Detroit Metal City, Vol. 1

デトロイト・メタル・シティ [Detroit Metal City] #1

by Kiminori Wakasugi

How did this happen? When and where did I go wrong? This is not the kind of band I wanted to be in!

Genres: Manga, Comics, Music, Graphic Novels, Humor, Comics Manga, Seinen

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2006

About the author

Also: 若杉公徳

Born in 1975. He is a fan of Kinnikuman.
Was an assistant to YAMAMOTO Yasuhito. HONDA Yuuki was once his assistant.
He doesn’t really listen to death metal music. His taste is rather similar to his character Negishi Soichi from Detroit Metal City.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

E ovo je bilo zabavno. Slabic koji kada se maskira postane demon death metal muzike. Njegova razmisljanja i realnost koja se otrgne kontroli. Vrlo zabavno.

Sam crtez je samo kalav takav al pun energije, a i prica je u sustini gomila kratkih anegdota. Na duze staze imam osecaj da ce me smoriti ako nastavi ovako ali za sada kao jedan volumen bilo je zabavno.

Cisto da znate humor je dosta prost sa puno psovki mada nikada ne postane vulgarno. Barem meni, drugima ce mozda smetati.

[Paul Spence · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was actually quite excited to get into this series, hoping for a satire on metal culture within a good story. Sadly, I got neither a good story or any satire.

You probably know the concept of a boy who is in the most popular metal band, but hides it, and hates it while longing to play pop music. The premise sounds fine, especially when thinking about how he has to juggle his stage persona and real personality. Too bad everything fall flat on its face! Of course, I could be wrong, and it might get better within the progressing books, but I wouldn't know, I could barely make it through this one.

Another reviewer pointed this out, and I whole-heartedly agree: everything wore thin quickly, especially the jokes. The biggest offender was the overly-vulgar band manager. While vulgarity and dark, sick humour does not bother me at all, this was just over-kill on an immature level. To my disdain, the repetitiveness of the manager is a perfect mirror for the whole book in almost every aspect.

Now for my biggest problem: the writer is not even a fan of metal. No, this is not a rant about how he is into s***ty music, or whatever; but an actually problem with the writing.
As I said before, I went into this expecting a satire of metal -- I will not hold it against the book, because that is my fault -- and it definitely could have been the saving grace of this story if it was.

To me, it seems like the writer tried to achieve that to a certain degree, yet failed miserably since he seems to have little to no knowledge on metal in general. The jokes, the fans, the music (only "heard" through the lyrics that would even be embarrassing to a garage death metal band) all seem like some fantasy of a middle aged housewife from the seventies whose son just brought home a KISS album.

It's really just sad.

[Bear Wiseman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was absolutely not for me.

I absolutely just can’t get behind this syle of humor. It’s essentially an unsympathetic main character getting into Three Stooges slapstick shenanigans over and over where the catchline is always rape. I’m not the kind of person who thinks you should never say or joke about rape, but this was not intelligent humor. The antics are something that the average Mayhem fan would roll their eyes at, and rather than being a clever satire on metal and a guy’s dual-life, which could have been fun in a Jem and the Holograms goes metal kind of way, it’s just vulgar for the sake of being vulgar. It’s also clearly written by a man (the deeply annoying ”boss” is an example of this repressed/aggressive humor). The writer clearly knows nothing about the cultures he’s writing about, which is disappointing. Also, not a fan of the manga art. Ultimately, this was an unrealistic and unfunny take on a decent idea. Disappointing.

[Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most funniest comics I've ever read. The first volume is simply perfect, better than the anime or live action movie.

[fonz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Se trata de una especie de parodia del alegre mundo del metal extremo, al estilo de "Metalocalypse" pero en japonés y con bastante menos gracia. El protagonista es Negishi, una mezcla de Peter Parker, Guille Milkyway y Varg Vikernes, un joven poppy, amante del pop sueco y el shibuya-kei, limpito y buen chaval, que, por las pelas, lidera, bajo el alias de Johannes Krauser II, el grupo de death metal más asqueroso y ofensivo del Japón, los DMC. Cuando sube al escenario o en los momentos más inoportunos de su vida cotidiana, su alter ego, el Krauser éste, toma las riendas de su personalidad, convirtiéndole en una parodia extrema y bastante burda de lo que el autor entiende por death metal (de los pocos chistes que me han hecho gracia, es capaz de vomitar más de mil "fucks" por minuto). Algo que a Negishi le trae por la calle de la amargura, ya que su posición de Emperador del Metal le impide conquistar a su amada o simplemente, llevar la vida a la que aspira en secreto, triunfar componiendo e interpretando canciones bonitas de amor con su guitarra acústica y dejar por fin a los DMC, cuya música, imagen y actitud, detesta.

Este llevar al risible absurdo el conflicto entre postureo y autenticidad en la música pop a la vez que se chotea del "persigue tus sueños", es una idea muy buena y daría para muchísimo, lamentablemente Wakasugi la desaprovecha en un festival de chistes repetitivos con bastante poca gracia que suelen girar alrededor de las confusiones (y desgracias) que provoca la doble personalidad de Negishi. Quizá en próximos volúmenes mejora, pero a mí el tebeo me ha aburrido bastante una vez superada la premisa y su tosco dibujo tampoco ayuda mucho.

[Laura (ローラ) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was included in the book "1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die: The Ultimate Guide to Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Manga". So... that's why I picked it up. And, why I will continue to read this series to the end. But also, I am left wondering why? Why, when you can only include around 100 manga on the list, did you include this? I am left puzzled, but I will persist!

[Paul W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, this is a comedy comic about a gentle boy who fronts a death metal band. It's funny, but there are a lot of rape references all through it so this is not something I could recommend. I enjoyed the base story about a boy who feels in over his head, but who really comes alive when being a death metal monster. He also loves a woman who hates his death metal band and his ex-friend has a folk band that he wishes he was in. Very interesting, minus the trappings. I wish it was just satanic death metal without all the rape lyrics.

[isa · Rating 1 out of 5]

achei muito muito chato
apesar do humor ser meio parecido ao de mob psycho 100 (que eu amo)
não vou continuar a serie

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Negishi is a sweet country boy who dreams of making light, fluffy pop music in a band. However, he is also Johannes Krauser, head of the death metal band DMC, and the two sides of him constantly war with each other.

The manga is very good, if vulgar as hell. There's also sadness in it; Krauser is intensely popular despite being hilariously evil, while the good Negishi is simply not wanted and the life he originally wants gets further and further out of reach. Krauser ends up being this huge corrupting force that just rises up when Negishi is frustrated or abused. There's a lot of similarities with Aggretsuko,and it's really no surprise that her aggro mode is the same as Krauser's facepaint.

Definitely worth reading, if you can handle the nastiness. Also frequently hilarious even then, especially when Negishi and Krauser's personalities sync for a bit.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Soichi Negishi is a young man who’s moved to the big city to start a career writing acoustic ballads and bubblegum pop music, the kind of music he truly loves - only to wind up as Krauser II, the frontman to Detroit Metal City, the most outrageously offensive and hugely popular heavy metal band in Japan! But nobody knows Soichi is actually Krauser II - Soichi must keep his identity secret from his parents who would be shocked to learn that the foul-mouthed, Satan-worshipping, defiler of virgins is their son, and find a way of getting out to pursue his dream of writing Swedish pop music.

The setup sounds kind of interesting and funny, and it is, at least at first. Detroit Metal City are basically Kiss in the way they look and they’re mega-popular, and hey isn’t it weird how the frontman is actually a meek young man who’s still a virgin and isn’t even that interested in heavy metal? Haha... and then it wears out.

DMC’s foul-mouthed manager is pretty funny because of her vulgarity but that too gets old really quick and her appearances feel like the whacky neighbour in a sitcom showing up to do their bit in that week’s episode before disappearing until next week’s show.

That’s basically all this book has - one joke, and it plays out over and over again throughout the book. This book doesn’t progress further than the Soichi’s “split personalities that are radically different” setup. I don’t know if it changes at the end because I gave up reading this two-thirds of the way through, but this book’s “jokes” get old really fast and then they repeat and repeat and repeat and oh god, it’s so boring!

I’m stunned that there are 6 books in this manga series!

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

This manga really is the definition of "guilty pleasure" and I speak from the point of view of someone who thought that anything he considered worth liking wasn't shameful. Well, here it is. I think I'd need an entire essay to justify this, so I won't bother.

It's a bit repetitive at first, probably due to its original episodic nature. That goes away the further into the book you get. I think the art also improves (slightly) too.

The panels are well-edited. In some manga translations, I sometimes see half-edited speech bubbles where you can still see the original text - it never matches up as you hoped (The Wallflower/Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge springs to mind). As a Japanese language-leaner, I'd be fascinated to see the original text -- my Japanese is currently so polite.

I suspect it's not a line-by-line translation, but it's a good one. I never felt like I was missing anything.

There are still some annoyances. At one point, the characters go to Shimo-Kitazawa. It's a place with a lively nightlife plus a few small boutiques and a Starbucks -- it also used to have a restaurant/izakaya where you could get free icecream if you won rock-scissors-paper against the server. The footnote informs me that this is the Tokyo equivalent of the East Village. I'm left with a mystery -- what and where is this East Village? I think this refers to somewhere in New York, but I don't know more than that. The book has prices for the US, Canada and the UK, so clearly some more universal references are needed.

[usagi ☆ミ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was translated so spot-on, I was laughing and crying from laughing at the same time. One of the best official Japanese-to-English translations I have EVER read for manga, and I've been reading it for over ten years now.

However, for those not into Japanese indie music, it could have used some translation/cultural notes.

But hay, free tattoos. Had I not been totally broke, I would have bought this translation in a heartbeat. I intend to once I get the funds.

Four for you, Viz! Good for you, Viz!

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I shouldn't love it as much as I do. The offensive bits are really tough to swallow, because it's always abuse against women and really nasty things are said, but . . . it's fiction and it knows it's fiction. I find myself able to ignore the offensive bits, like in Hot Gimmick, and the quality of the rest of the manga is awesome.

Funny and touching and ridiculous and funny again. Definitely adult.

[Geoff Sebesta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Your reaction to this book depends on exactly how funny you find the word "rape" to be.

Just the word, not the act or the concept. They just like saying the word a lot.

I rarely can see so clearly who the intended target audience might be, but this is a book for young teenage boys. I read it because I like to read random books sometimes. It's silly and revolting and competently done, I guess.

[Person Who Is A Person · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, uhhh.
I might've bought books one through seven without checking the dialogue. Maybe just rename the title to 'Rape' with the absurd amount it's mentioned, then at least I'd know to stay away.

Look, I'm able to stand some dark and dry humour, I have a few friends who do those kinds of jokes and I believe you can find humour in absurd, dark topics. However, when the first sentence is just "Yesterday I raped your mum and tomorrow I will fuck your dad", shouting to the excited audience without context and without humour, I found it rather disgusting. Also, stop mentioning the same thing over and over again, what is your obsession with abusing women? Is that the message I'm supposed to take away with me, the first impression I'm supposed to fully agree with and accept? Im not buying into this at all, I'm concerned, frankly.

Not cool man, I flicked through it and some of the other books in the series to make sure I would really put another book in the infamous, hell-banished one-star pile of the damned, but some of the things said are simply vile and I'm going to try and return them all. I want my £10 back 🫠.

[Scott Waldie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a long-time fan, performer and writer of all sorts of heavy metal since I was a kid, I generally tend to find its caricatures on the petty side. That is, crude stereotypes that might appeal to the outsider but nothing too funny if you're actually in the know. DMC is just so absurd that you can't even take it seriously as a parody, rather the gags here come at the contrast between the main character's timid real life as a pop aspirant, his on-stage persona as a vulgar shock rock metal demon, and the fact that maybe there's a lot more of the latter inside the former than you might think. So it can be funny to an extent, but the issue is there's not a lot of 'story' here to propel you forward, it's more just like a handful of ridiculous situations where his two lives collide with family and friends. So I'm not sure how it's going to carry on for multiple volumes with samey humor...but I intend to find out.

[Nightshade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a wild ride! Soichi is a boy with a passion for Swedish pop music, it's just a shame that he is the lead singer of a death metal band, a position even he isn't sure how he ended up in! This volume follows the conflicts between the two halves of his life; the person he is and the one he acts on stage.
At first I was a bit put off by just how over the top the death metal side of the story is. But as I progressed through the book the extreme differences between the two lives Soichi is living just added to the humour of the story.
This is a crazy story, and although I probably won't go searching for further volumes, I would certainly read them if I come across them.

[Arska-täti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Metallibändin ja sen solistin Souichi Negishin (alias Krauzer II) arkea ja keikkoja. Souichi elää varsinaista kaksoiselämää, sillä hän ei halua kenenkään tietävän hänen olevan DMC:n solisti. Ikävä kllä roolihahmo tulee esiin mitä kiusallisimmissa tilanteissa.

Tarina oli oikein viihdyttävä, nörttipojan yhdistäminen metaldeath-staraksi toimi hyvin. Osa kohtauksista meni vain liiankin överiksi, kun Souichi yritti kaikin tavoin estää roolihahmonsa paljastumista tutuilleen...

[Amanda Peterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entertaining read showing the struggle of a musician between the real and metal world. Given my love of Aggretsuko I had an appreciation of the dark humor in this but had a hard time understanding the attitude of Japanese culture in metal. I and other listeners can tell that the metal performers are just putting on a show. Not a bad way to kill time.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must be in a bit of shitty mood or something. I get that part of this is lampoon but it is a bit vulgar and sophomoric. There is at its core a sweet story and I will read at least another volume before I decide whether going through the lame attempts at aping metal culture and the misogyny are worth it.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with everything that this reviewer said.

I bought this manga an indeterminate amount of years ago from a used bookstore. I guess I'm finally clearing my shelves. Happy AAPI Month! Going to try to read all the other books I've hoarded that were written by AAPI authors.

[Daniel Mossop · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like metal music, I like Tokyo, I like Manga. It’s should be right up my street but don’t feel it has hooked me. Does show promise though some of it is genuinely hilarious. It’s definitely different.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A one trick pony - who could believe this mild mannered kid could become the singer in a death metal band

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's an interesting story here, but I do not care for the sophomoric, offensive, and overly crude way it's told. Just my personal taste.

[PuniPoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bebé Krauser sama 🎸😍 jajaja esto es para partirse de la risa 😝 🤣

[birbstep ☆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

po mo ruim

[David Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a one joke book but it’s a pretty funny joke.

[Leslie Carnahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who enjoys Metal music I sadly did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. :(

[Petros · Rating 4 out of 5]

ART SECTION: 7/10
It is hilarious, no matter how crude the characters look or move. If it was a title where graphics play an outmost importance this would be a major minus. Since it is a comedy not based on slapstick movements, it goes well with the territory. To be honest, the thing that matters the most are the spaced out grimaces the characters make. All the rest are unimportant. Looking so gentle to a point of passing like nerds and mama’s boys or freaked out to resemble mass-murderers was enough to make the jokes work. So, movements and proportions suffer big time but at the same time they give of a feeling of an anarchistic underground comic. I almost doubt it would be as funny if it were done any better.

STORY SECTION: 5/10
A polite, kind youngster turning into a make-belief Kind of Demons against his will and becoming the exact opposite of what he always wanted to be was more than I could bear without laughing for several minutes. I mean most series have some perky youth with high ideals that struggles to accomplish his dreams (i.e. Naruto, Ash Kecham, Luffy D. Monkey). Here we have someone who fails miserably at it but is quite good at being bad! If that is not funny, I don’t know what is. The story was making fun of this cliché most manga have become quite repetitive of (thus feeling boring for the same reason), so seeing it being ridiculed is hilarious for a veteran reader like myself.

In all, the story is funny but not really developed or solid in any way. It will feel like stand-alone chapters with an almost identical form of storytelling. The gentle protagonist will have some peaceful, cheery plan, something goes wrong, and he turns to his hated alter ego in order to solve the problem in a most embarrassing (yet hilarious) manner that favors him. Everything is very convenient, so I never felt the story was meant to be realistic. It is just a simple scenario that unfolds in separated chapters, with an identical manner. The story does depict the basics of the problems music bands and singers have to face as they struggle for fame and acceptance. It still doesn’t get serious at all, as most things are resolved in a very forced way.

CHARACTER SECTION: 8/10
I am the King of Demons! (Krauzer II)
The cast of the characters is generally very likable. None besides the main character gets much focus or development; but since this is a series that focuses solely on one character, this is not a bad thing. Negishi is very interesting as he hates violence and passes for quite passive when in practice he always uses his hateful persona to get out of his troubles. Something like a suppressed dark side of his, Krauzer II is the persona you will most likely choose. For you see, calm and gentle people are presented in very negative ways (spineless, useless, oblivious) while the scum of society are glorified (mucho, imposing, decisive). Like the rest of the story, everything happens in extreme ways and leads to funny results because of the absolute separation of all the characters in to only two reverse poling categories.

VALUE & ENJOYMENT SECTION: 8/10
F**k! My c**t is so wet, that the rain season will come early this year! (Krauzer II’s manager)
That is one of the reasons I adore manga. Give them the liberty, and nothing is impossible to them. It is true that many manga are about a music band (i.e. Beck), or even implement irony and the unexpected factor as means of telling a joke (i.e. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei). This series is the only one that mixes all of the above and even takes them to extreme heights.

The repetitive form of the plot does start to become tiresome later on. Still, the total amount of laughing overshadows the amount of time you start to doubt things. It is far more extreme and bold than most comedies out there. The chances of watching it again are high. The chances of forgetting it are zero.

VERDICT: 7/10
Krauzer II, your verdict for killing and raping a thousand people is … NOT GUILTY! Oh, Lord of the Underworld, murder me now!

[Amy Thorne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean it when i say this book is a solid "it was ok." That's not too bad. It is an interesting premise, and the execution is certainly not as bad as it could be. Soichi manifests Lord Krauser II, an alter ego he hates, when he's under stress, so maybe Krauser is more of an authentic part of his personality that he doesn't want to acknowledge? Hey, could this be exactly the whole point of this story? Am I just overly complicating a simple lowest-common-denominator-humor kind of thing that does not require thinking?! PROBABLY.

It's entaining enough (manager=awesome; Soichi loves Swedish pop? Nice.), although I really don't know how it could be extended much longer without getting tiresome and repetitive. If you aren't easily offended (for god's sake do not read this if you are), it's an okay way to pass some time.

Wow, that last bit kind of drums up an image of someone sitting peacefully in the park read it. How terribly inappropriate.