Detroit Metal City-- not going to lie, the name made me think it was some sort of mecha. With cars. Because I don't listen to KISS, and I had no way of knowing the song this was based on. BTW, the song by Kiss is quite good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZq3i94mSsQ
So, going into this anime with no sense of what metal really entails, I've come out much the same. But it was an enjoyable ride.
People will tell you this anime is crass and vulgar. They're right; it is, and I nearly dropped it because I dismissed it as having nothing to offer besides shock humour. But that's where I was not quite right-- it's just that the shock of it temporarily blinded me to the genuinely funny aspects of the show.
Negishi Souichi is an average music graduate whose dream is to write those fluffy cupcake pop songs which are super cute and catchy and diabetes inducing. Unfortunately for him, he earns his bread in the role of his alter ego Krauser II, lead of Detroit Metal City, an up-and-coming metal band on the indie scene. The humour in the series arises from his conflict at being the enemy, with his friends and family having no idea of his double life and his own urge to leave the terrible world of metal behind for more pleasant pastures.
The secondhand embarrassment in strong, especially when bowl-cut, round-eyed, bashful Negishi interacts with Aikawa, his longstanding crush who loathes metal. It's an Id and Super-ego sort of situation, with Negishi's rational, traditionalistic side wanting to move away from metal while his inner Krauser emerges at the most inopportune moments, usually around Aikawa. She and the rest of the supporting cast are fairly run-of-the-mill; part of me questions why Aikawa even tolerates Negishi when he acts crazy, but then the point of this show isn't really making sense. Everything related to metal music is exaggerated to absurd propotions, with Krauser's crazy fans taking the erratic and murderous aspects of his persona in stride and praising accidents as deliberate showmanship. This is all made funnier by the VAs for Negishi and Krauser, who do an excellent job narrating events.
I have to attach a warning though: the word rape is thrown around a lot and until you get used to it in the context of the show, you might have a hard time ignoring it. In my opinion, the show isn't misogynistic, merely absurdist to the extreme, and it makes fun of rape jokes as it does patricide and the image of violence attached to metal culture. Detroit Metal City isn't something you really understand, just something that you half-laugh, half-cringe at but can't look away from.
As for the technical aspects, the music is quite decent. The OP is very catchy and I can't stand the ED because the lyrics are too cheesy. The art style is very...unique, with a combination of stills, jerky motion and flash-style movements that suit the narration. Overall, I think the creators wanted a memorable, absurd anime and they succeeded. Definitely a one-time watch for me, but an interesting one.
