If you went on the internet at any point this summer, chances are you at least heard about K-Pop Demon Hunters. If not, allow me to elaborate. On June 20th, 2025, K-Pop Demon Hunters from Sony Animation Studios made its direct to Netflix debut, with little to no marketing campaign and a voice cast made almost entirely of unknowns. Only having the K-Pop supergroup TWICE sing two songs. But with the insane dedication the K-Pop stan community has to new projects, it went on to break every streaming record Netflix has for original films. Even people outside of the target audience were getting sucked into the craze, some even starting to get into K-Pop like myself.
So what clicked? How on Earth did this movie, sold off to Netflix with zero hope behind it, manage to gather over 260 million views on Netflix, stay on their top 10 movies page for 10 weeks, and break Billboard Hot 100 records? Well, lucky for us, we can guess a good amount of them. So what better time to talk about arguably the most popular movie of the summer, than after summer’s already over? Let’s get into it.
An Asian Influence
For about a decade now, Asian media trends have been steadily making their rounds in the United States. However, the past 5 years have shown a significant spike in this. Whether it be K-Pop boy group BTS’ big break in the US in 2020, anime becoming incredibly popular during the pandemic era on TikTok, or matcha, which has Chinese origins, becoming everyone’s drink of choice in the past year, there’s a little piece of their culture mixed in with ours wherever you go. Even Labubus were created by a Chinese brand! This just goes to show how much in recent years we’ve grown to accept East Asian culture in Western society. From the cast of K-Pop Demon Hunters, Korean-American actor Daniel Dae Kim went onto an interview with Variety, where he stated the following:
“I never would have thought that a show about Korean KPop singers would hit the consciousness of our country as widely as it did, as deeply as it did. I don’t think “KPop Demon Hunters” would have been successful, let alone get made even 10 years ago. But it shows you how far we have progressed as a culture in America that we’re accepting now of Asian cinema, Asian content, Asian music, Asian skincare. I’m really happy to be a small part of that movement.”
(Malkin, 2025)
With a release timed at the height of this movement, it was almost set in stone for K-Pop Demon Hunters to be a smash hit.Â
The iMPORTANCE OF girlhood, mental health, and self
At a time like now, it’s incredibly easy to feel isolated and alone. I know I do from time to time. And K-Pop Demon Hunters seems to know it too. At the core of this movie is a message all about girlhood and self. While there is an engaging romantic subplot with Rumi and Jinu throughout the movie, Rumi’s real triumph comes from making amends and coming forward with the truth about herself to her friends. Forced to hide her half demon side from her best friends, Rumi’s character arc of the film revolves around realizing that her true self was never worth hiding from her friends. A climax filled with her embracing her friends and them embracing her back really helps to send this home.
Many on social media have called out Rumi’s “demon” as an allegory for almost anything: race, lgbtq+ identity, mental illness, or even just sticking out from the crowd. Being a queer woman and branded as a weird kid most of my life, it was definitely easy to resonate with this part of Rumi. Feeling as if I have to hide parts of me to fit in better with society. What this movie hopes (and succeeds) to do is to tell you this: You don’t have to hide. You don’t have to shove it all in. You deserve to be just as seen as anyone else, and you will find your crowd. And that I think, is one of the most important messages to be put out into the world, especially at a time like this. So if this movie wants to be the one to say it, I’m all for it. I don’t mind that the songs getting stuck in my head either.Â