K-Pop Demon Hunters: Action, Attitude & Anime Energy

Barbara and Teja talk K-Pop Demon Hunters! We're loving the action, attitude, and sparkle. Barbara struts her fandom in her Mystery Saja-inspired wig.

From the high-energy battles to the hilarious character moments, this movie might be one of the most fun surprises of the year.

#kpopdemonhuntersnetflix

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What could possibly be unclear?

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Your vision for one.

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Maybe a little.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

You would not be able to get into a Waymo right now.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

I'm cosplaying here. Well, at least for the for the wig. Yes. I'm cosplaying.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

And this too has something to do with the topic of today's episode of K-pop Demon Hunter!

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yes! Yes! I am Mystery Saja.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

And I'm a total fan of K-pop Demon. You know, I I did not want to watch it. I did not want to watch it at first.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Okay, I can't.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

It it seemed so strange to me at first. I was like, you can't mix K-pop and Demon Hunters. I was to, and I like using that word. I was reticent to engage and watch the movie. And I thought it was actually a series at first. I'm like, I'm not gonna be able to watch a series.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

But uh it was uh it was good.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

It was good, it was very good. Let me just introduce to you why these are here. Now, this is we're way past dinner, and we haven't had instant ramen or this is a cup noodle.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

The minute, the minute that I saw this in the movie, I said, I have not had cup noodles in years.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Now they have a branded Oh yeah, they have like the They have a branded K-pop demon hunters uh Well you know that they will. Instant ramen, yeah. There were three of them. That's why we've got three here.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

And each of the Right, it was the Hunters, yeah. Right. It had their names on it and everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

And so we're just gonna try this. Again, I haven't had instant food. This each of these was less than two dollars, and there's a reason.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Oh, this is spicy. Woo! Oh spicy, spicy. Yeah.

unknown 2:17

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Is yours spicy? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

This one is called Korean spicy beef flavor. Out of six jalapenos, hot peppers, it's three.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Oh, this is oh wow, this is only one one jalapeno. And I'm like, Woo! I think they want to know what we thought about K-pop demon hunters. I mean, we loved it. Um, yeah, no, so it was um it was really good. I I I I thought the story was great, the characters were fun, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

They loved eating their own uh cup ramen, or you know, their whatever you call it. What was it called again?

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Well, I mean it it looked like cup ramen, you know, so well it wasn't called that. I don't um I don't I don't remember if they called it that I mean I they probably did call it just ramen, but yeah, no, it was it was very good and like the the music music was so good.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I didn't even think about this, but the actors are not the same as the singers.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

No, no, yeah, that was um a little bit of a surprise.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

And one of the songs was in the top 40, or what have you called it? It was already oh really? Which one? Billboards? I don't remember one one of the hit songs. Oh, I should have looked it up.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

And everyone's singing it apparently, and I'm so hungry, and this is good, and it's it's good in a way that only ultra-processed foods can be when you're just really hungry. Okay, so wait a minute. Which K pop Demon Hunter, not under Hunter Song is a hit. Which one is it? There were a lot of good songs.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah, there were a lot of good songs.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Um, oh, take down. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

And it was yeah, it was a great story.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

I was really pulled into the story.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Using the enthusiasm of their fans to sustain this web that protects the human world from the demon world.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I know. What a great theory.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

What a great and then the Saja boys came along.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

So you have the three main characters, three women, K-pop stars, who are also demon hunters.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, because and they had the whole legend that only one at a time ever like has that power to use their song to fortify this web that protects humanity.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

And the demons send a boy band, a boy, a male k-pop band, to basically pull them into their into their web of evil.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

And as usual, like each one, as in real life, like each one has its personality, right? There's the the hot one and the dreamy one and the mysterious one.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

You know, they all had the hair over her eyes like that. Yeah. His. This was one of the demons. He was the one who's uh the the first one to show up.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Oh it was great. Yeah. And um, and the the enthusiasm for K pop in general, because K-pop, I think, at least for a moment.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

It's an ascendant, yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, it was the most popular ascendant. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's a good word. It's a good word. Can you use that in another sentence?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Um. But I can make you snarf, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Okay. Wow. Okay. Slow down there. I'm hungry. I know, but you're like eating all my food.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Oh, that's yours?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

It is now.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Because. Oh, because you can't eat the hot stuff?

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Well, I can eat the hot stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

So K pop has been uh extremely successful worldwide. I have I have an appreciation for K-pop. It's not like I've listened to the music all that much, but I love I love the art of it. I love how it is created and the art of it. It's it's so well rehearsed and and um put together.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Well, it's highly manufactured, it's highly manufactured.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

It's true. It's true, but it is an art form.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

It is, it is.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

And I respect that. I respect how much effort is put into that art form. I don't think that the lifestyle is all healthy for K-pop oil.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Well they abuse them. They abuse them, just like they abuse uh my esophagus with my gut with the mm-hmm. I think these are noodles.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

This is extremely spicy. And so I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

I think that they have dance rehearsal and singing rehearsal and lessons, and then they have to learn songs and they have to do interviews and they have to fight demons. I mean, it's a lot. It's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yeah, how do you you wouldn't have time to, you know, go to the bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Not really. I mean, no wonder they eat, you know, cup noodles, because that doesn't take much time to cook.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

That's right, they don't have much time.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Just some hot water and four minutes.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

And it's also how they save money. Prior to K-pop, and this was growing up in Japan, we had excuse me, what is now called J pop.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

It wasn't called J pop back then.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

It was just so next is L pop. That's that's gonna be the next thing. L pop. Because J pop, K-pop, and L pop.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

So what country is L pop?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Laocian pop. Lithuanian pop? Luxembourg. Luxembourg.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Luxembourg pop. Lux pop.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Lux pop. Lux pop! Oh my god! We just made it pop! That is fantastic! That is awesome. We have to go to Luxembourg now and we have to source a group.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

And there are only like three people there, so everyone in the country is part of the band.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Lux pop! What a great idea! Wow. Think about that. Wow, that could be highly very specific. Very, very specific, very, very wedge market. We were talking like an audience of eight or nine people.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah. It's worth it. And instead of you know instant noodles, they'd have like instant Bratwurst or something.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

I I don't know that that's what they eat in Luxembourg. I don't either. It's not Germany or Austria. It's Luxembourg.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

They have smaller Bratfust.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Lux Lux Pop. What would it sound like? Would it be like semi-Umpa music? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

No. Luxembourg Luxembourgish cuisine is hearty, featuring potatoes, meats like pork, and fish from local rivers. So popular dishes include Judmat Gardebonen, which is pork and pork and beans.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

What's the first part? Jud jud.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Gardebonen. Gard Gardabonen.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Soda pop. What was soda pop about?

SPEAKER_00 10:43

About getting people excited. Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Yeah. Soda pop.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah, exactly. And then that was what really got like the guys to be to start to steal away the fans. And if they stole away the fans, then the oh my god, what was that thing called again? I looked it up. I had to look it up again. Oh, and then I made it go away. It's the thing Han Moon. Hon moon. Hon moon. The Han Moon. Wow that they had to, that net that they had to um, you know, protect humanity with.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:20

They had to turn it gold. And it kept fading.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Oh, that's right. That's right. That's right. So it says here in Wikipedia, it became the most watched original title in Netflix history.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

What? No!

SPEAKER_01 11:36

With 325 million views.

unknown 11:42

Really?

SPEAKER_01 11:43

And its sing-along theatrical release was both the widest for Netflix film and the first to top the box office in the United States, surpassing Glass Onion on Knives Atmosphere. The film Soundtrack also saw significant success, receiving a platinum certification from the RIAA in October 2025. So that's crazy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Wow. Yep. That's I mean, Netflix has come a long way from mailing out C D DVDs in little packages and having people send them back.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

The most successful show.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

I I I just find that to be like and how do you pitch that?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Well, it has a lot of elements that that draw people in. It's got action, I think animation and anime is popular. Um K-pop is popular. Like it's got sort of all of the elements that people want. It's got a love story. Yeah, it's got the it's got the supernatural element, you know, and then it's got the struggle because of course the the main character, Rumi, she um is half demon. Yeah. And then, you know, she's supposed to be killing demons, but then she's half demon and she goes through this whole identity crisis.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Yeah. And being a mixed person myself, I know what that different. Wait, wait, you're a demon? I'm not part of demon.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

You're half demon? Okay, I guess I gotta come back here again.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

No, I'm not. No. Oh, okay. I just checked in with myself.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

Okay, you're sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Checked in with my fans.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Oh, okay. So you are not a demon. No. You're not a demon.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Well, if I keep eating the spicy food, the possibility that you will be kind of.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

I might breathe fire. Oh, okay. That'd be kind of cool. But just not at me.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Not you. No. I wouldn't want to mess up that hair.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

No, it would melt this hair, probably is what would happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Hmm. Yeah, I'm I'm I remember taking uh our older daughter to a K pop. She was she is.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Uh, but she was who were they, Chinae or something? Was that who they were?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

That was one of the guys. It was b uh. Sorry, the B. Big Big Big Big Big Ben. Big Big I don't remember. I forget. Anyway, so I drove her down to New Jersey. It took us two and a half hours longer than we anticipated.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

But we left early and uh got to New Jersey, parked the car in the parking lot, ran in. They were just about to start. 43,000 people packed.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

People of every age, gender, race, culture.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

You you polled them on their culture?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Yeah, I I did a whole survey monkey thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Cool, cool. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Um it's amazing. I think it got, you know, stuck at one point. You know.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Crashed the survey monkey. Totally. Crashed it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

And there were parents and little kids. There were people in their, uh, of course, I'm in my 60s now. There are you know, people in the 60s, 70s, and they knew all the words to the songs. Half of it's in Korean, and I'm like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Was it Big Bang? Big Bang. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Big Bang.

unknown 15:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

And uh she was just screaming the whole thing. Of course, I had my earplugs on.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

Um and you know, you see the same thing, the characters, right? They've each each got the different hair, like the different look to it. But yeah. Interesting. I wonder what like what happened to them. Like, where they had too much instant rummy. Big bang now. Big bang k-pop. Band now.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

They're demons.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Oh, okay. Currently inactive as a group with members focusing on solo careers. Oh, of course. Well, yeah, you'd have to. You'd have to.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

They they're burned out.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Well, I I have to say, as hungry as I am, I was able to complete my oh, cool. I mean, I I when I'm editing this, I'm gonna see myself eating very quickly.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Oh, well, but that's all right because faster than me for a change, because like usually on the weekend.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

You just plow through your food like a demon.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

And I'm the hunter.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Well, I do have tattoos, so that means I have lines on me. So maybe that makes me a demon.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Oh, do the tattoos show up and go away?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Do they don't. They're just kind of always there. I think that's a thing, you know, with tattoos.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

What a great show though. I loved it. I really loved it.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

And our Is there gonna be a second one, do you think? I mean, they kind of finished the story, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Well, maybe if it's not demons, maybe it's like, you know, traffic ticket hunters.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

K pop demon hunters, too. Other people are asking this question. I know I don't want to try AI mode right now. I just want to get an answer. Yes, there there will be a sequel.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Black Mold Hunters.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah, that'd be a good one. That'd be good.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

They break open the walls to look for black mold.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah, yeah. That I think that would be equally as popular. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

And the songs about that. The songs you could write about black mold. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah. Wow. I'm having more.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Wow, okay. That's that's cool. That's cool. Um, yeah, so they're already developing it.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

I guess. So we'll we'll see. Oh, and they'll delve deeper into character backstories. So yeah, we got a lot of backstory from Rumi this time. So maybe they'll pick one of the other characters.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

You get to see them when they're younger when they're more backstory.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah. That'd be fun. Woo! All right. Very good.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Okay, pop demon hunters. It doesn't matter who you are, you gotta watch it.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

How about it and while you're watching it, have some cup ramen. Cup ramen and watch it. That's like the it'll be like it. If only we'd known beforehand, we could have watched with cup ramen. Maybe you have to have to watch it again. Maybe you'll have to watch it again. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

Get cup ramen, watch K-pop demon pictures and cops.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

And if you've got tattoos and they suddenly get larger.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah, then you might be a demon.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah. You just might be a demon.