Mindful Mango- Nicholas 🗝

I missed posting on the Higurashi anime's 20th anniversary but I HAVE been meticulously resubbing the show in the style of the fansub I originally watched using bluray files and a combined, curated script! I'm set to finish by Watanagashi, so that's just as fitting!

Written 7/20/25. Please refer to my blog for Part 1 and Part 2.

Featuring: Part 3 Sequel Ideas Moodboard

And finally, here are some plotlines that I think could work for this “sequel”. I don’t envy the theoretical writing team that would have to do this for real… as I realized while brainstorming that hitting all the points I think need to be part of a sequel while also expanding and elevating what made the first film good is no small task. I’m not usually one who likes to make theories or guess what happens next. As a writer myself, I understand the basics behind storytelling for an overarching plot, but I think it’s kinda pointless to expend thoughts on “what ifs” for a story that’s not even yours. I think there is a healthy level of engagement you should try to maintain as a fan of something, and getting lost in, or worse, getting MAD at stories that don’t follow your vision for it is counterproductive. Do not twist my words though! It’s GOOD to look at stories critically and examine what media is trying to say and whether it could be done better. That, my friends, is media literacy!  In light of this, here are some brief sequel ideas:

C: Sequel Ideas Moodboard

C1: Structuring

I know Sony Animation is having trouble with the Spiderverse movie having a 2 part sequel, but I think having a tightly written overarching plot would be great! If they can pull of a trilogy where the plot slowly builds to a climatic conclusion I think that would make the franchise more impactful in the long run and leave its mark in animation history. If you don’t set an ending and work towards it you could end up with diminishing returns. 3 movies is enough to build high and end strong.

C2: Celine

We already discussed potential repercussions surrounding Celine. Maybe Celine has knowledge that our trio needs to face a new threat, but Celine and Rumi are unwilling to work together? Maybe Celine wants to make amends but doesn’t know how? Again, exploring this strained relationship sounds really interesting.

C3: Jinu

We also discussed the importance of Jinu for Rumi’s story. The first film leaves us with his sacrifice in which his soul SEEMS to empower Rumi’s blade. Is there a connection between souls and Hunter’s spirit weapons? Perhaps Gwi-Ma will attempt to use Rumi’s “failure” to “save” him against her? Will Rumi have trouble moving on because Jinu was the first person to accept her as she was?

C4: Secrecy

Keeping their profession a secret and making it more difficult to do Hunter duties could make for an interesting plotline. Perhaps they’re being dogged by executives or being forced to change their schedules due to a shift in the industry. How would this affect the three of them? Will anyone else find out about their double life?

C5: HUNTR/X families

We know our trio all have issues with their family/backgrounds in different ways. I think exploring this will be easy development for all three of them and could raise tension for maintaining their group. Again, I don’t want there to be drama between the girls and have a “the band’s breaking up” plotline, but I do want their families and lives to create drama as a whole. Primarily, this would give Mira and Zoey the plot and focus that they were lacking in the first film.

C6: Obligatory Backstory

Obviously people want Rumi’s parent’s backstory. I think it would be interesting to see a potentially unhealthy relationship between Rumi’s parents. Perhaps the decision to have Rumi broke up the Sunlight Sisters? I think in order to maintain the established plot integrity of what a once-human demon IS, Rumi’s father needs to be similarly morally dubious. Exploring this could be good development for Rumi AND Celine.    

C7: Hunter Culture

More about hunters please! Are there more powers they can use? Do past hunters still exist other then Celine? How has the toxic ideology of “hiding your faults and fears” effected them? Do they have ill will towards HUNTR/X for destroying and rebuilding a centuries established Honmoon? Will we learn more about the original hunters? Are there cultural sites and artifacts that they need visit or use to learn more about Hunters?

C8: Demons/Gwi-Ma

Clearly Gwi-Ma needs to take some action against our girls. Does he manipulate people close to them? Influence others against them? Does he manifest physically at the end of the theoretical 2nd film of a trilogy to take action in the human world? Is he really hot??? These are all valid questions lol. I’d also like to see different types of demons based in Korean mythology as mini-bosses our trio can face. Will our beloved Derpy grow stronger and fight with them? There’s much potential to expand on demons.

C9: BOYSSSS

As silly as this may sound, the boy aspect really was important to the first movie! We need more hot boys in the next film! As allies? As love interests? As enemies? It’s hard to say, but the girl group dynamic of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey was just as important as the evil boy band. Practically speaking, I think they should eventually set up love interests for the girls. You can get a decent amount of human drama from that. Rumi in particular would be the most interesting as she’d have to get over Jinu. Plus, they may want to eventually reveal their double life to these boys if they want to take their relationship seriously. Plus this could tie into the commentary about dating and maintaining their idol status in the industry. Will not being able to date affect their view of the industry??

C10: The Surface Level Plot

Clearly there must be the surface level plot that carries us through the remainder of the overarching story. And clearly this must be based in the human world and concerning music and/or HUNTR/X. This is where it gets tricky. You can spill supplemental lore all day but you need the actual fun plot to carry the movie franchise. My only ideas concern; maintaining their secrecy in a changing industry, having personal issues/family strain the group, or trying to stay relevant in a changing industry. Their fans mean so much to them and the safety of the world. What determines when the changing of the guard happens? How will they stay at the top of their game to continue winning fans? I do think we need to bring in another K-POP group, but not necessarily as a rival. Perhaps an ally? We don’t to rehash the first film.  As you can see this is more difficult to pull off then it seems.

In any case I hope this primed your brains a bit and helped you look at the first film differently, what made it work, and how a sequel is more difficult to make then you think! Thank you for reading over 3000 words of KPDH ramblings. Maybe I’m finally ~free~ to move on to a new obsession LOL   

Written 7/20/25. Please refer to my blog for Part 1 and Part 3!

Featuring:

Part 2: SHOULD THIS STAND ALONE? HOW WOULD A SEQUEL WORK?      

With KPDH’s success and exploding fandom, everyone wants a sequel! I’m here to pose the difficult question of… does it even need one? Let’s quickly break down the arguments for keeping it standalone:

1: The Standalone Argument

A: Many people will say, “THEY DIDN’T CREATE THE GOLDEN HONMOON! IT CAN’T END”.  I agree that creating the golden Honmoon would be a perfect “ending”, but I have 3 counter arguments.

A1: The New Honmoon Might be Better???

The Honmoon in the end seemed to have a rainbow sheen like Rumi’s patterns. Could the “rainbow” Honmoon be stronger than the Golden Honmoon? This could be a perfect conclusion; the old Honmoon which represented an archaic ideology is gone, and the new Honmoon is iridescent and stronger then the Gold Honmoon ever could be. This leaves HUNTR/X to live normal lives as musicians doing what they love. That could be a justification given to not needing a sequel.

A2: Gwi-Ma Defeated??

Going on the same logic to justify a standalone, we saw Gwi-Ma manifest in the human world as well as his subsequent quashing with HUNTR/X working together as one. This could be as much of a conclusion on the fate of the demon king as we'd need! Sometimes leaving things simple is more effective then trying to expand on reasoning for every little thing.

A3: Leave You Wanting More

How do you choose when to end a story? If the Golden Honmoon is created, HUNTR/X’s adventures permanently end, and so do all future adventures of hunters everywhere. Is it more satisfying to know that they’ll continue to fight through the generations to protect the world from Demons? If any variation of a permanent Honmoon is established, then any future excitement with this world and characters dies. Sometimes knowing the adventures will continue is more impactful then seeing everything wrapped up in a neat bow.

2: How would a Sequel Work?

To establish this you need to understand what made the first film work, and the concept of increasing stakes over an established plot. Increasing Stakes dictates that the story that follows needs to be more complex, on a larger scale, and have even higher stakes then the first film. This is how you elevate a story from its previous heights and prevent “disappointing sequel syndrome”. Looking at a film from the same studio, The Spiderverse Movies, shows how this can be done. Let’s now look into what made the first film work and how the writers would need to elaborate on these points to create an engaging sequel.

A: What Made the First Film Work?

A1: The Songs!

Specifically how each of the songs serves the larger plot and had thematic weight over the course of the story. Each song had a role to play in the scope of the greater story, with nothing feeling shoehorned in, and each having some king of double meaning in the lyrics or implications to the main story. They would need to pull this off AGAIN with AT LEAST the same number of songs as the first film. What kind of plot would warrant a new set of specific songs?

A2: Novelty of the double life + Korean Mythology|

The first film focused heavily on the double life of our trio and lightly on the Korean mythology of the demons and other aspects of its historical culture. You would need to introduce new stakes or new concepts to make sure these elements don’t get stale. Believe it or not, cool actions scenes can get boring without any weight and seeing the trio gear up too many times could get old without the right plot to elevate WHY they’re doing it or HOW they’ll maintain their secrecy in this.

A3: Themes of Mental Health and Psychology

You could argue that any character that goes through an arc has “psychology” but the film takes great pains in illustrating many character’s inner conflicts and setting high emotional stakes for Rumi and Jinu. In order to feel a sense of investment and continue to let our main trio grow, we need to put obstacles in their paths that challenge their sense of self and force them to overcome and change. Stagnant characters are boring characters. Having a great emotional hook is what made the first film work so well.

A4: Modern Korean Culture and the Main Trio’s Chemistry

Korean culture is essential to the identity of this movie, and by extension, our main trio’s chemistry is also rooted in that culture. They definitely had some women in the writing room because these three felt like real, believable friends AND people. Carrying on this level of engaging character dynamics would be essential for a sequel. Also, we get glimpses into how modern Korean culture treats the K-POP industry, albeit VERY lightly. I wasn’t expecting “Oshi No Ko” levels of exposé into the industry, but I think it told just enough to avoid risking its appeal to the Korean market.

This leads us to:

B: What Could A Sequel Do to be Actually Good?

There are infinite things a theoretical KPDM sequel could be, but the discussion here is what would make a GOOD sequel. Remember, our main goals are raising the stakes in a meaningful way, and expanding on what made the first film successful: multi-purpose songs, novelty of their double life/Korean Mythology, Themes of mental health, and modern Korean culture/Chemistry of our Trio.

There’s a number of common tropes they could pull that, if done wrong, could be really lazy or predictable. After all, at its heart this is an IP about music. There’s always the possibility of it being done well, but here are some ideas I’d rather not see:

                -The “band has external obligations and we might have to split up?!” Storyline

                -Singing Tournament/Competition

                -Oh no! ANOTHER rival group!?!  

Before I talk about plotlines a sequel could explore, let’s talk about what I feel NEEDS happen in some capacity for a sequel to be GOOD.

B1: More focus on Zoey and Mira

Contrary to what many people say, I don’t think the decision to focus more on Rumi was a flaw of the film at all! At its core, the first film was about Rumi’s story, and that’s okay! This time though, Zoey and Mira need to stand on equal footing with her, having their own plots and motivations that develop them independently of Rumi. Balancing stories for all 3 would be tough, but ultimately worth it.

B2: Repercussions 1: Celine

Celine was instrumental in not only establishing HUNTR/X but also was somewhat of a secondary villain in Rumi’s narrative. Their fallout is bound to have repercussions. I don’t expect or want a quick “everything is fine now” between them, but this tension is primed for some great storytelling and would build well off the content of the first film. Exploring the dynamic of a broken relation between a foster parent and child would be really interesting to see.

B3: Repercussions 2: Jinu

We’ve already established that I think Jinu should stay dead. Regardless, I think Jinu had such a profound impact on Rumi that he needs to haunt the narrative in some capacity.  Potential themes of grief or loneliness could be explored with the loss of Jinu as the catalyst.

B4: Expansion on Demons/Gwi-Ma

The origin of Gwi-Ma is unknown, the concept of Hunters is only briefly discussed, and the logistics behind regular people becoming demons is intriguing, with only Jinu as our main example. Are there different types of demons? Are there “pureblood” demons and created demons? If “pureblood” demons exist, how are they created? Do they all come from Gwi-ma? These worldbuilding questions are prime for answering.

B5: More Industry Stuff

Since this is a music story at heart, I’d like to see more scenes that give commentary on the K-POP Industry. You’d have to do this very carefully to not insult the target audience, but more scenes involving the music creation side of things would benefit the story as a whole I think.

Written 7/20/25. Please see my blog for Part 2 and Part 3

Featuring: Part 1: Addressing Plot Criticisms  

Please view my blog for part 2 and 3 because this was too long for one post LOL Part 2: Should this Stand Alone? Would A Sequel Even Work? Part 3: Sequel Mood Board

Does it really need to be said that KPDH is a great movie? I’ve watched so many people react to this film that I have some thoughts on the film itself and where it COULD or COULD NOT go from here.

First, let’s address some common complaints I keep seeing.

Part 1 ADDRESSING PLOT CRITICISMS:

1: “Rumi’s change back to “good” after talking with Celene didn’t make sense” / “There was a scene missing to explain her change of heart in the end” -Everything we need to understand Rumi’s reasoning is right there in the scene itself. The film also wants you to look at this revelation symbolically. “If this is the Honmoon I’m supposed to protect-” implies that the current Honmoon that’s been established for centuries falls in line with Celine’s ideology of “hiding your faults and fears”.  Rumi has realized that “this” Honmoon isn’t representing what she, or the world, really needs to unite people and hold back the demons. Buy creating a “new” Honmoon born from acceptance and unity, Rumi has broken the ideology of suppressing your emotions and symbolically created a new ideology along with a new Honmoon.

2: “Jinu shouldn’t have died”/ “Jinu needs to come back”/ Other Jinu discourse -KPDM does a great job of establishing stakes. When demons steal souls, their victims are GONE… wiped from the world with seemingly no chance of return. This makes Jinu’s participation in this irredeemable, which is actually good! This brings so much dimension to this character. The thing is, it doesn’t MATTER if Gwi-Ma was influencing his emotions. Jinu clearly has free will, and his complicity only digs the hole deeper. Let’s briefly discuss his backstory: Jinu makes a deal with Gwi-ma to essentially get noticed. He doesn’t gain talent or skill, just notoriety. He alone gets invited to live in the palace, and he abandons his family for a better life. We cannot make assumptions other then what the movie directly states or heavily implies.

Here are 3 things we can take away from that:

A: Thier Means of Living It’s heavily implied that Jinu’s instrument was their only way of earning money, as it was “their only possession”. Abandoning them would surely have ended up killing his mother and sister. B: Jinu's Choice The movie shows Jinu couldn’t bring his family with him to the palace. However, he could have refused the offer. By accepting, it paints his actions as 100% selfish. With newfound notoriety, he could have raised them from poverty from outside the palace. The outcome of being sent to demon realm may have been the same, but at least he wouldn’t have left his family to die. C: Jinu's Free Will Gwi-Ma speaks to your insecurities and influences you. Gwi-Ma specifically uses the word “control” and it’s shown that his influence can affect the actions of Zoey, Mira, and Bobby. We also see that Gwi-Ma can pull Jinu back to the Demon world at will.  Is this the same as actually having CONTROL over people? Well, kinda?? The film walks a fine line of the mass “trance” at the end being actual magical influence or just trademark self-destructive manipulation through your own emotions. I understand the “Gwi-Ma as an analogue for your own shame/depression” symbolism, but in Jinu’s case, he was NOT in a trance when he chose to abandon his family and live happily in the palace.  This shoots down any “Jinu wasn’t in control” arguments.

Now, we need to look at this symbolically again. Jinu’s selfishness is rooted in layers of shame. The whole film, Jinu wants to be “at peace” by erasing the memories of his actions. The solution he wants is rooted in selfishness, just like his past actions of self-preservation. Rumi and Jinu’s development runs parallel to each other.  They both learn to overcome their shame and their respective flaws through acceptance of each other and themselves.  Rumi learns not to feel ashamed about her very existence by having Jinu interact with her as an equal. Jinu, on the other hand, learns to overcome his vice of selfishness (the thing that simultaneously ruled and destroyed his life), by sacrificing himself for Rumi.

This doesn’t erase his actions or “redeem” him in anyway, which is actually what makes the scene so emotional and impactful symbolically. His choice to save Rumi broke through his shame, making it so his SELFLESSNESS is what actually brings him “peace”, and not the plan to erase his memories which was, again, rooted in SELFISHNESS. Bringing Jinu back would completely negate the culmination of his character arc while downplaying the stakes of the climax and the sacrifice that saved Rumi. The trend to have a redemption arc for every grey-zone villain really prevents more poignant storytelling and commentary on the human condition. Jinu is infinitely more interesting because he’s NOT redeemable, and I applaud the director’s choice to make the difficult decision to off him (hopefully for good).

My tribute to Xiaolin Showdown! This is probably the most complex piece I've worked on, and certainly with the most subjects. I've added closeups of the 2 halves underneath the full image. Original sketch from 2014 and, per usual, I cleaned it up to my current standards.

My tribute to Princess Tutu!

I de-Lego'd the Ninjago boys because I really like the show. Plus bonus Nya! Tried to give them all unique bodies/skin color.

My tribute to Kairi, Namine, and Xion.

2B and Pod 042 from Nier Automata!