Detroit Metal City

Summary: >

Negishi is a musician who's true love is sappy generic pop music. His life takes a strange turn, as he finds rising popularity in his alter ego: metal god Krauser II. Krauser is the lead singer/guitar player in a metal band known as DMC, known for their crazy stage performances and songs containing the most depraved content imaginable. It's not what he wants to do, but that's what pays the bills.

Krauser becomes a way for Negishi to vent his frustration, but he's having a hard time keeping his persona strait at any given time. Even as a supposed demon lord of the underworld, he sometimes finds himself doing oddly polite and friendly things (although misinterpreted by his moronic fan base as something totally warped).

Which is the real Negishi?

Thoughts: >

Detroit Metal City (DMC) is the most metal anime ever created. Yes even more metal than Murder Princess. Take this review with a grain of salt because DMC is nearly tailored to me: a metal fan who watches anime and has a warped sense of humor.

DMC has 12 episodes, each running 15 minutes in length. The content is really packed in there. But, each episode actually contains two stories, so it's 7 minutes per story. DMC is crazy to begin with, so further compressing stories to fit the short constraints can make it hard to digest. You need to pay attention because this anime wastes no time. It's amazing how well it works for the show.

Detroit Metal City could be considered offensive for many reasons... if you were to take it seriously. In which case you'd be an idiot. Rock and Roll's shock value goes back to the very beginning, with each generation trying to out do the last. Krauser is so outragious with his antics and songs, they're nearly impossible to take seriously. For example Krauser's trademark 10 verbal rapes in one second (that makes more sense in the anime). But it's all for show. Taken in context, song content involving murdering everyone, burning your parents alive and kneeling before demon lord Krauser II is nothing but laughable really. That's mostly what DMC is about.

For a comedy formula, having an absurd double life and getting the wires crossed is great material. It's not perfect, and a few episodes fall into dud territory, but this is one of only two anime titles that had me laughing so hard it hurt. With odd art style and content; it's not for everyone. Those of us with a warped sense of humor love the hell out of it. I'll let you decide if that's you.

Screen Caps: >