Key the Metal Idol

Seventeen-year-old Tokiko Mima—known as “Key”—lives quietly in Japan’s countryside, outwardly indistinguishable from a human despite being a robot. After her grandfather, Dr. Murao Mima, dies, he leaves her one final message: she can become a real girl if she manages to make thirty thousand friends. With that hope, Key leaves Mamio Valley for Tokyo, where she reunites with her childhood friend, Sakura Kuriyagawa.

Drawn to the world of pop music, Key becomes captivated by idol singer Miho Utsuse and begins to believe that singing might be the path to the connections she needs. Miho, however, is tied to an unsettling secret involving Jinsaku Ajou—Dr. Mima’s former rival—whose work in robotic weaponry threatens to pull Key into something far more dangerous, hinting that her own origins may be more complicated than they appear.