Key: The Metal Idol, episode 8, “Go To.” 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.
There has not been any distinctive shift in tone or content, but this episode nonetheless represents the beginning of Key’s second arc.
Although the story here picks up immediately where the previous episode left off, this is in a sense a transitional episode as it has little action and only minimal advancement of the story.
Sakura has taken on the role of Key’s manager and now tries to get her work as an idol. Having no connections of her own, she first goes to her best friend Suichi Tataki. Tataki is the president of a Miho fan club, and Sakura hopes he has connections. He doesn’t, but he does warn Sakura and Key away from working with Minos Productions, which hosts Miho; Minos is a front organization for Ajo Heavy Industries, and it apparently exists for no reason except Miho’s promotion.
From there, further discouragements follow. Sakura lands a few auditions for Key, but Key, being the spaced-out and clueless girl she usually is, doesn’t know how to perform. A few scouts even tell Sakura that she could be an idol herself, echoing what the sleazy child-pornographer Tamari had concluded earlier when he sent his bodyguard to hunt Sakura down.
The episode ends with Sakura in the shower (gratuitously naked Sakura being the show’s one pointless diversion into fan service) and thinking back over the discouraging day. She wants to get Key into show biz, apparently in the hopes that it might finally cut through Key’s delusion of being a robot, but everyone she meets is telling her to get into show business herself.
Meanwhile, the mysterious voice continues to emanate from televisions and computers when Key sleeps.
And Ajo, leader of Ajo Heavy Industries, continues his descent into madness; he holds in his hand some goopy substance—probably the aforementioned “gel”—and gloats over the gibbering, drooling man from whom it was extracted.
It appears that powering the robots does indeed require taking something vital from people.
