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Reviewed by David Rasmussen There’s all kinds of content in the world. There are titles that surpass time, space, and known existence to become the greatest reads you’ll ever come across, titles that are quirky and fun and beautiful and so recommendable all at the same time (Azumanga Daioh). There are reads that are for the fandom, reads for the die-hard purists of a genre or series, and reads that appeal to one group or another. Then there’s whatever the hell Detroit Metal City is. I really don't want to compare this with Metalocalypse... I hope I never see them both on the same channel... How the hell did this title get published?! It’s your standard double-life gone wrong... Soichi Negishi is a sweet (if you call potential psychotic freakmonger sweet) well-mannered (hidden psychological break twisted personality disorder) boy who loves Swedish pop music, trendy boutiques, and apparently has his hormones set to overdose because he somehow ends up the front man of a death metal band called “Death Metal City…" and it has all the charm of Metalocalypse… not. With people who should die, in a world that is disturbing even when it’s supposed to be sweet (there’s SO nothing redeemable about the world) with a guy whose problems couldn’t be less interesting even if he tried to make them so uninteresting. I really couldn’t care less how freaked he is or why he seems to want to whine about being this Krauser II personality (when in fact he seems twisted to the point that Krauser II seems to be the logical conclusion to his existence since he is already repressively deranged on his own, which just leaps out page after page despite the fact he’s supposed to be a nice guy… could have at least stood to be a NORMAL guy at least, which he doesn’t do very well). Violence, cussing, swearing, gay rape, insults to your intelligence by trying to make you actually care about a guy and the people around him which are not the slightest bit engaging at all… which you so won’t. Yeah, Metalocalypse is freaked but at least the characters are engaging and riveting (like a plane crash or train wreck or a Sarah Palin speaking engagement, where it’s too gory and gruesome to watch yet you do all the same). This title… might be gruesome, but just not in that context. It’s gruesome in a I’m going to fall asleep if I ponder this one more minute than I have to kind of way. Bleah. Now of course if the characters really had that intense edge AND they really grabbed your attention like the characters of, say, Metalocalypse, then this would be a highly-recommended alternative read that really bends the boundaries and makes you totally want to read no matter what is going on in the pages… sadly, the cast is nowhere near being so engaging, and in fact go out of their way to drive you away. Really, this couldn’t be harder to read if the title tried to be hard to read (much less to absorb long enough to review). Don’t care if it looks indy-alternative, don’t care if the cover looks interesting, if you want something hardcore from a talent who really knows how to bend the art form in strange twisted new realities that really grasp you tight and give you shaken manga reader syndrome… then go back and re-read your Hellsing. Yeah. Hellsing. I like that better than this. This blows. Detroit Metal City, a title not about the failing big 3 automakers in America, drags its death metal carcass (wait, wait… isn’t death metal so 90’s or something?) in to a sad, sad, sad, sad, sad score of a D-. D is for Death, Detroit Metal City (your death), and that’s good enough for me. Bleck! Comment on this review of Detroit Metal City v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
29 September 2009
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