Key the Metal Idol

Tokiko Mima, nicknamed "Key," is a 17-year-old girl living in the Japanese countryside who, despite her human-like appearance, is a robot. When Key's grandfather Dr. Murao Mima passes away, he leaves her a dying message, telling her that she can become a real girl if she is able to make thirty thousand friends. Thus, Key moves from the quiet Mamio Valley to the busy streets of Tokyo, where she soon runs into her childhood friend Sakura Kuriyagawa.

Key quickly becomes enamored with idol singer Miho Utsuse and wonders if becoming a singer will allow her to make the amount of friends needed for her to become human. But Miho carries a ominous secret: she is connected to Jinsaku Ajou, an old rival of Dr. Mima trying to make new a breakthrough in robotic weaponry. As Key works to become a real girl, Ajou sets a dangerous plan into action, and it turns out there's much more to Key than meets the eye.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Mima, Tokiko Main

Iwao, Junko Japanese

Kuriyagawa, Sakura Main

Nagasawa, Miki Japanese

Mima, Murao Main

Kitamura, Kouichi Japanese

Sergei Supporting

Kosugi, Juurouta Japanese

Tsurugi, Hikaru Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Ajou, Jinsaku Supporting

Hayami, Show Japanese

Wakagi, Tomoyo Supporting

Yanaka, Hiroshi Japanese

Mima, Toyoko Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Tsukiyama Supporting

Horimoto, Hitoshi Japanese

Komoda, Aoi Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio Japanese

Sato, Hiroaki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Original Creator, Screenplay

Fujiyama, Fusanobu Sound Director

Watanabe, Takashi Episode Director, Storyboard

Abe, Masashi Episode Director

Reviews

Oct 23, 2009

Hayato_Matsuo

Recommended

I first heard of this anime in an old RightStuf catalogue I got in high school. After reading the description, I knew it was a must see.

Even though most people would rather see the japanese sub, I highly recommend the english dub. Not only the VAs were decent, but the music has all been remade to english, and is some of the most beautiful music of the mid-late 90s.

Storywise, this had a great storyline. You could say this anime has a bit of a Pinocchio complex, as the main character (Key) is trying to become a human. How she does this is to simply make ... 30,000 friends O.O. How this works out remains a mystery until you get near the end of the series, where all questions will be answered. As Key is faced with obstacles, her human transformation takes place, and truly wows those around her. By the time you get to the end of this anime, you will also fee that you've become one of her friends.

The artwork is somewhat outdated, but that's to be expected from an anime made in 1997. However, that's no excuse to toss it aside for it being so old. The character designs of the main cast and the robots raises some nostalgia for the classic Terminator movies. The special effects are truly impressive, worthy of giving this anime an award, if it doesn't already have one. Though there is some nudity, it's not so much to toss this in with ecchi Just enough for you to keep in mind that this is a serious story.

Overall, I would have to say this anime is one of my top 5's. After seeing this the first time through, it really brings a tear to your eyes. T_T I highly recommend watching it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Aug 9, 2024

Kanudelgruber

Mixed Feelings

Key the Metal Idol is an underappreciated, cerebral and interesting anime which evokes feelings of Lain despite its coming out several years earlier. I would absolutely recommend it to fans of that and other 90s sci-fi anime like it. However, as much as I like this show, it's unfortunately held back by a premature cancellation which resulted in a final episode that essentially boils down to a feature-length info dump of what the final few episodes were meant to be. Because it exists in this half-formed and unpolished state, I give it a mixed review. However, to those who are willing to try it despite ... these issues, there are some unexpected developments later in the story that make this series, if not masterful, at least highly interesting.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 15, 2023

Mike4Life

Not Recommended

To be frank, Key the Metal Idol isn't a great anime, nor does it get anywhere close. Conceptually speaking, it definitely had potential, but this would go largely unrealised. Given the fact that Key's final two episodes are each an hour and a half long, it's possible that scheduling and/or finances are the reason/s for this squandered potential.

Key's story is a fairly obvious criticism of the idol industry in Japan. As a Western viewer, it's hard to deconstruct this aspect of the story in any meaningful way since idols (in this context) are a cultural phenomenon exclusive to Japan. That being said, it is interesting ... in the way it depicts idols as robots/puppets, and how a human's life force is drained controlling these idols. Having the titular protagonist Key struggle with the ambiguity of her being either a human or a robot also gives at least some reason to watch through to the end. Her naïvety also leads her into some...interesting situations, to say the least. The tense moments towards the end, as well as the painfully long build-up, make the ending satisfying enough in the moment, but certainly not worth the slog that precedes it - especially episode 14, which just dumps a bunch of information on the viewer.

The characters are bland. They mainly act as a medium for the story - each serves their purpose, but you probably won't end up caring for any of them, even if the Japanese voice acting is decent. I doubt many people would get excited seeing any of these characters in another story, or as merchandise.

Whilst the art is OK, the animation is terrible. In almost every situation the bare minimum is done to make it watchable. At one point, they don't even bother to properly animate a group of people sitting down, they sort of just awkwardly fade downwards. A lot of people put this down to its age, but there were plenty of anime at the time that looked leagues better. Key is far below average. As expected, the exception to this is the opening, which looks cool, if a bit awkward at times. The ED is just credits on a black background. Unfortunately, these issues with the visuals are compounded by the poor DVD quality of the anime. Anime DVDs looked bad in the 90s. This isn't a problem for the more popular ones (see: Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop), since they got Blu-Ray releases. It's definitely a problem for Key, which didn't receive nearly enough attention to warrant a Blu-Ray version. The footage is jittery, a bit unclear, and the subtitles are a bright yellow, which would have helped legibility when watched on the CRT TVs it was designed for, but is a complete eyesore nowadays. (Oh, and I counted 11 typos/mistakes in the subs- but I'd be interested to see if anyone could find more.) Come to think of it, it's probably not a good sign when the part of an anime you feel the most strongly about is the visuals.

Sound-wise, it isn't anything to write home about. The opening song is good, but nothing else - not sound effect nor song - sticks out as good. Or bad, for that matter, so it at least doesn't actively harm the experience. That being said, I like how they used the full version of the opening song to start the final episode off, combined with footage from previous episodes - an early AMV of sorts.

Overall, Key the Metal Idol aimed fairly high, but ended up an unimpressive bore - one fated for obscurity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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Feb 6, 2017 11:41 AM by Sakana-san | Discuss (7 comments)

	Poll: Key the Metal Idol Episode 15 Discussion thisiodfkln - Sep 23, 2011	23 replies	by AzafuseKingTora »» Aug 15, 3:07 PM
	Poll: Key the Metal Idol Episode 3 Discussion thisiodfkln - Jul 6, 2011	7 replies	by AzafuseKingTora »» Jul 15, 9:57 PM
	Worth Watching? dustinator1991 - Jun 24, 2022	4 replies	by Kuruna_Dagurasu »» Jun 27, 4:05 AM
	Poll: Key the Metal Idol Episode 14 Discussion RafaelDeJongh - May 16, 2014	22 replies	by Kuruna_Dagurasu »» Jun 27, 3:54 AM
	Poll: Key the Metal Idol Episode 9 Discussion thisiodfkln - Jul 17, 2011	8 replies	by Spo0ky-chan »» May 28, 2:45 AM