Detroit Metal City

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!

"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.

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

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.

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