by An unexpected dark horse has appeared in the American animation world and is making waves. Its impact is visualized in the records. In addition to being ranked first in the Netflix global movie rankings, the original soundtrack reached third place on the US Billboard album chart “Billboard 200”, the highest ranking for a movie soundtrack in 2025.
The songs in the movie also earned first and second place in the number of plays on Spotify’s USA daily chart. What was the content of this work, “KPOP Girls! Demon Hunters”, which produced this impressive record? Here, we would like to consider how its uniqueness, which can be said to be “chimera-like”, led to its immense popularity.
The main characters are the three-member girl group “HUNTR / X (Hantrix)”, which is very popular in the K-POP world. Members Rumi, Mila, and Zoe continue to captivate their fans with their busy schedules, including live performances and songwriting.
However, they are also “Demon Hunters,” who fight against supernatural beings called “demons” that attack people and destroy them with weapons. K-POP has now become a global phenomenon that has gained support around the world, including the United States. BTS and BLACKPINK have dominated the US Billboard charts, influencing many areas, particularly young people, in music, fashion, and SNS culture. As a result, they have become so widespread that they have naturally blended into the pop culture of each country. So it was only a matter of time before K-POP became the subject of an animated work.
However, the setting of adding the element of “demon hunters” to it is unusual. With the content depicting both their activities as stars and supernatural battles, it is natural to worry that they will be too busy. Not only that, the opposing demons also form a boy band and gain popularity, and the main vocalist of “HUNTR/X,” Rumi, has a love life and keeps the fact that she has demonic characteristics a secret.
The story is so packed with elements that a traffic jam is about to happen. The sight of Rumi, Milla, Zoe, and the others getting along well while being gluttons, having a weakness for handsome men, and often making “gag faces,” and the sight of them exterminating demons while hiding their true identities, is reminiscent of the ” Sailor Moon ” series.
Furthermore, the fact that the enemies are “demons” that live through the ages and that they fight with their weapons is similar to “Demon Slayer,” which is known in English-speaking countries as “Demon Slayer.” And the way the main vocalist Rumi expresses her secret feelings through song is reminiscent of a similar depiction of Elsa in the “Frozen” series.
In other words, this work gives the impression of extracting the characteristics of existing popular works and simmering them in one pot without any restraint. I do not particularly want to point out that such an attempt is a rip-off. After all, the film, anime, and subculture industries create new things by mixing existing works.
In this work, there is a scene where Rumi’s kick explodes, reminiscent of the “Evangelion” series, but the source of that is the Rider Kick from the “Kamen Rider” series. What I want to consider here is that the style of incorporating elements from popular works with different tastes, which could be called a hodgepodge, did not fall apart and was successful enough to gain widespread popularity.
