yeeun Lee). In the demo world Gwi-Ma is annoyed at the lack of progress of his minions. Hoping to turn the tide, demon Jinu (voiced by Ahn Hyo-seop; singing voice Andrew Choi) creates a five-member boy band “Saja Boys” to steal Huntrix's fans and weaken the Honmoon in exchange for Gwi-Ma wiping out Jinu's painful memories of his human past. As the battle is joined, a secret that Rumi has long kept hidden threatens to destroy the Honmoon and grant victory to the demons.
Yeah, this is obviously mainly aimed at a different market segment than myself but I still found it a load of fun. The music is very catchy (with typically…unusual…lyrics) though repeated perhaps a few too many times, and the animation is vibrant and action-packed as you might expect with the violence you would expect for “demon HUNTERS” largely cartoonish in nature so suitable for younger viewers. Of course, the story is largely an excuse for typical “musical battles” between Huntrix and Saja Boys though there are only a handful of songs here. Other than Rumi's secret there is not a lot of mystery here but that is ok as many will not really care – The film is amazing to look at and sounds great as well…
Silly, light entertainment that will not be to everyone's taste but for fans of K-Pop and splashy, fast-paced animation, they will love it.
Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2026-01-25
Directed by: Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang
Studio: Creative BC
Year: 2025
Length: 95 minutes
Genre: Animation
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14205554/
Other reviewed films by Chris Appelhans:
- Wish Dragon (2021)