Key: The Metal Idol

Key the Metal Idol is not a typical robot-girl animé series, but a thoroughly engrossing story inspired by Pinocchio that explores human fragility, the pressures of fame, and hidden corporate agendas.

After you watch the first few episodes, it leaves you wanting to see it through to the end. The story may confuse you at first, but towards the end the plot twists eventually fall into place. However, there is a loose end or two, namely the relationship between Key and Sakura.

The dubbed version is done reasonably well, particularly the songs. In summary, Key the Metal Idol is animé for the non-animé viewer.

I rented the first tape in this series out of an idle interest in investigating anime. I got immediately addicted to it. From my limited perspective 'Key the Metal Idol' is a strange hybrid, like Shozin Fukui's '964 Pinocchio' meets 'Sailor Moon.'

Enjoyably weird characters abound in this fun narrative. The heavies are a tad one dimensional (for the most part uninspired corporate techno-sleazebags,) but that barely detracts.

None of these characters is more odd than Key herself, whose frailty, clumpy hair, monomaniacal autism, mystical experiences and huge Keane-eyes propel the story. With Key, the makers of this piece do an amazing and subtle thing: they make a character with complete flatness of affect seem somehow very sympathetic. You want to take her home and let her sleep on your couch & eat from your refrigerator for a few weeks.

Remarkably compelling episode-to-episode construction also keeps this series moving. The story design is tightly controlled, and it functions like the old 'Twin Peaks' in this manner. If Hollywood could produce live-action programming a third as interesting I'd go back to watching TV.

The visual design, animation and editing are all great. It is so accelerated and complex that repeat viewings are basically necessary. The title sequence alone is a brilliant piece of work.

As it stands, I have yet to see the last two installments of this series, but I can certainly vouch for the quality of the first thirteen.

I found this anime to be a pastiche of confusing unresolved narrative lines and poorly developed characters. Their motivations were sketchy at best and none of them were particularly engaging. The series didn't seem to be going anywhere until the final two episodes. At that point the creators must have felt they had to tie everything up in a neat climax. Unfortunately, all they accomplished was to produce two one-and-a-half hour each features that were almost nothing but talk, as they tried to explain all of the nonsense that went before. Those final three hours of blather did nothing but further waste the viewer's time.

The Pinocchio-esque Key, an android whose creator has been murdered, leaves her idyllic small town to travel to the big city in order to discover her purpose, despite having been raised in isolation and thus having never acquired a normal set of social or emotional responses, let alone anything like urban survival skills. Her responses to what happens to her in the saga of misadventures and heartbreaks that follow are uniquely innocent verging on messianic, in this beautifully drawn, sadly compelling, very unusual anime series.

After so many soulless fighting giant robot adventures, it is refreshing to watch a series which makes a technological creation so intimate and heartfelt and which focuses on personal existential growth rather than just using cutting edge robot technology to bash stuff.

Highly recommended, especially in its original Japanese.

About 3-4 years ago, I've fallen for a new genre of cartoons, the anime, it automatically caught my eye. 2 years ago I stumbled upon this series, only 3rd eppy was in, so I rented to see how it was, it was the cover that really made me want to see it, the second the credits started rolling, I was in love with this series. They used the old story of Pinocchio as the plot; they succeeded greatly in the remake of the old fairy tale. The beautiful character design, the amazing art, the deep plot that makes you beg for more, and the mystery so deep you will have to watch it again and again to understand it. This kind of quality I have never seen in anime, it's truly magnificent. It has nudity in about every episode, some violence, and blood, it's not all too bad though, and a 10y/o could watch it. It is a must see series, regardless of age, and the fact that it's an anime (and I know how many Americans hate anime, think it's stupid, and pointless). I strongly recommend this series to all. 13.5 stars out of 10 :p