Go to DMC! Go to DMC! Go to DMC! Go to DMC!
Posted September 19th, 2008 by Nick
Soichi Negishi is your basic mellow guy who wants to sing pop love songs and be a kindergarten teacher. 
The fact that he has problems with a lady friend named Yuri Aikawa is rather cliched, but the real problem is that he lives a double life as Johannes Krauser II, song writer and front man of the becoming famous death metal band, Detroit Metal City, where the title of this OVA and the manga that spawned it comes from. What could have been rather stale romantic comedy is pushed aside by the over-the-top ridiculousness of Krauser, his band members, and their music.
I was never much of a fan of death metal, despite being a metalhead for much of the 90s1. This series parodies many of the reasons why while making me laugh at how Negishi's more wild side makes his private life harder for him. I know I shouldn't be laughing at something crude like "tambourine rape", but... *snicker*... that scene was just too priceless!
The show is 24 episodes long, with each episode being 14 minutes long. The OVA was produced by Studio 4°C. Though the animation looks low budget, it looks like they applied it in the right areas, especially when the band performs onstage and when the viewer is first presented to Aikawa. The director is Hiroshi Nagahama; I'm not sure how to take that he also directed Mushishi. It's nice to have range, and it's funny how the calm and serene pacing of Mushishi really contrasts with the frantic tempo of Detroit Metal City. So far, this series has really made me laugh through four episodes, but I'm not sure how it can keep it up for twenty-four2. I'll have to keep up on it and see, though.
I've seen comparisons of this to Adult Swim's Metalocalypse, though it seems that one is more of a direct parody of death metal and doesn't seem to center on a double life contrast of one of the characters. I should pick it up and check it out, though.
