Title: Detroit Metal City on Blu-ray
Director: Hiroshi Nagahama
Studio: Studio 4C
U. S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks, Section 23
U. S. Release Date: Dec. 16th, 2014
Format: Blu-ray / 12 Episodes / 150 minutes
Genre: Comedy, Musica, Parody
Age Rating: TV MA
Overall Personal Rating: C-
Synopsis:
Get ready for the ear-splittingest, skull-smashingest band to ever assault your senses! Led by phallus-waving terrorist-from-hell Johannes Krauser II (guitar/vocals,) and given pulsing, throbbing life by indestructible drummer Camus and bassist Alexander Jagi, they’re Detroit Metal City, the hottest ticket on the concert circuit! There’s just one catch. That “hottest ticket” is just a meal ticket, and beneath the makeup these ultimate headbangers are hired doppelgangers who don’t even LIKE what they do!
Jaggi is actually Wada, who wants to play Glam Rock, Camus is Nishida, an anime fan with an appalling weakness for curry and NSFW videos, and Krauser is – oh the shame – street-singing Soichi Negishi, whose dreams of singing happy pop seem hopelessly doomed by the success of his rage-fueled alter ego. Worse, he can’t even tell anyone who Krauser is. Not even the girl he likes, who hates DMC!
Will rage against the corporate machine consume Negishi’s tortured soul? Is there life after Death Metal? What’s it like to put your head in a jet engine and turn UP the volume?
Commentary:
Detroit Metal City may have high praise and been noticed as one of the better written manga from 2005 to 2010. The thin about the series that leaves me flat is the approach to the parody and sense of humor projected. I get the fact this is about living in two completely different worlds to the extremes, but in doing Soichi (the main character) become boring in either role. The over-the-top personas presented for Krauser and the totally talentless anemic charter of Soichi and a pop musician play against each other in a way that is both sad and frustrating. I completely understand what Kiminori Wakasugi (the creator of the series) is doing, but I feel like he just went too far with each persona.
It is possible that my dislike for the series is also based on my dislike of each of the musical genres, but there are plenty of other series that I don’t care for the world the characters live in and don’t walk away with a distain for the main character and most of the others depicted in the series. I can honestly say that I would not want to have anything to do with Soichi and would even try my best to avoid him.
Overall Grade: C-
Even though the series takes on such extremes to make its point and provide the dark humor that it is known for I guess that I can see where the appeal might be. I wouldn’t recommend it as a series for a lover of music, but I see it as a series for those who love stories about the stupidity of the human condition and how most of us loose track of our dreams for some rather dubious notoriety even if it is not a flattering type of ego boosting praise or affection.
Detroit Metal City does exactly what it intends to and that is to mock the extreme musical worlds and also show how silly people can be. It also does a great job of playing on people secret pleasures and some not so secret. I also found it be a wonderful commentary on art / music appreciation and the hypocrisy that goes along with the pretenders that live in the pretentious world.
I am not a fan of Detroit Metal City, but it surely does a great job of showing us how stupid things can be.
