I am pretty sure I am not the target audience for K-pop Demon Hunters.
I actually struggled to finish it the first time round thinking – ok, a predictable plot about identity, truth and supernaturalism mixing up with ear-catching (really catching) K-pop tunes. I really did not see a point finishing it as I already knew how things would go with the plot despite the fact that I had my fair share of K-pop following in my younger years.
Then my neighbour told me about the girls at an 11-year-old birthday party were doing nothing but belting out all the songs from the movie. So, I thought, maybe I really need to give it another go and understand what the fuss is, so at least I understood it with a full picture, and not just jumping to conclusion.
Without spoiling the plot too much, K-pop Demon Hunters is about a girls group called the Huntrix serenading and pumping up their fans by day and demon hunting to protect mankind at all other times. Their ultimate goal is to seal the demon world from humanity for good. One day a rival boy band showed up and things got interesting when the Huntrix sensed that they are actually, demons. The story unfolds from that point. But ultimately it is a story about so many things – friendship, trust, truth, courage and well, demon slaying.
Unlike your typical anime style demon slaying troupe, K-pop Demon Hunters is surprisingly tame in terms of demon slaying. Yeah, hordes of demons were slain, but then you don’t have blood and gore everywhere like your standard anime style showcase. After all, it is quite obvious that this movie is made for teenage girls chasing after a new generation of Let-It-Goers, in which case, I think it succeeded massively. This is because the tunes are really catchy – the track ‘Golden’ is still ringing in my head and although my shoulders are not moving, ‘Soda Pop’ follows closely. In terms of music, you really have to give it to the movie’s song writers and the vocals. They did not just sing the songs; they gave meaning and purpose to the songs in a way that they became totally relevant than some tag on wannabe tracks. It will be quite interesting if Sony one day wanted to capitalise it like Disney, making a full-on musical out of it.
Apart from that I really don’t have a lot to say about K-pop Demon Hunter, despite still typing frantically on my keyboard with ‘Golden’ still attacking my mind.
One thing I did appreciate about K-pop Demon Hunter is that they have most, if not all (I haven’t done a background check to all of them), of the voice actors coming from the Korean background. I think that’s an appreciation of the subject and the culture, as who else understand K-pop more than the Koreans themselves? In this day and age, it is quite easy to ignore that factor, especially when it is an animation requiring voice acting only. But the fact that they respect the cultural side of things even for voicing the characters, I have to give them some extra marks on that.
I might not be completely blown away and set ‘Free’ by ‘What It Sounds Like’ a ‘Strategy’, K-pop Demon Hunters’ popularity is not without reason…Gosh I have to stop those songs in my head now.
K-pop Demon Hunters are now streaming on Netflix.
