Review - Pluto

One of Japan's greatest mangaka (if not the greatest), Osamu Tezuka, wrote the beloved story of a robot boy, who would later become one of the most prominent icons of Japan manga.

Title page for Mystery Man of the Blast Furnace (Astro Boy, 1961) 

Astro, the child robot that was created in the manga Astro Boy in 1951, gets a fresh story retelling in Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto. Specifically, the manga is based on Osamu’s "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc. Unlike the tame fairytales found in Osamu’s Astro Boy, Urasawa’s version tells a darker and more mature side of a world inhibited by both humans and robots.

 Pluto volume 1, Viz Media

In the future world, humans have created intelligent robots that live alongside them as normal citizens. The robots are given rights. They can have a job, marry another robot, and even adopt robot children, as long as they adhere to the Three Laws of Robotics, the most fundamental being the prohibition to harm a human being.

Gesicht, a Europol detective whose identity is significant (and I won’t spoil it here), gets assigned to a murder case of one of the seven most advanced robots in the world. The case is baffling, as only another advanced robot could have destroyed a super robot. Before the case has been solved, another murder case crops up, this time of a human. All cases point to the same culprit, but can a robot be capable of killing a human being?

  

 Who is capable of killing a super robot and a human? (Source: MangaReader.net)

Before I even started reading Pluto, I was already hooked on Naoki Urasawa’s manga. Before Pluto, I was reading Billy Bat, and way before that, 20^th Century Boys and Monster. Urasawa is a fantastic storyteller, and an incredible mangaka. He weaves extraordinary stories that wraps you into his world, and makes you care for the people in it, like they were very close friends and family.

In Pluto, I get to know Gesicht, I get to know how incredible he is as a detective, and underneath that cold exterior, is a person who genuinely cares. Through him, I get to know his lovely wife, and how beautiful their relationship means. I see the world that is created by Osamu and Urasawa through his eyes, and learn what it means to be someone living there, whether as a human or a robot.

 Who knew that under the cool exterior, is a loving man? (Source: MangaReader.net)

In what could perhaps be the best moment in the manga, Gesicht meets with Atom, the wonder boy robot. In the original Astro Boy, Atom stands out because of his metal-looking hair and clothes – or rather, the lack of them. Here in Urasawa’s world, no one would have been able to point out the boy from a crowd, as he is actually built to be identical to a human being. He is fascinating, in that he sees the world through a kid’s eyes. He’s interested with snails, he enjoys eating ice-cream, and he even cries. In Atom, the line between robots and human beings are blurred so much, that I can’t help but think of him as made of flesh and blood. Gesicht has trouble differentiating Atom from a human boy as well, and their meeting is important for both of them to learn what it’s like to be on the other side of the human/robot fence.

 The moment Atom said he wanted ice cream, I feel in love. (Source: MangaReader.net)

The world drawn by Urasawa is beautiful but unforgiving. Lush forests still dot the landscape, while futuristic skyscrapers built on platforms look like they float in the air. But in Central Asia, the war wounds are still fresh. The war is a major plot point in Pluto, and Urasawa makes it gut-wrenchingly so. Nothing is sugar-coated, and it feels like my heart is being rent apart. That’s what Urasawa does best. He rends hearts.

Two examples of Urasawa's near realistic depictions of sceneries. (Source: MangaReader.net)

Be warned, there is a significant amount of deaths in the manga, each one more heartbreaking than the last.

 

Just as breathtaking movies benefit most from amazing cinematography, Urasawa’s manga benefits from his masterly use of panels. Scenes flow from one panel to the other effortlessly, sometimes deliberately lingering on important moments to let the feelings sink in.

  Urasawa lets the panels do the talking. (Source: MangaReader.net)

Though I have a few bones to chew on after finishing the manga, particularly about a few loose threads, they do not detract from the overall enjoyment I received. For a few days after, the story gnawed on my mind. The mind kept replaying certain scenes, while the heart kept longing for more of the characters that were killed off too soon.

Only masterpieces deserve to be immortalized forever in the reader’s mind, long after the last page of the manga had been read.

Pluto has won the 2005 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Grand Prize, which Urasawa had also won for Monster in 1999. It also received an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2005.

Have a taste of the manga here.

(If you like this manga, please buy the original to show your support to the author. I am definitely buying the full set as soon as I cleared some space for my already crowded bookshelves.)

Hi! Nice to meet you!

What was the first comic ever drawn? If ever there was a question as significant as the first word ever spoken by our ancient ancestors. Who can tell? It might be a caricature of a pet mammoth, in the veins of a delightful family comedy; or it could be the mauling of a disliked neighbour by a sabre-toothed cat, in full gory details, masquerading as an uncensored gore comic.

(If you’re interested in knowing the first published comic though, try here.) 

For me, the first comics I know came from my elder brother, who was (was, because I’m guessing he had out-growned them by now) an avid comic fan. It was during the 90s, when Hong Kong comics were the rage among Chinese-reading teenagers. Tony Wong was considered the King of Hong Kong comics, and his Jade Dynasty Comics nurtured more than a handful of rising comic artists. But my brother is a fan of one of his most prominent comic artist, Ma Wing Shing, the creator of Chinese Hero and Fung Wan (Storm Riders).

Never a fan of Hong Kong comics myself, I just skimmed through his prized possessions when he wasn’t at home. I somehow had the impression that he would skin me alive if he had found out that I’d been touching his books. 

Then, my brother started to buy a weekly manga magazine (published locally) that would be delivered to our doorstep every Saturday. At first I would (as nosy little sisters do) flip through the whole thing, and then drop it aside. The one manga that would catch my eye and started this whole comic-loving history of mine was Hell Teacher Nūbē, the quirky and super funny-and-scary ghost manga. I’m not sure how the two-person team of mangaka and the story writer did it, but the series gave me fits of hysterical laughter and chills up my spine at the same time, and later sleepless nights.

From then on, it was a discovery of a lot of interesting manga. From Rurouni Kenshin to Detective Conan, it seemed like there were tons of good stories to whet my insatiable appetite. 

My love affair with Japanese manga lasted for quite some time, because there were so many good stories with a wide variety of genres. But my selection was limited to what can be bought in magazines and tankōbon, translated to Mandarin (there wasn’t a market for English-translated manga yet back then, and Malay-translated manga are really limited).

And then, people started posting scanlated manga on the Internet. My choices expanded to Korean manhwa and Taiwan manhua. Later, I found webcomics posted usually by western comic artists. It feels like comics/manga/manhwa/manhua are experiencing a great growth spurt.

I just figured, since I’ve been gorging myself with famous/less famous stories alike, I can do some good by introducing the lesser known ones to other people. Readers don’t need another person telling them how awesome D.Gray-man is, but they might appreciate an introduction to Eden: It's an Endless World! And since almost everyone is hooked on manga nowadays, why not try a webcomic from Dubai (Warrior U)?

It’s a tiny wish on my part, that I can share the guffaws I have on reading comics. I hope you’ll enjoy the stories that I’ll be introducing on this blog as well.

Neko