South Korea's Grim Reapers Turn Pop Culture Icons in KPop Demon Hunters

When the Saja Boys appeared on screen for the first time, dressed in floor-length black hanbok and wide-brimmed hats casting shadows over pale, painted faces, Ms. Kang Chan-mi, a 32-year-old office worker in Seoul, immediately recognized the look.

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SEOUL –

“I knew instantly what they were,” she said. “If you’re Korean, it’s almost impossible not to.”

The Saja Boys, a fictional K-pop group from the Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters, may appear to be just another stylish boy band debuting for a global audience. But for many South Korean viewers, their stage wear evokes something much older and far more haunting: the jeoseung saja or the traditional Korean grim reaper.

The image is deeply familiar to Koreans. A pale-faced man, draped in black robes and wearing a gat – a traditional Korean hat made of horsehair and silk – has long signaled death in South Korean storytelling.

This is not the first time the grim reaper’s look has stepped into the limelight. Most recently, on the dance competition show World Of Street Woman Fighter, Korean crew Bumsup built a performance around the figure, donning black shirts and gat to evoke the jeoseung saja’s chilling presence.