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# Show, Don't Tell in Musicals: KPop Demon Hunters Analysis
- URL: https://leventbulut.com/musicals-show-dont-tell-kpop-demon-hunters/
- Published: 2026-10-19T02:58:07.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T02:58:53.000Z
- Description: Musical characters sing their feelings outright. Through KPop Demon Hunters: the song acts, the staging shows, the deepest feeling hides in the body.
- Author: Levent Bulut
- Tags: Narrative Engineering, Case Studies

# The Song Tells, the Staging Shows: Show, Don't Tell in Musicals and KPop Demon Hunters

**Conflict of Interest and Academic Grounding Statement (COI):** This article uses *KPop Demon Hunters* as a case to examine, through narrative theory and the Objective Projection framework, how songs in musicals name emotion and how that relates to the “show, don't tell” principle. [Levent Bulut](https://leventbulut.com/About/) is the founder of the Objective Projection and Narrative Engineering methodology. The methodology's rules and dataset are openly published and open to scrutiny. This article is not a film review. The reading proposed here has not been tested with viewers. 

### Summary and Genre Framework

In musicals, characters often say outright, in song, what they feel. That runs against the “show, don't tell” principle and Objective Projection's Emotion Embargo; yet the musical is one of the best-loved genres of film and theater. Through Netflix's 2025 film *KPop Demon Hunters* and Disney's classic “I Want” song tradition, this article proposes three possible reasons: in a musical, a song does not merely express emotion but performs an action; while the lyrics tell, the staging, light and choreography show at the same time; and the deepest emotion is often hidden not in the song but in the body. In *KPop Demon Hunters*, Rumi's greatest secret is not a lyric but the patterns on her skin.

## At a glance: KPop Demon Hunters

| Item      | Details                                                                                           |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Release   | 20 June 2025, Netflix                                                                             |
| Directors | Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans                                                                   |
| Studio    | Sony Pictures Animation                                                                           |
| Awards    | Best Animated Feature at the 98th Academy Awards; Best Original Song for “Golden”                 |
| Records   | Netflix's most-watched film of 2025; “Golden” spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 |

The film follows Huntrix (Rumi, Mira and Zoey), a three-member K-pop girl group who are also demon hunters. The group's songs keep up a magical barrier called the Honmoon that protects the human world from demons. Their rivals, the demon boy band Saja Boys led by Jinu, try to weaken the barrier by stealing Huntrix's fans.

## In a musical, the song tells the emotion

Perhaps the best-known convention of the musical is the “I Want” song, which passed from American musical theater into animation: the number in which the hero sings, early in the story, about what they want and dream of. “Part of Your World” in Disney's *The Little Mermaid* (1989) is one of the best-known examples. Its lyricist, Howard Ashman, saw such songs as a tradition drawn from Broadway musicals and described this one as the heroine's “inner diary of thoughts.”

That description is very close to interior monologue in literature: what passes through the character's mind is carried outward in song. Unlike interior monologue, though, a song often names the emotion directly. The **Emotion Embargo**, one of Objective Projection's two constitutional prohibitions, proposes that emotion not be named in the text but built from observable details such as light, sound, movement and space. An “I Want” song breaks this principle almost by definition.

An interesting detail: after seeing children grow restless at an early test screening, Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted “Part of Your World” cut from the film. Ashman and part of the team argued the song was essential to the story; it stayed in the film, and the audience responded better at the next screening. Whether a song that names emotion outright works has been debated even within the genre.

## First possible reason: the song is an action

*KPop Demon Hunters* turns this feature of the musical into a rule of its story. Huntrix's songs do not merely express emotion; they protect the world: the Honmoon stands only through their voices. The group's song “Takedown,” meanwhile, is a weapon written to expose the Saja Boys. In this film, singing is quite literally doing something.

This resembles a boundary we have discussed on this site. In the [Frankenstein](https://leventbulut.com/frankenstein-creature-voice-show-dont-tell/) article, we proposed that Shelley's creature speaks his emotion words not as a label for the reader but to persuade the one in front of him. A song in a musical is often like that: the character wants, declares, challenges or persuades. The emotion word is less a ready-made piece of information the narrator hands the reader than part of an action the character performs.

## Second possible reason: while the lyrics tell, the staging shows

In a musical number, the lyrics never work alone. At the same moment the light changes, the camera moves, characters dance, the editing picks up rhythm. While the lyrics name the emotion, the rest of the scene builds it bodily and spatially. The viewer takes the emotion not from the words alone but from the two together.

This is close to the categories of light, sound, movement and space that Objective Projection proposes as planning dimensions. The dimensions the doctrine calls **Kinetic Momentum** and **Spatial Geometry** can also be used to think about a musical number's choreography and staging. We discussed the relation between sound and space in [Space and Sound in Severance](https://leventbulut.com/severance-spatial-geometry-acoustic-impedance/). This is an interpretation, though; no claim is made that the film's creators worked with any such scheme.

How music carries emotion varies from genre to genre. In the [Friday the 13th](https://leventbulut.com/friday-the-13th-crystal-lake-unseen-killer/) article we saw that the 1980 film's music was meant to play only when the killer was actually present; there, music signaled not an emotion but a presence. In the musical, the song states the emotion directly. The two genres use music for almost opposite ends.

## Third possible reason: the deepest emotion is in the body, not the song

The most interesting choice in *KPop Demon Hunters* is that its heroine's greatest secret is not sung. Rumi is secretly half-demon, with demonic patterns spreading across her skin. She hides them from everyone. That is why she pushes for the release of the group's new song, “Golden”: she hopes it will turn the Honmoon gold and erase her patterns. The patterns are finally exposed in front of everyone at an awards ceremony, during a performance of “Takedown.”

Here the film divides the work between emotion and sign. The songs state hope, strength and solidarity openly; but Rumi's shame and fear are carried not in the lyrics but in the patterns on her skin and her effort to hide them. At the end of the film, we are told Rumi is no longer ashamed of her patterns; the transformation, too, concerns not a word but a visible mark on the body. Encoding emotion in a physical detail is very close to the approach Objective Projection proposes. The resemblance is an interpretation.

## The film distinguishes between its own songs

One of the film's directors, Chris Appelhans, has said the Saja Boys' songs were deliberately written to be “super catchy, but slightly hollow,” in contrast to Huntrix's emotional honesty. So the film draws a distinction even among songs that state emotion: some carry it, others only imitate its surface.

That distinction is thought-provoking from the standpoint of Objective Projection too. An emotion word on its own is a sign neither of truth nor of falseness; the same naming can be honest in one character and hollow in another. What makes the difference is the context around the word: who says it, why, and whether the rest of the scene confirms it. We had a similar discussion of how a mismatch between what is said and what is shown can give a character away in the [Klara and the Sun](https://leventbulut.com/klara-and-the-sun-ai-narrator-reading-emotions/) article, about an AI narrator who tries to read people's emotions from their faces.

## What does this mean for the Emotion Embargo?

The Emotion Embargo is a technique proposed for a specific writing goal: letting emotion reach the reader through observable details rather than as a label. The musical is not a genre that works toward that goal; the genre is built on emotion being stated openly. So the musical adds a new case to the examples we have discussed on this site about the limits of the Embargo. In [Jane Austen](https://leventbulut.com/jane-austen-show-dont-tell-free-indirect-discourse/), the emotion word was the material of irony; in the musical, it is the material of a performance, an action.

This article's proposal is this: in a musical, the song tells the emotion, but not alone. While the lyrics tell, the staging shows; and in the genre's most effective examples, the deepest emotion is often left unsaid, entrusted to a body or an object. What impression this leaves on viewers is an untested question.

## What the doctrine cannot say here

- It cannot explain why *KPop Demon Hunters* has been watched so widely. The three reasons above are a proposed reading; they have not been tested with viewer data.
- It cannot decide whether musicals' naming of emotion is a good or bad choice. The doctrine proposes a writing technique; it does not pass value judgments between genres.
- It cannot say that light, choreography or music produce a particular bodily response in viewers. No such data exists.
- It cannot claim that the film's creators or Howard Ashman worked with a method resembling Objective Projection. The resemblance is a retrospective interpretation.

## Limitations

This article rests on a single film and a few examples from the musical tradition; it is not a systematic study of the musical genre. Song lyrics are under copyright, so they are not quoted; the songs' content and function are summarized. Information about the film's plot and production comes from encyclopedic sources and a news roundup. There is a wide theoretical literature on the musical genre, such as Rick Altman's book on the American film musical; this article does not examine that literature. The doctrine's concepts and sources are listed in [Levent Bulut](https://leventbulut.com/graph/)'s knowledge graph, and published works on the [Levent Bulut](https://leventbulut.com/corpus/) corpus page.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### What is KPop Demon Hunters?

*KPop Demon Hunters* is an animated musical film directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and produced by Sony Pictures Animation. It was released on Netflix on 20 June 2025 and follows Huntrix, a K-pop group who are also demon hunters.

### Did KPop Demon Hunters win an Oscar?

Yes. The film won Best Animated Feature at the 98th Academy Awards, and “Golden” won Best Original Song, becoming the first K-pop song to win an Oscar.

### What is an “I Want” song?

It is the number in a musical in which the hero sings, early in the story, about what they want and dream of. “Part of Your World” in Disney's *The Little Mermaid* is one of the best-known examples; its lyricist, Howard Ashman, described this kind of song as the heroine's “inner diary of thoughts.”

### Why do characters sing in musicals?

In the musical genre, song is a way of directly expressing a character's emotion and desire. But a song often performs an action too: the character wants, declares or challenges. At the same time, light, choreography and editing build the emotion on screen or stage.

### Does “show, don't tell” apply to musicals?

Not fully. The musical is a genre built on stating emotion openly. But in the genre's good examples, while the lyrics tell, the staging shows; and the deepest emotion is often left unsaid, entrusted to a body or an object.

## References

- Altman, R. (1987). *The American Film Musical*. Indiana University Press.
- Kang, M., & Appelhans, C. (Directors). (2025). *KPop Demon Hunters* \[Film\]. Sony Pictures Animation; Netflix.
- Dresdale, A. (19 June 2026). A “Golden” year: “KPop Demon Hunters” by the numbers. ABC Audio. [hot929.com](https://www.hot929.com/news/entertainment-news/a-golden-year-kpop-demon-hunters-by-the-numbers/?ref=leventbulut.com)
- Wikipedia. *KPop Demon Hunters*; Part of Your World. [en.wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KPop%5FDemon%5FHunters?ref=leventbulut.com) (accessed 18 October 2026).

## Cite this article

```
@misc{bulut2026musicalen,
  author       = {Bulut, Levent},
  title        = {The Song Tells, the Staging Shows: Show, Don't Tell in Musicals and KPop Demon Hunters},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://leventbulut.com/musicals-show-dont-tell-kpop-demon-hunters/}},
  note         = {leventbulut.com}
}
```