Everyone has a dream. Some of us want to be movie stars, doctors, scientists.

Soichi’s (played by Matsuyama Ken’ichi, Death Note’s L) dream is to be a stylish musician, preferably performing and writing super drippy syrupy sweet pop songs. In order to pursue this dream, he moves from the family farm to Tokyo and spends his university life with other like-minded pop music friends.

All that changes once school is over, and he finds himself living a double life. By day, he stands on the street corner with his guitar, happily strumming & swaying his way through his incredibly corny songs. At night, he is a part of Detroit Metal City, a death metal band playing to packed, tiny live houses, as Krauser, the band’s lead vocalist.

Detroit Metal City is not his dream. Following his own motto “No Music, No Dream”, Soichi is determined to break out of DMC somehow. One innocent day, as he is checking out the new releases at the record store, Soichi runs into an old classmate from his university days. Yuri is working for a magazine, where she writes articles on local pop music. He invites her to join him for coffee, forgetting that he has an event for DMC at the same time, which leads to a very interesting time as he tries to do both at once.

Soichi struggles as he wants to show Yuri that he is making it as a musician, but her hatred of metal music makes it rather difficult. His pop music doesn’t catch the ears of passersby on the street corner, and an impromptu song in a high end coffee shop leads to complete humiliation. His growing anger with himself leads him to throw himself more into the Death Metal scene, and DMC’s popularity rises.

Enter the announcement of the century: the Emperor of Death Metal is about to retire. Jack IL Dark (Gene Simmons from KISS – yes its really him!) is going to tour the world and take on the top Metal Band. But when Yuri discovers that Krauser IS Soichi, he flees home, practically giving up on his dream of being a great musician and helping people find their dreams.

Gene Simmons as Jack IL Dark

The trip home seems to be exactly what Soichi needs. He discovers that his influence as Krauser has affected so many people, even those closest to him. After using his alter-ego to set his younger brother back on the right path, a box from his band mates containing letters from them and the band’s fans arrives. He returns to the city and has an epic showdown with Jack.

I absolutely loved this movie, and was laughing my way through nearly every scene. I have not seen something this enjoyable in a long time, and the two extremely different personalities of Soichi and Krauser are just too funny. Soichi prances about in his pretty boy clothes, while Krauser swears and sulks and eminates evil. Soichi is afraid of the DMC fans, and Krauser feeds off the outrageous tales that are rumored about him.

The movie (as well as an anime OVA) are based off the original manga by Kiminori Wakasugi. VIZ Media is publishing the manga in North America. For obvious reasons, the manga, anime and movie are for Mature audiences.

Buy volume one of Detroit Metal City from Amazon

Buy volume one of Detroit Metal City from RightStuf