Pluto

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Japanese: PLUTO

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 8

Chapters: 65

Status: Finished

Published: Sep 9, 2003 to Apr 1, 2009

Genres: Action, Award Winning, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Suspense

Themes: Detective, Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Big Comic Original

Authors: Urasawa, Naoki (Story & Art), Tezuka, Osamu (Story)

Statistics

Score: 8.62¹ (scored by 46,885 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #86²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #101

Members: 124,632

Favorites: 5,330

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8.62

Ranked #86Popularity #101Members 124,632

MangaBig Comic OriginalUrasawa, Naoki (Story & Art), Tezuka, Osamu (Story)

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Volumes: /8

Chapters: /65

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Synopsis

Famous for his military service in the 39th Asian War, the legendary Swiss robot Montblanc is violently murdered. Humans and robots around the world mourn for the beloved celebrity. Montblanc's popularity only grew in the years following the war, thanks to his dedication to nature conservation and his loving personality.

Fellow war veteran and robotic Europol detective Gesicht is sent to investigate Montblanc's tragic demise. In his pursuit, Gesicht uncovers evidence of a mysterious entity known only as "Pluto." He also learns of a conspiratorial plot to dismantle the eight specialized robots from around the world who participated in the war. Racing against time to save those who still remain, Gesicht grapples with his memory, morality, and a world full of hate, desperately attempting to defend the fragile coexistence of man and machine.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Osamu Tezuka's acclaimed Tetsuwan Atom, seinen mangaka Naoki Urasawa collaborated with Tezuka Productions to create a dark adaptation of The Greatest Robot on Earth story arc. The adaptation shifts the focus from Tezuka's protagonist, Atom, to his supporting character Gesicht in order to better ground the story in realism.

Pluto won the ninth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and the Excellence Prize in the Manga Division at the seventh Japan Media Arts Festival in 2005. It also won the 41st Seiun Award for Best Comic in 2010.

The series was published in English as Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka by VIZ Media under the VIZ Signature imprint from February 17, 2009, to April 6, 2010.

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Reviews

Jan 10, 2009

Beatnik

Recommended

Naoki Urasawa, now an established author of pot-boiling epic thrillers such as Monster and 20th Century Boys, delivers again with Pluto, a sci-fi mash-up of Osamu Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom.

This excellent sci-fi revolves around AI robots and dispenses with the explanation of Asimov's Law of Robotics for Dummies and just gets right on with entertaining your brain with explorations of the theme of sentient life born from humanity's hands. You're either a sci-fi reader and will immediately swim in the narrative, or new to all this and thrash around unknown waters because Urasawa is not interested in holding your hand, he just wants to tell ... the bold story using the 'World's Strongest Robot' story arc of Tetsuwan Atom as a jumping point.

Urasawa even takes a supporting character of the original manga and turns them into the main protagonist, rendering Astro Boy himself into a supporting high profile cameo, and a great one at that. This entire concept of one artist dipping into another's world is fascinating and full of wild possibilities. Tezuka's imaginative universe coupled with Urasawa's tension-filled narrative is a joy to read, especially after a few volumes when crisis after crisis befalls characters pushing them to the limit.

Blade Runner, I, Robot, Ghost in the Shell, The Animatrix, to name a paltry few, the list is long and varied. All of sci-fi's greatest literature and movies play with these ideas of the relationship between AI/robots and humans, as did Tezuka and as does Urasawa. But with Pluto there is no vague posturing of whether they can fit into human society, these ideas are already established by the time the story starts.

A brilliant decision as there are already many stories about the border between acceptance and antagonism of robots, the threat of their uprising against humanity culminating in apocalyptic war, but not as many stories about robots being treated as valid citizens of countries, with jobs and families of their own, some of them even revered and idolised by the masses while others are disliked for their metallic bodies. Yes it’s an allegory for race relations, but so is all sci-fi an allegory for something, at least it’s not hackneyed in the hands of a seasoned writer like Urasawa. (uh, except for a robot-hating character called Adolf, but anyway...)

The backdrop to Pluto is great future-retro design. Skyscrapers with inexplicable tubes for commuters flowing around and between them, sleek efficient cars wrapped in glass, long roads swirling around cities. It’s a heightened fantastical futurescape full of idealism. Urasawa's characters are distinguished by their noses as usual, with different races differentiated easily, you dont ususally ever get confused with who is who in his tales.

What kick-starts this story is when a major robotic figure, loved by all, is murdered brutally. Fans of Urasawa rejoice, we have yet another exciting mystery with procedural investigation, a cast of many witnesses, suspects, criminals and cameos. This manga began publication the same year a certain country was attacked and occupied by another, and that event permeates this story, for better or worse is up to you, but its integrated well by tying many threads together into the whole mystery. The first robot victim that opens the story was one of 7 of the most powerful robots in the world. Someone is going round bumping them off. Europol detective Gesicht is on the case.

A methodical man troubled by nightmares, he is as brooding as Urasawa's previous protagonists yet having the added depth of being a robot himself. This main character is so great because there is that classic dichotomy and juxtaposition of man and robot, the constant questioning of motive and intent, the internal conflict of the character and the external conflict of his work life and private life. By robot law instilled into every AI, robots aren’t allowed to take human life, yet all surface evidence of the crimes in the story point that they could not have been perpetrated by a human, so our detective has his work cut out for him to solve the mystery while resolving the issues in his mind.

At heart Pluto is a mystery/crime thriller, and there are great intriguing cliffhangers to each chapter. We follow Gesicht as he investigates crime scenes, questions people and we also get the occasional and obligatory “regret to inform you” scene which is turned on its head. You don’t know if you're meant to laugh at the blocky metal robot in a kitchen apron being told her husband's been killed, but the pathos through dialogue and composition ends up with gravitas.

You shouldn’t be laughing at our metallic friends; they've got intelligence and emotion as much as their creators. As is amply demonstrated through many chapters with robots attempting to attain the higher level of consciousness lived by their creators. When some of them die, in their last moments they're perplexed by how much humanity they show in death and it’s poignant.

So when Gesicht gives his chapter-one ending statement with steely determination, we're firmly in the passenger seat, riding shotgun for some great sci-fi thrills.

"I will search for the killer. Whether he is robot or human, he is possessed by a demon."

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Mar 18, 2014

imjustjk

Recommended

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~

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Mar 23, 2021

unspecified-user

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

There’s something repetitive about how Naoki Urasawa draws. His skill at faces is arguably unmatched, in design and caricaturization. He captures real peoples’ features more than most mangaka even try to, yet his characters still feel completely at home in a comic. But when you read more than one of his stories, you start to notice the similarities. The same exaggerated noses and large foreheads, the same folds in skin and shapes of jaws. Rarely will he completely copy and paste a single design, but he’ll happily reuse the building blocks. It’s like picking random in a game’s character creator — the combination may be ...

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Poll: Pluto Chapter 10 Discussion DarthDaimyo - Dec 28, 2009	11 replies	by MidnightTv13 »» May 2, 8:24 PM
Poll: Pluto Chapter 7 Discussion Beatnik - Jan 10, 2009	12 replies	by cyandaqil »» Apr 7, 6:12 PM
Poll: Pluto Chapter 65 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) x_Jiro_x - Apr 5, 2009	116 replies	by ffioq »» Feb 14, 4:30 PM
Poll: Pluto Chapter 46 Discussion good-time - Feb 6, 2010	12 replies	by moeyrasheed »» Jan 26, 2:01 AM
Poll: Pluto Chapter 24 Discussion DarthDaimyo - Feb 21, 2010	7 replies	by moeyrasheed »» Jan 25, 7:17 PM

Pluto
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