By the power of Krauser I command thee…rape ho!!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kimimori Wakasugi
What They Say
Go to DMC!!; Prepare to have your mortal soul devoured by the demonic Johann Krauser II, front man for Detroit Metal City, the most outrageously hilarious death metal band on the Japanese indie scene!
Because I Love Youuu!!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This volume of DMC continues with the story arc started in the last volume. After defeating Negishi, Gaylord begins his plan for domination as Krauser I. This alternate DMC has released an album and is quickly gaining popularity as DMC fans start seeing Krauser I as the true Demon Lord. It doesn’t help that the stand-in for Negishi lacks any sort of stage presence and pure evil; heck, he even messes up all the words to the songs and replaces the menacing lyrics with lyrics about paying bills and the like.
Negishi, meanwhile has joined The Art Studio, a live-in house where up and coming artists attempt to hone their craft and ‘make it’. Negishi is happy as can be as he is surrounded by hipster douche-bags who permeate with arrogance. They pretend to support Negishi as he pursues his dreams of being a pop singer but talk about him behind his back and are really just cruel. During one incident Negishi overhears them and starts to become depressed. The funny thing here is the costume he was about to wear and the housemates calling him on it. That single panel shot of him dressed as an angel with a clown nose is priceless! Then slowly, one by one, the members of the Studio begin to move out to pursue their careers and new members join the studio. Except all the new members are completely psychopathic metal guitarists, which quickly sucks Negishi back into the world of DMC.
All this plot and development is fun to go through as we see the fickleness of DMC fans, the struggle of the band trying to survive, Negishi’s issues, and Gaylord’s rise to fame. But the prize of the arc, and volume, is during the showdown show between the two DMCs and Negishi’s return as Krauser II. Negishi, no matter how much he wants to be ‘normal’ and become a pop singer, is a metal God through and through. The transformations are consistently hilarious, and in this volume we really get to see that he only really gets to be himself as Krauser II. During the showdown there is an 8-9 page scene that is so perfectly paced and completely outrageous that it alone is worth the price of this book. A One Second Rape Race! Yes, you read that correctly, Rape Race. How many times in one second can the two Krausers say rape!? The pacing is slow and that one second is drawn out for so long that there is so much room for crazy commentary and onlooker ‘participation’ that the author hits a total home-run. Absolutely hilarious and well worth reading repeatedly for a good chuckle. If you remember anything from this scene it will be these immortal words, “12 rapes and a finger-bang”!
After the conclusion of this arc the volume rounds off with some ‘filler’ chapters. The first one is actually pretty gross and pushes the boundary of what is gross-funny and what is just gross. When talking about music people will tend to say phrases like “Listen to this shit!’ or ”This is some awesome shit!” Well, take what you have learned from the past six volumes of DMC and try to guess where it goes when an up and coming band tries to make the best “Shit” possible. Then there is an amusing chapter where Negishi’s younger brother comes to visit. His brother has become a total DMC fan and Negishi feels guilty about corrupting him. But when he finds out that his brother is planning on sleeping with a girl in order to appease Lord Krauser, well Negishi won’t have his younger brother lose his virginity before him so,who else but Krauser himself comes to the rescue! There are couple other chapters here that are pretty funny and add more to the whole “Negishi IS Krauser” aspect, but you’ll have to read the book for those beauties.
Aside for the concert showdown and the Rape Race, the best part of this volume is the bonus track. It is summertime, and the gang is at a water park. Most of the time DMC isn’t too deep and uses the same set of jokes repeatedly. Sometimes it gets tiresome, like last volume the rape wore me out (ba dum), and sometimes it just works perfectly. Here, it is the same jokes again but this time it really works. There’s some Seinfeld shrinkage, reverse birth, and a still framed panel that is the most ridiculous yet hilarious part of the chapter….”Water Slide Rape!” Like I said, the same jokes; they just really worked for me in this volume.
In Summary
The rape is strong with this one. It didn’t tire me out, bother me, or become mundane for me this time around. The ante is raised and I laughed constantly at all the various situations Negishi is put in and how they are all resolved. As DMC goes on and is reaching its climax (ba dum), things are really starting to wear thin. But as long as some real gems are found every once in a while I see no issue in finishing this series to the end. Hit or miss, DMC continues to be an irreverent comedy classic.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 14th, 2010
MSRP: $12.99
