KPOP DEMON HUNTERS | Full First Time Reaction (Updated)

In the minor version of golden I'm just imagining those lyrics as "no more hiding, you're not shining, like you wanna be" it just fits so well

"Why would he cover her patterns?" Her shame is useful She would owe him a favor Her doubt is useful I love your honest, expressive reactions. You aren't masking anything and it makes me feel like I can unmask that well one day.

I think they knew the song because Huntrix sang it during the train fight

"Lie and reveal" is certainly overdone, but in this case Rumi feeling too ashamed to tell her friends is like, a core part of her personality and essential to the story. Overcoming shame is the whole message. That scene with Celine near the end wouldn't have hit as hard as it did if she hadn't felt the need to hide up until that point, and we wouldn't have gotten "This is What It Sounds Like." (I also love the "Takedown" reveal scene on stage, it's brutal and compelling).

I related a lot to this movie when I watched it, specifically I related to Rumi's voice struggles. I had Thyroid Cancer back in 2023 and had a neck surgery to remove my entire thyroid, which rests right on top of the vocal chords. They say it's a vocalist's worst nightmare, as having the surgery can permanently alter your voice. It did alter my voice for sure, though I don't think it damaged it. But now I can't sing notes as high and I feel like I have less control. It was really hard to learn how to sing and speak like myself again after that surgery. This movie hit different for me.

Derpy the Tiger and Sussie the Magpie are spirits, not demons. They never break through the Honmoon, they simply transition through it.

Was thinking; How ironic that a train derailed your train of thought... Then I kept hearing the horn and you didn't comment on it again so I took off my earphones... and there was a train HERE. o_o

Mortius, you HAVE to react to the full track for Your Idol!!! The version in the movie is only like half of it. You're missing the Latin chanting, Mortius!!!

been re-watching and just can't stop laughing at that tiger, it's hard to concentrate on the reaction xd

The twerking tiger really adds to the moment where Rumi asks her parental figure to end her. Really adds to the dramatic tension.

The thing about the liar revealed plotline in this movie is that Rumi has literally been taught to hate herself from birth thanks to Celine. How do you overcome the incredible amount of shame in order to accept yourself as who you really are when you've never had any examples of "good" demons? Even once Rumi starts to slowly figure out that not all demons are just soul-sucking dirtbags, that's not something she can just drop in the two weeks between meeting Jinu and the Idol Awards. Comparing it to queerness and being raised in a household where that sort of thing is "demonic", I mean, it took years to be unashamed of who I am once I started meeting folks and realized that they were all just humans like me. The allegory it's telling is much bigger than a "liar revealed" plotline IMHO. The amount of shame and self-hatred that builds up over ~25 years of life just isn't going to go away that fast. Especially with telling two other people, the only other two people she's truly close to, *who have also been raised with this extreme hatred of demons.* Rumi might've had a chance with Zoey, whose line "they might be nice demons?" shows she's willing to accept a reality in which not all demons are soul-sucking dirtbags, but that is still before she's met Jinu and is possibly willing to make a change. AND THEN, on top of that, with the "save the date" scene, Rumi expresses her belief that it's an immutable, terrible part of who she is, but Jinu just made a mistake, he was a normal human, *she's* completely always and forever corrupted by just existing until the Golden Honmoon can banish that side of her for good, or so she believes. It's just... gut-wrenching.

I am super late to all of this, but I came from YouTube (and yes my pfp is two boys from Stray Kids - who have been somewhat confirmed to be one of the inspirations for Saja Boys even if there are no /direct/ connections, plus there are a bunch of other groups they took inspiration from) and I am still at the very beginning of the video because it’s currently 12:25am, and I will make notes on what I wanna say as I’m watching and then plop it in a reply to this comment BUT yes, a lot of kpop songs have a bunch of english lyrics, some groups even do fully english versions of their originally korean songs and they sometimes make japanese versions too! The eating however many calories before the concert is super valid as an ‘outsider’ to kpop, but idols don’t eat that much, especially not before a long concert and usually not even in general (there are some occasions where they do but they all more or less have an unhealthy relationship with food.) I don’t listen to girl groups at all, but at the end of the movie they do mention Twice, and you can see some recordings of the idols and the Korean VAs singing the song. (i don’t remember what song that is exactly, will probably rectify it in the reply I mentioned above) However, if you’d be interested in checking out some more boy groups either over on youtube or just in your own time, I can recommend Stray Kids (with 8 members), Ateez (with 8 members) and Seventeen (with...wait for it...13 members). They have a wild variety of genres in their discography (Stray Kids at this point have more than 350 songs, but that includes remixes, solos, unit songs etc, not just the group songs). I think you would quite enjoy their more melodic songs, but there are a LOT to choose from. :) If you’d like some actual songs recommendations, I am more than willing to compile a small list! (sorry for the long comment, I am very passionate about people discovering kpop-adjacent things 😅)

Netflix wasn't chosen as a distribution company. The movie was actually co-developed by Sony and Netflix. The actual production was Sony's but Netflix frontend most of the production budget. Sony had little faith in the movie being a success and didn't want to risk covering the full cost only for it to flop. Then Sony backed out at the last minute, selling all the rights to the IP to Netflix in exchange for the money Sony had spent on the production as well as a tiny profit.

This movie really is... amazing. This Is What It Sounds Like always brings me to tears. First of all, you were asking about the split-heritage thing, and, even though my split heritage is English/American, I can say from my own experience that it *does* leave you in an awkward liminal place. Growing up and even into my adult life, I'm the Brit to my American friends. On top of that, having been able to explore and see the world as much as I have over the years, even as a child, I have a point of view that... always kind of set me apart. Don't get me wrong, I love both sides of myself, it just definitely... is a challenge to manage. The other commonality with Zoey for me is that a *lot* of people are saying that she is AuDHD-coded, and... that's a fundamental part of my own neurospiciness. So... Zoey is a double-whammy of being seen for me. Split-heritage and autistic/ADHD combo... yeah XD One last thing I want to say is that... I legitimately hold Celine responsible for all of this. Like... as someone who has been through a relationship of conditional love, where everything about the relationship is about meeting the other person's expectations while having to suppress parts of yourself... it is just caustic to the soul. Everything that we are shown leaves me with no reason to believe that Celine was any different with Rumi from an early age. Rumi didn't have Gwi-ma's voice in her head because she had Celine's voice as the embodiment of all of her shame. I don't think Celine knew that she was raising Rumi in a way that was causing the patterns to grow and spread. She strikes me as a very "see a demon, kill a demon" kind of person. Very black and white, and then here's Rumi, causing her cognitive dissonance for the first time in her career as a hunter.

Also I just wanna comment on the way souls and stuff work in this universe. Demons steal souls forcibly, no consent generally, it's unpleasant and they terrorised ppl before hunters came along. People willingly connect their souls through the hunters' songs. It feels good, it elevates their lives and keeps them safe simultaneously. Also, we see that consuming souls makes demons stronger, but no souls are rly consumed and there's no such effect like that for hunters. My favourite thing in this movie full of amazing things is that Jinu willingly gave his soul to Rumi, a half demon, thus empowering her to end Gwi Ma. No other hunter could've done that. Only one that was half demon. So a half hunter half demon wasn't like some win for Gwi Ma, her parents had actually created the seed of his destruction. Also, the fact he gave his soul willingly avoids all of the unpleasant violent soul stealing side of demon empowerment.

The demons got the lyrics for Takedown when the trashcan got knocked over.

Seeing this pop up on YouTube made me come here and subscribe for an annual membership! Time to curl up under my weighted blanket with my Gilded Teafling tea (Wizard's Tower) and watch the full reaction!

I love your reaction and the authenticity you have! It's always nice when reactors are transparent with things they might've heard before or recognize, it makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable.

LOVE YOUR REACTION SM!!! I recommand you to listen to the acapella and instrumental version that came out for a deeper analysis!!

Ran here for the full reaction 💪

Thankyou for giving me a reason to watch this movie again!!!! 😍😍😍

You said "loki frost giant style" and I heard "low key frost giant style" lol. I love your reactions. You match my enthusiasm so.often and it's great

THE HANDS MARKINGS! Not inconsistent - in her first meeting with Jinu you see when he touches her neck the markings glow and actually peek out from her turtleneck - the contact they have calling to each other's patterns cause them to show more than they would usually - specifically for Rumi who can't hide them with magic. They go back to normal after tho.

bringing the mic close to call out tiktok on its autotune hate SO REAL. (like, can it be overused? yes. but it's a tool to create a certain kind of sound! And well-tuned stuff can sound SO COOL!)

I couldn't resist buying these two. KPDH has been my favorite animation since Owl House. 8:15 Steven Universe references in my KPDH? It's more likely than I think! (Apparently.) 54:35 And this line was where I realized Abby is played by SungWon Cho. I think he also played the old man singing Soda Pop.

(Re: Voice actor side quest) I will say that one of the trio reminded me so much of Stephanie Beatriz

I am SO GLAD you reacted to this because I've gotten my friends to watch KPDH, and of course they all loved it, but none of them have the vocalist history I do. It was so hard explaining why I FULL-BODY FLINCHED when Rumi's voice broke for the first time. :( They were all "ooh, that sucks" while I was on the other end of the couch being whipped up into an existential frenzy like "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, HER OWN BODY IS BETRAYING HER, THE PLACE WHERE HER SENSE OF SELF PHYSICALLY LIVES IN HER BODY IS DAMAGED."

I Really liked how you said "Free" is a successor for "Golden", because you are right, they are both lies. Golden talks about allowing yourself to shine, but in the cracks you can hear the undertone: "in order to shine and be yourself, you have to be perfect". The problem in Free can be summarized with this lyric: "we can fix it if we never face it" and this is the biggest lie shame tells you, that the only way to be free is to shove those parts of you down, to hide, to forget the past and treat it like it doesn't matter. This is how Gwi-Ma get you, this is how shame consumes you, the more you hide it, the more it grows. The only way to overcome shame is to face it, to accept it, and to move on. Yes you have done what you have done, and it cannot be undone, but you CAN try to be better next time. When you accept the person that did those things, when you learn to accept that you are are guilty of your actions, but it doesn't have to define you, then and only then you can overcome shame. This is why "Golden" and "Free" failed where "This is What it Sounds Like" succeeded- because previously they were at war with the parts they felt are unworthy, and now they made peace with them. The golden Honmoon was doomed to fail because it was strict, uniform and unforgiving, you can see it in the purple tint of their weapons- the shame was there, hiding under the surface of the golden light. The new Honmoon is multicolored (like it was with the first hunters btw) because it excepts all the colors, no hiding parts of yourself, so they truly shine in all the colors, including gold. I believe Jinu's sacrifice was so powerful because of that, a demon that made peace, moved from shame to acceptance proving to everyone that they can accept and love themselves even with all the broken parts. For a soul trapped in place for 400 years for guilt and shame, the acceptance of that part of him allowed him to break out of Gwi-Ma's control and regain his soul. You can even say, they all made peace with their demons.

I love how the 4 “background” Saja boys all represent an aspect of Kpop and what Idols deal with. Romance: not being able to have a romantic interest in peace cuz the fans want it to be them Mystery: never having privacy and your whole life on display, because the fans WILL find out Abby: objectification and sexualization of Idol’s bodies Baby: how they’re infantilized and treated as if they’re teenagers or kids despite usually being in their mid twenties or older

Yeah, this movie came out of nowhere and it was absolutely incredible!

Breaking lurker status to push the gay agenda. To sum up: Rumi is a lesbian, Jinu meet-cute is gay recognizing gay, "Free" is Rumi proposing that they be each other's beards and just like keep their gay affairs on the dl, Gwi-Ma is evil Jiminy Cricket version of anti-lgbt/shame-culture/purity culture/conversion therapy that some LGBTQ+ are raised with, and What It Sounds Like is Rumi being like "ok but what if being gay is NOT evil and shameful??? like girls are SO pretty but I can go to a bathhouse with my platonic besties and it's not predatory???" I could literally write a 50 page paper on this I have so many unnecessarily specific examples. anyway Lesbian!Rumi supremacy thank you for coming to my ted talk

Your Idol is the greatest villain song to ever villain song! Zoey is my favorite. ^^ - P-man_XD

While I can understand your frustration with the liar revealed plot I think it was the best way to do it, just just for fitting the themes of the story, but the cultures as well (both South Korean and Idol). Of course one of the most popular Kpop groups can't have any flaws and if they do...no they don't. The difference is that Mira and Zoey know the difference between public and private faces, while Rumi was only raised to have that public face of perfection because of the inter-generational trauma she was raised with being Kpop 'royalty,' as it were.

I found you via your Sleep Token reacts and as soon as I saw this movie I knew it was one you needed to see. Its my current hyperfixation and I subscribed on Patreon just to watch it

Also, I have heard and absalutely agree the theory that had Jinu not betrayed her at the Idol Awards, they both would have been sent to the Demon World. Because how does a magical barrier know the difference between demon and half-demon? Like, Sabine talking about it in the beginning and Rumi talking about it to Jinu are different, so I think over the years, Rumi convinced herself little by little how it would work, but came to the wrong conclusion because it's not possible.

Please do a cover of Free! I would love to hear you sing it!

So I purchased the two vids (I can't do the subscription sadly, not yet) and it was so cool to see the unedited version. This reaction made me laugh so much! Thanks! 🤗

If the Saja Boys were real, we'd all be screwed.