Detroit Metal City

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: DMC

Japanese: デトロイト・メタル・シティ

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Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 12

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Aug 8, 2008 to Oct 28, 2008

Producers: Sony Music Entertainment, Beyond C.

Licensors: Sentai Filmworks

Studios: Studio 4°C

Source: Manga

Genre: Comedy

Themes: Gag Humor, Music

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 14 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 8.10¹ (scored by 107,895 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #477²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1117

Members: 209,601

Favorites: 3,278

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HIDIVE

8.10

Ranked #477Popularity #1117Members 209,601

OVAStudio 4°C

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Episodes: /12

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Synopsis

Dominating the world of indie music, Detroit Metal City (DMC) is a popular death metal band known for its captivatingly dark and crude style. Its extravagant lead singer, Johannes Krauser II, is especially infamous as a demonic being who has risen from the fiery pits of hell itself in order to bring the world to its knees and lord over all mortals—or at least that's what he's publicized to be.

Unbeknownst to his many worshippers, Krauser II is just the alter ego of an average college graduate named Souichi Negishi. Although he is soft-spoken, peace-loving, and would rather listen to Swedish pop all day, he must participate in DMC's garish concerts in order to make ends meet. Detroit Metal City chronicles Negishi's hilarious misadventures as he attempts to juggle his hectic band life, a seemingly budding romance, and dealing with his incredibly obsessive and dedicated fans.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Detroit Metal City's name originated from the song Detroit Rock City by the band KISS.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Detroit Metal City
Summary:	Detroit Metal City: Birth of the Metal Devil

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Negishi, Souichi

Main

Ueda, Yuuji
Japanese

Death Records Manager

Supporting

Kobayashi, Ai
Japanese

Krauser-tan

Supporting

Ise, Mariya
Japanese

Nishida, Terumichi

Supporting

Yasumura, Makoto
Japanese

Nashimoto, Keisuke

Supporting

Matsuyama, Takashi
Japanese

Wada, Masayuki

Supporting

Nakano, Yuto
Japanese

DMC Fan

Supporting

Saji, Hideki

Supporting

Nagashima, Shuugo
Japanese

ILL Dark, Jack

Supporting

Takeuchi, Riki
Japanese

Aikawa, Yuri

Supporting

Nagasawa, Masami
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Takahashi, Atsushi

Producer

Nagahama, Hiroshi

Director

Tanaka, Kazuya

Sound Director

Kishio, Daisuke

Theme Song Performance

Edit

Opening Theme

"Satsugai" by Detroit Metal City / Soichi Negishi (Yuuji Ueda)

Edit

Ending Theme

"Amai Koibito (甘い恋人)" by Hideki Kaji

Reviews

Jul 30, 2023

Loveinsanithy

Recommended

Detroit Metal City surprises, shocks, and cracks us up. Anime heavily uses dark visual gags, offensive dialogues, and slapsticks. It employs a stereotypical image of death metal to satirize people’s perceptions of the musical genre in the society. But what defines its humor is Negishi’s sense of embarrassment and lack of self-acceptance towards his inner self.

Negishi is a college graduate who loves Swedish pop and is passionate to pursue his dream of starting a pop band. Events take a different turn when he ends up being the lead vocalist of Detroit Metal City, a Death Metal band. He undertakes the stage name Krauser II and ...

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Oct 31, 2023

Neimaj

Mixed Feelings

Detroit Metal City was a neat experience. Can't really use any other description that will live up to that 8.10 MAL score. I thought that Detroit Metal City was funny at times, but having a score that high is funnier than the show itself. By the way, I might be switching back and forth between "Detroit Metal City" and "DMC" throughout this review. If I'm referring to the anime itself, I'll say "Detroit Metal City." If I'm referring to the band, I'll say "DMC."
Souichi, our main character, is a sweet young man. I'm assuming he's in his early twenties based on context clues. He moves ... away to Tokyo to achieve his dreams of becoming a musical sensation. He will take the world by storm for his love of Swedish pop music. However, that doesn't happen at all. Instead, he goes to the wrong music producer, and his musical career takes a 180. He becomes Krauser II. Destroyer of worlds and murderer of parents. He's done all the drugs, fucked all of the holes, and chucked every CRT out of every hotel window. There's also Jagi, the bassist for DMC. And Camus, the drummer. I'm sure there is someone out there who legitimately cares for these characters. I'm not one of them. They do, however, have their fair share of funny moments. Jagi is a playboy, constantly hitting on women. And Camus is a weird, perverted freak who mumbles his words. They're only like this in their personal lives.

Detroit Metal City heavily relies on crass and vulgar humor. I've noticed in more recent years that some people label Detroit Metal City's sense of humor to be offensive. Some see that as a positive thing, and some don't. Some of these people can't handle certain words being said out loud. Despite the fact that words have no real power unless you give them power. Words and language are completely made up and mean nothing unless you give them meaning. The reason why the word "Fuck" is considered to be such a bad and taboo word is because we made it that way. In reality, it has no real meaning and was made up by some douche who is probably dead. Or it probably originates from some Germanic word that I'm not aware of. I mention all of this because some people have a problem with Krauser's "Ten Vocialized Rapes in One Second." Essentially his signature. And a bunch of other bizarre rape jokes spread throughout the series. They're not that funny, but they don't bother me either. Characters also say "Fuck" a lot, and that's the punchline. Usually a joke in Detroit Metal City boils down to a character overusing the word "Fuck." That's all. Who cares. This especially applies to the final episode, and the manager of the band. She doesn't have a name, by the way. They just call her "Manager" or "President" and nothing else. Or maybe she does have a name and I already forgot it. And sorry about my unusual take on language. That went on for a while. My personal issue with the comedy is that this style of humor just seems shocking for the sake of being shocking. Which I guess you could argue that that's the entire point of Detroit Metal City. However, the show's attempts at humor are so try-hard and forced that most of the time I don't even end up laughing. Humor is subjective blah blah blah yada yada yada, we all know. You could also make the argument that Detroit Metal City's humor is so exaggerated because DMC themselves are an exaggerated version of a black metal band. I don't know. I Just found the humor lame. I can think of a few other shows that also have a similar style of humor. Like Panty and Stocking. Does nothing for me. I'm sure people love it, but I'm too jaded to actually care.

Another part of the show I haven't mentioned yet is that Souichi has an old friend from his hometown. Her name is Aikawa. She is the textbook definition of pure and innocent. She isn't aware that Souichi is Krauser, so many jokes and scenarios are just Souichi protecting his alter ego. These jokes are fine, but I'm not in love with them either.

This next part of the review is very frustrating for me. I had already written an entire part ranting about DMC's manager and how she was voiced by Yuu Kobayashi. APPARENTLY, SHE ISN'T. I had just made the assumption without checking, but one day I decided to make sure I was correct. It's not Yuu Kobayashi at all. It's a completely different seiyuu who has the exact same last name. Ai Kobayashi, who sounds identical to Yuu Kobayashi. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!? I understand that names can get very repetitive in Japan, but the fact that I was convinced she was Yuu Kobayashi for weeks, an entirely different seiyuu with no relation or connection, is hysterical. Man, I'm so embarrassed and upset. Most of what I had written doesn't apply anymore. I went on this long diatribe about how people love Yuu Kobayashi and how she's hysterical. I was of the same mind about seven or eight years ago, but now I find her sense of humor to be very scatological and obnoxious. She just screams like a maniac most of the time, and people eat that shit up. However, I guess this particular case applies to Ai Kobayashi. Her performance was pretty obnoxious. Her character in this anime is bizarre. I'm positive that 50% of her dialogue is her talking about how DMC's music makes her pussy wet. Usually, I would be on board with a character like this, considering how often I talk about and mention the word "pussy" in my reviews. Regardless, I found her dialogue rather tiresome and annoying. It's never funny after the first time. Sorry.

There was one joke I can remember off the top of my head that did make me laugh. DMC were in the middle of making they're debut album and Souichi was getting many letters from fans. Souichi reads a letter from a specific fan who is ill, and has to get surgery. This fan talks about how he's excited for the DMC debut album and wants to listen to it after his surgery, but there's a good chance that he might die if it fails. Souichi is moved by this letter and visits the fan as Krauser. It's a sweet scene and one of the few moments of the show where Krauser's soft side is displayed. He even brought him a basket of fruits. The emotions are building up, but it's revealed at the end of the episode that the fan was getting a circumcision and lied. That was hilarious. Can't believe I fell for that. Also, unrelated to this episode, but the song title "Fuckingham Palace" is fantastic. It's a song made by a completely different character and band, don't worry about it.

Visually, Detroit Metal City is essentially a moving manga. It doesn't bother me, but the characters in motion look absolutely goofy and ridiculous. The character designs are not my cup of tea either. Some of the background characters are a little ugly, but I don't mind. The show, in general, looks silly. The only outlier would probably be the OP, which is one other positive I will mention. Satsugai is a great song, and I would highly recommend listening to it if you haven't. The OP is the only well animated part of this entire anime. Go figure.

Overall, I thought Detroit Metal City was fine. Entertaining, but fine. It was never as funny as people made it out to be, and it was on my watch list since 2016. I mostly wanted to get it out of the way, but I was expecting so much more. This is another reason why you shouldn't trust MAL scores, kids. They're usually a little overblown and deceiving. And hey, if you hate this review, don't worry. Always remember that human language has no meaning. Language is just a human construct. So if you hate this review, it means nothing :^)

I hope I made this review long enough to turn people away. I hope no one reads it. It's not great, but I'm going to upload it anyway. Happy Halloween. :)

6.66 out of 10. Hail Satan.

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Aug 17, 2016

Hibbington

Not Recommended

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 on ... its 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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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Detroit Metal City Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) cyruz - Nov 6, 2008	193 replies	by VXVXVXVX42 »» Oct 29, 10:18 AM
Offensive Humor of Detroit Metal City Loveinsanithy - Jul 29	9 replies	by Pande91 »» Sep 20, 3:23 AM
We need Detroit Metal City 2 to save anime. ExTemplar - Apr 9, 2016	6 replies	by ABigChungus »» Sep 8, 1:27 AM
Poll: Detroit Metal City Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) cyruz - Sep 11, 2008	74 replies	by evergreeeeen »» Jun 23, 9:24 PM
Poll: For those who watched DMC: how familiar you are with extreme metal? SteelBallRunner - Mar 20	10 replies	by Pande91 »» Apr 8, 10:47 AM

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Detroit Metal City

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Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Negishi, Souichi

Death Records Manager

Krauser-tan

Nishida, Terumichi

Nashimoto, Keisuke

Wada, Masayuki

DMC Fan

Saji, Hideki

ILL Dark, Jack

Aikawa, Yuri

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Ending Theme

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Detroit Metal City

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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