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.)