n the penultimate installment of this breathtaking series, Tokiko "Key" Mima's history and all her secrets were revealed in a series of ponderous monologues, while Key herself remained in a coma. The stage seemed set for a final burst of explosive action, especially with Key's best friend Sakura held prisoner by the insane industrialist Jinsaku Ajo, who begins this final episode by draining his captive's lifeforce to help power his unpredictable robot soldiers.
But even with Key's entire history laid out in moment-by-moment detail, there are still tales to tell, plans to make and concerns to air. The first third of the film drags by interminably this way, as bit players who became major protagonists in Key's absence continue to test their interpersonal rivalries, Ajo's flunkies debate tactics and worry about the future, and everyone--viewers as well as characters--quietly waits for Key to set things in motion.
But even when she does, the satisfaction is short-lived. Her efforts to free Sakura are a brief flurry of action in the middle of a morass of barely-relevant revelations and arguments. The film slides back into immobility for another half-hour while Key sleeps, wanders about dazed, or adamantly denies that it's time for her to come out of her robotic shell and finally become fully human. At long last, she faces the truth about herself, but by that time, everyone--again, both viewers and characters--is barely conscious.
Ending with a whimper, not a roar
From the hyperextended five-minute introductory sequence (a monotonous montage of two-second closeups of Key, set to music) to the laboriously slow credits to the plodding character arguments, this entire episode simply drags. The brief sequences of significant activity are so few and far between that it looks suspiciously like this started out as another 30-minute episode and was later padded to reach movie length.
Nevertheless, writer/director Hiroaki Sato, responsible in earlier installments for making Key one of the two most memorable anime series to hit America this year (along with The Irresponsible Captain Tylor), still provides Key fans with some payoff. There are quite a few emotionally shattering sequences scattered throughout this film, as well as several incomparably gorgeous images. A dream dialogue between Key and her mother is particularly beautiful, and Key's sporadic displays of humanity throughout Sakura's rescue are chillingly effective. Once again, Sato plays tricks with both time and memory throughout his work.
But time of another sort remains a driving issue for this episode--all the wasted time in getting to the core of the plot. Overall, this ending could have been half as long. Between the downbeat tone, the personal tragedy at the film's midpoint, and the gratingly lethargic pacing, Key No. 8 is likely to emotionally exhaust rather than exhilarate the fans who have been waiting for it for so long. Unfortunately, this is a distinctly disappointing cap to a distinctive and phenomenally poetic series.
