Detroit Metal City Volume 1
VIZ Media
Author: Kiminori Wakasugi
Release Date: June 2009
$12.99
200 pages
ISBN-10: 1-4215-2742-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-4215-2742-0
Age Rating: Mature
ICv2 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

There is a type of comedy where you laugh knowing that what you are laughing at is so very wrong.  Wakasugi’s crass manga is that type.  The plot is mostly a one note joke about a young farmboy turned Tokyo-ite named Soichi who is the reluctant frontman for the explicit death metal band Detroit Metal City when he’d rather be a hipster singing pop ballads.  There is no explanation about how Soichi ends up in DMC, but his struggles to hide who he really is--is he pop singer or is he really a death metal god?--are crudely amusing.  Nothing is sacred here.  Hipsters and metalheads alike are lambasted for their snobbery and stupidity.

Wakasugi’s art is hard-edged and cartoonishly unattractive, which makes it all the more effective at conveying humor.  VIZ has very appropriately rated this mature.  DMC’s songs are all about raping women or killing people.  One song is just a competition to see who can say the f-word the most times in a row.  The band’s manager explicitly rates everything by how much it turns her on.  Adults who like their satire to be rude, crude, and in-your-face will enjoy a laugh at this one.

-- Snow Wildsmith