Detroit Metal City (デトロイト・メタル・シティ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kiminori Wakasugi. It was serialized in Hakusensha's manga magazine Young Animal from September 2005 to April 2010, with its chapters collected in ten volumes. The manga was licensed for English release in North America by Viz Media. The series takes its name from the song "Detroit Rock City" by the American band Kiss.
The manga was adapted into a twelve-episode (of thirteen minutes long and divided into two six-minute sections) original video animation (OVA) released in August 2008; a live action film adaptation also premiered in Japan in August 2008.
Plot
Soichi Negishi is a shy young musician who dreams of a career in pop. Dreams do not pay the bills, so he has ended up as the lead singer and guitarist of a blackened death metal band, "Detroit Metal City". In his stage costume, he adopts the persona of "Johannes Krauser II", a terrorist demon from hell said to have raped and killed his parents. The songs of DMC often encourage their audience to engage in similar immoral and illegal behavior, or tell stories of Krauser's criminal exploits in a parody of the genre.
Negishi despises DMC and all that it stands for, but he cannot walk away from his role as the band's psychotic frontman. Under his meager exterior, Negishi is a rageaholic and also is very skilled at guitar playing. Furthermore, he feels obligation to the rest of the band and his label and is always roped back in by the manager of the band's label.