Rating: PG | Runtime: 95 minutes
Release Date: June 20th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Sony Pictures Animation / Netflix
Director(s): Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans
Writer(s): Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan and Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans / Maggie Kang (story)

Teddy bears and choo-choo trains? Really?

Humanity’s last line of defense are the voices of three Korean heroes singing to inspire our souls into creating an impenetrable shield against demons throughout history. Each trio is therefore tasked to train their next generation’s successors to excel at both entertaining the masses and vanquishing evil. Today’s iteration is Huntr/x, the world’s most popular K-pop act. And they’ve almost turned the magical Honmoon barrier gold to seal Gwi-Ma’s demon ruler away permanently.

Utilizing mythology from her Korean heritage, Maggie Kang (who co-directs with Chris Appelhans and co-writes with Appelhans, Danya Jimenez, and Hannah McMechan from her original story) sets up KPop Demon Hunters as the culmination of a fight between good and evil that has become so routine over the millennia that Gwi-Ma is unable to alter his tactics and thus unwittingly embracing his own demise. Until a new champion rises with the perfect plan: create a rival K-pop boy band to steal Huntr/x’s fandom and dismantle the Honmoon.

Part battle of the bands and part back-against-the-wall moment of recognition for both sides’ lead singers (Arden Cho’s Rumi and Anh Hyo-seop’s Joni) to realize the destructive forces haunting them are of their own making, you get a bit of a greatest hits of light vs. dark genre tropes beneath a very contemporary skin of fandom’s own penchant for hijacking pure adoration with hate-fueled rivalry. If we could see beneath the differences we’ve been socially conditioned to fear, maybe we’d finally understand we’re actually all the same.

The music is catchy enough, the Korean cultural fan-centric touchstones are extremely cute, and the message is powerful regardless of its familiarity. I loved the chaotic quirk of the minhwa “Derpy Tiger” and magpie combo as well as the action choreography too. I must question the use of the Spider-Verse animation style, though. The dropped frame aesthetic is cool with all the comic book filtering that franchise wields, but it feels weird when the graphics are this polished. I guess it’s simply Sony’s default engine now? Still looks great overall. Just also made me wonder if my internet was failing.

---

(Right) Rumi (voice by ARDEN CHO) in KPOP DEMON HUNTERS; ©2025 Netflix.