is a Japanese
manga
Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...
series written and illustrated by Kiminori Wakasugi. It was serialized in
Hakusensha
is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV series.
The c ...
's
''seinen'' manga magazine ''
Young Animal
In the English language, animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups.
The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is ''The Book of Saint Al ...
'' from September 2005 to April 2010, with its chapters collected in ten ''
tankōbon
is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...
'' volumes. The manga was licensed for English release in North America by
Viz Media
VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
. The series takes its name from the song "
Detroit Rock City
"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss, released on their 1976 album ''Destroyer''. The song was written by Paul Stanley and producer Bob Ezrin.
The song is one of the band's most popular and is a classic rock staple ...
" by the American band
Kiss
A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...
.
The manga was adapted into a twelve-episode (of thirteen minutes long and divided into two six-minute sections)
original video animation
, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA ...
(OVA) released in August 2008; a
live action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...
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
Blackened death metal (also known as black death metal) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal that fuses elements of black metal and death metal.
The genre emerged in early 1990s when black metal bands began incorporating elements of death me ...
band, "Detroit Metal City." In his stage costume, he is Johannes Krauser II, rumored to be a terrorist demon from hell, to have killed and raped his parents, to wield his giant death penis with abandon, and other menacing tales being told about him after each public performance. The songs of DMC often encourage the audience to engage in immoral and illegal behavior, such as rape or murder, or tell of Krauser's exploits with similar actions, 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