Key: The Metal Idol, episode 7, “Run.” Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.
Available on Crunchyroll.
Man, this show can be brutal. The first third of this episode is an extremely bloody and magnificently directed action sequence. So far, I’m consistently astonished at how good this show is: Arresting imagery, compelling story, intriguing characters. It’s a brooding nail-biter.
This episode continues from the cliffhanger of the episode previous: Sergei, the stone-cold killer working for Ajo Heavy Industries, has marched into a meeting of a snake cult and begun killing everyone to get to Key, who’s currently unconscious after performing an apparently miraculous healing. Key’s longtime bodyguard Wakagi shows up, and he and Sergei proceed to seriously maim each other. Prince Snake-eye, foolish yet sympathetically portrayed, tries to intervene—and pays for it.
Synopsis
In the course of the fight, Wakagi reveals some new information: The reason the robots so easily go out of control is because, when piloting them, Sergei is placing part of his consciousness inside of them, and that part tries to take revenge when it comes in contact with a “certain power” that frees it. The power in question, of course, comes from Key.
We don’t have all the details, but that is apparently the purpose of the “gel” inside the robots’ power cores: it presumably has some ability to absorb or mimic the human mind. That might explain why the robots’ pilots experience physical pain and mental distress.
Meanwhile, the episode confirms what we already learned previously: Ajo himself, president of the evil corporation, is cuh-razy. While Wakagi and Sergei mutilate each other, Ajo fondles the breasts of, and then cuts open with a knife, the robot form of Miho. His reason for doing so is unclear, but what is clear is that he’s nuts. We know, at least, that he’s obsessed with the robots and considers them his children.
While Key is unconscious, the singing voice again starts coming from electronic devices around the city.
Tataki, who is president of the idol Miho’s fan club, is trying to investigate what’s going on with Key, but has not learned much. Wakagi briefly warns him to stay away from Miho and to mind his own business.
Sakura, meanwhile, gets in even deeper: As the episode ends, she decides to become Key’s manager and help her in her dream of becoming an idol.
Discussion
This is the end of the series’ first “program.” The next six episodes make up the second part, and then there are the two movie-length episodes after that to bring the story to its conclusion.
It’s kind of grody at times, as I knew it would be, but I would easily rank this up there among the best anime I’ve seen. I’d previously heard complaints that it’s slow-paced or boring or badly constructed, but so far I think it’s really, really good.
