Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

(2025)

I admit I was interested in this from the moment I saw the trailer. The hype growing around it fueled that interest. My kids however were closer to the demographic toward whom KPop Demon Hunters was aimed and therefore found themselves faced with that perpetual choice of how they would have this affect their identity. Not being the types to hop on the most popular bandwagon, they naturally chose the popularity backlash. This resulted in a moral outrage should I ever turn the film on or listen to the music or purchase the HunterX McNugget sauce from McDonald’s.

As a result, my wife and I had to watch this little by little in that precious ten-minute window between kids going to bed and her falling asleep. Had any of the kids caught wind of what we were doing, they would assume we were a couple of KPop fan girls, crying and singing the songs verbatim while bedazzled in our official KPop colored wigs and sequence-covered epaulets. Personally, I found the miniskirt unflattering to my physique. The thigh high boots however looked fabulous on me.

If you don’t know, KPop Demon Hunters is about three apparently ten foot tall females who lead a double life as Korean Pop stars and demon hunters. Their songs are meant to inspire good things in people which in turn strengthens a magical barrier called the honmoon (literally soul gate in Korean).

We’ve discussed in other Non-reviews the catch all English word “demon” when the notion is a bit more complicated if considered from most Eastern perspectives. While there are malevolent spirits in Korean folklore and its various religions, the Korean word used to refer to the “demon” boy band in this film is “Gwisin” which refers to a tragic or vengeful ghost with unfinished business.

I overheard someone being uppity about this IP involving demons but these are hardly connected to the idea of biblical fallen angels who serve השטן המשמיד so maybe Janet can just chill out for a minute. Besides, they’re counted among the villains of the film.

But they also have redeeming qualities as tragic ghosts. The message of this film, all things considered, is to not jump to conclusions about people and work to spread love and life instead of death and hatred.

The girls start working on a dis track to combat the demon boy band and as a result they see the honmoon failing. For those of you who don’t spend your time outside the Piggly Wiggly slinging street lingo, a dis track is an angry song that attacks someone. Only by going back and singing the happy same song they’ve been singing over and over again since the beginning of the film can they make things right.

This film has music that will be catchy at first but drive you nuts once your kids adopt them and sing them non-stop. The writing is pretty good. The lesson is stellar. The voice acting is great in both English and Korean. 

The art style is awesome and funny. This is very much an anime done with 3-D computer graphics and some of the standard anime tropes that look fine in 2-D are a little terrifying in 3-D but I loved it anyway.

Honestly, my only real gripe about this is the fact that my favorite KPop performer, PSY, didn’t inexplicably rip a hole in time and space and blast his way to the surface of the Earth, creating a huge crater in which he rescues the girls from some impending doom simply by dancing toward the villains and then blasts out of the universe through ANOTHER rip in space/time, leaving a trail of too much confetti, curry farts, and satisfied women in his wake. God, I love PSY!

If he’s not in the sequel I’m going kick Korea’s doors in and demand to know what’s going on!

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