Detroit Metal City (live action) Review

You’ve all probably have heard of Detroit Metal City. You know, the anime with that weird looking guy singing heavy metal? They also made a live action adaptation of it, and you know what? It’s actually… Just read on.

No Music, No Dream: that’s what kept him going…

What happens when you serve Metalocalypse with BECK? You get DMC,
with a goal of reaching the world’s top of death meal.

I hear they serve 'em at Mcdonalds

This comedy flick is set in modern day Japan. The story starts off with our stylish protagonist, Negishi leaving the comfort of his home to pursue his dream: to be part of a Swedish pop band. This was his dream since high school. Armed with his motto: No Music, No Dream. He arrives in the city, looking all gay and happy that he can now make his dream come true.

yeah, gay and happy

Or so he wishes.
It turns out that he actually ended up in an underground heavy metal band called Detroit Metal City. With Negishi on the lead guitar and vocals as “Johannes Krauser II” and his new friends and bandmates: Terumichi “Camus” Nishida on bass and backing vocals and Masayuki Wada as Alexander Jagi “-sama” on drums. They play heavy metal music that’s very alien to the non-fans who hear it.

want your bad romance!

But it gets worse, their president, who’s name is President of Death Records, treats the band as something to make her climax.

I gotta admit she's kinda hot

The band, despite being underground, has a very dedicated fanbase who’ll probably eat a band member’s shit if asked to.

With this, we follow Negishi’s misadventures as Krauser and as himself. He meets interesting people along the way, he gets into a rap battle, commits suicide on stage, gets his room redesigned, teaches a dude how a demon king takes care of his possessions, and faces a final boss in an epic showdown of amazinging skills.

he also plays guitar with his teeth

This movie is directed by Toshio Li, who was also cast as Takeshi “Spellman” Sawai in the OAV. Yes, that crazy ass director in the anime is a real life director.

Moving on, this movie also features some familiar faces for the japanese live action viewers. For one, Matsuyama Kenichi plays the role of the fabulous wannabe Souchiro Negishi.
This is the same guy who gave life to L in the live action Death Note movie.
Another would be Akiyama Ryuuji (Nishida) who was Tanaka Makio in Cromartie High: The Movie.
President of Death Records, whom people who watched the OAV’s first probably love so much is Matsuyuki Natsuko who starred in Hula Girls as Kirayama Madoka.

Now that we’ve covered the basics on DMC. time for the quality of the movie itself.

Special Effects: great, it’s very realistic actually

come on, this is pretty tough to capture in real life.

Costume Design: I can say it’s pretty good. the band’s costume was pretty loyal to the anime. The “stylish” people were pretty stylish here too. and they really paid attention to the actors and actresses faces.

That tongue's gotta be CG.

Soundtrack: Since the band plays heavy metal, this may turn off those who can’t stomach anything harder Creed.

It’s pretty good to me, they claim the band plays death metal but some people say that they’re actually groove metal. but since i listen to everything from trance to rock to symphonic metal to grindcore I don’t really care.
Aside from metal, there are also parts where Negishi and others sing Swedish pop.
and they sound like diabetes for lack of better word.

Take his word for it.

Acting: I’ve heard complaints of bad acting on this, clearly some people have never heard of the word Parody.
In any case, the acting’s quite narmy and exaggerated. which is good considering that’s how the characters acted in the anime.

I'd tap both (the piano and the book)

Final Thoughts: There are a few things i’m disappointed on here. first, there was no raping of tokyo tower. I would have loved to hear the throbbing sound of metal being humped.
Second, the 10 times rape was not pulled of properly.
Third, there was no film making “arc”.
Fourth, a spoilerific scene with little real action that lasted for a few minutes (10?).

I liked the anime very much, so i can say i have a bit of bias. Your mileage will really vary on this movie, but I recommend this regardless. If you want a good laugh all throughout watching something then this one is perfect for you. This is actually the first live action adaptation of an anime / manga I’ve watched. and I must say I was not disappointed, except for the parts I am disappointed on of course.

For the people who watched the anime first, you’ll notice that key scenes from it are also here with a few changes. The overall plot also changed a bit, all I can say is it’s a must watch. The differences vary from subtle to blatant so your mileage will really vary on this.

overall:  rating 8/10

lm/ d(—_—)b

I couldn’t give it a 9 because of the few disappointments (and the subs).

torrent link is here. Might wanna tell me your thoughts about the movie in the comments, too.

and shoutout to CRxTRDUDE for no real reason.