by Naoki Urasawa, co-authored by Takashi Nagasaki
8 Volumes, released in English by Viz Media
Pluto is Takashi Nagasaki's spin on the Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy series, or Mighty Atom/Tetsuwan Atomu as it is known in Japan. The Americans have an annoying habit of renaming/remaking everything to make it less foreign, although in this case it does sound snazzier as Astro Boy.
Anyway Pluto is quite a riveting read, and you do not have to possess any knowledge of Astro Boy in order to follow the story, which Takashi Nagasaki based on "The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc from the original comic. (This story is found in Astro Boy volume 3, released in English by Dark Horse Comics and one of the hardest volumes to find in the series)
Pluto centers around Gesicht, a sentient robot detective who investigates a trail of robot and human deaths. A robot is apparently behind the murders, which is puzzling as the rules that govern robots state that they cannot kill humans. Pluto raises questions of ethics and human hypocrisy, discrimination ( shown through robot discrimination) and of course the real victims of war, which in this case are women, children and robots. Also let us not forget about The United States of Thracia investigating Persia for Robots of Mass Destruction, and despite not finding any evidence, goes on ahead to start a war anyway. Sounds familiar?
I have never read manga before so this series is the first of which i have completed. I LOVE IT. Amazing art and detail and very well-crafted flow of the panels really make Pluto worth the read for manga fans and newbies alike. It also made me interested in the original Astro Boy, and a quick google search trawled up this comparison between Urasawa and Tezuka's style.
I'm really glad Urasawa went and made Pluto his own in terms of style. The designs for the original Astro Boy is really amazing as well. I mean, look at Pluto! (First row, panel 3). Is that badass design or what? :D
I really love how the story builds up over the series, and how the heavier themes of war, politics and human/robot nature is explored. I would recommend finding all 8 volumes and reading it at one go as each volume ends with a cliffhanger... and you really do not want that. Also, Pluto is definitely for older readers as evidenced by the art style and content.
I did wonder how Brau 1589, being so heavily damaged, managed to escape and crawl from Germany to the president in UST. With that pipe in his chest.
More interesting trope exploration:
