Pluto! A Manga that is based on the story of The Legendary Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.
(***The review may have some minor spoilers to Major ones, but I'll make it sure that I mark them differently***)
Well... I never read Astro Boy nor I know a bit about its story. As far as I know from the Pluto's front & back cover & its forward pages, it's clear that Naoki Urasawa, The Manga Artist of Pluto, tried to give a Tribute to the Legendary Osamu Tezuka.
Firstly, let me give my take on the main points of the review.
•Story(10/10):
As I told earlier, I don't know about its
...
link to the original Astro Boy, what I could only notice was that some of the characters in both mangas are common... Not similar but Common(I'll tell about them further).
The story is told to us in 65 chapters, divided in 8 volumes, average chapter length is 24 pages... The first & the last chapter of each volume contain some more pages than average.
The story in simple words is given in brief in the first Volume's starting pages... And that flows throughout the whole Manga, Each new volume tells a bit what it is gonna proceed with, in it.
The beginning tells that "There are 7 Most Advanced Robots in the world" & the story takes place in a world ideal for the coexistence of the Robots with A.I. & The Humans.
The story begins in typical Naoki Urasawa style, yes it starts with a Mysterious case, a murder... No, two murders, this time. The murder of one of the 7 most advanced robots in the world... Mont Blanc of Switzerland. The thing about this Manga's story is that all these 7 robots belong to the different countries, one from Switzerland, One from Turkey, Greece, 2 of them are from Asian Countries... And so.
Well these are the things anyone would notice as he/she will go along with the chapters. But here I am to tell the key things, that makes it a special manga.
The one of the most prettiest things in this manga had been that when it introduced any of these 7 robots... It had a story of it that makes you know about that character a lot and it even attaches you to the character. For instance, The 2nd robot... "North No. 2" got only few chapters but his story is very deep.
What makes it even more unique is that "How a Robot can make you feel". We know robots don't run like our brains, with emotional bias, but still the robots here, especially these 7 most advanced ones seemed to have experienced evolution.
The Story mostly runs around "Gesicht", the robot detective & the main character of the Manga along with "Atom", one of those 7 robots.
Well, Some of you might even be confused because of the title of the manga, which is Pluto... Well I will make it clear, It has nothing to do with the Planet Pluto in any way.
Pluto is the Antagonist, whether Robot or Human, It is better if I don't spoil it cz that's the mystery which will make you go through all these 6 volumes to finally get to know who or what is "Pluto".
Overall If I try to conclude how was the story, I would say, it nails in the genres it belongs to, which are Suspense-Mystery-Psychological as main. The psychological mind game is so much that it will make you have a lot of interest in what is gonna happen next. The Suspense & Mystery is all you can actually get to know from the "Synopsis" that There are 2 murders in the very beginning of the story, so a mystery, a big one, already starts from the very first chapter & continues.
I personally got shocked to experience such kind of story, as something like this comes to the experience maybe in a year or two. The way in which Naoki adjusts to simplify the complex stories, as many small stories go along but after sometimes they join each other & start to make a lot of sense. Each & Every chapter had something in it to offer, I personally enjoyed reading probably every single chapter, maybe there were some chapters which were little boring but probably not more than 5.
Well, what can I actually say about it more, the "Hatred" emotion is described in it in such a way that probably none other anime or manga stories might have offered before.
The best thing about it which I noticed is that, It doesn't need anything else to move the story further, the Characters do 100% work, they carry all the chapters, the whole story through each chapter. The presence of the Main character, Gesicht is not there in very few chapters like 8-10 at max, but mostly he is shown, which is a good sign for the people who love the presence of the main character.
One more thing I would like to add is that Naoki Urasawa's Political sense is of very high quality. I never saw any story from other artists who represent political scenerios in the most realistic way. The existence of "Far Right" groups is always in his stories & those who have good political understanding about America, UN & other bodies that pretend to protect human rights while they themselves are the biggest institutions to undo the contributions of so many great persons who dedicated their whole lives in it, would seriously find this one lovable. All of this knowledge of Practical Politics is always present in Naoki Urasawa's works and being a political enthusiast I love it everytime.
Now, I think it's time to move on to the next aspect.
•Characters(10/10):
Yes, For most part of the manga you'll find it that the characters are the base of this manga, I think I can't actually tell about Pluto without taking the name of any single character.
The manga showed what a character development should be like. The characters are so well written & also so well matched to their figures as of their dialogues, I mean who could actually do it better, Naoki Urasawa is perfect to match it.
My most favorite character from the whole manga has been "Gesicht" without a doubt... And He is a Robot. That's how mesmerising this manga was, that you would even love a robot. Well starting from Gesicht, he is the nicest guy, the hero & the key role player. His nature is more of a professional person, he always gives more attention to his work over any other thing, which is being an Inspector Robot, solving most difficult cases.
He is so busy always that he couldn't even visit Japan with his Robot Wife, Helena, they planned but over and over again, some work came up and they had to cancel it everytime but I won't spoil whether they eventually had a chance to go there or not.
He is the kind of guy I would talk about whole day but still there might be some good things that would be left off to tell. He is a kind of a guy one admires, always brave & obedient and never takes a minute to even doubt himself of being the evil at some points. That's a rare of a character to find in the stories not only of nowadays but even in classic ones.
Moving to the other characters, I should first appreciate the Human Characters, the ones that helped so much in the development of the story. Be it Gesicht's Personal Maintenance Scientist, Professor Hoffman or Dr. Ochanomizu or Dr. Tenma.
Well yes, it has a Dr. Tenma too as of Monster... Another Manga of Naoki. But here the Tenma is the creator of the Second Main Character, Atom. And he is also responsible for the creation of the most advanced AI which is a mix of 6 billion personalities or i.e. the AI chooses the best of the best personality for itself.
Back to the Professor Hoffman, he is a loving guy, you will not be able to hate him. He is a peace-loving guy & the care taker of Gesicht.
While The other Human Character whom I liked is "Adolf Haas" who performed a significant role in the middle chapters, around 30 or so. He is a bad guy with some grudge against Gesicht, who's again, A Robot.
But as the story proceeds, his character develops very well.
Now, the 7 advanced Robots, Already done with Gesicht Part, Hercules & Epsilon are the most amazing, Hercules had been the robot who always is so confident & even when he couldn't do anything to his enemy, he did the most damage to it. Epsilon is the character I found out very late that he too is a Guy Robot, lol. As you can see in the MAL's Character Info, His image seems to be like "Female Johan Liebert." He did a great job, the guy who dislike war & always wanted to help the innocent humans.
Atom & Uran are brother-sister... Uran is kind of an extroverted girl, who won't listen to others cz she believes in her ability to "Feel Grief". Atom remains till the very end, and is the character who seems to know little but actually has the most advanced AI among all the 7 robots. The twist that comes in the last volume, is where you'll love Atom more.
Now, the most impressing character throughout the whole story, for me was "Brau 1589" ... The first Robot to ever kill a human, which is banned & is a criminal offence as per the robot laws.
That guy was not the enemy of any, nor the friend but was the one who lived, till the very end, on his own... ***And as to spoil a bit, Brau ended the manga, and also ended himself. He just seems to be the guy who goes around confusing everybody but still gives the true info, but in a way the other characters would know later.***
Now comes the three characters, but stop here if you don't wanna get spoiled, cz these characters are the ones whom you can't describe without revealing some important parts of the manga.
***
Professor Abullah, whom I read as "Abdullah" for about 10-15 chapters without even getting that it is Abullah, lol. He is the guy from Persia, as the name suggests itself. He lost his family in the war & also lost himself in the very end, but in the manga the other Character, Dr. Abra is shown as Abullah; Dr. Abra is the robot whom Tenma created as the most advanced AI(after Atom). When Abullah Died, Tenma, who earlier even told Abullah that the robot with 6 billion personalities won't wake up as the AI won't be able to choose one personality out of all, adding that there is only one way to do so, which is introducing an emotional bias to the AI, which is Hatred & Anger, made that robot wake up, and the shocking thing was that the robot took the personality of Professor Abullah out of 6 billion. Why? Cz In the very end of his life, Professor Abullah felt hate, and so much hate that he even wanted to destroy the whole world.
Now Dr. Tenma places the chip of Abullah in the robot, he wakes up as Abullah. Now, how did Abullah got a chip being a human, is due to him being badly injured in the war that most of his body parts were substituted with machines.
Now, Goji, who is in Abullah... Abullah who is Dr. Abra, now the two personalities make two robots, Dr. Abra creates Pluto, which has Sahad, another existing robot who wanted to turn Desert into Fertile land, & Goji creates Bora. Bora is the robot which is the ultimate weapon of Mass destruction while Pluto still has Sahad inside it, who helps save the earth along with Atom in the very end of the series.
Now, the question, why the manga is named Pluto is also solved. Cz Pluto is the guy, who did all the murders, to reach this final stage so that Bora can destroy the earth, eventually destroyed himself so that Earth is saved... Why? Cz it has Sahad who wanted to make the Earth environmentally sustainable again.
Pluto is the last Robot who dies, & eventually the ultimate saviour of the Earth.
***
Now The spoiler section has ended. It comes the turn of Another aspect.
•Art(10/10):
Now some will think I am biased, as I rated all the three main aspects in the manga as 10/10. But I can't help it cz I didn't find anything which I'll complain about in the art direction of the manga. The characters are designed so well, the climax scenes are perfectly well crafted, also the manga is from 2004 so the art is as usually very classic. But I think its art is quiet better than Monster Manga as it's very old as compared to Pluto.
Only Epsilon's character design I didn't understand why was that like it. I mean, Naoki could have shown Epsilon as "her" but showed it has "him". Also, the nature of him seemed quite girl like, very kind and generous, emotional towards small kids & so.
What I really find unique in Naoki Urasawa Art is that the emotions flow perfectly through the art. Even if there are no dialogues, you'll feel the mood of the scene. He is probably the best mangaka for Suspense & Mystery as the characters of him are very serious & you won't find like their nature has changed even for a bit... It seems very humanlike.
Well there is nothing much to talk about the Art section, it's just perfect for the story & it gives justice to it. It's not something like nobody could've drawn better but the thing is, it just suits the mood of the story perfectly. If any other artist would've drawn this, he/she had to do only one thing with focus, not disturbing the mood of the story, the emotions must seem real, the characters must seem to have a voice, they must sound in your mind when you read a dialogue.
Well That's enough for this section. Moving to the next part... Which I think most of the people, probably nobody talks about, But I think I will as I want to do a kind of experiment with this review, whether this section fits in & there is really something to talk about this section. And the section is -
•Dialogues(10/10):
This is something you can't probably rate. But I thought I would do cz I literally find it very unique that how some series have so many great dialogues while some don't even have one. This one, probably had tons of impressive dialogues, not only impressive, but inspiring too.
The life changing philosophy that it portrayed through the dialogues, the character development, everything with dialogues were perfect.
As per My rating style, I think this manga gave some very key dialogues which describe that yes, this is from Pluto. Like In Monster, the Johan's dialogue in the very ending scene is so relevant to the whole Monster series, there are similarly many in Pluto too.
Not only that, How was the language, whether there were any abusive words used, was the language suitable to all age groups & so many questions.
Pluto is suitable for all age groups, None of the scenes were there which will be of any harm to any child, but yeah the concepts & ideas it talks about, you must be having a mind that understands the importance of the Earth & the life & stuff like that, Cz someone who reads manga only for fun purpose might not get the full of what this masterpiece offers.
Now, one of the most repeated dialogues in the manga is "500 Zeus A Body." It literally will make you feel why the heck it is there always almost in every chapter but when you'll get the answer of it, you are gonna probably have a good smile on your face but You'll also be sad if You literally got connected to the character with whom it is related.
"Nothing Comes of Hatred" is another very favorite dialogue from it.
"What I've always feared the most is myself" and so many others. The emotions are flowing straight from the dialogues.
Now, I would like to move on to the final aspect.
•Enjoyment(10/10):
I should probably say that I enjoyed Pluto a bit more than Monster, which I actually saw and not read. Well Pluto is not that lengthy but still not like less than 50 chapters, so I enjoyed reading almost every single one, I can surely rate it 10/10... There is not much to say cz Maybe some people enjoy it more or less as per their taste but if You are someone who loves Suspense, Mystery & Psychological with some philosophical scenerios, I would highly recommend it.
I completed it within 2 weeks or so... And those who binge read, I think it would be very enjoyable for them, Go through Volume to Volume instead of marking chapters in the middle cz Every single Volume has something new & different to show plus it also develops the story further with more connect to it, in each volume some mysteries get solved while some new ones emerge or it might happen that the already established mystery gets even tougher to solve, but it catches your interest even more then.
If I talk about the ending, It was satisfying for me... The Snail scene with Atom which you'll see somewhere in 3rd or 4th volume, when repeated in the last one, makes it so ironical & I really loved that scene; Also, The final scenes were chilling, absolutely one of the best Manga or Anime Endings.
Anyway, I would say I enjoyed it so much that It has become one of my most favorites, The story was so inspiring, the characters & everything fall so well in place... Just loved it.
-
Concluding all this... I would recommend you this manga if you have already read or watched any of Urasawa's other works and enjoyed it, and even if you didn't enjoy it, I would say try this one.
Those who love Psychological, Philosophical & Mystery-Suspense... It's highly recommended but wait, There are a lot of action scenes too, And as I am not an action fan, Still I loved action scenes in this manga somehow. Well it's a Sci-Fi afterall so anybody can get the most out of it even if you don't have much interest in the core genres, I talked about that above.
I really think it's more than enough now, Most of you might have not even read it half but it's okay, Cz It is my responsibility If I take a Manga or Anime to review it, I must discuss it in detail or otherwise there is no need to do it. I might have forgot many things which could've been even more helpful to the people but You know, We write and then remember something, we edit and then again remember something, it's never ending, As what I talked here, I think it's still very much of a detail to the people who actually want to read this manga & have got stuck on the review section that only if they find it impressive then they will give it a try. So I hope I could help anyone out there who just had some doubts about it & also I hope You didn't read the spoilers, you know it's for those who have already read the manga and want some good points to appreciate or criticise.
Just don't mind the silly mistakes if I made some, It took a hard time to write this one cz I literally loved this series and couldn't help without appreciating it & sharing it to others the mesmerising experience that I got.
Thank You to Naoki Urasawa at first!
And then, Thank you to all the people who considered my review worth their time... Thank You very much!
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Jun 30, 2022
Pluto! A Manga that is based on the story of The Legendary Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy.
(***The review may have some minor spoilers to Major ones, but I'll make it sure that I mark them differently***) Well... I never read Astro Boy nor I know a bit about its story. As far as I know from the Pluto's front & back cover & its forward pages, it's clear that Naoki Urasawa, The Manga Artist of Pluto, tried to give a Tribute to the Legendary Osamu Tezuka. Firstly, let me give my take on the main points of the review. •Story(10/10): As I told earlier, I don't know about its ... 
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