After reading that this manga called Detroit Metal City was being made into a live action feature film and a Studio 4C animation I decided to see if I could check out the manga via the evil powers of the internet.
OK it was the Studio 4C bit that got me interested.
It’s a gag manga by Kiminori Wakasugi that runs in Young Animal about a three piece metal band “Detroit Metal City”, in particular the lead singer Johannes Krauser II.
It’s not so much a parody of metal bands as a comedy of manners, though there there’s parody there too. Krauser is actually timid country boy Soichi Negishi, who maintains a double life as the supposed demon lord Krauser, a creature of metal, straight from hell. Most of comedy comes either from Negishi having to balance his two identities, or his innate politeness overwhelming his common sense and forcing himself to don the Krauser guise and behave in ridiculous shock metal ways.
For instance the strip the picture above comes from involves Negishi anonymously getting in a flame war on a DMC fan forum, that leads the fans to think an event is going to happen at Tokyo Tower. Not wanting the fans to be disappointed and riot, he goes along to try and calm them down, but ends up “raping” the Tokyo Tower instead to his fans rapturous delight.
It’s a ridiculous series, and unsurprisingly for a Young Animal title, the punchlines to each strip are invariably crude. But the reason that crudity works so well is the inherent sweetness of Negishi.
He’s only dry humping national monuments to make people happy and to stop any violence!
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