Copyright© 1997 Sato Hiroaki / Pony Canyon, Fuji TV, FCC, Studio Pierrot

For a great overview of the Japanese release of KEY, take a look at our KEY: THE METAL IDOL review from a few years back in EX 2.2. It really does a better job of explaining the world of KEY than I could do here. As such this will be a quick look at Viz's new DVD release of the series, and a few personal opinions of KEY in general.
KEY: THE METAL IDOL is a serious, 15 "episode" plot-driven anime placed in near-future modern day. Similar to the popular SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN, KEY has a sci-fi tone to its story and leaves many mysteries for later. This first disk from Viz is a dual-layered DVD with the first seven episodes and runs for about 210 minutes.
The plot revolves around Key, a robotic girl living in a human world. When her "grandfather" dies, she is left with his last words where he said that she can become human if she gains 30,000 friends. Armed with this strange and seemingly impossible task, she heads to Tokyo. There she meets up with some old friends, and decides to embark on the quest to become an idol. But how can Key (who seems to be the opposite of a popular idol) achieve her goal? What mysterious powers does she unknowingly possess? Why are shadowy people after her? Why are unknown people helping her? Why does she really need 30,000 friends? All these questions and much more get posed and, for the most part, answered over the course of the series.
KEY was an OVA series, and as such has above average TV production values, if not amazing. The music is excellent, and I quite enjoyed many of the songs sung by Shibahara Chiyako (whom I had the pleasure of meeting in 1997). And while I preferred the Japanese track over the English, I still found the English dub to be very respectable.
Technically, this first KEY disk from Viz is good. There is the occasional artifacting of the video image, and the print is spotty in some episodes, but this is certainly a dramatic improvement over the VHS release. They also included a nice graphical gallery of production art, and a few text screens from an interview with the director Sato Hiroaki (which contains no real spoilers).
After the first few episodes, KEY becomes a "page-turner" and will likely have you rushing to watch the next episode. It can be pretty dark in spots and there is the rare scene of partial nudity, so I would not recommend KEY for children. But overall, while I tend to feel SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN had more style, KEY: THE METAL IDOL contains many of the good qualities that made LAIN so evocative. With a strong plot, interesting characters and a mysterious situation, KEY is a memorable experience.

Released in North America by Viz Communications
Bilingual DVD, 210 Minutes
English dubbed / Japanese with English subtitles, D-KM001
$29.99
Available now in the USA
Where to buy