I’m not ambitions enough to do a while month of Halloween-themed posts like Bully’s Riverdale Hellmouth, Andrew’s Halloween Countdown and Dorian’s Decade of Schlock. But I thought I’d try to post reviews of manga that fit in the Halloween spirit during the month of October. Thus, Detroit Metal City #6!

Detroit Metal City Volume 6 by Kiminori Wakasugi

Wakasugi’s central idea for DMC of a bland pop-music loving hapless man forced to take on the identity of metal god Krauser II is a good one, but after getting over the shock and delight at the first two volumes inspired profanity I was wondering if the later volumes would still be as funny. Seeing some of the same jokes repeated diminishes the funniness a little bit. There are a limited number of times a joke about parental rape and killing can be funny. On the other hand, by focusing on some of the other band members in DMC and offering up hints of an ongoing plot, this volume seemed like a slight departure in direction for the series.

The opening story of the collection was by far the funniest. Negishi goes to visit the apartment of the girl he has a crush on and winds up taking a bath. Unfortunately her overprotective father comes over and is determined to throw out the boy in his daughter’s bathroom. Negishi’s instinctive fight or flight response is to don the protective armor of his other self, so he quickly throws on Krauser’s face using Aikawa’s makeup. Aikawa and her father keep trading off opening the bathroom door and the makeup goes off and on depending on who’s knocking. Negishi grows increasingly desperate and runs off naked into the night.

The next couple stories feature different aspects of Japanese culture that also get the DMC treatment. Bassist Wada toys with the idea of leaving DMC and joining a visual kei band, but a combination of card tricks and horrible lyrics ensures that everything goes wrong. Nishida’s otaku desire for a limited edition Thrusting Squadron Little Bloomer figure is foiled, and he takes his revenge by entering a drumming competition at a local arcade. The hint of ongoing story that’s explored in this volume concerns the inexplicable appearance of Krauser I, a superfan who has insane guitar chops. Could he be Negishi’s chance to escape his death-metal torture, or DMC’s greatest rival?

This volume was nowhere near as outrageously funny as the first couple volumes in the series, but it did have a few amusing moments. DMC’s female manager is still using evocative language to describe her nether regions. Negishi leaves terror in his wake despite his desire to quit metal and write songs about lovely cheese tarts. I’m happy to check in on this series now and then, but there’s an element of sameness in the repetitive jokes that doesn’t make me feel like I need to read every volume. Still, I’m glad that this series is being published here, with all of its references to dead animals in uncomfortable places and unsavory things being done to the Queen of England. This has to be a very fun manga for the people working on translating it.

Review copy provided by the publisher