K-Pop Demon Hunters Movie Review

There are only two types of people in this world: those who have watched KPop Demon Hunters and those who have heard of it. K-pop Demon Hunters is an animated musical film by Sony Pictures Animation, released on Netflix over the summer of 2025. Now, only 3 months later, KPop Demon Hunters is one of, if not the most, successful movies of the year, even becoming the most highly viewed Netflix film to date. Despite its limited promotion and unconventional title, it found massive success on streaming platforms and across social media, and there are a couple of big reasons why this movie was so well-liked.

As a musical film, its soundtrack is a prominent factor in its rise to fame. The K-pop Demon Hunters soundtrack features approximately ten songs, many of which are tied to the storyline, facilitating audience engagement with the music. The songs in the film are very catchy and, most importantly, K-pop songs, a genre that attracts millions of fans all around the world. Notable songs such as “Your Idol” and “Golden” peaked at #1 on Spotify’s daily world top 50 list. For reference, this is a feat that even many famous K-pop bands worldwide were not able to achieve.

Catchy tunes are not the only appeal of the film, because another major win is the animation. Sony Pictures Animation has been on the cutting edge of animation recently with the release of the Spider-Man movies, “Into the Spider-Verse” and “Across the Spider-Verse”. These movies were both praised for their distinct animation style of blending 2D and 3D aspects into animation. Kpop Demon Hunters does not directly use 2D objects, but there are many moments in which expressions are made into 2D to make them more exaggerated, in an almost anime style. One example is that the movie’s main characters are animated in twos, meaning their movements change every two frames. This gives them a sort of choppiness, almost like stop motion animation, anime, or manga.

K-pop Demon Hunters is a culmination of the globalization of Korean pop culture in the form of a blend of Western animation with K-pop. Its unexpected success is a testament not only to the loyalty of K-pop fans, but also the growing global appetite for the genre’s distinctive culture.