Key the Metal Idol

Answers to Key Questions -- most of which are SPOILERS

  • Is Key a Robot?

    NO. Key is a flesh and blood human girl. The reason for her belief in being a robot is due to the steps Doctor Mima took to protect her from Ajo. To understand why Dr. Mima did this, one must understand the special talents of the women in the Mima family and the events prior to Key's birth. (This is what most of episode 14 describes).

    Each of the women in the Mima family demonstrated powers resembling telekinesis. With each successive generation, those powers increased. Tomiko's (Key's mother) powers surpassed those of Toyoko (Key's grandmother) just as Key's abilities far surpassed those of her mother. Concerned for Key's safety, Dr. Mima injected Key with the Gel he had collected from Tomiko during his years of study, with the result of "sealing" Key's soul--the core of her powers--from the physical world and most notably from Ajo.

  • Why does Key need 30,000 Friends?

    Key, having been injected with twenty-plus years' worth of Gel samples taken from her mother by Dr. Mima, cannot act human because of the sealing properties of the Gel. That seal can be breached, but it takes a counter-seal of equal strength. The emotional outpouring of 30,000 people on Key's behalf is the magic number that breaks the seal.

    This also explains how smaller groups of people who emote on Key's behalf can cause Key's abilites to surface: her soul is freed from its Gel prison --albeit temporarily--and her true self emerges, along with her abilities. After a time, however, the Gel of her mother re-asserts itself and closes off Key's soul, precipitating a blackout.

  • Just what is 'Gel' anyway?

    I like to call it the "Aqua Regia of the Soul". Dr. Mima's research led him to discover that a physical substance--Gel--is the medium upon which the soul exists. Everything a person truly is lives inside that delicate suspension. (I should note that Dr. Mima saw the Gel before actually determining it's nature--his wife vomited it up at one point during her pregnancy of Key's mother [ep. 14]).

  • The Mystery Photograph

    The meaning of the photograph is simple enough--if you know what to look for. Tataki saw it, and so can you. Here's a hint: look and see what does and what does not show a motion blur in the photo. (Give up? See below)

    Notice how the only things in the picture that do not appear to be moving are Key, Dr. Mima and the collapsing tower? Also see how everyone is running away from the tower and the unbalanced aspect of the drummer standing on the tower?

    Key telekinetically stopped the tower's collapse until her grandfather could be rescued. It was the first demonstration of how powerful her abilites truly were.

  • Why does Key always see her mother (the Shinto priestess) just before "awakening"?

    Remember that Key is filled with her mother's Gel, and that the true essence of her mother thus lives on in Key. When Key sees her mother, notice how the priestess nods to Key as if giving an assent. Key's mother is 'allowing' Key's soul (which has been awakened by the emotions of people) to temporarily go free at which point Key's power manifest themselves.

  • Who is Key's father?

    Sakura's father. However, this was unknown to everyone at the time, and is only a rumor in the current timeline. This makes Sakura and Key half-sisters.

  • Why do PPORs go mad?

    Because their control system is the Powerbox, which contains nothing less than the essence of some poor bastard that has been leeched out of their body by Ajo's lab gadgets and forced into the iron body of the robot. Tomoyo Wakagi said as much after his fight with Sergei in episode 7. ("Is this all you have to show for forty years of work? These iron bodies that walk around with other peoples' souls in them?") Little wonder the things end up going berserk.

  • What about Sakura's Gel?

    In the final episode, Sakura had been abducted by Ajo's team and placed in the Gel extraction device. The intent was to use Sakura's essence as bait to lure Key to Ajo's skyscraper. Key, Tataki and Tomoyo manage to rescue Sakura, but with her Gel gone, she is in bad shape.

    In what is sure to be *the* most depressing part of the entire series, Sakura dies in her own apartment shortly after the rescue. Too much had been taken from her and her body expired from the ordeal. One thing a lot of people won't know about is that as Sakura begins to slip into her final sleep, Key says to her "Sakura, don't fall asleep--if you do you will never wake up." These same words are the very first Key ever spoke to Sakura when they first met in junior high school. Sakura was falling asleep at her desk. Key, having been told by Dr. Mima "never to fall asleep or you will never wake up" in her childhood (this deals with the Gel injections Key got at that time), believes these words to the point she thinks they apply to others as well. This is why Key never sleeps (except during blackouts, when her soul is submerged into her mother's essence once again).

    The one point of hope in dealing with Sakura's death is that Key found Sakura's Gel cannister and--this is my guess, mind you--injected Miho's dying body with Sakura Gel, saving both her old friend and her new friend.

    More to come...

    Key the Metal Idol -- The Web Page / Christopher S. Rider / syzygy@mcs.com