Netflix is offering the legions of fans of its breakout hit KPop Demon Hunters a deep dive into the film’s creative DNA, and has given Cartoon Brew early access to the digital version of the film’s expansive new Art Of book.
Published by Nucleus in collaboration with Netflix, preorders of The Art of KPOP Demon Hunters will go live on www.gallerynucleus.com on January 1, 2026, and fulfillment will begin one month later on February 1. To access the digital version, click the image below.
The studio’s latest behind-the-scenes book is a densely packed, multimedia-style volume — part encyclopedia, part cultural guide, part production diary — that paints a far more complex portrait of the film’s mythos than could have fit into its 95-minute runtime.
Tallying 142 pages, the book expands on that world with filmmaker anecdotes, early character explorations, demonology research, and K-pop choreography breakdowns. For any admirer of the franchise, it’s an instant must-have, not only for its visual offerings, but for the candid window it provides into the cultural and emotional foundations of the story.
Credit – Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation
Co-director Maggie Kang explains in the book that the film’s origins were anchored in a desire to see Korean identity honestly and joyously represented in Western animation. “Growing up watching movies set in other Asian cultures, I wanted to see the Korean culture represented in an animated movie. For some reason, I landed on demonology. I thought about how the jeoseung saja (grim reapers in Korean mythology) was such an iconic image from my childhood, and thought of demons naturally led to demon hunters. And I knew I wanted to see female superheroes who were a lot more relatable, who like to eat and make silly faces… not just being pretty, sexy, and cool, but with real insecurities.”
That blend of sincerity and irreverence — mythological wrapped in the electric energy of a K-pop music video — is a recurring theme throughout the book. It reveals how the team approached the movie not as a parody of pop stardom, but as a genuine tribute to the power of Korean pop culture as both a local and global force.
As co-director Chris Appelhans puts it: “What’s wonderful about K-pop in the modern world is just the way that it brings people together, with so much empathy. It crosses all boundaries, all cultural borders. For us to come up with a mythology that taps into the truth of what this music does feels powerful.”
Credit – Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation
The character breakdowns are similarly multi-layered, going far beyond what is seen and heard in the film. Of developing the film’s protagonist, Rumi, Appelhans explains, “You’re going to have parts of yourself that maybe you wish you didn’t have, or thoughts that you wish you didn’t think,” he writes. “And those things can consume you, and they can turn you into a worse version of yourself… or they can actually make you stronger.”
This focus on the vulnerabilities behind the glamour reinforces one of the film’s core themes: beneath the makeup, the fandom, the stage personas, these girls are still learning who they are, and what powers they can and are willing to wield.
Character designer Scott Watanabe provides another highlight in a section devoted to the film’s heartthrob antagonist, Jinu. Beyond the predictably charming concept art, Watanabe describes the challenge of designing a character who feels simultaneously authentic to the K-pop aesthetic and grounded within the story’s supernatural stakes. “The challenge was defining what ‘hot’ meant in a way that felt accessible, while staying true to the world of K-pop,” he explains. “Jinu’s design had to live in two worlds — how much of a bad boy could he be, and how much of that soda-pop cuteness could still come through.”
Credit – Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation
Across the book, production notes, environment keys, costume boards, and mythology diagrams reveal the staggering amount of research behind the film’s hybrid world. From Seoul streetwear to ancestral weaponry to the unique characteristics of real K-pop choreography, nearly every frame of K-Pop Demon Hunters is shown to be the result of careful and considered cultural research.
If the film introduces audiences to its bright, demon-filled universe, the Art Of book fully unpacks it.
Credit – Netflix, Sony Pictures Animation
