Key The Metal Idol

(OVA Series 1997 - 15 episodes - Studio Pierrot)

3 reviews - 11.5 total score (Explanation of the rating system)
avg. score: (3.8)

3. Iodine

An odd science-fiction series with one of the strangest premises of the genre: an emotionless teenaged girl who might be a robot, goes to Tokyo in accordance with the last wish of her grandfather, to make thirty-thousand friends and "become human." For most of the series, the plot concerns the characters around Key, and how they react to her strange behavior and mission. In the background lurks a more sinister thread, where a power-mad business man is looking for a way to build warrior androids by doing ghastly and inhumane experiments on others. Tie in a famous pop singer's mysterious decline, and the plot couldn't be more convoluted if it tried. The show is very atmospheric and very adult in its execution, but never quite manages to be involving. Most of the characters are flat and cold. There is a distinct ugliness about the villains, and their casual cruelty, particularly towards women, often borders on the distasteful. It doesn't help that Key is almost a nonentity, merely reacting to those around her, and simply not a very sympathetic character.

Though the animation is very good, especially in the lovely opening sequence, the designs are harsh and unappealing. All the male characters seem built for pummeling each other into oblivion. Special note must be made of the music, which proves much better than the usual J-pop fluff. Most of the series is well written and directed, though it often feels a little too pleased with itself. The biggest single failing of the series is in its ending, where the entire story grinds to a halt for over ninety minutes of pure exposition, and then proceeds to self-destruct in a depressingly bleak and unsatisfying finale.

2. Larson

Even though placed in a 90s urban Tokyo setting, this show is a very serious poetic entry to the pool of memorable sci-fi topics of the closing 20th century. A sensible sad story of a young person's struggle for socialization. Slow paced, emotionally driven and all in all well balanced. The lack of usual exaggerations, I don't count super powers as such in this case, make Key The Metal Idol a show that easily qualifies to meet a good memorable novel's quality. The overall theme is well-designed to fit together in every detail, without the need to utilize eye-candy. Unfortunately the 2 final episodes (12,13) apparently were rushed, the remaining story which should have been put in another 13 eps gets covered in an only 1 episode spanning tiring dialogue scene. SO if this show had been made a full season 26 eps, it surely would have been an all-time 5 star classic!

1. AgtFox

Oh Key, how I wish I could give you 5 stars. Unfortunately, you had to pull a bad final two episodes (both 90 min. long) out of your hat. Episodes 1-13 were interesting and were very much like Lain. What is Key? Is she going to becoming a music idol? Who the heck are these people after her? Then everything went wrong in the last two episodes…14 in particular. Why did you outline the whole plot in 14 when you could have been doing so in the rest of the series or let the series rest on itself? And the unneeded shockers toward the end were exactly that … unneeded. No reason to make Key dark, but in the end we have a cheery ending which totally goes against what they built up in the last two episodes. I give this 4 stars because I generally liked it and I think 13 episodes outweigh 1 very bad episode and 1 okay episode. Worth a look.