Dominating the world of indie music, Detroit Metal City (DMC) is a popular death metal band known for its captivatingly dark and crude style. Its extravagant lead singer, Johannes Krauser II, is especially infamous as a demonic being who has risen from the fiery pits of hell itself in order to bring the world to its knees and lord over all mortals—or at least that's what he's publicized to be.
Unbeknownst to his many worshippers, Krauser II is just the alter ego of an average college graduate named Souichi Negishi. Although he is soft-spoken, peace-loving, and would rather listen to Swedish pop all day, he must participate in DMC's garish concerts in order to make ends meet. Detroit Metal City chronicles Negishi's hilarious misadventures as he attempts to juggle his hectic band life, a seemingly budding romance, and dealing with his incredibly obsessive and dedicated fans.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Beatnik
It’s about a reserved young lad, Negishi, moving to the city of debauchery that is Tokyo and fronting a death metal band, as Krauser II, even though he would rather be at home drinking green tea and listening to laid back indie pop. It’s tear-inducingly hilarious. DMC's humour is similar to Cromartie High School in its lunacy, albeit more traditional in narrative-stakes, and it’s also more unrelenting and risqué with its filthy potty mouth and explicit scenarios usually involving public humiliation involving a young man dressed like an 80's prog-rock-gone-wrong band member furiously thrusting his groin against a piece of government property in order to placate hismaniacal fans.
DMC's cast of deranged characters, animated by the ever-brilliant Studio 4c, liven up every scene they're in, thanks to each episode's short length. There are no typical anime-style long pans or random shots of furniture or scenery wasting our time. Instead we get scenes crammed with Negishi getting mistreated, usually by DMC's violently blunt dominatrix manager, although if we're extra lucky we'll also get a scene where DMC drummer Nishida opens his mouth, or the DMC S&M mascot Pig of Capitalism frolics on stage.
One of the masterstrokes of this show, perhaps the main stroke of genius and source of such mirth, is the voice acting. Particularly the pacing. The dialogue is sublime in its breezy and hushed volume; actors regularly speak in normal conversational tones, and cut each other off with off-the-cuff remarks about nonsensical things and then scenes cut away immediately without giving anyone time to breath. The ultimate affect is hilarity, as you might see in Brit comedy skit shows and such.
Detroit Metal City's secret weapon are the maniacal fans mentioned earlier. Their commentary on the main band's hijinks are comedy gold, their crazy antics all in the name of their beloved musical heroes creates most of the show's best scenes, although having said that we shouldn’t ignore the main frontman of DMC himself, whether its Negishi or Krauser we're watching, his two identities continually spiral further and further into increasingly awkward and humiliating situations, that usually involve simulated assault.
If any criticism could be thrown at DMC, it would be that the show doesn’t seriously explore the concept of losing your sense of identity when you're fronting such a ridiculous band, but then any focus on such an admittedly good topic as that would have robbed the show of precious laughs and scenes of humiliating sexual harassment so in the end comedy wins over gravitas.
KingOfRoll
Alright, so this here is my first review on MAL. I'll try to make it a good one. As you can see, I'll be reveiwing Detroit Metal City. I'd like to apologize in advance for how long this will be... Let me say first off that if you think you will be offended by off - color humor and swearing, run away in panic now, as this show is not for you. It is filled with swearing, rape jokes, drug references and other implied naughtiness. It is not serious, of course - it is comedy and there is no nudity and little violence to be found here. Thestory follows Souichi Negishi, a boy who, having recently graduated music college with the intent on forming a fashionable pop band, somehow finds himself as Johannes Krauser II, the demonic lead guitarist and vocalist for death metal group Detroit Metal City. The show is episodic in nature, so much so that they will often fit two short stories about the titular band into a single 15 minute episode. Don't expect too much in the way of an over - arching plot; it's almost a slice of life show in that respect. Despite being a comedy, the creators actually bring some interesting themes to light, such as conflicting split personalities, although they don't really develop them.
The characters are all good, though nothing to write home about. They seem to be almost charicateurs, in that they are fairly normal people, but exaggerated to the point of comedy. The only character who recieves any development even remotely is Negishi, as he does grow somewhat, his two personalities almost mixing together during the course of the show. Of course, it's to be expected when you can watch the entire series in about two and a half hours. That is my main problem with the series - it could have been much longer, as it does feel a little short. On the other hand, Negishi is actually fairly complex from the beginning, as he has some definite elements of schizophrenia, which provide some hilarious scenes as his two personalities show themselves in the wrong places.
The art is...interesting. The characters are somewhat flat and cartoonish most of the time, though there is the occasional scene where the animation is nothing short of stunning. The frame tends to change in size from shot to shot, presumably to create some kind of effect. You may find it irritating at first, but you'll quickly stop noticing it as you get caught up in the humor and the music.
This, of course is the series' main strength. How could it not be, as this is a show about music. There is a fairly high range of music, including pop, punk, freestyle rap and death metal. The songs are all original, unless I am much mistaken. Please don't expect too much in terms of song lyrics, though, as this is a comedy and all of the styles are exaggerated - the metal songs are filled with so many gruesome and offensive themes that it just becomes ridiculous and funny rather than brutal (as was the intention), while the pop songs are cheerful and cute to offset this.
I am a fan of death metal, and can safely say that this is not actually death metal. It's actually pretty good, but the creators likely wanted to appeal to a broader audience, so there is no growling or shrieking to be heard in the metal songs. DMC's music, I would say sounds more like evil KISS, which is suitable given that the name of the band is taken from a song by KISS (Detroit Rock City).
It would have been nice to see a few more references to other musicians. They do mention Sid Vicious, but no one else gets a nod. I also found it strange that they didn't mention Sweden or Norway, the respective homes of death and black metal. They also mention 'the violent American death metal scene'. Aside from Florida, there really isn't a death metal scene in the US at all. Ah well.
Actually, this show reminds me of an American cartoon, Metalocalypse. It's similar, as it's about a super - popular death metal band with rabidly idiotic fans, though of course the band members are all idiots. I'd suggest you give it a look if you enjoyed DMC (or the other way around). Just be warned that it is very, very bloody.
My only real grievance with this show is how short it is - it is only 12 episodes, each of which are only 15 minutes long, The series does feel far to short, and you'll probably wish there were more.
Please feel free to give any feedback!
YoungVagabond
"Detroit Metal City" is the most consistently funny anime ever made. It's not just a couple of episodes that hit the mark; all twelve are hilarious, unexpected, and brilliantly written. Based on the manga which I also wrote a review for, the anime version is probably the most faithful translation imaginable. Every scene, word, and expression is exactly the same as in the comic, and in this case, that turned out to be an excellent decision. DMC is based on the theme of dual personalities. Negi Souichi is a kind-hearted, simple 23 year old, a virgin with an ugly bowl-shaped haircut. Hehails from a farm, talks to his mother every day, and dreams of uniting the world with fashionable pop songs about love and French desserts.
At night, he dresses up as the fearsome Krauser-san II of the band DMC, a KISS and Gwar-inspired death metal frontman who sings about rape, murdering one's parents, and on stage, beats up an elderly Japanese man wearing women's lingerie known as "The Pig of Capitalism".
He is considered a true demon by his crazed fans, who would love nothing more than to be raped and killed by their idol, and eventually comes to be known as the emperor of metal, thanks to his many legendary deeds, such as raping the Tokyo Tower, and his destruction of any rivals to his throne, whether they be punk, rap, or fellow metal bands.
At first, it seems like Negi is simply forced to go along with this because of the tyrannical President of DMC's record label, a frightening death metal chick who beats up Negi and everyone else standing in her way, and constantly talks about performances "making me wet".
However, as the series progresses, one realizes that Krauser is very much a part of Negi himself. All of his anger and frustration at not being recognized for his pop music, as well as his annoyance with various people and circumstances in his life fuel his angry, violent death metal acts. Often, the very people he is close to and respects as Negi are the ones he destroys and humiliates as Krauser.
The writing and stories throughout the series are nothing short of brilliant. While the joke could quickly wear thin, here the episodes keep thinking of creative, exciting situations and obstacles for DMC and Negi to be up against, and he never fails to resolve it with something absurd and over-the-top, which a normal, rational Negi would be outraged by.
The other characters are also interesting and funny, if a bit one-dimensional. There is Negi's considerate, sweet love interest Yuri Aikawa, who works for a fashionable music magazine, and is frequently tormented by Krauser-san. There is Jyagi-Sama, the bass guitarist for the band, an outgoing, kind partier who is popular with the ladies. He hopes of making a lot of money from the band, but just doesn't understand the essence of metal quite like Negi.
Then, there is Camus-San, who, to go along with the stereotype of drummers as being bizarre weirdos, is a short, fat, ugly, bespectacled man, whose entire speech consists of offensive, perverted one or two word sentences, mostly spoken to attractive women. He frequently seems to think he's in a brothel, telling an innocent girl either "anal" or "next!".
As mentioned before, there is DMC's frightening record label president, as well as a hilarious male DMC super-fan who makes a living doing shows for little kids, and has an inferiority complex about not being raped by Krauser. Frankly, every repeat character in the series is funny, and their inclusion in the story is very much in context.
The songs used throughout the work, while too light to truly be considered death metal, are catchy, and have enough death grunts, heavy bass, and riffing to get the point across. The art feels and looks exactly like the comic; occasionally, it almost feels like I'm watching a really fast Powerpoint slide.
Overall, an instant classic of a series, highly recommended for everyone. Even better than Metalocalypse.
Lindle
Detroit Metal City strikes a bizarre balance of the cringeworthily unfunny and the gut-bustingly hilarious. This short, 12-episode OVA which will henceforth be abbreviated to "DMC" for convenience's sake, revolves around Negishi Souchi, an aspiring musician fresh out of college who has moved to Tokyo with a love of catchy, lighthearted European pop music. However, due to a misreading of his lyrics, he has accidentally ended up as the lead singer of death metal band Detroit Metal City, who are the antithesis of everything he stands for, using the alter-ego of Johannes Krauser II, a psychopathic omnipotent devil-creature who murdered his parents and raped them. Inthat order.
DMC's humour tends to come from three things. The first is Negishi/Krauser trying, and failing, to balance out his two lifestyles and stop anyone from finding out who he really is, and this is about as unfunny as it sounds. This whole idea has been done to death before, and was not ever really all that funny in the first place. To make matters worse, this is basically the entire joke. None of the variations on it really change what's supposed to be funny about it. And it is repeated ad nauseam throughout the series.
The second of these is how over-the-top everything is, in particular the ridiculous song lyrics and excessive swearing throughout. These are initially funny but wear off pretty fast... and this only applies to the funny song lyrics. Excessive swearing just isn't funny. There is also one character, their manager, who is the worst thing about the whole series. The entire "joke" of her character is that she says "cunt" a lot and gets sexual thrills from music... and I'm not sure how that was ever supposed to be funny. It's just disturbing and used entirely for cheap shock factor.
The third, however, is what saves DMC and then some: the parody aspects. DMC is at it's absolute funniest whenever it is making fun of death metal. Partly this is just by how utterly silly DMC's lyrical content is and what utter caricatures it's fans are, but the best moments of this happen by contrasting the legacy behind the band members and their fandom's insane worship to what is actually happening. The best example by far involves Krauser humping Tokyo Tower with a crowd of onlookers treating it as though it were an amazing spectacle of a satanic ritual... all while you're very aware that it is literally just a man in a silly costume humping a tower. Or, for another example, a contest of who can pronounce the word "fuck" best, made so much better by how dead seriously everyone takes it. The real cherry on top is simply how oblivious everyone is to how far DMC has descended into self-parody.
The characters from DMC are basically nothing special. They all fill their roles fine, but that's about it, with a few exceptions from Negishi when he gradually slips into Krauser mode.
The music in DMC impressed me, because aside from it's silly lyrics, the music is actually the kind of thing you could imagine people buying into, which is something of a refreshing change considering you see many anime about music with very amateurish music quality. This isn't even restricted to just DMC's music, either. Some of Negishi's pop music is genuinely catchy, and some of the background music is good too, if infrequent and unlikely to catch your ear in favour of "Satsugai".
The animation isn't particularly high-quality, but if it was, it would probably just have been out of place. It has a much more stripped-back feel to it that's reminiscent of many 90's American cartoons, which is really just as well because it'd fit in nicely with some of MTV's cartoon titles of the day. It also plays around with framing a lot as well, only filling up around half or so of the screen a lot of the time, and often expanding as offscreen characters talk so as to bring them into view. It doesn't really add all that much in the long run, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.
In most cases I'd call something like DMC fairly average, with the good cancelling out the bad. However DMC does have something else going for it that makes it an exception: it's short. Clocking in at only 12 episodes, each of which are only half the length of a regular TV broadcast episode. The entire series runs around 2 and a half hours, around the length of some movies, and with it's fast pace in hand you can easily knock it out in a single sitting. It's brevity saves it from outstaying it's welcome and repeating itself too much, which it most likely would have done if it had run any longer than it did.
Overall, DMC is hit and miss, but if this seems like something you might enjoy then you've not got much to lose.
Final Words: If you've got a couple of hours to kill and want a quick fix, I'd probably recommend this.
Story/Plot: 5/10
Characters: 5/10
Animation/Art: 8/10
Music: 9/10
Acting: 6/10
Overall: 6/10
For Fans Of: Dead Leaves, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
noteDhero
Detroit Metal City is a rapid fire comedy about the rise of the death metal band, DMC to prominence. It is also about the protagonist, Negishi, coping with his placement in a style of music unlike that of what he dreams to perform--Scandanavian Pop. Animation - 7 The animation itself was pretty lacking, but the art style I really liked. It seemed quite clearly inspired by Mike Judge and Beavis and Butthead. It's a little crazy to me that I think this is a good thing, but it really does add something special as a bit of a frame of reference. As amatter of fact, I think that the animation was rather rudimentary in that mid 90's cheap way also. Things were jerky and lacked a lot of fluidity, but on the flipside, this style is a perfect match with the pace of the comedy. Because this is a series of OVAs, it's hard to tell if this was a conscious artistic decision or budgetary restraints. With that said there was really no drop in the animation at all, so I'd wrack it up to a bit of the both.
Sound - 8
The voice actors all do a very good job of capturing the comedic essence of their characters and don't ever disappoint in delivery. The best job is by far done by the actor for Negishi (not Krauser) not just because the nervousness and anxiety in his voice was always hilarious, despite what he was saying; but also because of his singing voice. What is ultimately very interesting about the music to me was that the parody pop music was so undeniably catchy that I found myself really liking everytime that Negishi would bust out his acoustic guitar. The metal is not my cup of tea, so I really can't say left or right whether or not it was good. What I will say is that the crafting of one of the pop songs into its metal counterpart was very well done.
Characters - 8
The characters are archetypes that aren't found very often in anime, much less comedy, so the use of them especially as main characters is very refreshing. That said, because the show is about Negishi as Krauser, there is little to no development done for any of the supporting characters. For a slapstick comedy, I think that there is a good bit of development for Negishi who struggles with being tossed into the opposite genre of his choice. There are a couple of episodes that hilariously yet poignantly deal with his resolve to hold the mantle of Krauser, and they were quite unexpected. Beyond that the characters serve their purpose well, if not a little to redundantly.
Story - 7
The story is basically this: Negishi makes a fool of himself differentiating Krauser from his daily life, often in interference in his romantic aspirations for Yuki; Krauser has crazy antics onstage and with fans; and here and there, the double lives that DMC fans lead. Most of the story in each episode is focused mainly on the first element, which is a shame, because certain jokes quickly got old after the third episode, and could have had the edge taken off of it by the third element, which went rather unused despite having some very funny moments.
Enjoyment - 9
Had it not been for the blatant overuse of jokes, this could have been a ten, but I specifically remember wanting to fast forward through certain parts because it just felt like a copy/paste of dialogue with different scenery. Despite that, I laughed good and hard through much of the show, and for a comedy, this is rare.
Overall - 8
Detroit Metal City is a very good comedy series that I hope has redefined some of the conventions of anime in the execution of comedy. The pace never really let up for a second with quick dialogue and running through gags and punchlines at rapid succession. It never relies on the expectations of jaded viewers for moe fanservice or generally overused gags (even if it did overuse some of its own). DMC may be remembered and copied for years to come.
Flawfinder
Once upon a time, a young anime fan who was catching up on all the Japanese cartoons he missed out on over the years noticed that a certain comedy anime called Detroit Metal City was in quite a few top anime lists. The descriptions stated it was a hilarious satirical takedown of the music industry with more laughs in it than an average season of Seinfeld, so said fan downloaded the anime eager to populate his top anime list with more “critically acclaimed” stuff and laughed his ass off at the “at the time” brilliant card the show played regarding how this badass heavy metalgod was actually wimpier than Renton from Eureka Seven for twelve straight episodes. It was practically the only joke in the show, but he liked said joke so much that he instantly ranked it high on his increasingly overburdened “favorite anime list” upon finishing it, went to Frys a few days later for some random anime purchases, and bought the series for twenty-five bucks upon discovering a single copy next to some obscure series he had long since forgotten the name of with every intention of revisiting the joy of Krauser someday.
Two years later, said fan was eager to share the love with his friends who were visiting and put in his DVD for all of them to see. His friends were instantly turned off by the first episode, which would have annoyed the fan if it wasn’t for the fact that thanks to two years of criticizing the medium and getting caught up on most of what it had to offer, he discovered on rewatch that Detroit Metal City was not a good anime. Actually, that’s understating things. It was completely unfunny gimmicky shit that he only liked at the time because it was something he hadn’t seen before and revisiting the thing with a more trained mind revealed said series to be nothing more than a waste of a hundred bucks divided by four.
Something snapped in that fan that day, causing him to come up with several realizations. 1) He should never listen to his colleagues (or anybody else for that matter) for actual opinions on things. 2) All post-Fumoffu anime comedies are utter tripe that would never hold up on rewatch even if he used to like them. 3) He shouldn’t overcrowd his “favorite anime list” with titles that have no rewatch value whatsoever. 4) One day, he would review Detroit Metal City and expose it for the smelly piece of poo that it was to all the fans who still claim that it totally holds up...you liars.
Okay, so as I mentioned in that Diary of a Caustic Blogger level-esque introduction, Detroit Metal City is a twelve-episode OVA series about a wimpy kid named Negishi and his efforts to live a normal wimpy life whilst dealing with the fact that he’s actually a heavy metal god named Krauser due to some unfortunate circumstances that I’m not going to bother describing because if I spoiled that punchline, then there wouldn’t be anything left. Unfortunately, his manager who always goes on about how heavy metal makes her wet won’t leave him alone. And even when she does, Negishi lives in an area where Krauser seems to be everywhere, so he just can’t help getting involved and regretting it immediately afterwards. I know Japan loves to advertise the shit out of certain popular products to the point that you’d think they were as famous as Brad Pitt, but it’s established pretty early on that heavy metal is sort of an underground music genre as is, and I’d think the J-Rock audience would greatly over-eclipse Krauser’s rape threats.
Anyways, each episode is only thirteen minutes long and follows the wimpy god’s daily life trying to play his happy Swedish pop and getting away from his actual talents, along with trying to impress a girl he knew from the past that hates his metal identity. Can’t say I blame her. If I had to play songs constantly about raping the police, the girl, and that little rabies-infected puppy, I’d want to listen to the Clannad band too. It actually got to the point where I had to train myself to hit the chapter skip button whenever the opening song started, the same way people skip Ali Project when they finish a Geass episode, because that song is up there with Parasyte’s opening as one of the worst I’ve ever listened to.
And if it wasn’t for review purposes, I’d want to chapter skip the entire episode as well. As I also said in my overly-dramatic intro, Detroit Metal City really doesn’t have much to its jokes besides “get Negishi in trouble, have his Krauser life solve the problem mostly because his fans are dumb, said solution is a hollow victory”. That’s not a bad thing in of itself, but there’s a couple of problems with that approach. First off, how is exaggerating the fakeness of what goes on behind-the-scenes in increasingly absurd ways a good satire of the music industry by any definition of the word? Just because you’re changing locations and saying a different aspect is fake doesn’t exactly make me overlook that you’re just saying “the music industry isn’t what you think it is!” to which I just go “no fucking shit, son!” after the first half of the first episode. Second, aren’t jokes supposed to be ironic? How is exaggerating a truth that wasn’t even fresh in 2006, let alone 2009, to its logical extreme supposed to be irony, buttmunch?
Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with DMC having one basic joke as long as you expand on it in creative ways. Seinfeld’s episodes all but guaranteed that the ending would screw the characters in every way. But Seinfeld didn’t exactly specify a method or the degree of the casts’ misery, allowing it so that even if you kinda know things aren’t going to end well, you’ll still get surprised. But DMC’s base joke comes with so many other restrictions that imagination gets shunted out the window. Well okay, I tell a lie. There is one imaginative aspect. It’s just that it’s a fucking stupid one.
The whole thing is animated in sort of comic-book style where scene transitions and appearances look really artificial. Apparently this was supposed to further exaggerate the comedic absurdities of the show, but considering the situations themselves push absurd to the limit, all it is is a kid grabbing too many cookies from the cookie jar and getting a sugar rush along with two days in bed. Every time Krauser says he’s going to rape me, it just comes off like some high school bully trying to recreate the phone scene from I Know What You Did Last Summer despite the fact that all you did last summer was read a book and play soccer. Yes, his identity is ultimately fake, but his character is supposed to be real. And a real character fools you into thinking otherwise even if you know it can’t really happen, the same way a good story sucks you in even though dragons will never exist in real life.
But you can’t really accomplish that with prose that inserts penis metaphors every which way, and whilst it’s true that trying too hard to achieve realism just makes *insert school anime here* more unrealistic than Dragonball Z, you can only take that so far before you realize you forgot to put any sort of grounding to your product entirely. And it’s impossible to relate to the characters beyond what’s written on Wikipedia because the style just makes them seem too distant and fake to the point that all I see is the voice actor doing the recording in the background rather than an actual kid going through struggles. Also, whenever a joke is actually made, said shaky-cam still visuals used to convey the jokes are always accompanied by a lot of dialogue that kill all sense of timing and draw out the punchline far beyond the point when it’s funny. Yeah, we get it. The characters are screwed. I don’t need to hear their inner thoughts on the subject matter!
So as a result, none of the characters are the least bit sympathetic or even have much of a personality. I don’t care if this kid is getting screwed by his double life, especially since nothing ever changes afterwards and it doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. Aside from the fact that he can play music better than I ever will, there’s nothing interesting about him. He’s entirely reactionary, and so is everyone he runs into. Yeah, that girl he has a crush on seems nice and all, but I don’t know for sure and the show will never let me know any time soon. Unless I read the manga, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to do that.
I mean it’s not completely unexpected that the director of this show would try to implement something unique visual-wise given that he’s also the guy who adapted Mushishi and Aku no Hana, both anime I gave money to in order to be my live-in hookers. But whilst those shows have subtle, yet calm moods that complement the story and bring them across in a visually interesting way, Detroit Metal City’s atmosphere is loud and obnoxious and has very little movement and instead of adding to anything, it just overstuffs the whole mess to the point that I don’t know what to concentrate on resulting in an entirely forgettable experience. Nothing sticks but the novelty of seeing this in anime. And novelty’s expiration data is worse than the lifespan of a firefly.
Detroit Metal City could have been funny if the characters had any sort of actual grounding in reality rather than have both sides of Negishi’s life be as hyperactive and unfocused as a 70s hippie. If the show had dealt with the music industry the same way BoJack Horseman dealt with the movie industry, it wouldn’t exactly have been a riot, but at least there’d be strong characters and utilization of concepts to keep things going in case the jokes fall flat. That’d also be a concept unique to anime, except it’d actually have lasting appeal rather than the price tag I stuck on the front cover of its DVD box before laying it down on a yard sale table.
Nezerchin
Quite possibly the best show in years. Though at the same time it can be pretty hard to recommend. To enjoy the show you need to be open to extreme expletives and adult theme/humor. Story: A calm man who dreams of being a musician becomes the lead singer for a rising Metal phenomenon. I found the story to be pretty original and quite a good setup for some amazing comedy. Its not the best story in the world, but they certainly do a lot with 12 episodes. Art: Clearly not the best art, but it never intended to be. Instead they went for more of a"Manga Recreation" style utilizing interesting screen proportions as if it were a comic.
Sound:
Despite is heavy dependence on Metal music, if you are not into Metal music (I certainly am not) you will probably enjoy the soundtrack more than if you did. Most of the show is a parody for the metal genre (and actually most music genres to be honest) The songs are all humorous and enjoyable which is pretty hard to accomplish with so many music genres incorporated. The voice acting is also spot-on.
Character:
All of the characters are pretty well fleshed out and vastly different from each other. Even characters that only appear for a single episode have a lot going for them. This can be attributed to the series' quick delivery of jokes to keep things fresh, insane, and hilarious.
Enjoyment:
As I said earlier, possibly one of the best shows in awhile, and easilly the funniest anime I have seen period. If any show has the potential to knock you out of your chair with laughter, this would be it; assuming you are a fan of the type of humor they employ.
Overall:
This was pretty much perfection for me, as far as comedies go.
I want more episodes. 10/10
Hibbington
Now before I start writing my review it is good to note that this is coming from a person that has a history of watching shows like Beavis and Butthead and South Park. But the issue with shows like that is when you create a cesspool of stupidity than it falls under the subjectiveness of comedy if you actually want to eat the shit they are feeding you or not. Detroit Metal City didn't produce any laughter for me watching the show. So this was not an enjoyable experience to me. I’m not looking for any emotional attachment to any characters. The show lives and dies onits comedy.
I did a couple of smirks before face palming if you want to count that.
I also understand that this is a satire. I am actually a Metal music fan and do think most Doom Metal songs are garbage.
The show unfortunately never actually shows any good metal. There is no telling if the show is just making fun of Doom Metal or making fun of all metal in general.
So as a Metal fan I got no enjoyment out of this show either.
Negishi throughout the anime suffers from Multi-personality disorder due to him at heart wanting to be a pop star but knows that all he is good at is being “The Demon Lord”.
I do believe that this is something that most of us can relate to.
I wish I could express myself artistically but my brain is more logic heavy than on the creative side.
So I’m better suited for things like management and business skills than being a guitarist or being able to draw well.
So on a story standpoint I believe could have been solid, but still gets dragged down due to the rest of the show’s elements.
The plot also gets dragged out in the middle part of the show. There is no progression and becomes episodic.
Then just finishes the show off with band battles instead of completing any plot points.
Clearly this is a low budget anime. I try to not let that get in the way of my scoring but at the same time I’m not a fan of character designs and derpy eyes.
I tend to be very picky with eyes and hair and this anime is appealing in neither of those departments.
The only positive part of this show was showcasing multi-personality disorder but doesn’t attempt to bring out the full potential of what it could have been.
This could also be classified as a gag show and I don’t exactly have the best history with those shows either.
It seems that on every facet of what I enjoy in anime. This anime does not reach
It is because of that is why I can’t suggest who exactly this is made for.
Clearly it is a very popular show with the average rating.
My only conclusion is either you’re the type of person that laughs at everything or you have a dark soul and like to hear songs of people getting raped every episode.
I for one am neither and find this show to be an abysmal experience and suggest you leave this cesspool be.
Fear_the_Reefer
Soichiro is a fan of folksy, upbeat swedish-style pop music, and he dreams of pursuing a career in making that music. He leaves his home in the country to move to the big city, where he somehow winds up as the frontman of a death metal band... This is never explained... wearing a costume that seems to be *cough* inspired by the American rock band Kiss. This band, which has achieved fame and fervor throughout the disaffected youth of Japan, is called “Detroit Metal City.” And thus young Soichiro is torn... In his personal life, he’s the exact opposite of his stagepersona, Johannes Krauss 2, a hardcore demon who brutally murdered his parents and rapes pretty much whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to. Despite his talent with this music, he despises it, and wants nothing more than to escape it all and engage in a career that will make both his family and the girl of his dreams proud of him... And yet he just keeps getting pulled back.
I know I played up this plot summary as a nuanced character study, but trust me, it’s a lot less interesting than it sounds.
I’m going to have a difficult time talking about the animation, mostly because in order to do so, I have to use the word animation... Which is a word this series never really deserves to be associated with. DMC has some of the cheapest looking, laziest looking animation that I’ve seen in my entire life. At it’s best, it looks like someone took pictures from the manga, colored them in, and flipped back and forth between them just to create the illusion of movement. At its worst, it’s stiff, jarring, contains way too many key frames, and abuses speed lines worse than Naruto.
The character designs aren’t that bad, as everybody seems realistically proportioned in both their bodies and their faces. Yep, nothing cartoony or moe to speak of, so that’s a plus... Oh, except for a few chunky midgets... Because Japan loves its midgets. But with that aside, this show is barely animated, save for the opening.
Say, do you remember Method and Red, a one season Fox show from just over ten years ago? No, of course you don’t. Nobody does. Although you should, because that show was actually pretty damn funny. Anyway, it’s about rappers Methodman and Redman moving into a wealthy, upscale, predominately white neighborhood. At one point, one of the characters... An uptight yuppie mother from the Neighbors Association... calls rap music “X-rated nursery rhymes that objectify women.” Was that fair of her to say? No, not really. I’m no connoisseur of the genre, but I know enough to know that rap music is at least a bit more diverse than a lot of people who’ve never paid attention to it are willing to give it credit for.
Now, imagine if that woman was tasked to write an entire comedy series based on her perception of the genre. The very idea of this is cringeworthy, right?
Well, Detroit Metal City had a character like her. That character was called... The writer. No, I don’t mean that literally, like there was some meta character named The Writer... I mean the actual writer who created and penned this masterpiece. Because if you’re a fan of Death Metal... And a fan of this show... Then I have a really disappointing observation I’d like to share with you. Are you ready? Here it is... DMC hates Death Metal. It hates the music, it hates the musicians, and it hates you. And it is absolutely giddy about the fact that you haven’t figured that out yet.
And if you think i’m just pulling this out of my ass, just look at how that form of music is portrayed in the series... A nice, well mannered young man gets mixed up in it, whereupon he develops a split personality, and that personality happens to be angry, abusive, misogynistic, and violently rapey. Yes, I know it’s exclaimed in the manga that he has unresolved rage issues that he vents through his stage persona, but rageaholics aren’t typically known to compulsively dry-hump other men and inanimate objects. And when they are, they need professional help, not a recording contract. It’s also made very clear that this alternate personality of his has the power to absolutely destroy his personal relationships, and yet he can’t stop going back to it. Kind of like hard drugs.
Which is saying nothing about the music, which is literally about nothing other than sexual aggression and murder. And I don’t use the word literally lightly. The opening theme... In other words, the very first song we’re exposed to out of the entire show... Is a DMC song where Soichiros very first lines are “Yesterday I raped my mother, today I’m going to kill my father.” And there isn’t a hint of irony or satire in it... Throughout the show, his fans really believe that Krauss is a murderer who raped and murdered his parents as a child and was let out of jail to make music. A lie that the band promotes with a straight face.
As for the rest of the music, it ranges from “Kill and enslave everybody” to “Women are sex pigs.” And this is meant to be funny.
Hey, did you ever see Metalacolypse? It’s another show that paints Death Metal as violent and misogynistic. You know why it was awesome? Because it was creative, funny, well produced, and knew damn well how to go to some of the worst possible places without ever becoming too offensive. It’s a show that felt genuine love and passion for it’s subject, and as such, it was able to put everything that’s awesome about Death Metal on full display while over-exaggerating and ruthlessly parodying the things that aren’t so awesome about it. DMC couldn’t do that, and throughout the entire thirteen episode run, it felt more like a cautionary tale against Death Metal... With enough knowledge and research behind it to make Reefer Madness look legit.
This wouldn’t be a problem if DMC was written well, but alas, this just isn’t the case. I know there are some people who would say “Hey, it’s a gag comedy based on a four panel manga... Of course it’s not written well! You’re expecting too much of it!” Well, dear reader, you just insulted your show far more than I ever could, because there are plenty of anime with similar adaptive roots, and this is by far the least amusing one I’ve ever seen. The only character with enough personality traits to even be considered a character would be the main one, and while there is some definite nuance to his situation, he’s so stupid that it makes him really difficult to root for.
Out of the other characters who matter... Let’s see... I know there were a few... Oh! There’s Capitalist Pig, a middle aged midget who gets tied up, gagged, and abused on-stage. But it’s okay, because he’s a masochist. Yeah, that’s all well and good, but his only significant story arc was about Soichiro trying to set him up with the girl of his dreams, and then blatantly dicking him over at the most crucial moment, just to be thanked anyway right afterwards.
Umm... There’s his little brother, who got so turned onto Soichiro’s music that he grew his hair out, died it, and now refuses to go to school or help out around the farm. And the resolution for that problem was... Well, really stupid, and never ever brought up again.
There are three women who play somewhat significant roles in the show... Kind of... There’s the band’s manager, who’s only personality trait is that she doesn’t care about anything that doesn’t make her wet. There’s the lead singer of a punk band, who was stupid enough to believe a Japanese guy with a cold was the reincarnation of legendary rocker Sid Vicious. There’s also Yuri(Yay! I remembered someone’s name without looking it up!), Soichiro’s former friend from college, who’s interested in him despite not being very close to him in school. Her attraction to him is never explained, but she hates Death Metal and all it represents. There’s something wrong with both of those statements, as there are several moments in the show where Soichiro acts VERY verbally abusive towards her without ever suffering any consequences. I’m assuming she still likes him afterwards, because she doesn’t appear in any of the last few episodes.
Much like certain other shows I’ve reviewed, or plan to review, the writing in DMC has one other serious flaw... It’s so dependent on coincidence that pretty much everything that happens can be predicted at some point during it’s respective episode. This is true not only with the pop band Tetrapod Melon Tea(For the love of god don’t ask) and the American villain from the final episode. While surrendering to the police for disturbing the police, Soichiro trips and just happens to smash one of them over the head with his guitar. He then stumbles backwards into a female officer, and falls onto her n a very rapey way, then runs off while fans chant about his nefarious deeds. This is never followed up on, nor is his humping of a certain famous monument... Which them lights up and is rained upon, another complete coincidence that adds to his legacy.
For the longest time, I was fully intending to give this series a 1/10. I hated it to the point that I was actively looking for chores to do between each episode, but at least it was mercifully short... Only fifteen minutes per episode... and it had a pretty well acted Japanese dub. This is especially true of the gravely performance put forth by Yuji Oeda in the role of Krauss... He only plays the Krauss version, but he plays it very convincingly. Then something happened at the end of episode one that changed my mind. And since this show doesn’t really have any plot or story to spoil, I’m going to tell you exactly what it was.
After a particularly racist stage show that painted the band’s manager as just barely incompetent enough to host a WWE show, we see a woman and her four year old child waiting in the lobby for her father as a group of fans point her out as a Mini-Krauss. She starts belting out a DMC song that’s called An Anthem to Female Pigs(Or something like that), which is just a constant repeat of the phrase “I only need your lower half.” Fair enough... This kind of thing could be funny. If it had stopped there.
The mother gives her daughter a bottle of milk, and the crowd proclaims excitedly that she’s drinking a white liquid. Oh, and before you start saying i’m getting too offended by a ‘child drinking something that looks like semen’ joke, just hold on, because it gets worse. Her father comes out of the bathroom, and the adorable little tot runs at him, jumping into her father’s arms, as the crowd cheers that she’s raping him. And since they’re stupid enough to think that Krauss was REALLY released from jail after murdering his parents just so he could make music, there’s no particular reason to say that they’re joking about this. It beg the question of how they’d react if they were to stumble upon a real life crime as it were taking place. Would they cheer it on? Would they join in? DMC is creating these people.
While there’s no dub for this series... And I really can’t blame them... The DVD has been released stateside by Sentai Filmworks, and I can only speculate that they’re releasing a lot of undubbed DVDs because they’re strapped for cash and don’t want to spend the money on voice actors for the majority of their projects. Fair enough, they’ve been through some hard times recently, and I can respect that decision. The DVD itself can be found for dirt cheap, with the average store price ranging somewhere around twenty dollars or so. There’s also a translated manga from Viz Media, and while I haven’t read it, it can’t possibly be worse than the show.
And it feels, to me at least, like my twenty dollars alone paid for their entire animation budget. I didn’t find anything about this show to be enjoyable... It’s not funny, it’s terribly written, it’s misogynistic down to it’s deepest core, and the in-show music was clearly written by somebody with no understanding of the genre they were supposed to be representing. The characters are awful, the situations are poorly thought out, and for a show that portrays itself as being realistic, the presence of the law is entirely inconsistent. Soichiro’s deplorable behavior is not only excused and forgiven, it’s often encouraged by infuriatingly positive outcomes. Even at fifteen minutes an episode, this show was a chore to sit through, and I feel dumber for having done so. It doesn’t feel as potentially dangerous as Popotan did, but it still stands right alongside it as the second worst anime I’ve ever watched. I give Detroit Metal City a 0/10, making it the second show I’ve done so with. If you see a higher score than that, that’s because it’s on Myanimelist, where you literally can’t give anything a score lower than 1.
literaturenerd
Overview: What would happen if you mixed the random comedy and faux tough guy MC of Cromartie Highschool with the crude humor and heavy metal parody of Metalocalypse?! You would get Detroit Metal City. I watched all 12 episodes in 1 binge and I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time! Not only is this one of the best anime comedy series in years, it is widely accessible even for people that don't like anime. Story: 8/10 The story is about a mild mannered guy from the country named Negishi that moved to Tokyo in order to become a pop singer. Unfortunately, his music doesn't sell,so he is forced to make a living by being the frontman for the wildly offensive and insane band Detroit Metal City. Detroit Metal City is named after the KISS song of course, and is basically what conservative parents in the 1980s thought KISS was like. All of their music is about rape, murder, and praising Satan! Negishi's onstage persona is Johannes Krauser, a German serial killer/rapist that calls himself the "terrorist from hell". It is rather funny to see a guy that sends flowers to his mother and is a virgin play the role of a man who supposedly murdered and raped his parents at age 5. Of course, part of the comedy is that this is actually fairly accurate in real Death Metal music. With the exception of the insane Norwegian bands that actually burned churches and murdered people in the 1990s, most metal bands are actually a bunch of nerds that are NOTHING like their onstage personas. Negishi must continue to play in this crazy band all while dealing with lunatic fans, and keeping his friends and family from finding out about it.
Character: 9/10
From the loveable and goofy Negishi to the sociopathic, Metal head band manager, the characters are hilarious and excellent! I especially liked the awkward, middle aged man that plays the DMC band member "The Capitalist Pig" which simply involves wearing a gimp suit and getting the shit kicked out of him in every concert. Some of the best character interactions and chemistry in the show was between Negishi and his sweet girlfriend Aikawa. It is unfortunate that the anime ended so abruptly and she never finds out about his persona or takes their relationship to the next level. They just flirt, go on a a few dates, and that is as far as it ever goes in the anime. It may be different in the manga, but I haven't read the manga yet.
Sound: 7/10
The soundtrack is hilarious and features some of the most batshit insane lyrics you will ever hear. Unfortunately, DMC aren't very good at playing their instruments and don't sound even 1/10th as good as Deathklok. Brandon Small from Metalocalypse actually knows how to play a guitar, unlike these guys!
Art: 7/10
The art closely follows the style of the manga from what I have seen of it. It is certainly not spectacular, but it isn't bad and works well with the tone of the series.
Enjoyment: 10/10
I lauged my ass off and I am willing to bet that most of you guys will too!
Overall: 9/10
Detroit Metal City was a highly enjoyable little anime that I recently found out about and I am REALLY glad I gave it a chance. There is no English Dub, but the Japanese dub is filled with seasoned veterans and is nice to listen to. Negishi is hilariously voiced by the same guy that did Keitaro from Love Hina! If you need a good laugh, I would check this series out right away.
GuUguk
It will sound a little bit cheesy but the perfect phrase for DMC is 'brilliance at the best'. If the musics of the anime influences your final judgement and you like rock/metal music, I bet you will love this one too. This is one of the most funny series I have watched so far (I even nearly fall from my chair) but the comedy factor is far from elegant, but beside the crude jokes you may catch the witty ones. The story might not be sophisticated at first glance (a music band trying to get famous (or legend!)) but the still Ialways got surprised at every episode, and it is hard to guess the next step and besides the main character is actually suffering from multiple personality disorder (at least I think so) which is the twist that the series is based on. The animation is just perfect (even though you might misjudge it at first), the style fits to the story telling as a glove, the facial expression of the characters makes me burst with laughter or the concert scenes are so good that they make me believe I am actually at a DMC concert! So I always enjoy and expect the next episode with great excitement. I might be biased but I am truly impressed with this anime, it is one of a kind, fresh, fun and have a great soundtrack.
and of course Krauser-sama rules!!! YEaahhhhh!
Nilvius
[Story: 7.5] Taking on the old Jekyll and Hyde concept with a new twist, Detroit Metal City is a comedy about Negishi, who for some strange reason, ended up singing for a band of the genre he hates the most. There, he takes up the persona of Krauser II, a supposed deranged escaped convict. The setting for DMC thus brings forth the question: how different is it between the performers' stage personae and their actual lives? How much of the so-called scandal and tales of debauchery publicized on the media true? However, that's a minor detail. The real humor lies in how Negishi gradually losescontrol of his Krauser persona, who will break out and end up committing outrageous things the shy and mild-mannered Negishi will never dream of doing. Like raping Tokyo Tower, for example (yeah, its that kind of show).
Second key aspect of the series is the portrayal of the band's fandom. Much of the humor comes from the ridiculous behaviors of fans in their blind worship for Krauser, crowning him as an invincible demon lord and constantly coming up with crazy theories to build up Krauser's legends. Just like what real-life fans of various types of hobbies/ subjects tend to do, it's practically a satire of what fan dumb can be like.
[Characters: 7.5] Main focus of the series is of course on Negishi who leads a dual life. He loves Swedish pop but people think he's terrible at it. Thus, whatever attempts at debuting in that genre is futile. On the other hand, he hates Death Metal but the band he leads is a legend. As such, the gags in each episode involves how the timid Negishi unconsciously becomes increasingly dependent on the insane Krauser as his stress relief, using him to vent his long pent up frustration or solve his problems in an exaggerated manner. Sometimes the results are good, though most of the time it's with disastrous consequences. Either way they're downright hilarious.
[Art: 6.0] The art is ugly; no, it's deliberately bad. In a way, its 'cheapness' creates its own style for the series. Furthermore, some of the gags were made funnier because of the ugly facial expressions the characters put up - think GTO for reference.
[Music: 7.5] Just like the story, its music is a sheer refuge in audacity. The lyrics in the OP (and pretty much the entire point of the band's songs) are so crude that it is funny, albeit in a morbid sort of way. This is juxtaposed with the more sweet and bubbly ED - again, pretty much the entire point of the series.
[Summary] Needless to say, the dialogues and gags are often offensive in more way than one, so the humor style of Detroit Metal City may not be to everyone's taste. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for something different, e.g. comedy with elements of satire in it, DMC is worth giving a try. The ending is rather inconclusive, but that’s mainly due to the fact that the manga is still on-going.
Personal Overall Rating: 7.0
beepbopkatbot
Detroit Metal City is the most unique anime I've come across. This show is hilarious from beginning to end. And I really wish it was longer. To be honest, the art wasn't incredible. What DMC lacked in art style, however, they made up for in content. The plot was so unique and unlike any other anime I've seen. I just wish there was more of a solid ending than the one in the anime. (This is part of the reason why I want to watch the live action movie. I want to see how they interpreted the ending.) What I loved about it the most werethe characters. Even the side characters were hilarious and had personality. What other anime has a character called the "Pig of Capitalism"?
Bottom line: it is very easy to love this anime. I'm one of those people that say they love an anime as soon as they watch it but then over time the feeling and excitement fades and it turns into more of a "strong like" than "love". But it's been almost a month after watching this anime and I am still praising it.
Definitely worth a watch.
deleteme234
"GO TO DMC, GO TO DMC..." At first I was misled by the beginning of the show into thinking that it wasn't going to be that good. Fuck, was I wrong... Detroit Metal City is one of the funniest and brilliant shows ever created and is the best metal parody I have ever seen. Story: Detroit Metal City doesn't consist of one main story, but is broken into different segments. For this kind of show, this was a good choice. Each individual story is hilarious, consisting of bizarre situations the characters find themselves in, and full of raunchy jokes which involve raping the Tokyo Tower, masochism, spitting into people'smouths, drugs, public rape, alcohol, and of course a trendy rape cafe. It is jaw dropping, provoking, and ultimately hysterical. I have watched this show with all my friends and they love it!!!
Art:
The artwork isn't top notch, but this kind of show doesn't need masterful artwork anyways. The animation is smooth and artwork has a comic book style tone to it, perfect for the show.
Characters:
The best part of Detroit Metal City is the bipolar character named Negishi. He has two personas, one where he is a trendy weak guy who listens to Swedish Pop, and the other where he is Krauser II, the most brutal metal musician in Japan.
At first I thought that Krauser II was kind of like Negishi's mask and he only played metal music, because his other music didn't make any money. But as the series went on, I learned that Krauser II is very much a part of Negishi and his identity, as well as his frustrations.
As Krauser II, Negishi can do all the things he can't do as Negishi. He is definitely one of the most badass and crazy characters I have ever seen, as his two personalities completely conflict with each other.
Sound:
Detroit Metal City has great music, but isn't exactly death metal as the anime proclaims. In fact, it is hard to classify what classification of metal DMC belongs to, because their music is very original and not like any other band's. Also, DMC's music probably contains more swearing and profanity than the lyrics of most death metal band's.
Overall:
The only other metal parody I know of is Metalocaplyse. I would say Metalocalypse has more blood and gore, while Detroit Metal City has more swearing. Both are GREAT metal parodies and are classics in my book, but DMC is just a little bit funnier.
DMC is a one of a kind show and is definitely worth your time, as long as you are not offended by excessive swearing and vulgar themes. I recommend this show to primarily teenagers.
thiago_pagogna
Have you ever wanted to be like a terrorist ? Rape you own mom and daddy and the kill them ? That is how this hilarious show begins with... It is a short series, and i mean, very short series indeed, about a country emo boy named negishi who comes to tokyo to fulfill the dream of his life: to become a legendary rock star who came from hell and rapes every single woman he encounters...oh wait, this is not what he really wanted to be apparently, it was just a bad dream...wasn't it ? Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the drama of emo boy "akanegishi", who in fact is a very soft and respectful young lad, who adore simple things in life like butterflies, flowers and love swedish pop music (ugh?!) and french designs for clothes, (did i mentioned emo?) well... that is, until he incarnates Krauser-sama, a demon who came from hell, for his performance in his own death metal band, called of course: Detroit Metal City! Krauser-sama is his own stereotype for a death metal rock star in a constant hate for the world, the women, the capitalism, laws, government et cetera.
But negishi is not only an actor who incorporates Krauser-Sama, in the deep, he really have all those traits of bad behavior in which he let them out in his live performances, but as with everything that comes out of the closet, we can see negishi bad traits starting dominating his own soft (emo?) natrure in some cases which he loses control of his self.
With that being said, the whole series tells this very tale in a fantastic way, with negishi in conflict with his two contradictory parts, and the wrong part assumes him at the wrong moment (for the laughs) and he can control his self most of the time to shows us valuable lessons in life for self-control and how we can use our bad traits to help others around us , and to resolve conflicts with others...of course, in a humouristic nature, because this is a comedy show after all.
The art seems a little cheap to me, but i liked the style they use cropping various parts of the screen with black lines, they managed to turn the low budget problem at their side, but the producers don't fool me !
The music is standard black metal music for Krauser, and swedish pop (ugh?!) for negishi, the rest is ok soundtrack for comedy shows.
Summarizing, Detroit Metal City is a crazy incoherent comedy and you must like contradictory things to really enjoy this series, or in other words, Detroit Metal City is another MASTERPIECE that will never leave our hearts ^^
MisaTange
Story: 9/10 You've seen a story like this before. 'Boy leads a double life, and that double life are polar opposites.' However, I find it rare in comedies, even in dark comedies like this piece of work. One point off because I found something... missing. Character: 9/10 Each of the characters are interesting and adds to the comedy. However, really only Negishi really gets some character development. But, this is a comedy, people only watch for laughs, not character development. Art: 10/10I really liked the art style of this dark anime. Dark, very fitting for this type of anime.
Sound/Voice Acting: 10/10
Without a doubt, one of the more stronger points of the anime. There's different kinds of music, mainly the calm pop Negishi plays and the... death metal Krauser plays. I liked them all.
As for the voice acting, (Japanese dubbed, English subbed) all of the characters were very fitting-sounding.
Overall: 9/10
A great anime with its share of flaws. BUT BE WARNED. This isn't an anime for everyone. If you hate crude humor, (as in, using rape, sex, drugs as humor) don't even touch this anime.
themegamancave
“I will accomplish the feat of saying 'rape' eleven times in one second” -Krauser, Detroit Metal City This show is utterly ridiculous. Recommended by a MAL friend for its "give no fucks" vulgar and insensitive humor, Detroit Metal City certainly had quite a name to live up to. Do the rape and satanic jokes go too far? Well, there was only one way to find out. Adapted from an iconic manga written by Kiminori Wagasuki, DMC has one of the most memorable anime intro sequences I can recall. You find the main protagonist, Soichi Negishi riding a train and taking about joining high school with the aspiration ofwanting to become a modern folky pop artist. His music is light and melodic, and is reminiscent of something you'd hear in a frozen yogurt parlor. But... Negishi didn't quite fulfill his dreams of becoming a pop star... actually quite the opposite occurred. He ended up singing lead vocals for the most popular underground death metal band in all of Japan.... named after the famous KISS song, Detroit Metal City. Although how exactly he got there is never really explored in DMC's short 156 minute cumulative run time, I don't really think it's necessary. You basically follow the heinous escapades of Negishi and his death metal band as he struggles to find solace while trying to quit the strange life he has found himself in. All while spitting lyrics about killing his parents and humping Tokyo Tower in the rain. I can't even make this shit up.
To watch DMC properly, I'd recommend coming in with no expectations or high sense of politically-correctedness, and just turn your brain off. There isn't much of a storyline, and there's no analytical character development. Just raw, unadulterated vulgarity spewing left and right. I mean I'm pretty sure there's a line where Negishi actually calls a girl he cares for a "trash cunt". I literally spit my beer out when I heard that. There were literally times I was gasping for air I was laughing so damn hard. It's certainly not an anime I'd show my kids, until their older than 18, or 21 or at least 25... DMC pulls no punches, and for that I'll give Studio 4C mad props. You can't get humor like this in any other anime I can think of, maybe the closest would be Chromartie high school. And the jokes in DMC make Chromartie High School look like an episode of Sesame Street. The whole premise is actually a tad depressing, almost like Negishi suffers from a messed up version of schizophrenia. The way his Krauser persona flips on like a light switch is nuts. You could see it building like a gurgling volcano about to erupt.
There's not an exorbitant amount of character development in DMC either. There's some with Negishi, and also a tad with “The Capitalist Pig”, a middle-aged Japanese man he tortures onstage at each concert. Negishi actually ends up coming to his rescue once he finds out he doubles as a convenience store clerk in one of DMC's rare moral moments. His crush has possibly the worst perception known to man, as somehow she never mistakes Negishi's rude outbursts as routine behavior, or that he is even living a double life. His band mates are equally as lude, and push Negishi's boundaries of sanity and morality during each show. Perhaps the funniest part of the entire show is that virtually none of the humor is meant to be funny when delivered by its respective characters. Most notably are the die hard fans of DMC trying to explain exactly what they believe Krauser (Negishi's metal alias) is doing. He trips and falls on a woman and they think he's raping her. He leaves a tv interview to juggle a date with his secret crush and they assume he went to hell and back a few times. Not to mention, DMC's manager is some sort of psychotic nymphomaniac who gets off on Krauser's derelict behavior. Did I mention how utterly ridiculous this show is?
The OST is nostalgic in a way to me because of all the heavy metal I used to listen to in high school. The type of music with words that can be incoherent and no one seems to care, but the heavier and faster, the better. Every time Negishi played his pop music, it made me chuckle because of the vastly different vibe it gave of in the show. Especially hysterical was how he was constantly shut down or interpreted in a joking matter when he played his acoustic nonsense. The OP was epic and I often listened to it, and the ED was more poppy, probably to illustrate the juxtaposed dual personalities Negishi occupied. The art is nothing stellar, but it gets its point across. When an anime has this lax art style, I tend to take it less seriously, which is really only to my benefit if it's a comedy.
As much as I did laugh my ass off, on a critical level DMC is sort of a "one trick pony". As aforementioned, there's nothing complex and intellectual going on in the background here. It's brash and unapologetic, and it's just a nice break from modern anime normalcy. I enjoyed it for what it was. I would only recommend this series to someone in need of a good laugh and who isn't easily offended. I mean, seriously, do not watch this unless you are apathetic and vulgar-minded. But... if you stay with it, this show is some seriously good shit. A comedic masterpiece. I enjoyed every second of it. Thanks as always for reading!
Ex-Machina
I don't know why it's rare to find a comedy anime that makes you really laugh until tears are flooding from your eyes,but,what if someone asked you to describe a comedy anime that makes you laugh, the answer is simply: GO WATCH DETROIT METAL CITY. Firstly, I find it hard to categorize this anime, because of it's uniqueness The story is about a young man called Souichi Negishi, due to his love for music decides to move from the country side to the city(to attend school of arts or whatever...) wishing that one day he will become a famous stylish POP singer and singing happy songsabout love and peace and all idealistic subjects, finally, his wish came true, he did become a famous singer and gained a huge popularity using the alias: Johannes Krauser II,but with some details that he never expected, like becoming a member of a DEATH METAL BAND (yes DEATH METAL band lml) and being considered as the demon-lord while all his songs are about: RAPE, MURDER,or being a TERRORIST STRAIGHT OUT OF HELL.All this changing will make his life harder and harder so a lots of questions come to mind : how can he survive in the death metal scene without exposing his true identity?can he really maintain a balance between his 2 personalities ?and finally,how will the world accept him is it as :Soichi Negishi or Johannes Krauser II.
The story was honestly very appealing you don't something like that every day and the way that they put a lot of messages in this work makes it really a masterpiece,So I will state them as conclusions:
1) Life can be really hard on everyone, making us do things we didn't even thought about or opposing what we were hoping for, you can see that clearly in this story, what the MC was doing not because he likes it or anything but the irony of fate did missed with his life.So if we want to conclude the first message: DON'T JUDGE PEOPLE FROM THEIR DEEDS, BUT, YOU SHOULD JUDGE THEIR(DEED) BACKGROUND.
2) People will only care about your evil side, the way is Johannes Krauser II famous and taking the media's and people interests, while Soichi Negish is considred just a human being whose existence doesn't mean anything.Second message:a recipe to become well known : just be evil, you won't need anything else.
3)Once you start doing something: work, hobby... etc.Be sure that there's a way back or else you'll be put in a situation where there's no going back,and no matter how much you hate that situation one day you'll start to being used it and enjoy it.
3rd message :Stay away from Quicksand.
After analysing these messages we will discover that this isn't a pure comedy but in reality is a dark humour where we laugh about things we shouldn't.
Finally, let's leave all the disappointment and bad feelings and enjoy this work.
ART:
the story was unique,but you could see clearly that even the art is unique ,it isn't great nor the low quality.The studio based their animations on making scenes that move quickly and a little bit dark ,we can explain this by the following thesis: the whole anime is about a death metal band and knowing that the metal music usually consist on fast rhythms and deliberate stresses, as result they create an accordance between the story and the art and that's really brilliant.
SOUND:
I think what I said about the art can be applied either on the sound, because if you watch it you will notice that the voice acting is a little bit fast and that also can be explained by the THESIS I stated above.Also, you can feel the coldness in the voice acting I don't know why I keep feeling that but I think it exists anyway, is it because the story's Vicissitudes and they made the sound acting cold to absorb it so that they can create a balance
ENJOYMENT:
With DETROIT METAL CITY I discovered a new meaning of enjoyment.The fact that no matter how many times I watched it and every time was like my first time was like my first. And like I said in the beginning of this review it's rare to find something like this, because , anime with music as a theme are always about how can the characters achieve their goals, friendship, teamwork... While this anime has nothing like that.Also, what make D.M.C so enjoyable is every time you watch an episode you'll watch the next and the next unconsciously like a magnet field that keeps dragging you until the end.
Now I reached the end of my review I just want to say that DETROIT METAL CITY is one of it's kind. I highly recommend it,also it won't take a lot of time to watch it.You will experience a new way of entertainment and a new meaning of life if you like to know what behind the stories.
Notice: if hesitate watching it(D.M.C) because of the theme is about death-metal don't let that scare you or anything the death-metal thing is just a spice to make the story enjoyable and memorable.
spacemonkey93
This has to be one of the first series that actually made me crack myself laughing. The show has a lot of dark humor in it, if it's your thing give it a try, doesn't matter if you even don't like death metal. I think the site synopsis isn't very clear so I'll give it a shot. The story focuses on Souichi Negishi, a professional guitar player who after graduating from college I guess decides he wants to work on music, and his songs are all romantic pop, quite mellow innocent love music so he has this dream of having a bands like his heros fromFrance or Sweden, can't remember... Yeah, it never happens, instead he joins a death metal band as frontman singer/songwriter, why? He needed the money I guess, so he starts this project which has just signed a record deal named Detroit Metal City (DMC).
The story is quite simple, you could say episodic, Negishi lives this crazy rockstar life but he isn't very proud of it, also he hides his identity from fans and friends so at times it makes him lose it, we see a lot from his disgrace also trying to impress a girl who basically hates metal bands. The art/animation is very good, very decent.
The sound is one of the highlights, the music and the voices play an important role in DMC. The characters are nothing special, also there's no development but actually the story doesn't need it. As I wrote earlier, this show will make you crack laughing take my word. Overall, it's very good, short length, the only thing I need to warn is there are some adult subjects.
