Pluto Episode 1 Discussion

Readers and characters who interpret the laws of robotics seem to neglect that the prohibition of making AI that can kill humans doesn't preclude it, and I don't mean the creator breaking the law, but, just that an AI could still kill a human through negligence or unforeseen circumstances. In reality, they would not work and good stories explore the loopholes and consequences, but suppose such laws existed, being regulations for manufacturers would make the most sense to me. No way could there be laws for the robots themselves written in natural language.

Side note: Do any Tezuka fans here know if he ever talked about Asimov? There are many sci-fi works exploring the relationship between AI and humans but it's interesting to me that both authors came up with their own list of Laws of Robotics.

North No. 2, a robot with PTSD comes to serve a reclusive composer struggling to create a new piece and moans at night from nightmares. Despite being a robot, North No. 2 goes to great lengths to find the tune for Paul, uncovering the truth about what terrorizes him in his sleep.
The unlicensed Japanese doctor who operated on Paul Duncan was Blackjack, right? Paul is regarded as past his prime by filmmakers who only, want to use his existing scores for movies, not a new piece.
Soon after Paul is approved to be his piano tutor, the murderer of beloved Mont Blanc and a robot rights activist comes to fight the war veteran.

In Japan, Gesicht meets Atom in the rain.

Pluto is my 3rd fav work by Urasawa after Monster and 20CB, but the episode felt little bit underwhelming maybe because I know what's gonna happen. The North story really caught me off guard when I was reading the manga, nevertheless great episode but under my expectation.
Still not sure about I'm gonna continue it or not, I loved the manga and I'm actually satisfied the way I consumed this story, so I don't really feel like that I need to watch its anime too.

I can't stop thinking the whole time while watching the episode about how amazing the 20CB would be with this level of animation...

Episode - 4/5

i don't joke when it comes to criticizing anime. You should know that by now.

yes i AM complaining this type of visuals. Rather than "good" animation this is more just "flash and gloss".

did i say it was bad?

wow what an atypically good response.

More than that, what pisses me off about how you guys responded was you go on assuming things "oh this is joke, this is bait" and generalizes me as another "bad animation" complainant instead of ACTUALLY addressing my original statement. I mentioned Astro Boy 2003 and neither of you touched upon that.

So much time passed since the announcement, I didn't even know it was airing. Had only a peek at it and it already looks like anime of the season.

Yeah, the entire episode had me glued to the screen. Was anxious during the Duncan and North.2 part. Was hoping it could end on a happy note, yet that wouldn't make as much sense as North.2 becoming a victim of Pluto as well. That was an impactful story.

Animation style during the confronation with the junky was pretty interesting.

Don't really care about how this is based on Astro Boy aside from thinking "oh cool" lol.

i'll do you one better; how about the one interpreting who should've asked the short statementer what he actually meant by his short words FIRST before making any hasty interpretations?

but i neither used Berserk nor the anime equivalent to it tho. Berserk's reputation with its art is enough for anyone even if they HAVEN'T read it to raise their eyebrows to such claims.

NOT with Astro Boy.
Does it have Berserk's reputation? No.
More importantly, have you watched it? No.
MOST importantly, did you address it? NO.

So all in all using Berserk as the analogy is irrelevant itfp.

Sorry if this sounds like scolding you. The point i'm tryna make with it is that i have more right to get angry after having been misunderstood compared to you complaining about my comment being too short.

no i didn't mean it that way.

Look, generally speaking Pluto's animation is indeed good by today's standards. I'll praise it that much. That's one.

Two, what i meant by "flash and gloss" is the sparks/flashes flying through, away or by during fast paced scene like in Gesicht vs drug guy encounter, and how the ridges and edges of the objects particularly in the background during slower or static scenes look like oiled, gloss-coloured plastics. Like literally, all you need to do is replay the ep and pause some frames randomly and you'll see the noticeable shininess in most if not every single one of them.

Granted, this is a recurring thing among anime from 2012 onwards. Just one of the downsides of digital animation sadly (Mob Psycho, Devilman Crybaby, Ping Pong etc wanna have a word with that) but my problem with Pluto is the fact they're WAY too noticeable sth i had already doubted when we first talked about this show a few months back.

Akira is a 1988 movie (as old as literaturenerd) drawn on sheets of papers so i don't think it's a fair comparison. Even if it is that just says how impressive AKIRA is not Pluto.

NOT when you consider this is a Netflix ONA series that had 6 years to develop (more than MAPPA had with CSM) with freaking Masao Maruyama behind it. Tengoku Daimakyou should win that if you ask me.

sorry no.

i consider "art" separate from animation. "Art" in my book is basically when you pause the non fast-paced scenes and remove the colours. Pure drawing you could say and the still image you get is "art", the rest is "animation".

Lotgh DNT (2018), Stand Alone Complex and Sentou Yousei Yukikaze (2002), etc already did that before.

"a lot" yes not sure about "unholy".

Before i end i wanna get a bit into the aforementioned Astro Boy. I watched the 2003 adaptation, non-blu ray/remastered version whatsoever, just the raw completed product, in 480p, and it looked like this


Despite that being the OP the in-scene animation quality looks literally the same and consistently throughout, with like half of the OP itself includes literally IN-SCENE clips.

Without spoiling the show for you that's as far as i go in terms of pure animation quality. Back to Pluto, there's another issue. Despite it being an alternate more mature seinen adaptation of the original Astro Boy by Tezuka, the aesthetics is simply lacking. Compared to the 2003 show as well as two other anime closest to it, one being Metropolis (2001) which is yet ANOTHER Tezuka adaptation (by Madhouse on top of that), and ofc Monster, Pluto's animation is sorely missing the dark and gritty natures it should've had. Instead it's too bright and i don't mean that in a wise sense.

Hell, i didn't even have to go far into the classics. We've had Tengoku Daimakyou and the airing JJK2 recently. Even those two are well-darkened.

Black Jack voiced by Akio Otsuka it's so badass!

Where can I find the song that North #2 sings before he dies?

AOTY.
Urasawa's writing is so complex, most people won't even notice this is an ASTRO BOY story.

@Tishues all episodes are already out on netflix and torrent

but im gonna watch 1 episode per day so i will let others make the rest of the episode threads

no ofc not. The "even" doesn't necessarily mean "x bad" and "y worse". It could mean "overrated" or "not living up to its counterpart" or "this show itself looks good but its counterpart is simply goated" and on and on it goes. That's why i said it's a hasty interpretation. It ultimately depends on the context that the person is speaking in and for my case in case you're missing it by "even Astro Boy 2003 looked better" i meant that Pluto's animation despite having a veteran Maruyama producing it has such careless flaws (the flash and gloss thing), it didn't meet my expectations pure quality-wise, it didn't live up to its predecessor despite the 20 year gap, and it confirmed my doubts before that it's more "flashes" than actual "good animation" yet i see everyone hyping it and how i predicted that even Astro Boy would look better than it (the first time i made this comparison was somewhere in AD a week before it came out) from what the trailers showed me.

Where is "x bad, y worse" in that?

sure it wasn't offensive or anything but this is the 2nd time you've used the "you gotta be joking" thing with me. The first one was in the MT's animation discussion couple months ago. I didn't expect to see you using it again.

hold on didn't you say
you might wanna enlighten me a bit on this.

would you say the battle shounen concept is good period?

no i'm just keeping the standards legit here bcoz you didn't just say "it does well" instead you said
BUT, if you're merely saying "it does well" by that then fine. No issue with that.

well they stick out. That's the error.

oof not the sound. I didn't find it adding anything at all. The soundtrack for example, they exist. They're not bothersome but neither do they evoke any emotions inside me or aesthetically good or whatever. Same thing with the sound fx. And visually speaking, some scene transitions i find too abrupt as if they were done by non-professionals. Then there's the characters having visions. You can look at it but nothing trippy.

yeah i can agree Pluto not being the conventional "dark" at least. But expectedly it does get darker the longer it goes.