Key the Metal Idol is almost exactly the sort of anime that I think of when I think of those early 90s OVAs that I considered anime to be exclusively made up of and therefore suck. I say “almost” because while there are a few guro scenes (like when the one Miho robot rips her chest open), it wasn’t loaded with that graphic violence that I generally think of. It does however have the other two requirements: robots and tits.
of course, i have to use this cap rather than the actual nuditity
I did honestly get into Key the Metal Idol at first. I thought it was interesting how the show first tells us that Key is a robot, then suggests that maybe she’s actually an emotionally stunted girl who simply thinks that she’s a robot who thinks that she can become human. Similarly, I thought it was clever how Key tries to fulfill the story’s main objective, becoming human by obtaining 30,000 fans, by emulating Miho, an idol. The cleverness is that not only is Miho actually a robot, but even if she weren’t a robot, as an idol she’s still in a way a kind of shell.
My interest wore thin as the show went on because it began to violate one of the main tenets of good writing: show, don’t tell. The later episodes crawled because there would be lengthy scenes where Shuuichi and Wakagi would laboriously spell out the backstory. I watched 110 episodes of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, so I clearly have no problem watching characters discuss political science for five episodes before something new happens plot-wise, but when there’s two episodes left you should be ratcheting up the stakes rather than telling us what either a) you should’ve told us much earlier or b) should’ve been revealed to us in a way that makes the revelation of this information satisfying. Instead, we’re treated to scene after scene of characters sitting there explaining the difference between robot gel and robot geist.
Also, as I mentioned in the introduction, boobs. And, being an early 90s OVA, much of the boobage consists of either guro (the chest-ripping example) or creepy (the way that Ajo always keeps grabbing the deactivated Miho-bot’s boobs).
Would I watch it even if I weren’t forced? Embarrassingly, I did want to watch this show at one point, but the reason was that I had confused it with Legend of the Black Heaven. You see, I had assumed that Key was a “metal” idol in the same way that Detroit is a “metal” city.
I kind of agree. But the problem with the show only surface in the last few episodes when production was having problems so it wasn’t a big deal personally.
Still a very neat show theme-wise, even if not perfect. Need more.
Oh, interesting. I didn’t know anything about the production of the show other than what the Wikipedia article said about the pricing scheme.
funny, my gauge of how good something was gonna be before I watched it used to be how much it looked like 3×3 Eyes. This was before I saw NGE, but I still get nostalgic for mindless tits-n-violence now and again (Mnemosyne…).
I think the only reason I watched this show back in the day is it was one of those animes I could actually get my hands on (and at the time anything was “good” because it was from JAPAN~”) lol
To really find out where the show is going, you have to watch both movies. The first one consists entirely of plot exposition, filling in back story. The first third or so of the second one is more plot exposition. They finally get moving in the last half of the second movie — and once you find out what the story is, it wasn’t worth it.
The problem here is that the anime director was the writer of the original books, and he couldn’t bear to part with any of his story. This series sucked royally.
And the owner of those marvelous boobs, who also was the only interesting and sympathetic character in the series, dies horribly.
I really HATED this series. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever watched.
@SDB
I know! Everyone but Sakura is either creepy (almost everyone) or annoying (Key, Shuuichi). I wonder if the series would have benefited from chopping up the movies and sticking chunks of at certain times during the rest of the show, and then ending with the end of the 2nd movie. I can’t go so far as to say “hate”, but I had my finger on the fast forward button for a large portion of the two movies, only really stopping when it started to have the concert ending.
I watched this over the summer and used the SAME exact image.
You pretty much summed up the same feelings I had. The show is good and highly interesting but only up to a certain point sadly.
The ending was like WTF?
Yea that was shockingly angering. I was like WTF of all the people you coulda killed you had to kill the only decent character in the show
I probably slept through parts of the last two “episodes.” I guess 95-minute long episodes are movies :3
Then again, it was an OAV, so they can get away with that stuff. They probably didn’t expect you to marathon it.
I have the same opinion as Hinano for liking this series when I first it… still thought the idea was interesting…until the ending though..