The End of the World

[Categories: Anime Reviews]

Detroit Metal City 1-4 and why I want the new Diru album

Posted by Martin  [Tags: Detroit Metal City, Huerrgh!]

I can’t believe this is directed by the same guy who did Mushishi.

Sasa told me that I had to see Detroit Metal City. It’s yet another occasion where I ask myself “How exactly did this slip underneath my radar?” because this sort of thing could be made specifically for my twisted sense of humour; whether the joke will wear thin to leave nothing but shock value afterward remains to be seen, but for the first few episodes I was in stitches.

Imagine Beck remade in the style of Spïnal Tap while the studio staff are raped by Cradle of Filth. With a tambourine. Dressed as Kiss. This rock ‘n’ roll violation of the senses is served up by the pirennially underrated Studio 4°C, who never fail to create something out of the ordinary. Whether the source material, from Berserk publisher Young Animal, is extreme as this, I don’t know; the art style is I suspect mostly down to the studio, and it fits like a glove. A leather, studded glove with an Air Guitar glued to it.

I’m not sure if the profanity-laden, shock value humour will lose its impact with subsequent episodes but the premise has to have an interesting story behind it: I can’t wait to find out exactly how such a genial guy could fall into a situation like this. Detroit Metal City, the most extreme and notorious metal band in Japan, is fronted by Krauser II, a terrifying face-painted figure who likes nothing more than thrashing his guitar and singing about violence, rape and how he killed his own parents. The truth behind Krauser II is that off-stage he is Souichi Negishi, a placid fan of trendy J-pop who loves his (living) parents very much and hates his on-stage alter-ego. Although everyone except his band mates and manager are unaware of Souichi’s double identity, Krauser II’s personality is beginning to invade his life at the most inconvenient and embarrassing moments.

One of the best comedic devices is juxtaposition, and the character of Souichi/Krauser is a prime example. The scene in the record shop highlights the contrast between what career path he wants to take (e.g. the music his college sweetheart Aikawa wants him to play, hopefully getting the poor guy out of the Friend Zone in the process) and what his insane band manager wants the band to do. The point where Aikawa sings Souichi’s own song while the other song he wrote, DMC’s tune, roars on in the background for instance is pure comic gold.

I guess Ozzy Osborne is a possible inspiration for this series: over the decades he’s gone from being the Scary Man of Rock to Television’s Coolest Dad, and there’s a lot of deliberate jibes aimed at the likes of Alice Cooper, death metallers like Dimmu Borgir and Japan’s own visual kei scene. I don’t think the choice of Swedish pop is an accident either, since this particularly quiet corner of Europe that gave us Abba also has produced Messhuggah…

DMC are after all the epitome of the ridiculous, as all shock-rock acts are. Behind the bombast, stage make-up and ugly rumours there isn’t a great deal of substance - the lyrics don’t make a whole lot of sense and they are better at making the authorities nervous than actually creating music of any artistic merit. It’s all about image - an image Souichi despises - and offers nothing of value at all. Except being absolutely hilarious.

The Spïnal Tap comparison is apt I think - the famed parody of the quintessential metal band is a good couple of decades old now, and plenty of laughable acts have popped up since then; Detroit Metal City feels like the anime industry’s answer to the question of what ST would be like if the outrageous theatrics of Slipknot, Marilyn Manson and Lordi’s Eurovision win were taken into account. The over-the-top stupidity of DMC and their fans’ reactions had me creased up, from the Krauser’s mystique to the violently obsessive air-guitar playing fans, the politically incorrect and crude lyrics (the main reason I think that it’s an OAV), not to mention the music itself. The songs by the way aren’t actually half bad at capturing the vibe of the genre: you have to give the soundtrack writers credit for making it sound authentic.

That is, I’ve listened a fair few metal bands in my time and DMC are everything that’s wrong with the bad ones: the pretentiousness, the clichés, the desperation to be controversial that only makes it more ridiculous; it’s all captured with a sharp satirical eye. I’d also like to point out that although I love this series for pointing out everything that’s wrong with heavy metal and the music industry in general, I try to appreciate as wide a range of music as possible, no matter how heavy it is. Quite a few of the heavier bands are very skilled musicians: metal drumming is hard work; playing guitar with your teeth is a bit of a gimmick but it’s pretty hard to do, as is extended periods of fast thrashing that can still sound (more or less) melodic.

One of the reasons why I’m looking forward to hearing Dir en Grey’s next record is that they are one of the few heavy rock acts that still appeal to me, and their two latest singles promise a continued evolution of their sound. They went through something of a nu-metal phase with their Western-sounding Marrow of a Bone; while I can understand why they wanted to turn their backs on the image-driven flamboyant theatrics of visual kei and make harder-edged no-nonsense songs that speak for themselves, it seemed as though they were trying be make themselves more appealing to overseas fans and losing their individuality in the process. And of course part of me regrets missing out on their makeup-and-kimonos early years…

As Kaoru mentioned in a recent interview, they want the likes of Dozing Green and (in my view, especially) Glass Skin to be more melodic and as such they have more subtlety and sophistication - it’s not only less abrasive and brutal, but carries more mature emotion than their Marrow of a Bone and Withering to Death era material (the softer moments of which were my favourites actually).

I do believe the Angry Men of Osaka may be mellowing out in their old age; which I welcome with open arms because the refrain of “I’ll rape your daughter ON YOUR GRAAAAVE!” in Agitated Screams of Maggots makes Kyo sound too much like Krauser II for comfort.

[Filed under Anime Reviews]  [Tags: Detroit Metal City, Huerrgh!]

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