Anime: Detroit Metal City

Detroit Metal City is very much a comedy show, which is both its greatest strength and its downfall. The jokes - lots of rapid-fire near-slapstick, though not without a bit of larger scale, more subtle humour - crowd everything else out, leaving little space for interesting plot. Worse, the most interesting strand remaining - our lead's pursuit of his love interest - is inexplicably abandoned halfway through, along with most of our character development, in favour of a rather weak "rising to the top of the music world" plot. (I can only assume this was done because the creators realised at that point that they would be getting a second season, and so needed to leave things unresolved).

With the disorganised plot and characterization, all that remains is the humour - and make no mistake, DMC is very funny. But that alone is not enough to sustain interest, particularly since not enough attention has been given to the music that's the series' supposed focus. Oh, the genres are at least correct, and a certain amount of specialist knowledge is in evidence - the show knows its stuff, it just can't practice it. The titular DMC's songs are simply not interesting enough musically to justify their in-story rise to stardom (and nor is their treatment harsh enough to be construed as a parody). While the voice acting is present and correct, there is too much reliance on effects on the "metal" side, and even offstage the band are sometimes indistinct.

And there is simply not enough variety in the humour for it alone to hold the series up. Detroit Metal City is fundamentally built on a single joke, that of its premise (a harmless, friendly guy playing the role of a death metal singer) - and it returns to it time and again, wearing it out before the series is half through. There is entertainment to be had here, and certainly anyone who likes comedy should watch a few episodes, but this is certainly not a show to watch more than once.

"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. He hails 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.

Studio 4C has a tradition in making fancy short music videos, so taking charge of this show fits like a glove. It is also directed by Nagahama Hiroshi, whose only other work includes Mushishi. I must say that in both cases he managed to pull out something great, despite the vast differences in the themes. So combining a fitting studio with a director who can adjust to almost any situation can only mean positive results.

ART SECTION: 7/10 [An almost identical adaptation of the manga format.]
Analysis: General Artwork 2/2, Character Figures 2/2, Backgrounds 1/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 1/2

The animators didn’t bother much in this section. Frankly, they didn’t need to. It is hilarious, no matter how crude the characters look or move. If it was a title where visuals play an outmost importance, like a romance like Air or an action movie like Sword of the Stranger, this would be a major minus. Since it is a comedy not based on slapstick movements, it goes well with the territory. To be honest, the thing that matters the most are the spaced out grimaces the characters make; all the rest are unimportant. Looking so gentle to a point of passing like nerds and mama’s boys or freaked out to resemble mass-murderers was enough to make the jokes work. So, movements and proportions suffer big time but at the same time they give of a feeling of an anarchistic underground comic; which is exactly what the series is. I almost doubt it would be as funny if it were done any better.

SOUND SECTION: 9/10 [Rape-rape-rape-rape-rape-rape-rape-rape-rape-rape!]
Analysis: Voice Acting 3/3, Music Themes 4/4, Sound Effects 2/3

Being of OVA format, means that there is little to no constrain. So, expect the largest amount of cursing, ever heard in anime. The contrast of calm Swedish Pop on one side and monstrous Death Metal on the other has a hilarious effect on your ears. So is the antithesis of the drowsy voices the gentle people have in comparison to the nightmarish screams of the death metal fans. Even the songs by themselves are decent and memorable in the most part. Almost no problem on my part in this section. I didn’t feel something was out of place or could be presented any differently. Even the over-the-top amount of swearing words in it was acceptable.

STORY SECTION: 6/10 [Unfolds like 4-panel short comic stories.]
Analysis: Premise 2/2, Pacing 2/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 1/2, Conclusion 0/2

A polite, kind youngster turning into a make-belief Kind of Demons against his will and becoming the exact opposite of what he always wanted to be was more than I could bear without laughing for several minutes. I mean most series have some perky youth with high ideals that struggles to accomplish his dreams (i.e. Naruto, Ash Kecham, Luffy D. Monkey). Here we have someone who fails miserably at it but is quite good at being bad! If that is not funny, I don’t know what is. The story was making fun of this cliché most anime have become quite repetitive of (thus feeling boring for the same reason), so seeing it being ridiculed is hilarious for a veteran viewer like myself.

In all, the story is funny but not really developed or solid in any way. It will feel like stand-alone episodes with an almost identical form of storytelling. The gentle protagonist will have some peaceful, cheery plan, something goes wrong, and he turns to his hated alter ego in order to solve the problem in a most embarrassing (yet hilarious) manner that favors him. Everything is very convenient, so I never felt the story was meant to be realistic. It is just a simple scenario that unfolds in separated chapters, with an identical manner. The story does depict the basics of the problems music bands and singers have to face as they struggle for fame and acceptance. It still doesn’t get serious at all, as most things are resolved in a very forced way.

CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10 [I am the King of Demons!]
Analysis: Presence 2/2, Personality 2/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 0/2, Catharsis 0/2

The cast of the characters is generally very likable. None besides the main character gets much focus or development; but since this is a series that focuses solely on one character, this is not a bad thing. Negishi is very interesting as he hates violence and passes for quite passive when in practice he always uses his hateful persona to get out of his troubles. Something like a suppressed dark side of his, Krauzer II is the persona you will most likely choose. For you see, calm and gentle people are presented in very negative ways (spineless, useless, oblivious) while the scum of society are glorified (mucho, imposing, decisive). Like the rest of the story, everything happens in extreme ways and leads to funny results because of the absolute separation of all the characters in to only two reverse poling categories.

VALUE SECTION: 10/10 [Capitalistic Pig, lick my boots!]
Analysis: Historical Value 3/3, Rewatchability 3/3, Memorability 4/4

I like metal, I like rock. The last thing somebody imagines when thinking of cartoons is such kinds of music. That is one of the reasons I prefer anime to cartoons. Give them the liberty, and nothing is impossible to them. It is true that many anime have metal music (i.e. Kachou Ouji: Hard Rock Save the Space), or a story about a music band (i.e. Beck), or even implement irony and the unexpected factor as means of telling a joke (i.e. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei). This series is the only one that mixes all of the above and even takes them to extreme heights.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8/10 [F**k! My c**t is so wet, that the rain season will come early this year!]
Analysis: Art 1/1, Sound 2/2, Story 1/3, Characters 4/4

The repetitive form of the plot does start to become tiresome towards the end, where the episodes start to have more serious themes and less comical moments. Even the ending feels too rushed and unworthy of the premise we were promised. Still, the total amount of laughing overshadows the amount of time you start to doubt things. It is far more extreme and bold than most comedies out there. The chances of watching it again are high. The chances of forgetting it are zero.

VERDICT: 7.5 / 10
Krauzer II, your verdict for killing and raping a thousand people is … NOT GUILTY! Oh, Lord of the Underworld, murder me now!

SUGGESTION LIST
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (anime series)
Kachou Ouji: Hard Rock Save the Space (anime series)
Beck (anime series)
Aachi wa Ssipac (Korean anime movie)
Bremen (manga series)
Metalocalypse (western cartoon series)
Rock and Rule (western cartoon movie)

Detroit Metal City: It is here to make anime metal. It will make everything metal. Blacker than the blackest black, times infinity!

As an avid enjoyer of over-the-top black humor and feeling that the anime marked seems somewhat lacking in this regard (barring the excellent Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei from 2007), the sudden arrival of Detroit Metal City's animated adaptation in the fall of 2008 had me immediately in anticipation. Detroit Metal City in all its forms (including the anime) follows the story of Soichi Negishi, recent college graduate with aspirations of J-pop stardom, who somehow ends up as the vocalist, songwriter and front man of the upstart death metal band Detroit Metal City under the public persona of Johannes Krauser II, a ludicrously over-the-top metal artist who the fans willingly accept as a mass-murdering, all-raping, honest-to-badness sin-against-god demon from the underworld. As the old adage goes, hilarity ensues. Or, at least it did to me.

Visuals: 6/10 -- A crude, yet oddly compelling, style.

One thing I must say for certain: Detroit Metal City was definitively not created with the thought of being the do-all end-all of visuals. The drawing style is rather minimalist and the animation is sparse at best, evoking a sense that the production company was intentionally aiming for the OVA to look as much as the original manga as humanly possible. The whole anime feels kind of like I'm watching it in a manga format, going from picture to picture. It is, however, very obvious that this was due to an intentional stylistic choice rather than untalented staff or a minimalist budget (and if it really turns out to be the latter, I give kudos to the crew for doing such an excellent cover-up on it).

You see the thing is, it's not actually displeasing to watch. Like the aforementioned Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei the minimalist style flows very well with the actual 'feeling' of the show, if you will. I won't claim with honesty that Detroit Metal City is stunning visually, because it's not, but it works. I've seen plenty worse from more 'traditional' looking animes, so Detroit Metal City shall at least have it that they aimed for something different and succeeded. I may not be particularly impressed by it, but at the same time I can't really think of how else they could have done it.

Sound: 7/10 -- Workable voices, rockin' OP.

Due to its musical theme, Detroit Metal City's BGM is for the most part dominated by the death metal played by the titular band, and I strain the mind to try to remember any of the other music apart from the occasional J-pop number from Negishi (who, it must be said, has no talent for it whatsoever) or his non-DMC associates. The death metal itself is pretty decent, if hard to take seriously musically most of the time, what with its lyrics being what they are -- when I can actually hear what Krauser is growling, it mostly tends to be hilarious because I can't really take songs containing the famous 'ten-rapes-a-second' utterance with a straight face. This extends to the anime's... Let's just call it memorable, OP, "Satsugai", with its visuals and performance evoking both headbanging and derisive laughter in near-equal measure.

The voice cast do a competent job as it is, but since over 80% of the anime's lines come from Daisuke Kishio as the rather nasally whiny Negishi or Yuji Ueda as his crude alter-ego Krauser these are the only really memorable voice jobs. The rest of the cast are generally 'workable', fitting their roles decently enough, although I will say that Aikawa's voice gets on my nerves.

Story: 8/10 -- He's an aspiring J-pop street artist. He's a horribly shocking death metal vocalist. They fight crime are really the same person.

The story of the DMC OVA is told in stand-alone chapters, with the overhanging story of Krauser's rise to death metal emperorhood through the events shown (usually two small stand-alone chapters per episode). Most of these stories are, when it comes to it, rather similar -- Negishi is doing something which somehow is, or becomes to, involve DMC in some way, he becomes troubled by the DMC aspect because of his metal-hating personality, the troubles end up pushing him, causing Negishi to turn to his Krauser persona, problem solved in some hilariously over-the-top manner usually involving a lot of coincidences falling into place to Negishi's advantage and public humiliation of the parties involved, and usually with Negishi feeling remorseful for his actions afterwards and the side note that his initial troubles will only become even more compounded the moment someone finds out Negishi and Krauser is the same person. Minor variations aside, this is the basic formula for every story.

Yet somehow, that formula doesn't get tiresome, or old, or outstay its welcome. The exact outcomes of the stories are always slightly varied enough -- and hilarious enough -- that even though the basic formulae is visible, it doesn't bother me as much. Generally speaking, the quality of the individual stories seems to be proportional to the Krauser/Negishi ratio, and the general involvement of DMC in general: In other words, the more or earlier Krauser is involved in the story, the more over-the-top hilarity will they be able to cram into it, and when the story is actually about a DMC problem from the beginning the outcome tends to be cooler. By contrast, storylines involving Negishi's civilian life -- and especially his involvement with college crush Aizaka -- are generally less enjoyable as they smell a bit more of standard sitcom fare which I've never been a big fan of, pulling the average down a bit. At a whole, though, DMC will make you laugh of its silliness and (probably) at some point make you pause the show and bury your face in your palms at the sheer stupidity of it all -- but you'll be back a moment later, ready for more, because it's stupid in a good way.

Character: 7/10 -- A hilarious selection of loonies and a reluctantly competent protagonist.

DMC's character cast is, at a whole, dominated by Negishi -- The story of DMC is also very much his story, and he is the viewpoint character for 95% of the time. If you can tolerate his normal personality, Negishi is altogether a rather interesting figure: At the surface he appears to be a somewhat spineless person obsessed with what other people are thinking of him, he is attracted to the 'trendy' (even though he is not very trendy himself) and likes J-pop and love songs (which, despite trying to play, he is not very successful at). At the same time, Negishi can so very seamlessly flow into his Krauser persona, where he says and does things that he would never be able to do in his normal guise -- all while he is still the same person mentally and fully aware of his own actions, as the narration makes crystal clear. Despite his own hatred of the Death Metal genre and the actions he does during his stints as Krauser, it is very obvious that Negishi is extremely gifted at playing that particular persona to the hilt, with hilarious results. At some unconscious level, Negishi is probably aware of this, even though he fights tooth and nail against it. This, ultimately, makes for a rather interesting contrast.

The supporting cast, meanwhile, are far less visible and far less developed, appearing mostly as they are seen by Negishi since we never take their points of view. Despite not being particularly three-dimensional (as is expected from people you only get to see from one side as coworkers and casual aquaintances), the cast are all lovably eccentric in their own way, like the masochistic Pig of Capitalism, or Negishi's outrageously dominating and offensive manager, or his adoring fans, who come up with increasingly overblown and silly explanations and reactions to Negishi's outrageous public stunts as Krauser. A generally good showing all around.

Value: 8/10 -- Highly polarizing, but hilarious for those on the plus side.

I've done my best to spread the word about DMC since I started seeing the anime, trying to recommend it to as many as possible. Generally speaking, people either love its ridiculousness at first glance or steer clear instantly - few reactions have come in between. DMC is not an anime to see if you're into epic tales of human drama or explosive action -- it's mainly wacky fun all around of a kind that seems mostly aimed at the Seinen demographic, and it's a quick watch on top of it that won't claim much of your time and has good promises for sequels. Some of the more outrageous parts are good for a rewatch too.

I'll be buying the DVD if it hits Europe someday, and I'll be on the lookout for the manga, live action and (hopefully) a follow-up OVA too, that's for sure.

Enjoyment: 9/10 -- Gut-busting at best, embarrassing at worst, chuckle-worthy most of the time.

I've enjoyed DMC very much indeed. As I said in the intro, I have a soft spot for absurdity and somewhat 'dark' humor, and Detroit Metal City provided plenty of both. At a whole, all the episodes provide entertainment in some form or another and at a whole I left the series at the end with an overwhelmingly positive impression. Not all of the episodes were a high point, but very few shows have that privilegie -- as comedy goes, Detroit Metal City takes a high spot indeed, even if it's not quite at the level of Fumoffu for sheer collapse-from-laughter factor or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei or Pani Poni Dash for sheer bizarreness of humor.

Overall: 7.5 ( rounded up to 8 )/10 - Go To DMC! Go To DMC! Go To DMC!

All in all, Detroit Metal City's minor trifles -- the somewhat primitive visuals and sound and a few less interesting side characters are drowned underneath the series' overall style, humor and general moments of awesome. The closest thing I'd come to compare Detroit Metal City to would be the western Metalocalypse, and the two make for an interesting comparative study: Whereas Metalocalypse's over-the-top metal humor is focused on a band who really are as crazy and dysfunctional off-stage as on it and with a world gone horribly wrong who love everything their sociopathic little minds think of, Detroit Metal City is a tale of a normal man's conflict between his attempts at a normal life in which he is a failure at mostly everything and his job with a horribly inappropriate stage persona who performs outrageous stunt after outrageous stunt and repeatedly hurts his friends and loved ones -- and how the world that appears otherwise completely normal has a bit too many over reactive fans who love Krauser for comfort.

Anyway, I may have rambled a bit here and there but my final verdict is as follows: Detroit Metal City is good. Perhaps not great, but it's not like anything else I've seen in anime. While it won't be taking home the gold in my anime hall of fame it's still something I don't regret watching and won't regret seeing more of. Take it for what you will.