The Loose Ends in KPop Demon Hunters

KPop Demon Hunters debuted on Netflix on June 20th 2025 to massive acclaim from across the globe. Within a week, social media feeds were filled with gifs of Huntrix and the Saja Boys. Fanart filled with spoilers were being posted mere days after release. Discourse was already starting across various platforms as people argued about the cultural significance of this brilliantly animated movie from Sony. It truly took the world by storm, especially during a time where live action remakes of popular animated films were flooding the cinema.

Yet, this 1 hour and 40 minute (less once you discount the credits) left a lot to be desired in the storytelling department. Whilst I found this movie a fun, enjoyable romp overall, I also found myself wishing that it had more substance. It laid out this trail of breadcrumbs that never lead anywhere, or wasn’t concluded in a satisfying way. I wanted more, and not in the ‘I want a sequel NOW’ way. Sure, once can say that a lot of the characters’ journeys could be explored more in depth in a future series or sequel movie, but I wanted to feel like there was true progress that wasn’t forced upon the characters. I wanted to feel the characters’ journey, not just reach the destination with a pretty little song.

That being said, the songs were really good.

This little essay is simply my thoughts on where I believe KPop Demon Hunters faltered. I’m not a hater. I enjoyed watching the movie - it was funny, full of heart, and incredibly animated. There’s nothing wrong with a simple story. However, this show seemed to have moments where it would imply a deeper meaning, without following through. And that’s where I take issue. Perhaps the movie was just too short to explore the characters fully, but if that was the case, then maybe they should have done less! Anyway, let’s begin.

Rumi, Shame, and Her Unexplored Backstory

One of my biggest qualms is with how the movie handled its protagonist, Rumi, and her journey. Her story is pretty simple to begin with: she’s a demon hunter, but she’s half demon! Okay. Cool. We have a conflict of interest already set up, we have a clear motivation as to why she overworks herself, and we know that there’s a fear that she will not be accepted for who she is. However, things start to get messy when we look into how her half-demon nature is perceived.

That is to say, not enough. We know she’s ashamed of it, but we get one flashback (repeated twice in the movie) that shows her adopted mother, Celine’s, view that she should never reveal her patterns to her best friends. Okay, sure, that’s an indication of her internalised demon racism. Simple enough. However, we only truly get to see Celine’s view of Rumi at the very end of the movie. I think that Rumi’s growing conflict throughout the movie would have been improved by having more flashbacks that shows how Celine raised her to hide herself. It’s pretty messed up for an adult to teach a mixed-race kid to be ashamed of her heritage, and I think that the theme of ‘shame’ really could have been strengthened by dipping more into her upbringing.

Furthermore, Rumi was raised from birth to be a demon hunter and also a KPop star. This is a subtle reference to the ruthless real life KPop industries, where young girls and boys work tirelessly for the chance at a big break. It really is a shame that this wasn’t explored whatsoever. Just a passing comment by a fan. It really would have strengthened her character to show more of how Rumi was raised and to indicate that her deep-seated shame isn’t only because of the patterns. She was taught to hate the patterns, just as her friends were, and I think that the story really needed to have more focus on Rumi’s backstory to strengthen this core theme.

Instead, I found that the movie spent way more time dipping into Jinu’s backstory. He gets several flashbacks, sometimes of the same moment, but also to different moments in his life before he became a demon. We know Jinu’s drive, and yet Rumi, our protagonist, does not get that same treatment. It feels very much like they wanted to dip into how Rumi was raised, and cut it out. Perhaps it wasn’t explored because of how harsh it would be to depict it. Nobody wants to see a young girl be told that they’re not good enough, or that they’re a mistake. But I think it would have made Jinu’s betrayal stronger if we were shown why Rumi thinks she was a mistake, instead of being told that she feels this way.

I think part of my issue is the way I’m constantly being told how to feel about Rumi’s feelings. I know this is a movie geared towards a younger audience, but animated films of yore are not bereft of complex themes spun into allegories. The original Lilo & Stitch explored the theme of grief in a young child. Tangled had a whole song about a gaslighting, manipulative mother. Heck, even the original Cinderella depicted Cinderella being horribly abused by her stepmother. I think it’s quite condescending to believe that younger audiences would not be able to understand a story that explored how feelings of shame are passed down from parent to child. Turning Red did this quite well - generational trauma is a surprisingly common theme in Asian lead films. This is all to say that KPop Demon Hunters would have benefited greatly from showing us some of Rumi’s upbringing instead of Jinu’s. We already root for her, but seeing how she was raised to become the Next Big KPop Star Or Else would have made the stakes even higher. It would also have made it more impactful when she realises that some demons have humanity, and that maybe she was wrong to judge them under the same brushstroke.

Also, this is such a nitpick from myself, but Rumi was mean to Mira and that is never addressed? Ever? I get it, Rumi was stressed, but she lashed out at Mira, “Not everything is about you and your insecurities Mira!” - this is actively using Mira’s insecurities against her. That’s a universally awful thing to do to someone you consider a friend and family. She does onto Mira what Jinu does to her (albeit at a much, much smaller scale), and I wish they followed through with that. I wish Rumi had a chance to apologise, truly, for her behaviour here. “Oh, but they didn’t have time to address this!” then I’d argue they shouldn’t have put it in at all. I’d rather they take things out than to dangle a loose thread and go ‘it’s okay, they sang a song together and went to a bathhouse together and now all their problems are solved!’

This does lead me quite neatly into my next issue with the film.

The Power of Friendship Defeats Demon Racism!

It’s always about friendship, after all, friendship is magic! This is a relatively short point, and one that I’m sure many people will see as yet another nitpick. I think they resolved the Demon Racism from Mira and Zoey way too fast. There. I said it.

I get it, I get it, it’s a movie for kids and it’s a short one at that, so we don’t have the time to have either character truly digest what’s happening…… But goodness gracious, the pacing needed some work! We go immediately from demons bullying Rumi, to Mira and Zoey discovering that Rumi is part demon, to them raising weapons at Rumi (after all, they’ve been trained that all demons are bad and that anybody with patterns are a edmon), to Rumi running away, to them being brainwashed by the Saja Boys / Gwi Ma, to suddenly a finale song and fight and accepting Rumi. The pacing for this entire character arc is rushed. And that, I think, is unfortunate!

The movie spends a lot of time building up the friendship between the trio, and how important Huntrix is to each of them. I wish they would have spent more time on the trio, as opposed to the whole bit about Jinu ‘getting his soul back’ and then giving it to Rumi. I get it. He’s the hot male love interest. We gotta make people sad about it, but the rushed pacing of the climax made it hard to feel sad for him too! Personally, I would have preferred if the trio were able to have a moment like that with each other. 

Maybe that’s asking for too much. Maybe we’re supposed to see this as a triumphant moment where when push comes to shove, they have Rumi’s back even though she’s half-demon. I do think that this weird rush in the storytelling could have been fixed with little tidbits throughout the story. Like maybe Rumi does talk to the girls about her questions about demons, already laying the foundations for Mira and Zoey to really reconsider their own anti-demon views. Maybe instead of raising their weapons at her, they are willing to listen, but Rumi panics thinking about what Celine said, only able to see scorn in her friends’ eyes, and she runs. I wouldn’t have minded that so much, because it would have shown that their friendship continues to be strong despite the secrets kept from them. 

Anyway, the girls all get back together and we’re not supposed to question everything that happened. I thought this was a little lame. But I guess they have a cool finale song. I think the pacing is what really let down the ‘friendship’ aspect of the movie. Maybe with 20 extra minutes to develop certain aspects of the story, this would be solved! I definitely would have loved to see more of Mira and Zoey coming to terms with their own prejudices! I suppose with the time constraints and the sheer amount of themes they tried to sprinkle in, it was inevitable that some characters would fall through the cracks.

The Underexplored Exploitative Nature of the KPop Industry

One thing is for certain: KPop Demon Hunters is a love letter to KPop, from the style to the music. For many fans, this was a really fun and vibrant way to see their favourite music in animated form. With the success of the KDA music videos, the jump from KPop into animation just seemed right. 

However, many fans are also aware of two pretty major issues in the KPop world: firstly, that KPop exploits its performers and its fans, and secondly, that the fans are ruthless. 

Of course, a movie that’s a love letter to KPop and its fans is not going to depict KPop fans being horrid and toxic. That would, in many ways, defeat the purpose. I’m not saying that the movie should have depicted that, lest it go the way of Wreck-it Ralph 2 and veer on the side of absurdity. So for the second point, I’m more than happy to push it to the side and say “it’s not that type of movie”. 

You could argue that the exploitative nature of the KPop industry doesn’t need to be addressed in this movie, and you would be right. However, the movie tries to address it! But they don’t do it to its full potential, so it’s mostly missed in favour of fun costumes and big fight scenes! And this is incredibly frustrating! Once again, it’s a situation where they partially address a theme before barrelling straight to a conclusion, and I simply think that a movie should give its throughlines satisfying conclusions instead of just leaving them up in the air and going ‘well I dunno! You decide!’ 

A passing remark at the beginning of the movie states how Rumi was trained from childhood to be in Huntrix, and that the whole KPop group was built around her. We don’t get anything more to this. This would be an amazing way to tie in the theme of exploitation into Rumi’s backstory and her feelings of shame and unworthiness. She works hard because it’s what she’s been trained to do. It’s the only life she knows. You don’t even need to go into depth, but something more than just one singular line by a fan would really solidify the tragedy and difficulties of her childhood. Rumi was never given a choice. She was born half-demon, and has to, for some reason, pay for the sin of being born. She was born to a KPop Demon Hunter, and was forced since childhood to become a Demon Hunter in order to atone for the grave shame that is being born. That would be such an amazing theme to explore, but instead we get several cuts to Jinu’s backstory of leaving his family behind and feasting on palace food. Maybe I just wanted more Rumi backstory than Jinu! Maybe I wanted to see her struggles so that when she finally overcomes the shame that was forced upon her, I feel more excited! 

The other exploitation that the movie tries to address is the parasocial relationship between fan and celebrity. This is mainly explored through the Saja Boys: they’re demons AND they’re sucking the souls of their fans. What could be more obvious than that? I do think that the song ‘Your Idol’ (my personal favourite) does encapsulate that theme pretty strongly. “You gave me your heart, now I’m here for your soul,” is as ‘on the nose’ as you can make it. Not to mention the line, “I’m the only one who’ll love your sins” truly encapsulates that sense of parasocialism that many celebrities feed off of. 

To be parasocial is to believe you have a deeper and more meaningful bond with someone you don’t actually know. Whether we like it or not, plenty of celebrities capitalise on parasocial relationships in order to make money, or in this case, steal your soul. For all my criticisms, I do think that the song does a good job in, rather succinctly (and perhaps a little obviously), depicting how celebrities can use you.

So what’s my issue then, if the depiction of the Saja Boys is a decent portrayal of how KPop stars exploit their fans? 

My issue is that the Huntrix do the same thing! And we never explore that! Obviously, it’s in a far less blatantly evil and maligned way, of course. They’re doing it for the greater good of the Honmoon! But they’re still feeding off their fans, and they even say that they need their fans. That’s why the Saja Boys appearing and ‘stealing’ their fans is a big deal in the first place. I feel like this theme of fighting for fans gets a little lost, unfortunately and we end up focussing far more on the half-demon thing and the ‘romance’ between Rumi and Jinu rather than the fight for fans. I don’t think this is a bad thing, since I would much rather have a closer character study of Rumi in the first place. However, I still believe that more could be done to show how Huntrix similarly requires that parasocial relationship in order to retain their power and maintain the Honmoon.

They’re the heroines, though, so obviously you don’t really want to depict them feeding off the attention of the masses. You can say that Rumi’s workaholism is a subtle gesture towards that, and you can also say that they’re constantly going ‘for the fans!!’ It’s a hard one, so honestly, I think the team did the best that they could in this regard considering they needed to make a ‘good’ and ‘evil’ side. It would’ve been cool to explore, though, the idea that the girls are similarly feeding off the souls of their fans, but for the power of good! Although I do admit that’s quite the nitpick, and not a theme I expect to see depicted to its full extent in this movie.

Should a Movie Answer All These Questions?

If you’ve made it this far in my immensely rambly essay, thank you! I should preface my conclusion with the fact that I found the movie enjoyable and fun. The issue is that if you think a little more deeply about the movie’s themes, you realise that it’s built on shaky foundations. I don’t think this necessarily discounts its enjoyability overall. I do wish it didn’t hold back so many punches, but I can understand that there were probably time constraints, especially considering how short the movie actually is.

Should a movie answer all the questions I brought up before? Yes, and also no. No, we can’t expect a movie to cover literally every aspect of an industry like KPop. We can want these things, but a movie (or any sort of media) has no requirement to cover any theme outside of the ones they present to you. That being said. The movie should answer the questions that it poses within itself. Exploitation, shame, friendship - these are all the themes they present to us. And I simply don’t think they did a good job in exploring them and answering them! They throw these, along with a fair few other themes, at us like sprays of water. A movie doesn’t have to go down a checklist of things to address! I’d much rather they give us less, but do those things with more depth. 

Sometimes, less is more, and I do think that KPop Demon Hunters could have done with less. Not in terms of time, absolutely not, but rather in terms of thematic elements. I’d rather you take out the one line about Rumi being raised from birth to be a KPop star, than to mention it and never address it again. I’d rather Rumi never say a mean thing to Mira, only for that to never be talked about again. I’d rather if Zoey and Mira didn’t raise their weapons to Rumi, only to almost immediately reject their biases and accept her almost immediately. That’s what I mean by wanting ‘less’. I want less loose threads and more completed strands. 

In conclusion, it’s a very enjoyable movie with banger music and fantastic animation. Just, please don’t go around trying to start discourse about how the movie is so much deeper on a cultural level than it actually is. The movie has heart, and I can appreciate that. More movies need heart and soul, and this movie has it.

Anyway, goodbye my little soda pops, thank you for reading.