
Key the Metal Idol ·キィ・ザ・メタル・アイドル
Tokiko Mima, nicknamed "Key," is a 17-year-old girl living in the Japanese countryside who, despite her human-like appearance, is a robot. When Key's grandfather Dr. Murao Mima passes away, he leaves her a dying message, telling her that she can become a real girl if she is able to make thirty thousand friends. Thus, Key moves from the quiet Mamio Valley to the busy streets of Tokyo, where she soon runs into her childhood friend Sakura Kuriyagawa. Key quickly becomes enamored with idol singer Miho Utsuse and wonders if becoming a singer will allow her to make the amount of friends needed for her to become human. But Miho carries a ominous secret: she is connected to Jinsaku Ajou, an old rival of Dr. Mima trying to make new a breakthrough in robotic weaponry. As Key works to become a real girl, Ajou sets a dangerous plan into action, and it turns out there's much more to Key than meets the eye.
- Created By
Hiroaki Sato
- First Aired on
Dec 16, 1994
- Popularity: 27.1446
- 6 votes
- Production
Pierrot (JP)
- Status: Ended
Show Ended
1 seaons till Jun 18, 1997
Last episode: Exit
Seasons & episodes
Total 1 seasons, 15 episodes

Season 1
Aired
Episode 1Startup30 min
As you might imagine, an innocent like Key gets into trouble pretty much the moment she arrives in Tokyo. Aimlessly wandering the streets, she's picked up by a 'photographer' for a 'model agency'... whose main line of business actually seems to be making adult videos. Luckily for her, she's rescued by a chance encounter with a childhood friend of hers, Sakura – who holds down three different part-time jobs but hasn't really decided what she wants to do with her life yet.
Episode 2Cursor I30 min
As Key settles in as Sakura's temporary houseguest, we get to see a bit more of the other lead characters in action. There's Sakura's friend Shuichi, fan club president for the famous pop idol Miho Utsuse... who herself seems somehow connected to Jinsaku Ajo, the megalomaniac CEO of Ajo Heavy Industries. Also lurking in the background is Tomoyo, Dr. Mima's old lab assistant, who has followed Key to Tokyo in order to keep an eye on her.
Episode 3Cursor II30 min
Key begins to fixate upon the idea of becoming a pop idol herself as the surest way to making 30,000 friends. In the meantime, Ajo's team are trying to determine whether she might be where Dr. Mima cached his last technological secrets before dying. When Key's presence (care of Shuichi) disrupts Miho Utsuse's latest concert, the company sends out two PPORs to hunt Key down, remotely controlled by a dangerous operative known only as 'D'.
Episode 4Access30 min
As if to confirm earlier hints that Key possesses a phenomenal power whose exact nature is hidden even from herself, this episode sees her disabling both PPORs and rescuing their secondary target from certain death. However, this display is witnessed by hundreds of passers-by... including Prince Snake-Eye, a spiritual leader who sees in Key a way to revitalise the faith of his cult followers.
Episode 5Scroll I30 min
We begin to learn more of just what Ajo and his cronies are up to, and Sakura and Shuichi have a long chat about Key and what must have happened to her when she was young to make her believe she's a robot. Prince Snake-Eye manages to catch Key off-guard and tries selling her on religion as the true path to making the 30,000 friends she needs.
Top Cast
Crew & Team

Original Music Composer

Sound Director
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