Local Voices, Global Circulation: Women’s Agency, Sorority and Glocalisation in K-Pop Demon Hunters

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

References could be increased, although the rest of the text is very completed

Author Response

I sincerely thank the reviewer for their positive evaluation of the manuscript. I appreciate the suggestion that the references could be increased. In the revised version, I have expanded the bibliography and theoretical conversation, particularly in relation to glocalisation, media tourism, platformisation and Korean feminist debates (e.g. Oh, 2018; Oh, 2023; James, 2025; Morgan, 1970; Lee & Jeong, 2021; Yun, 2022). These additions strengthen the contextualisation of the case study while preserving the focus and concision of the main argument.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I applaud the author(s)’ focus on the superbly popular K-pop Demon Hunters film from a Gender Media Studies approach. While much coverage, academic and otherwise, has worked to explain this film’s popularity from a cross-cultural and dissemination framework, I appreciate the author(s) efforts to break down key scenes that add to the film’s success as a representation of women’s agency and sorority. I believe this manuscript provides meaningful contribution to a future issue of Journalism and Media. However, I find two areas for revision necessary for this article’s acceptance for publication:

 

Term Definitions

First, I found myself stuck at the description of the scene surrounding the song “Soda Pop” as not one depicting gendered alignment or trio dynamics. In page 7 line 249, the author(s) write, “In S4 (Soda Pop) and S7 (Your Idol), the Saja Boys take the frame; there is no trio co-presence or gendered alignment on the protagonists’ side”. As a critical Hallyu scholar, that scene stuck out to me upon first watching the film as one that solidified the lead characters’ identities as complex ones that allowed for simultaneous stoic heroinism and the ability to fall into the “silly fangirl” stereotype (I'm specifically thinking about the cobs of corn and introduction of Zoe as attracted to the Saja Boys). While this interaction might be excluded from the analysis, I would appreciate it being addressed, especially with the importance of agency in this piece. Most urgently, I request the author(s) define their use of the phrase “gendered alignment” from a gender media studies lens and operationalize its use in this manuscript.

 

Theoretical Discussion

Second, while I respect the author(s)’ choice to pinpoint their analysis of the film from a purely textual approach, I wish to expand their literature review a bit, especially in the descriptive section about Korea/Seoul’s representation in the film and their application of glocalization. The author(s) write that the setting, “a recognisable Seoul skyline—hold a specifically Korean social texture in domestic and community scenes” (Page 12, Line 435-436). I urge them to discuss, at least briefly, the purposeful efforts in this inclusion in relation to the timed release of this film alongside the global success of the Korean wave, and review work like that of Youjeong Oh’s (2019) Pop City, especially in the discussion of fans and fan representation in the film, as Seoul has quickly become a backdrop for K-pop fan pilgrimage, and the cityscape presented in the film was a very media-tourism-driven one. Otherwise, I do not think this word should be in the title.

Further, and perhaps most important, I was unconvinced by the author(s)’ application of platformization in this piece. Again, with respect to the decision to offer this manuscript as a frame-based analysis of the film, I do not think it reaches the depth of analysis related to platforms and platformization as explained in the early literature review. I ask that the authors either, with strong preference for option one, engage with literature on platformization in Hallyu studies (e.g. James, 2025) in the discussion of their analysis and the films’ production, or remove the term from their keywords.

Suggested References

James, S. (2025). Affective Participation From the In-Between: The Platformization of K-Pop Fandom. Social Media+ Society, 11(2), 20563051251351390.

Oh, Y. (2018). Pop city: Korean popular culture and the selling of place. Cornell University Press.

Oh, Y. (2023). Following in the Footsteps of BTS: The Global Rise of K-Pop Tourism. In Suk-Young Kim (Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to K-Pop, 265-281.

Author Response

I sincerely thank the reviewer for their generous and encouraging evaluation of the manuscript. I am very grateful for this positive assessment and for the detailed suggestions that follow. In what follows, I address each of your points in the order in which you raised them.

1. Term Definitions

Reviewer 2:
“First, I found myself stuck at the description of the scene surrounding the song ‘Soda Pop’ as not one depicting gendered alignment or trio dynamics… Most urgently, I request the author(s) define their use of the phrase ‘gendered alignment’ from a gender media studies lens and operationalize its use in this manuscript.”

I greatly appreciate this close reading and have made three connected changes.

1.1 Defining gendered alignment in the Theoretical Framework

In response to your request to “define their use of the phrase ‘gendered alignment’ from a gender media studies lens”, I now introduce the term explicitly in the Theoretical Framework.

I define gendered alignment as moments in which women protagonists share the frame and are oriented towards a common task, so that agency and sorority are organised relationally rather than through isolated heroism. I specify that this is legible through co-presence, blocking, on-screen composition and interaction patterns.

This directly addresses the conceptual uncertainty you flagged, noting that you were “stuck at the description” of the Soda Pop scene.

1.2 Operationalising gendered alignment in the Methodology

In response to your request to “operationalize its use in this manuscript”, I have added gendered alignment to the Operational definitions subsection.

I now explain that gendered alignment is a derived category in the coding scheme: it is operationalised as scenes in which the trio are co-present (TRIO ≥ 2) and both AGENCY and SORORITY codes are active (AGENCY ≥ 1; SORORITY ≥ 1). This makes it clear how the term is grounded in the scene-indexing method rather than being used intuitively.

1.3 Clarifying S4 Soda Pop and the fangirl stereotype

Reviewer 2:
“That scene stuck out to me upon first watching the film as one that solidified the lead characters’ identities as complex ones that allowed for simultaneous stoic heroinism and the ability to fall into the ‘silly fangirl’ stereotype (I'm specifically thinking about the cobs of corn and introduction of Zoe as attracted to the Saja Boys).”

I am grateful for this insight and have revised the Results section accordingly. In the paragraph on “Antagonist counterpoints” I now:

• explicitly acknowledge that, in S4 (Soda Pop), the protagonist trio are together within the crowd but are briefly repositioned as fans rather than joint performers;
• describe the scene as crystallising a humorous play with the fangirl stereotype, which adds dimensionality to the protagonists as they oscillate between playful “silly” friends and the more stoic, competent heroism emphasised in other sequences – directly echoing your observation about “simultaneous stoic heroinism and the ability to fall into the ‘silly fangirl’ stereotype”;
• clarify that, in coding terms, S4 and S7 are centred on the Saja Boys’ performances and are therefore registered as instances where trio co-presence, agency and sorority are not the dominant thematic focus (S4, S7; 0; 0; 0). I explicitly note that the protagonists’ shared agency is not removed from the story, but briefly moves away from the centre so that the plot can introduce the antagonists, raise the stakes, and allow the trio to recalibrate their attachments and responses to idol masculinity.

I hope these changes address your sense of being “stuck” at the initial description and make the rationale behind my coding of S4 and S7 clearer.

2. Theoretical Discussion

Reviewer 2:
“I wish to expand their literature review a bit, especially in the descriptive section about Korea/Seoul’s representation in the film and their application of glocalization… I urge them to discuss, at least briefly, the purposeful efforts in this inclusion in relation to the timed release of this film alongside the global success of the Korean wave, and review work like that of Youjeong Oh’s (2019) Pop City… Otherwise, I do not think this word should be in the title.”

and:

“Further, and perhaps most important, I was unconvinced by the author(s)’ application of platformization in this piece… I ask that the authors either, with strong preference for option one, engage with literature on platformization in Hallyu studies (e.g. James, 2025)… or remove the term from their keywords.”

I took these concerns very seriously and have made several linked revisions.

2.1 Expanding glocalisation, Seoul and the Korean Wave (Oh, 2018; Oh, 2023)

In direct response to your urging that I “discuss, at least briefly, the purposeful efforts” behind the recognisable Seoul skyline “alongside the global success of the Korean wave” and “review work like that of Youjeong Oh’s Pop City”, I have expanded the treatment of Seoul and glocalisation in three places:

(a) Theoretical Framework
I add a paragraph that explicitly draws on Oh’s Pop City (2018) and her work on K-pop tourism (Oh, 2023). I state that the analysis reads the film’s spatial choices as part of broader place-selling strategies in the Korean Wave, where Seoul is branded as a “pop city” and a site of fan pilgrimage.

This directly responds to your characterisation of the cityscape as “very media-tourism-driven” and to your concern that glocalisation needed a stronger empirical and theoretical grounding if it were to remain in the title.

(b) Section on “Korean cultural codes” (Retained)
In the “Retained” subsection, I now describe more fully how landmarks, Asian crowds and everyday spaces (streets, restaurants, jjimjilbang) anchor the trio’s co-presence in Korean social textures.

I explicitly connect these elements to “place-selling” and fan pilgrimage, citing Oh (2018, 2023) as you suggested, and note that Seoul is presented in line with its role as “a backdrop for K-pop fan pilgrimage”.

(c) Discussion: “Retained anchors” and media tourism
When I revisit the phrase you quoted — “a recognisable Seoul skyline—hold a specifically Korean social texture…” — I now add that these anchors participate in a media-tourism grammar that links K-pop texts to the promotion of Seoul as both narrative setting and aspirational destination for international fans.

This is explicitly framed as a response to your point that the cityscape is “very media-tourism-driven”.

Taken together, these additions strengthen the manuscript’s engagement with glocalisation and the Korean Wave, and I hope they address your concern that otherwise “this word should not be in the title.”

2.2 Clarifying platformization and engaging James (2025)

Reviewer 2:
“I was unconvinced by the author(s)’ application of platformization… I do not think it reaches the depth of analysis related to platforms and platformization as explained in the early literature review. I ask that the authors either… engage with literature on platformization in Hallyu studies (e.g. James, 2025)… or remove the term from their keywords.”

I am grateful for this critique and have chosen your preferred option: to engage more directly with Hallyu-specific platformization literature and to clarify the scope of my claims.

(a) Theoretical Framework
I now explicitly cite James (2025), “Affective Participation From the In-Between: The Platformization of K-Pop Fandom”, and position the study’s use of platformization in dialogue with her work.

I state that James’s account of fans as “in-between” subjects—both co-creators and datafied users—helps frame how a film like K-Pop Demon Hunters navigates recommendation-driven visibility and global discoverability.

I also clarify that the study remains fundamentally textual and scene-indexed: platformization is used to contextualise how language choice and soundtrack design negotiate platform logics, rather than to claim a full empirical analysis of Netflix infrastructures.

(b) Discussion: platform logics and language/soundtrack design
In the closing section, I retain the argument that the soundtrack’s English-weighted hooks align with global chart and discovery dynamics, but now explicitly link this pattern to James’s (2025) account of K-pop platformization.

I argue that the film re-weights signs—globalised language, retained social texture, stylised heritage—while keeping women’s ensemble agency and sorority visually central, and suggest that this resonates with how K-pop texts navigate platformization by aligning with recommendation logics without fully surrendering local cues.

3. Suggested References

Finally, you kindly provided specific references:

“James, S. (2025). Affective Participation From the In-Between: The Platformization of K-Pop Fandom. Social Media + Society, 11(2), 20563051251351390.
Oh, Y. (2018). Pop City: Korean Popular Culture and the Selling of Place. Cornell University Press.
Oh, Y. (2023). Following in the Footsteps of BTS: The Global Rise of K-Pop Tourism. In Suk-Young Kim (Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to K-Pop, 265–281.”

I confirm that:

• Oh (2018) and Oh (2023) are now cited in the Theoretical Framework, in the section on Korean cultural codes, and in the Discussion, where I address media-tourism logics and fan pilgrimage.
• James (2025) is cited in the platformization discussion in both the Theoretical Framework and the closing Discussion.
• All three works have been added to the reference list in accordance with the journal’s style.

I am very grateful for these suggestions, which have considerably strengthened the manuscript’s engagement with glocalisation, media tourism and platformization in a Hallyu context.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This article examines the 2025 animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters through a Gender Media Studies lens, analyzing how the film represents women's agency and sorority while negotiating Korean cultural specificity for global streaming audiences. The study’s emphasis on women's agency and sorority seems timely and pertinent; as reader, I find the authors’ emphasis on how these aspects co-occur when multiple protagonists share the frame, and that the film strategically divides labor between English-led musical hooks (for transnational reach) and retained Korean social anchors (for cultural specificity). The study's greatest strength seems to lie in its transparent, replicable methodology. The author explicitly avoids inferring audience reception while using industrial context descriptively. I also find the essay’s integration of Gender Media Studies with glocalisation theory to be conceptually productive. The author moves beyond simple visibility politics to examine how agency is organized on screen, which is surely a crucial intervention. The distinction between agency-as-coordination and agency-as-isolated-heroism offers a rich reading of feminist representation that avoids flattening complexity.

While I find the essay strong, and as such, publishable, there are a few minor suggestions that I would like to share for, possibly, further enrichment?

To begin with… While the literature review is comprehensive, the theoretical conversation could be sharpened, if you will. The study draws on a range of frameworks/ideas, but the connections between them and contemporary platform studies remain somewhat additive. I find myself wondering – how does care ethics specifically illuminate platform-era cultural production in ways that feminist film theory alone cannot? A more sustained engagement with platform capitalism's gendered and racialized dimensions would strengthen the argument.

Also, I would imagine, the term "sorority" warrants deeper unpacking. While the author operationalizes it as care/repair and collective alignment, the term's North American associational resonances (sororities as exclusive Greek institutions) may complicate its transnational application. Maybe a useful alternative would be, more neutrally, sisterhood? Which also have a direct cultural reference to Korean feminism? Engaging with Korean feminist scholarship more directly in this manner would culturally ground this key concept and avoid inadvertently imposing Western feminist frames.

That said. The study identifies a crucial tension around idol-slim body ideal and narrow corporeal diversity, so it would be great to see more about the implications. The author notes how marks a tension between formal progress (ensemble agency) and persistent lookism, a comment that deserves more than cautionary flagging. How does this bodily normativity potentially undermine the film's feminist project? Does care-led agency become a consolation prize when feminist representation cannot escape disciplinary beauty standards?  

Also.. the analysis focuses heavily on visual staging but gives less attention to vocal performance as a site of racialized and gendered meaning-making. The brief acknowledgment of voice-casting could be expanded, perhaps? e.g. How do Korean American vocal performances negotiate diasporic identity? How do the Saja Boys' vocal timbres and delivery styles construct masculine threat (or, signal to an alternative kind of masculinity – which might actually be more of a simulacrum or even obfuscation)? The sonic dimension of representation would deserve fuller treatment, especially in a musical film.

In addition, while the study situates the text within platform logics," the actual operations of Netflix's algorithmic recommendation, territorial licensing, and data-driven production remain abstract. How might Netflix's A/B testing of thumbnails, its autoplay trailers, or its "Skip Intro" function shape the film's gendered address? The platform is treated as distribution context rather than co-producer of meaning.. though, that wouldn’t be the case with KPDH, strictly speaking.   

 

So.. in summary, would be great to see more expansion on the Korean Feminist Context, more on the musical element, platform specificity and its import, and if there’s room for more, perhaps some discussion on animation form.   

 

Recommendation: Publish with minor revisions

Author Response

I thank the reviewer for their generous and insightful engagement with my manuscript. I am very grateful for your positive assessment of the study’s contribution and for the constructive suggestions you offer for further enrichment. In revising the manuscript, I have focused on the areas you identify as most open to deepening: sharpening the theoretical conversation (especially around care ethics and platform capitalism), unpacking sorority and its transnational resonances, expanding the discussion of body norms and lookism, attending more fully to the sonic dimension, specifying Netflix’s role as a platform, and briefly addressing animation form. Below, I respond to your comments point by point and indicate how they have been addressed in the revised manuscript.

1. Theoretical conversation: care ethics and platform capitalism

Reviewer: “While the literature review is comprehensive, the theoretical conversation could be sharpened, if you will. The study draws on a range of frameworks/ideas, but the connections between them and contemporary platform studies remain somewhat additive. I find myself wondering – how does care ethics specifically illuminate platform-era cultural production in ways that feminist film theory alone cannot? A more sustained engagement with platform capitalism's gendered and racialized dimensions would strengthen the argument.”

In response, I clarify more explicitly what a care-ethics lens contributes beyond classic feminist film theory, and how it connects to platform-era cultural production:

• In the Theoretical Framework, immediately after the discussion of representation as a technology of looking and before defining sorority, I now contrast classic feminist film theory (e.g. Mulvey, de Lauretis) with care ethics. I specify that care ethics foregrounds how labour, interdependence and responsibility are distributed under platform capitalism, and that reading sorority as care/repair allows the analysis to link small gestures of support on screen to wider gendered and racialised regimes of affective labour in streaming-era production.

• In the Discussion, this sharpening feeds into the closing analysis of platform logics: the final paragraph now makes more explicit how the film re-weights signs (globalised language, retained social texture, stylised heritage) while keeping care-led, ensemble agency at the centre, in ways that resonate with work on platformisation and affective participation in K-pop fandom.

Together, these changes directly address your question about how care ethics illuminates platform-era cultural production in a way that classic feminist film theory alone would not.

2. Sorority in Korean feminist context

Reviewer: “the term ‘sorority’ warrants deeper unpacking. While the author operationalizes it as care/repair and collective alignment, the term's North American associational resonances (sororities as exclusive Greek institutions) may complicate its transnational application. Maybe a useful alternative would be, more neutrally, sisterhood? Which also have a direct cultural reference to Korean feminism? Engaging with Korean feminist scholarship more directly in this manner would culturally ground this key concept and avoid inadvertently imposing Western feminist frames.”

I found this extremely helpful and have now unpacked sorority more carefully, both historically and contextually:

• In the Theoretical Framework, after introducing sorority as practices of care/repair, I now trace briefly how feminist movements from the 1970s onwards re-appropriated the language of sisterhood and sorority to name political bonds between women in the face of shared structural subordination, with Robin Morgan’s Sisterhood is Powerful (1970) as an emblematic reference. I make explicit that in the article sorority is used in this re-politicised sense, rather than as an allusion to US Greek-letter institutions or as a loose synonym for “friendship”.

• In the same section, I add a short paragraph situating this analytic choice in relation to contemporary Korean feminist debates, mentioning digital activism, Escape the Corset protests and #MeToo in South Korea as moments when women’s solidarity and refusal have become highly visible and contested. To support this contextualisation, I draw explicitly on feminist scholarship on Korean movements and backlash (Lee & Jeong, 2021; Yun, 2022). I clarify that the film does not directly represent these movements, but that sorority functions as a transnational, context-sensitive analytic for reading ensemble co-ordination and emotional labour on screen in a post–#MeToo, platform-era Korean context marked by both expanded feminist visibility and virulent backlash.

• Throughout the manuscript, I occasionally use the more neutral term sisterhood alongside sorority where this helps avoid unintended North American institutional resonances, while keeping sorority as the primary analytic term to foreground care and repair.

I hope this more explicit unpacking addresses your concern about potential Western imposition and makes clearer how the concept is being mobilised in a Korean context.

3. Idol-slim body norms, lookism, and the limits of ensemble agency

Reviewer: “The study identifies a crucial tension around idol-slim body ideal and narrow corporeal diversity, so it would be great to see more about the implications. The author notes how marks a tension between formal progress (ensemble agency) and persistent lookism, a comment that deserves more than cautionary flagging. How does this bodily normativity potentially undermine the film's feminist project? Does care-led agency become a consolation prize when feminist representation cannot escape disciplinary beauty standards?”

I fully agree that this tension deserved more than a brief flag:

• In the Discussion, I now expand the paragraph on limitations into two distinct tensions. The second tension is devoted to corporeal norms: here I retain the descriptive observation that the protagonists adhere to idol-slim aesthetics while crowds are more diverse, but I extend the analysis to consider implications. I argue that this bodily normativity complicates the film’s progressive investment in shared, care-led agency: on the one hand, collective action is afforded narrative and musical centrality; on the other, only bodies that fit a narrow template are allowed to carry that agency.

• I explicitly take up your question about a “consolation prize”: the revised text notes that sorority and care risk being framed as compensatory rewards within a representational field that cannot fully escape disciplinary beauty standards, rather than as vectors through which more diverse bodies might claim space on screen.

This expanded discussion takes the tension you identified and makes it a central part of the critical assessment of the film’s feminist project.

4. Sonic dimension and vocal performance

Reviewer: “Also.. the analysis focuses heavily on visual staging but gives less attention to vocal performance as a site of racialized and gendered meaning-making. The brief acknowledgment of voice-casting could be expanded, perhaps? e.g. How do Korean American vocal performances negotiate diasporic identity? How do the Saja Boys' vocal timbres and delivery styles construct masculine threat (or, signal to an alternative kind of masculinity – which might actually be more of a simulacrum or even obfuscation)? The sonic dimension of representation would deserve fuller treatment, especially in a musical film.”

I am grateful for this prompt to attend more carefully to sound:

• In the Discussion, immediately after the paragraph that analyses Huntrix and Saja Boys lyrics and the duet Free, I now add a dedicated paragraph on vocal performance and casting. Drawing on Appendix B.1, I note that both speaking and singing roles are largely performed by Korean and Korean diaspora actors, and argue that this matters for how race, ethnicity and gender are voiced.

• I specify that the trio’s leads, voiced by Korean American performers, are mixed to the foreground with clear, bright and relatively unadorned pop vocals: their delivery emphasises confidence, optimism and decision-making rather than breathiness or overt sexualisation, aligning their voices with competence and care. By contrast, the Saja Boys are mixed and arranged to sound like an idealised K-pop boy group: tightly stacked harmonies, soft consonants and affect-saturated lines construct a polished, slightly excessive idol masculinity that leans into seduction.

• I then argue that attending to this sonic layer reinforces the claim that agency and desire are organised not only visually, through blocking and framing, but also vocally, through who gets to sound central, assured, seductive or threatening.

This addition aims to address your call for a fuller treatment of the sonic dimension in a musical film and to foreground vocal performance as a site of racialised and gendered meaning-making.

5. Platform specificity and Netflix

Reviewer: “In addition, while the study situates the text within platform logics, the actual operations of Netflix's algorithmic recommendation, territorial licensing, and data-driven production remain abstract. How might Netflix's A/B testing of thumbnails, its autoplay trailers, or its "Skip Intro" function shape the film's gendered address? The platform is treated as distribution context rather than co-producer of meaning.. though, that wouldn’t be the case with KPDH, strictly speaking.”

I agree that my initial treatment of platform logics was relatively abstract. Given the scope of the article, I have not added a full empirical analysis of Netflix interface operations, but I have made this dimension more concrete:

• In the final paragraph of the Discussion, after noting the English-heavy soundtrack and its coherence with transnational chart and discovery dynamics, I now explicitly reference “algorithmic paratexts” such as thumbnails, autoplay trailers and the “Skip Intro” function. I suggest that these features repeatedly foreground the most spectacular, song-driven shots of the trio and thus participate in co-producing the film’s gendered address by pre-selecting which configurations of the protagonists are most likely to be seen, replayed and shared.

• I also clarify that these interface operations are not analysed empirically in this article, but are acknowledged as part of the platform ecology within which the text circulates. This is then connected to the existing discussion of platform logics and to James’s (2025) work on the platformisation of K-pop fandom, which is now cited in both the Theoretical Framework and the Discussion.

I hope this makes clearer how Netflix is treated not only as distribution context but as part of the meaning-making environment, within the limits of a primarily textual analysis.

6. Animation form

Reviewer: “and if there’s room for more, perhaps some discussion on animation form.”

I have taken up this generous invitation briefly in the Discussion:

• In the opening paragraph of the Discussion, following the description of ensemble blocking and care/repair, I now add a sentence that explicitly addresses animation’s affordances. I argue that the cohesion of the trio’s character designs, shifts in a restricted colour palette, full-body framing, stylised character animation and a controlled editing pace make ensemble co-ordination and relational bonds legible at a glance, turning collective choreography – as well as quieter, intimate sisterhood moments – into a primary vehicle for the articulation of agency and sorority rather than a decorative layer.

• Earlier in the article, the Methodology already highlighted the scene-indexed focus on framing and motion, but this additional remark in the Discussion makes the implications of animation form more explicit in relation to feminist meaning.

I am very grateful for your suggestions, which have significantly strengthened the Discussion and helped align the manuscript more closely with current debates in Gender Media and platform studies.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I am pleased to see the updated version of the manuscript from the author(s). I'm especially impressed by the turnaround time! I appreciate the author(s)' updated inclusion of defining terms and outside references to acknowledge Seoul/South Korea's growing identity as a tourism city. I am now confident that the manuscript is ready for publication in Journalism & Media in its current form. Please review the manuscript for formatting/grammar errors (i.e. citation style) before publication.