Review of Detroit Metal City

Title: Detroit Metal City
Official website: here
Death Records website: here
Original manga by: Wakasugi Kiminori
Movie roadshow date: 23 Aug 2008
Total run time: 104 minutes
Theme songs: 1) SATSUGAI by Detroit Metal City / 2) Amai Koibito by Negishi Souichi - Kaji Hideki
Total box office takings: 2.34 billion yen

Cast:

Negishi Souichi / Johannes Krauser II (Matsuyama Kenichi)
Vocals for Johannes Krauser II (Kanmuri Tetsuya)
Aikawa Yuri (Kato Rosa)
Nishida Terumichi / Camus (Akiyama Ryuuji)
Wada Masayuki / Alexander Jagi (Hosoda Yoshihiko)
Asato Hidetaka (Suzuki Kazuma)
Saji Hideki (Takahashi Issei)
Negishi Keiko (Miyazaki Yoshiko)
Negishi Toshihiko (Kato Ryo)
Jack Il Dark (Gene Simmons)
Boss of Death Records (Matsuyuki Yasuko)

Review:

This has turned out to be much more entertaining that I thought. I wouldn't classify this as a classic but this is definitely not something you will forget once you step out of the cinema.

Negishi Souichi is an ordinary guy who leaves his hometown to come to Tokyo for his university studies. He aspires to make it as a popular singer but ends up being the vocalist of a hard metal rock band instead. Although this band enjoys great success, Negishi cannot reconcile the difference between reality and ideals and even has to hide his true identity from Yuri, his love from university. Lots of hillarious happenings occur as Negishi tries to hide his identity. Negishi starts to change his thinking slowly through the interaction with the people around him.

Matsuyama Kenichi does it again by going against stereotypes. Every time he appears, you can be sure of something new. Going by how much makeup he puts on when he appears as Krauser, you would never have guessed that Matsuyama is the one playing this role. He manages to manipulate the roles with such distinct differences that the characters of Negishi and Krauser stand out perfectly. Negishi seems very insecure and unsure of what he should do while Krauser oozes so much charisma and charm on stage. I am very impressed with his performance and I think he has the potential to go very far as long as he continues to challenge himself.

One thing which I thought was a pity would be the fact that we do not get to hear Matsuyama sing in this movie. In fact, the vocals of Krauser are from another singer by the name of Kanmuri Tetsuya. As for his voice when he sings Negishi's songs, I think that is voiced by Kaji Hideki. Now, was Matsuyama's voice featured during the climax scene when he was chanting that F-song? I would really like to find out about that. ^__^

Another big highlight in the cast is Matsuyuki Yasuko. I felt the impact very strongly because I had just seen her in Yougisha X no Kenshin. The gap was simply...shocking. In Yougisha, she was very gentle but in DMC, Matsuyuki goes through a major transformation. The tight mini-skirt, rough mannerisms, the language peppered with vulagarities all brought out the essence of her role as the boss of Death Records. Apparently, Matsuyuki was chosen to take on this role as she was viewed as someone who could not be imagined to be able to potray this character but she did brilliantly, contrary to expectations.

Although the language can be a bit vulgar at times, I think the music featured in this movie is quite interesting after all. I like that song, "恨みはらさでおくべきか " (Urami harasa de okubeki ka - Should I take revenge for my grievances) a lot because that is really funny. This song was written by Negishi after he got jealous of Asato trying to woo his goddess, Yuri and became a smash hit unwittingly. "SATSUGAI" sounds good too and would be a great song for concerts. Although I think that the lyrics may be controversial and border on the side of offensive, I think the music pieces were done pretty well and were not as noisy as I thought.

And my ratings for this movie...
Story: 8 out of 10 (Predictable storyline but it's not boring at all)
Acting: 9 out of 10 (Matsuyama Kenichi and Matsuyuki Yasuko rocks!)
Theme song: 8 out of 10 (Although a tad noisy at times, the music is pretty good)
Visual effects / Scenery: 7 out of 10 (Scenery from Oita as well as the great transformation of Negishi to Krauser through that makeup)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 7 out of 10 (Although I think that Matsuyama and Kato Rosa were lacking in chemistry, I think he did pretty well with Matsuyuki.)

Total: 39 out of 50