When I summarized the greatness of Netflix's 'K-Pop Demon Hunters', I realized the world's 'way of winning' had changed.

Can you name the most-watched movie in the world?

Most Japanese people probably can't answer that. It's not a Hollywood blockbuster. It's not Ghibli, and it's not Demon Slayer.

The answer is 'KPop Demon Hunters'. It is a Netflix animated film distributed in Japan under the title 'KPOP Girls! Demon Hunters'. Hereafter, I will refer to it as 'Kedehan', following the way Japanese fans call it.

Let me list a few numbers to show you how many records this one film broke between 2025 and 2026.

The most-watched movie in Netflix history. The total number of views is approximately 960 million (as of March 2026). It is the runaway winner, far ahead of second place and below.

The theme song 'Golden' wasnumber one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 8 consecutive weeks. As a song born from an animation, it was the longest-running number one in the 67-year history of the chart.

Moreover,4 songs from a single soundtrack entered the top 10 at the same time. This is the first such achievement in the history of movie soundtracks. Even 'Saturday Night Fever' only managed 3 songs.

In 2026,it won both the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature. It also won a Grammy. Both the Best Original Song award and the Grammy are firsts in history for a K-POP song. The clincher was that the villain group in the film, 'Saja Boys',surpassed the real BTS to reach number one on Spotify in the US. A non-existent idol group overtook real superstars.

If you read this far and thought, 'Was it really that popular?', you are normal.

That is because in Japan, Kedehan is 'being treated as if it is not a hit, even though it is a hit'. This is a brilliant expression used by journalist Soichiro Matsutani in aYahoo! News article.

In fact, my impression is that the people around me who talk about this work are mostly children attending international schools or children from families close to English-speaking cultures. Even though it is a social phenomenon around the world, it is hardly talked about on Japanese terrestrial television. It was a strange situation where only the children who hummed English songs as they were were aware of it.

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A way of winning I've never seen before

As a producer, I have been in the entertainment industry for about 15 years. I think I have seen a fair number of hits and flops on the front lines. And there is a 'pattern' to hits. As you gain experience, you start to get a sense of 'this is going to be big' even before it happens.

For example, here are some patterns.

If it's based on existing work, it gets off to a fast start because there are already fans. If you use a star, their name brings in the first customers. If you want to make it a hit overseas, you first make it a hit in your home country and then export that heat. If it's a sequel, the trust from the previous work gives you a head start. All of these are logical ways to win. I, too, have put together projects following these patterns many times.

But Kedehan doesn't fit any of the patterns I know.

It's a completely original new work with zero original fans. The singers are unknown, and it wasn't sold on the name of a star. It wasn't exported after being a hit in its home country; it exploded all over the world at the same time from the start.

A fictional K-POP group created by an American company surpasses real-life BTS and BLACKPINK to stand at the pinnacle of the world. I have truly never seen a way of winning like this in 15 years.

So today, I will break down the essence of this 'unprecedented' phenomenon through the eyes of a producer. What is so new and what is so amazing about it? And what can Japanese entertainment learn from this?

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The numbers have already exceeded the scope of 'records'

First, let's start with the most easily understood 'greatness of the numbers.'

The term 'record-breaking' isn't enough to describe this. Multiple common-sense norms of entertainment are being rewritten simultaneously.

Let's look at the music. The theme song 'Golden' was number one on the Hot 100 for 8 consecutive weeks. Furthermore, on a global scale, it was {number one on global charts outside the US for 20 weeks. This means the whole world didn't let go of this one song for nearly half a year.

It also reached number one in the UK. Moreover, this is the {first time in 13 years for K-POP. The last time was back with PSY's 'Gangnam Style.' Furthermore, it updated the record for the longest-running number one in the UK for a song from an anime, {breaking a record that had stood for 56 years since 1969.

The streaming numbers are also in a different league. 'Golden' has surpassed 1.3 billion streams on Spotify and 1 billion views for its music video on YouTube. Both were reached in less than seven months since release.

Next, the streaming performance itself. I wrote at the beginning that it was the 'most-watched film in Netflix history,' but to be more precise, it was {over 480 million views in the second half of 2025. This is the highest in history for Netflix's semi-annual ranking, including both films and series.

And then, the awards circuit. Two Academy Award nominations, plus Grammys and Golden Globes. Despite being an animated film, it swept both music and film awards.

[Infographics ②: 'Golden' chart performance (Hot 100 / UK / Spotify / YouTube)]

What I want to emphasize here is that these records are not qualified with 'because it's anime' or 'because it's for kids.'

It went head-to-head with real top-tier artists and won. And not just in one category, but in all of them: streaming, music, and film awards. This simultaneous conquest is, first of all, extraordinary.

The design of the team that turned 'fictional' into 'real'

Now, this is the main point.

The biggest question was this: Why could a fictional group that doesn't exist surpass the real thing?

If you think about it normally, it's strange. A song sung by anime characters should just be an 'insert song for a work.' For that to surpass professional idols is unexpected.

The answer was very simple. They brought in the real thing for the creators.

The core of K-Pop: Demon Hunters' music was handled by a Korean label called THEBLACKLABEL. It is led by Teddy Park, a composer at the forefront of K-Pop who has worked on most of BLACKPINK's hit songs.

In other words, they didn't outsource 'anime-style K-Pop songs'; they had the people who create the real BLACKPINK create real hit songs. Music producer Ian Eisendrath described this by saying, 'We brought people from the world of pop music into the film world. We did the opposite.'

As a producer, this is a point that really makes you think. The 'authenticity' of a genre isn't something you get by increasing the quality of outsourcing. It's decided by whether or not you place the actual stakeholders of that genre at the very center of decision-making. K-Pop: Demon Hunters did exactly that.

It's not just the music. The dance choreography also employs real top K-Pop choreographers. The choreography for 'Golden' was done by Cho Na-in, who is well-known in the street dance world. Animators filmed and recreated footage of a real choreographer actually dancing. That's why fans know the moment they see it that 'this is real movement.' The boundary between a concert and an action scene is intentionally blurred.

And what captured my heart the most was the story behind the singing voice.

The leader of the protagonist group 'Huntrix,' Rumi. Her singing voice was provided by a woman named EJAE.

She became an SM Entertainment trainee at the age of 11. For about 10 years, she dreamed of becoming an idol and dedicated her life to lessons, yet she was someone who never got to debut.

After that, she became a behind-the-scenes composer. She wrote songs for Red Velvet's 'Psycho' and aespa's hit songs, moving to the side of writing and handing over songs to idols who stand in the spotlight.

That EJAE was involved in music production from the early stages of K-Pop: Demon Hunters and sang the demo herself. As it turned out, her singing voice was perfect for the protagonist Rumi, and it was adopted for the final film as is. A former trainee who couldn't debut became the singing voice for one of the world's biggest hits.

What's amazing here is that the character Rumi herself carries a story of 'struggling to be perfect.' EJAE said,

she said.

The creator's own life is superimposed on the theme of the work. The casting has become the story. This kind of setup isn't something you can easily design just by trying to.

There is one more decision that cannot be overlooked. That is, 'they did not dilute Korea.'

Director Maggie Kang is a Korean-Canadian woman who moved to Canada at the age of 5. In this work, she thoroughly depicted everything from traditional Korean paintings and shamanistic priestesses to grim reaper folklore, Hanbok, Seolleongtang, and even the gesture of placing chopsticks on a paper napkin when eating out.

Usually, when you try to sell to the world, you want to cut out unique elements so that 'it's easy for locals to understand.' You want to lean toward the greatest common denominator. I, too, have fought that temptation many times in conference rooms.

But Director Kang did the opposite. Instead of diluting Korea, she intensified it. The BBC commented that 'the level of reproduction is surprising even to Koreans.' And that thoroughness of uniqueness ultimately created the greatest universality. I think this is a counterexample that everyone thinking about global expansion should engrave in their minds.

Doing Japan's 'Kyofu All Back' on a global scale

The third point of greatness is the 'way it spreads' as a hit.

Here, please recall a certain hit song from Japan: 'Kyofu All Back.' In 2023, this song, sung by Vocaloid Kaai Yuki, became explosively popular on Niconico Douga and YouTube.100 million views on YouTube. It recorded the highest-ever streak of 5 consecutive weeks at number one on the Niconico Vocaloid ranking at the time.

However, what made this song great wasn't just the number of views. It didn't end with just the 'song going viral'.

Cover songs, dance covers, MAD videos, and BB materials. A massive amount of fan-made derivative works were born, and those derivative works in turn pushed up the views of the original. When a song becomes popular, the video becomes popular. When the video becomes popular, the song becomes popular again. This endless loop was its true greatness.

K-Pop Demon Hunters is doing exactly the same thing on a global scale.

First, the song goes viral. Then, a dance challenge starts on TikTok. Just with the Soda Pop song by the Saja Boys, over 970,000 videos were created.

Next, real idols post covers one after another. A video of former MONSTA X member WONHO covering it in full costume reached 4.2 million views. Even BTS's Jungkook was humming it during a stream. Real idols singing songs by a fictional group. A reversal phenomenon occurred.

And when Halloween comes, children all dress up in costumes. Official costumes sold out, leaving everyone with no choice but to make them by hand or buy them from online shops.

Furthermore, to the theaters. When the 'sing-along version' with lyrics on screen was released in theaters, it reached number one at the North American weekend box office. For the first time in its 18-year history, the streaming-exclusive Netflix took the number one spot in theatrical box office revenue. Audiences went out of their way to pay money to go to the theater and sing along to a movie they had already watched many times at home.

The clincher is sports. On Christmas 2025, Netflix broadcast an NFL (American football) game. During the halftime show, rapper Snoop Dogg and the singing members of Huntrx performed together. They boldly inserted their own anime IP into the most-watched time slot of American sports broadcasting.

Songs, dances, covers, cosplay, theaters, sports broadcasts. In every place, fans are continuing to spread the content with their own hands. What Japan was doing inside the box of Niconico Douga, K-Pop Demon Hunters is doing in a global box consisting of Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok. I believe this is the third, and personally, the most essential point of greatness.

Merchandise couldn't keep up with the hit

Reading this far, it looks like a perfect, massive success, doesn't it? But interestingly, there was one major 'miss'.

Merchandise.

Actually, Netflix itself didn't anticipate such a hit. According to a Bloomberg report, although they approached various retailers about merchandise development before the release, the response was 'lukewarm.' The reputation from test screenings was also reportedly not good.

What happened as a result? Most of the figures and apparel that should have sold explosively didn't hit store shelves until the spring of 2026. They missed the Christmas and Halloween shopping seasons entirely, where demand was highest. By Halloween, official costumes were sold out, and fans drifted toward unofficial online shops and handmade items.

One media outlet described this as 'money left on the table'.

What runs deeper is the story on the side of the creators, Sony. This project originally started in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a contract where Sony sold the distribution rights to Netflix in exchange for a guarantee of production costs. That is why Netflix owns the rights to the music and the merchandise. Sony received about $40 million, even including bonuses after the hit. Most of the fruits of such a global hit went to the distributor. One journalist described this as 'one of the biggest missed opportunities in recent Hollywood history.'

There is one thing I want to say here.

This is not a story about Sony being incompetent at all.

2021 was a time when movie theaters were closed due to COVID, and theatrical release itself was a gamble. A contract that could guarantee the recovery of $100 million in production costs was a sufficiently rational decision at the time. No one could have predicted a hit of this magnitude. That is all there is to it.

Rather, I think the very fact that it was 'unpredictable' speaks to the abnormality of K-Pop: Demon Hunters. A true hit cannot be predicted even by the people who made it. That is precisely why the merchandise and rights structure had to be pursued after the fact. The missed opportunities are not evidence of failure, but evidence that it exceeded everyone's expectations.

And the fact that they missed out on those opportunities, conversely, means that there is still a huge margin for recovery. A sequel was officially announced in 2026, and the director is returning. An official world tour in partnership with AEG is also underway. This frenzy is still just the prologue.

The true nature of its greatness is 'Uniqueness × Team Structure × Window'

Having broken it down this far, I thought the true nature of the greatness of K-Pop: Demon Hunters could be summarized in three words. This is the yardstick I want you to take home most today.

Uniqueness, team structure, and window.

'Uniqueness' is the Korea that was not diluted. It means not running away to the lowest common denominator, but fully depicting their own culture in a concentrated way.

'Team structure' is placing real creators at the core. THEBLACKLABEL, the real choreographers, and former trainee EJAE were all 'insiders' in their respective fields.

'Window' is the platform of Netflix, which allows for simultaneous global distribution. In the past, to deliver anime or music overseas, it was necessary to negotiate with local TV stations, handle dubbing, and secure broadcast slots. Streaming eliminated that time and effort. That is why it was able to explode all over the world at the same time from the very beginning.

If even one of these three had been missing, K-Pop: Demon Hunters would not have come this far. With only uniqueness, it would have ended as a good local work. With only the team structure, it would have ended as a song known only to those in the know. With only the window, it would have ended as just another streamed title. Only when the three meshed together was a world record born.

And once you have this yardstick in hand, the next time a hit is born in the world, you will be able to break it down yourself: 'Did the uniqueness work, did the team structure work, or did the window work?' You will be able to read it by its structure instead of just consuming it as 'amazing.'

What Japan lacks is not talent

Finally, let me talk about our work. As we break down K-Pop: Demon Hunters, a bitter question arises. Why couldn't Japan create this? Looking only at the synopsis, for us Japanese who grew up with Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, there might be a sense of déjà vu. It is similar to that feeling we felt with Squid Game, isn't it?

But please, do not misunderstand. This is absolutely not a story about 'Japanese talent being inferior.'

Japan already has more than enough animators, composers, choreographers, and masters of storytelling that we can be proud of to the world. In terms of the richness of our unique culture, we are no less than Korea. In terms of talent, Japan has long been world-class.

What was lacking was not talent, but the design of the 'team structure' to bundle it together and the 'window' to deliver it to the world.

Place authentic stakeholders at the center of decision-making, and bring it to a global simultaneous release without diluting its uniqueness. What 'K-Pop: Demon Hunters' proved is that as long as you can build this framework, even a fictional story from Asia, from a non-English speaking region, can reach the pinnacle of the world. I believe this is not a threat, but a source of hope.

South Korea built the foundation with BTS, BLACKPINK, and Squid Game, and 'K-Pop: Demon Hunters' rode on that. Japan also possesses a massive foundation of anime and games that it has built up until now. The only question remaining is who will design the framework to bring that to the global stage.

At the beginning, I wrote that the only children in Japan who are aware of this work are those in international schools. They are currently immersed in the world's cutting-edge entertainment in real-time. By the time they become adults, we should be in an era where Japanese entertainment naturally designs for 'uniqueness × framework × global stage.' At that time, the next 'K-Pop: Demon Hunters' might be born from Japan.

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