Unleashing K-Pop Obsession: A Journey Through Demon Hunters, K-Dramas, and ATEEZ fandom
- charliauthor
- May 21
- 4 min read
Like many of you, I discovered the phenomenon that was K Pop Demon Hunters during the summer of 2025. While scrolling through threads, I saw a picture of Jinu in demon form coupled with captions from bookish girlies, saying he could snatch more than their souls.
Immediately intrigued, I skipped on over to Netflix and settled in to watch what I thought would be a silly little cartoon and go about my day.
I’ll be so honest with you, I think my jaw is still bruised from how hard it hit the floor after listening to How It’s Done in the opening scenes. Listening to that song, with the visuals of a kick ass girl band fighting demons while singing and rapping and being generally beautiful moments after wolfing down snacks, awoke something in me that I NEVER want to go to sleep!
The film and the accompanying songs were incredible and by the time the credits had rolled, (Jinu did snatch more than my soul if you were wondering), listening to TWICE’s version of Takedown, I was sold. From that point the path went basically like this:
Jinu’s voice is sexy
Jinu’s Voice Actor is Ahn Hyu Seop
Ahn Hyu Seop is an actor
He is in a tv showcalled Business Proposal
Searches for and watches Business Proposal
Wonders what they put in the K Drama formula that I was gagging for them to simply hold hands and stand under a yellow umbrella in the rain….
You get the point. One thing led to another, that led to another and by month two, I’d discovered Kim Young Kwang (incredible actor), Lee Jun Ho, (another incredible actor) and Cha Eun Woo (not the best actor to be fair but True Beauty was a gem); the list went on. Now you’ll see, all of these are men. Hot men. And I won’t apologise for being just a hetero girlie and watching the next show that featured a man that caught my eye. However, a big shout out to the female leads who held their own in my first intro to K Dramas: Moon Ga Young, Yoona and Kim Yoo-jung to name a few. However, the love for these smooth, alabaster skinned, floppy hair, effeminite Alphas with faces like angels just kept going until I saw someone's... back?
Choi San's back to be exact. Doom scrolling through Instagram, I came across a video of the 2023 MAMA performance of Crazy Form by a group called ATEEZ. That sculpted, tanned, temporarily tattoed back changed my life and now im drowning in cute purple cats, shiny sticks and the affectionately coined, boy paper. I've spent hundreds on Korean lessons, albums, photobooks, flights, concerts and merch in the space of a year simply because of a cartoon!
What I find genuinely incredible is how isolated I had been from everything about South Korea before KPDH. A country that I had only ever considered in conjunction with the North and even then, I did not fully understand what that meant. The fact that a culture so rich in history and tradition and who has pulled themselves out of incredible hardship over a span of just 60 years, is testament to how powerful a force they are. KPDH shows how important and far reaching representation can be if only given the chance to be put in front of wider audiences. Of course there were K Pop fans and K Drama lovers before me, for years actually lol. Entire careers have begun and ended during my thirty plus years and it makes me so sad that I've only found this now and will try all I can to do my fandoms justice, however long it may last.
That being said, the opportunity to embrace a new obsession and engage in adult learning while living out previously unfulfilled teen dreams, has been such a saviour for me. When writing has not been the best, or books arent enough ofan escape, here comes 8 men who lead, mother, dance, wear crop tops, smoulder, bark, bite and sing like choir boys. ATEEZ have re awakened the teen girlie in me who never really grew up and I enjoy being an #Atiny so much! At the time of writing this, I've yet to see ATEEZ in real life but I will be seeing them at BST Hyde Park in June and at Rock in Roma in July and I am very very excited! While I'll be attending alone (first solo trips baybee!) , its nice to know I'll be around people who enjoy the guys just as much as I do (if not more) and it will be incredible to learn from them about the fandom and generally find some community among the fans. I love that K Pop Demon Hunters and ATEEZ have made me this happy again!
Now, the most important question: Who is your bias?
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