Animation - 7
The animation itself was pretty lacking, but the art style I really liked. It seemed quite clearly inspired by Mike Judge and Beavis and Butthead. It's a little crazy to me that I think this is a good thing, but it really does add something special as a bit of a frame of reference. As a matter of fact, I think that the animation was rather rudimentary in that mid 90's cheap way also. Things were jerky and lacked a lot of fluidity, but on the flipside, this style is a perfect match with the pace of the comedy. Because this is a series of OVAs, it's hard to tell if this was a conscious artistic decision or budgetary restraints. With that said there was really no drop in the animation at all, so I'd wrack it up to a bit of the both.
Sound - 8
The voice actors all do a very good job of capturing the comedic essence of their characters and don't ever disappoint in delivery. The best job is by far done by the actor for Negishi (not Krauser) not just because the nervousness and anxiety in his voice was always hilarious, despite what he was saying; but also because of his singing voice. What is ultimately very interesting about the music to me was that the parody pop music was so undeniably catchy that I found myself really liking everytime that Negishi would bust out his acoustic guitar. The metal is not my cup of tea, so I really can't say left or right whether or not it was good. What I will say is that the crafting of one of the pop songs into its metal counterpart was very well done.
Characters - 8
The characters are archetypes that aren't found very often in anime, much less comedy, so the use of them especially as main characters is very refreshing. That said, because the show is about Negishi as Krauser, there is little to no development done for any of the supporting characters. For a slapstick comedy, I think that there is a good bit of development for Negishi who struggles with being tossed into the opposite genre of his choice. There are a couple of episodes that hilariously yet poignantly deal with his resolve to hold the mantle of Krauser, and they were quite unexpected. Beyond that the characters serve their purpose well, if not a little to redundantly.
Story - 7
The story is basically this: Negishi makes a fool of himself differentiating Krauser from his daily life, often in interference in his romantic aspirations for Yuki; Krauser has crazy antics onstage and with fans; and here and there, the double lives that DMC fans lead. Most of the story in each episode is focused mainly on the first element, which is a shame, because certain jokes quickly got old after the third episode, and could have had the edge taken off of it by the third element, which went rather unused despite having some very funny moments.
Enjoyment - 9
Had it not been for the blatant overuse of jokes, this could have been a ten, but I specifically remember wanting to fast forward through certain parts because it just felt like a copy/paste of dialogue with different scenery. Despite that, I laughed good and hard through much of the show, and for a comedy, this is rare.
Overall - 8
Detroit Metal City is a very good comedy series that I hope has redefined some of the conventions of anime in the execution of comedy. The pace never really let up for a second with quick dialogue and running through gags and punchlines at rapid succession. It never relies on the expectations of jaded viewers for moe fanservice or generally overused gags (even if it did overuse some of its own). DMC may be remembered and copied for years to come.
