Key and Sakura during their school days.
Hi folks, TimeChaser here. For my first (and long overdue) review, I'm going to talk about a series I just finished today called Key the Metal Idol, an OVA series from the mid-1990s.
Essentially, Key is a modern Pinocchio tale, but much darker and with unexpected twists that wind up turning it completely on it's head. Tokiko "Key" Mima is a young girl who lives in the isolated Mamio Valley with her grandfather, an expert in robotics. Key believes that she herself is a robot, a belief encouraged by her grandfather and his assistant, Tomoyo Wakagi. Even the village children think she is a robot, having teased and taunted her all her life. One day Dr. Mima dies, leaving a last recorded message for Key: if she can make 30,000 friends she will become human. Key sets off for Tokyo in the hope of achieving this goal, however impossible it seems. There she reunites with Sakura, the only friend she ever had, and begins to meet an array of people who will ultimately help her with her goal.
Life in Tokyo is dangerous for Key right from the beginning, due to her extreme naivete. After a winding journey that takes her from the attentions of a sleazy porn producer to the leader of a cult, Key ultimately latches on to megastar idol singer Miho Utsuse. What better way to gain the attention of 30,000 people than to become an idol herself?
The relationship between Key and Sakura is an important part of the story. While Sakura genuinely cares for Key, she often allows her pent-up frustrations to override her better judgment, leading her to snap at Key and wrongly blame her for things, although this isn't always a surprise because Key's constant unemotional state prevents Sakura from understanding her as much as she'd like to. But Sakura remains stubbornly loyal to Key, helping her in her attempt to break into show business, even though Sakura ends up getting the attention for her good looks.
Lurking in the shadows is Jinsaku Ajo, a man obsessed with robots to the point of fetish who shares a dark connection to Key's past. Ajo and his right-hand man Sergei (also known as "D") will stop at nothing to perfect their army of robots. As villains go, Ajo isn't that great. His single-minded obsession with his robots causes him to have major blind spots, particularly when it comes to Key, whom he initially thinks is of no consequence. He also appears to have delusions of godhood, always referring to his robots as his "sons." Sergei is a much better character; ruthless and clever, he is the first to realize that Key is causing the robots to malfunction, although he is often held back by Ajo's orders and his failure to grasp the situation. There also seems to be some history between Sergei and Wakagi. They have fought each other before, but when, where, and why this was is never explained.
The series keeps a steady pace, slowly revealing it's mysteries, but never clearly answering any questions. While it's not as surreal as something like Serial Experiments Lain, it has it's fair share of strange moments that help keep the audience guessing. While episodes 1 - 13 are average length for an anime, 14 and 15 are both feature-length, well over 90 minutes long. Episode 14 acts as a huge info dump, revealing the past of Key's family and Ajo, and all that led up to what would happen in the series. This is where the show also gets turned on it's head, introducing a substantial paranormal element that isn't usually found in a tale about robots.
One thing I'd like to mention is the video quality. The original film is full of little errors: the first couple of episodes have a minute jump in the picture every couple of seconds. It isn't major, but it's just discernible and can be a little distracting. There is also a lot of artifacting, where ghosts of the previous image will still be visible especially against a dark background. All of these problems are inherent to the film itself.
As great as it is, Key isn't something that can be watched by everyone. When I say it's dark, I mean just that. There is some nudity (as well as other sexually suggestive stuff), violence, and a bit of coarse language. If you've been an anime fan for a while and these things don't bother you, then give it a try. If you're a kid, wait a few years. If you like dark tales with plenty of mystery, suspense, action, and strangeness, then you can't really go wrong here. The plot has plenty of twists, the characters are all interesting and unique. Key really is one of those hidden gems of the anime world that doesn't get nearly enough attention as it deserves. An underground classic.
To wrap up here is the OP, textless with English lyrics.
