Pluto

A coupling of brilliant acumen can evoke undertones of approval, or of apprehension. But all can rest assured that in the case of Pluto, the pairing of manga suspense master Urasawa and legendary cartoonist Tezuka is an exceptional good stroke of fortune. From the creators of anime giants Monster and Astroboy, the multiple-award winning manga Pluto gives first impression as a high-tension thriller that befits the reputation of its creators.

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.

Once in a couple of years, a great manga that differentiates itself from the rest of the horde, overcoming stereotypes of near-sighted librarians, perverted high school boys, and female fighters with huge chests and short skirts – at the same time unusual and ludicrous. No, Pluto does not possess any of these indiscretions. Instead, this novel offers characteristics apparent in great anime classics that moved our hearts back during the turn of the century; a robot impersonating humans and striving to acquire emotions, a tear straining allegory of an old director with music as his only memory his homeland, a child genius that can impress even the smartest of doctors, a series of robot murders, and a detective giving all he has to solve the case – all in the style of novel classics such as Akira and Monster. This is the kind of manga that we have come to love, that we have become used to during the golden age at the turn of the century.

Taking inspiration from Isaac Asimov, arguably the greatest author of robot fiction, we are presented with a retro-futuristic world, the exact prototype of envisioned by Verne, Bradbury, and Huxley. Taking insight from Tezuka, we are again presented with old characters of renown that inundates one with vast pangs of nostalgia. An entirely new universe is born from the remnants of the old. An entire world envisioned to perfection where robots coexist with humans besides building and on sidewalks, a world in which, instead of Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws, we are presented with anti-robot organizations and the trashing and replacing of machines without sympathy. A world where those who fight for the rights of robots are killed mercilessly.

The strength of the story comes from its impenetrable plot. The setting is based on a police state of a society in the near future, where the moral dilemmas of ethical treatment of machines arose after the invention and development of the robots; as such, the plot is cleverly woven, and the issues brought up subtly. We are presented with big pictures. Head of departments screaming at their officials because they are robots, criminals kept alive in order to undergo extensive examination; we are also presented with insiders. In the homes of the denizens of the city, we see families mistreating robots who have worked for them without complaints over their short life-span when they are unfit for work. Although the characterization is arguably equally important, the minor characters, the ones that Urasawa is famed for focusing in order to develop the plot, are the ones that should receive the most attention.

Regardless of whatever accepted norms in which one writes a story, Urasawa breaks expectations and brings plot progression not through the introduction of characters, not through their deaths, but through the conversations between the main character and minor characters in the story. Through the conversation with a common household robot maid – whose husband is directly involved in a robot death, the reader is reveled with insight into the emotional threshold which robots are envisioned to develop in the story, and thus, have been perfected into beings which crossed the fine line between the living and the dead; the conversation with a robot who is locked up as a psychotic human killer – introducing events happening long before the story, creating the story’s back drop without excessive filler; through the dialogue uttered by father of the greatest robot ever built Atom – another character with only rare appearances in the novel, we are introduced to new ideas through subtle means. What better way to deftly progress the plot than to use minor characters instead of the protagonists from whom we expect change? So we’d better pay attention, because seemingly unrelated allegory to a musician can explain volumes.

A great skill that Urasawa possesses is the ability to keep suspense in animation for the entire duration of the manga. Unlike its more relaxed cousins, Pluto brings the suspense permeating through the entire cast of the characters. No matter from what angle one views the purpose of the protagonist, the mood is felt throughout the manga that he is on the edge of being blown into bits or slaughtered mercilessly. There is no moment when the reader ceases to worry for Gesicht as well as his compatriot androids; they seem at once invaluable to the plot, and disposable at any moment, a large boon to casting most of the characters as robots who can be seen as more things than persons, which brings up a main motif of the novel: if robots are so close to the real thing that they may be seen to have a conscience, then are they still animated objects? Humans originate from silt, and animate through the electrical signals sent by nerve endings, a description essentially identical to that of robots; so why are we held in higher regard?

As contrasted from thoughtless stories, the presence of these aforementioned reoccurring motifs provides the opportunity for thought, adding flavor to the plot through personal interaction. In this respect, Pluto proves itself as not merely a juxtaposed series of events for entertainment, though it provides a plethora in tow, but rather, an insightful reflection towards the allegory of life’s purpose. The addendum of these motifs also serves to bind the story together by providing a central theme as well as benchmark topics that work as threads connecting one parcel to another, forming the overall sphere of plot from the background.

The jewel in Pluto’s crown is its pantheon of characters, as well as Urasawa’s use of characterization on the antagonist. Wielding dexterous bouts of diction and plot devices, Urasawa molded the villain into a constant force lurking in the shadows; albeit having few appearances, we are left with a deep impression of the deep dangers threatening the main character. There is no place that is not influenced by the darkness; even in the mildest of settings, the central conflict is unconsciously understood through symbolic harbingers. A ride in the peaceful woods can turn into an explosive battle and insinuating sabotage. What to expect? What will happen next? We are kept at the edge of our seat as we turn page after page of insidious ploys and puzzling mysteries.

Without attention grabbing action and music adding a flourish, manga is rarely preferred over anime in this community. However, belonging to part of a minority does not mean that it does not have anything valuable to offer. On the contrary, manga works such as Pluto provide an interesting alternative to much of the tasteless cash reapers debuting on adult swim. Immobile graphics burst into life with the help of our imagination, each person envisioning a different world in the mind, with glorious music fitting perfectly into the background. That is the beauty of manga. To animate the imagination.

Any way the wind blows~

General reviews overall a 10, but the art is a little too fluid for my liking. Still good art, but not perfect from my perspective. It in no way detracted from the story, but I can't give the art a perfect score.
This is a perfect melding of hard scifi, classic scifi, classic manga and new manga.
Like all great stories, the plot, characters and themes are universal. The setting and media are one that appeal to comic readers, but could easily be modified to reflect any era.
I always like stories that take us off the beaten track a little, and let's face it - the most popular series tend to get into formulas as they stretch out longer and longer. Which is why using a secondary character as the main protaganist resonates with me - we get to explore the universe of astroboy from a different angle, and being a newer title, it is from a bit of a more adult perspective.
I also found myself really thinking about the impact of robots on human society- unlike some early scifi themes, robots slip into society as people, not pure objects or servants. I found myself questioning why I thought about certain robots certain ways - I cheered for the human looking ones and felt apathetic towards the mechanical looking ones. Obvious - and yet I had to ask myself why.
All the potrayals of charcters seemed natural and real from the emotion they felt to why they felt that way. And the supporting society was believable. I didn't even need existing countries from today to think it was a real place.
The end of volume 6 also brought about a radical change in the series - one I always wanted to see/do in a story, but rarely have seen - and never so naturally.
The manga focuses more on drama than action - which I thought worked well. The action sequences were looked forward to without being so prevelant that they became the entire story.

If you haven't - check it out. One of the best in my short manga reading career - and I am already looking forward to rereading it!

This is more theory crafting than reviewing and it may have some mild spoilers.
This is an amazing manga and you should read it no matter what, don't even hesitate.
So I've just finished re-reading Pluto by Naoki Urasawa which the first ever manga I've read, about 5 years ago. I was about 14 when I first read it so I didn't understand much of it, I was a huge astro boy fan as a child so I was quite mesmerized by Pluto, even though at the time I had no idea what manga and anime was, but it still was an amazing introduction to this world even though I was quite disappointed when I found out that not all manga were as amazing amd mesmerizing as Naoki Urasawa's and Jiro Taniguchi's works, but then again that was to be expected since those works were in the adult section of the french library in my city.
But after reading it again, I was even more surprised at how amazing and well written Pluto was. I had forgotten most of what happened aside from the fact that Gesight dies and that his hatered is what revived Atom, and that Epsilon is without a doubt one of the coolest robots ever. But what I didn't catch with my first reading was how this manga was way too relevant to what happened and is still happening in this world. And beyond its final message about how hatred can't solve anything, the final pannel with the evil teddy bear made me realize something I didn't expect Urasawa to do. The manga started serialization on 2003 which is the same year that a certain country invaded a certain other cpuntry under the excuse of dictatorship and making of weapons of "mass destruction" yet they found nothing in the end if we analyze some of the bs excuses flying around and understand the real reason they started the war, and what was the reason why Pluto was created? United states of Athracia attacked Persia under the exuse of manufacturing robots of "mass destruction" when in reality they were making robots to solve the problem of deforestation. Just look at the names and the clothes of the inhabitants of Persia to understand, and not only that look at how all 7 robots from different countries all went in the aid of the Athracia, which organization does that? And at last that teddy bear that was pulling all the strings from the shadows, a weak teddy bear yet who has the help of the president of the strongest nation and even asked him to be his slave in order to protect him, I have a theory about that, just think about that certain country that's been creating problems yet is protected fiercely. I don't want to go into details as discussing my political views will just turn into an ugly sight and it's not worth it.
Those may be just speculation of my part of course, but if I'm right, then damn Urasawa is a freaking genius. I've only given three manga I've read so far 9.5 or 10/10 which are A Distant Neighborhood, Onanie Master Kurasawa and Pluto. But Pluto is without a doubt the best manga I've read in the last five years. I've always said it's my favorite even though I had almost forgotten everything about but its greatness stayed fixed in my mind. I'm really grateful that this was my introduction to manga.
For those who read the manga, I would love to hear some of youd theories and your thoughts on mine.