Login
After twenty years, it’s finally here, the long awaited adaptation of the beloved manga Pluto, itself a reversion of an arc of Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy, and although it rearranged the order of some events, it did a great job in translating the original to the screen.
In terms of visuals, as you have come to expect from something done by Naoki Urasawa, there is a consistent artwork, realistic character designs, beautiful and accurate renditions of real locations around the world, and great paneling and special effects. The anime does a good job in capturing the aesthetics of the manga but not in the same level of quality, the artwork is indeed very good, the backgrounds are indeed beautiful, and the updated designs for the robots are far better than the originals from seventy years ago, but as it happens with everything from the author, the human characters have very similar faces, reading the manga and watching this anime feels like you are consuming Monster all over again. Plus the anime has very static animation, with very few very well animated and very well directed scenes, and although the special effects, lighting and shading are very well done and do a good job in imitating retro coloring and aesthetics, the CGI present in the series is not as good as everything else, coming off as quite jarring and clashing with the rest of the visual elements.
In terms of audio, Pluto has sound effects that range from the incredible to some that are good, but are also done to be similar to retro sound effects, and thus they are weaker than the others. The music does its job just fin but it’s nothing amazing nor nothing that stands out that much, the main theme, which is also used as the ending song before the switch in protagonists, feels like it belongs in a spy flick, and I don’t know why they went with that, when Gesicht is a detective, not a spy. The voice acting is simply one of the best in years, very well casted, with most people being very experienced or straight up a veteran in the medium, fitting, mature, and atypical even, as the seiyuus don’t portray their characters as they usually do.
When it comes to its plot, Pluto retains some of the naivety and narrative weaknesses that you could expect from the original work and era that inspired it, since to its core it’s a story about one single robot killing off seven others who all have such advanced capabilities they basically have super powers, and they patiently wait for their enemy to arrive and kill each one of them one by one, instead of forming a group and face the threat all together to survive, plus the antagonists at some point feel like butt hurts who redirect their hatred to the wrong people, exactly because they know that they can’t do much against those that they really want to kill out of revenge.
As you can see, the overall plot structure of Pluto wouldn’t allow it to be a very good series, at best it would be a decent semi episodic action show but not much else. What Urasawa did to enrich the whole thing was turn it into a typical story of his, and fill it with the themes and messages you can expect from him.
Thus, what was initially just a campy straightforward action series, becomes a murder mystery where you see the protagonist gathering clues and using his own resources, connections and logic to tie things together and find the culprit, not finding it out of nowhere or through some supernatural stuff. Plus this is not a baity type of mystery show, questions keep piling up but answers are given shortly afterwards, without delaying the plot and keeping the viewer in the dark, it’s the type of mystery that follows the procedures of the protagonists to find the answers, not one of those that present seemingly unrelated clues for the viewer to reach the conclusion on their own, I thought I had to clarify that, if you go into this series expecting something like that, you will be disappointed.
With that said, I have to say that at some point Gesicht does comes into some clues and people related to the main culprit out of luck and convenience, he still does his proper job of tying everything together alright, but that doesn’t change the fact that the writing did get lazy at some point for him to be able to do that.
Pluto is also a war drama, as every major character has taken part of a brutal war, and are haunted by all the killings they did at some point in the past during their lives. For those that have consumed Fullmetal Alchemist, it has some similarities to the Ishvala arc in some places, for those that know their history, they will easily notice the real life war and invasion which the one from here is based on.
And it’s also an existential drama thanks to some of the robots being so advanced that they blend in within humans and many of the latter can’t tell the differences. Despite that being the case, the manga and anime do a proper job in showing what robots can’t do that humans can, even though it gives the androids emotions and stuff, they can’t cry, they can’t feel the exact same things as a common human being, they can’t express themselves in the same way, and most of the stuff they do on a daily basis comes from imitating humans so they can feel as part of the same society and blend within it. And unlike NieR:Automata ver1.1a from this same year, it makes more sense here on this setting for machines to have the concept of being a superior being as basically the same as being equals to humans, since that species is the most present and dominant all around the world and around them all the time, whereas in the other series, they are nowhere to be found or seen. Likewise, since the human characters are the creators of said androids, it makes sense of them to make them to their resemblance and think of them as advanced the more similar they are to them, despite the illogical actions that can come from that, which is exactly what Tenma warns everyone else about.
Pluto also bothers to show different perspectives around these androids, as they are legally allowed to marry, adopt sons and daughters, live together, and even retain the memory chips of their deceased relatives, despite that, some people accept them just fine, others discriminate them for not being humans, whether explicitly telling them what their differences are, or in the form of others that just see them as advanced weaponized machines for the governments to use, and there are even some racist alt-right organizations that want to kill them or not allow them to have the same rights as them, does that ring a bell with real life organizations and real life communities?
There are also some very few robots that do try to rebel against humanity, they don’t see them as a superior or equal being and try to take over or kill them, which is a good detail, so the theme of racism doesn’t come off as one sided and emotionally manipulative.
Other good elements in the plot come from Gesicht himself, who comes to a full circle arc where he goes through the same experiences of other robots or people he interacts with throughout the story, whether living the same fate as the first robot couple he comes across, or learning about his past and realizing that he was capable of, and did, the same thing as the criminal he frequently visits, or even coming to an understanding with an Adolf guy who hates his guts and wants to dispose of him. A good detail is that, like Parasyte which I recently reviewed, over here an antagonist is betrayed by the organization they are part of and becomes their target, with the difference here being that it ends with no choice but an attempt of mutual understanding and a kind of alliance with their biggest enemy in order to survive, neat stuff that enriches the plot and character dynamics.
Something that it’s not very noticeable in the anime because of its hour long episodes that are tough to sit through, is the very good pacing, as no moment is wasted and everything progress the plot, themes, and characterization at every moment. I would have preferred a normal duration 24 episode series, but it’s true that not every episode could end with the cliffhangers they clearly wanted them to, and Urasawa’s works are for the most part closer to HBO live action series than other manga or anime, so this format fits its tone, atmosphere and western appeal just fine nonetheless.
Another good detail within the writing is something that’s easy to miss the first time, but as I was watching the anime after I read the manga, I noticed it right away. I’m talking about the foreshadowing of future events and revelations, some like the ones around Gesicht, a random old man talking about a God playing a big part in the last volume and episode, and the big main one being foreshadowed at least three times, first with the detector, second when Tenma says that the perfect and most advanced machine can develop feelings, emotions and conscience to the point of even being able to lie to itself, and third on the scene where Uran reads Pinocchio, which also serves as a meta reference of how the original Tetsuwan Atom/Astro Boy was inspired by that story in the first place.
As for the characters, every major robot has a whole episode dedicated to each one of them to show their daily lives and the people they live with, their background stories during the times of war, their interactions amongst themselves, and of course their tragic deaths, except for the one that obviously can’t die, and does indeed get resurrected at some point in the story. Development and catharsis are otherwise reserved only for a few of them, mainly the main two protagonists and one of the main antagonists, titular character of the whole thing, and even then it’s not very believable, as it comes off as sudden and more like character rewrite than a proper change.
As for the antagonist, besides the main one, there is Adolf who gets a good character arc that feels way more organic, and the actual main villain of the whole story, who although to his core is just a simple butt hurt who wants to destroy the world and everyone in it alongside it, he is so cunning, manipulative and provocative, as he isn’t afraid to confront his targets to their faces and lie to them, he is quite enjoyable to watch or read.
As for the human characters and other robot relatives, they are good but they just lack enough screentime and presence to shine as equally, with the exception of Tenma, who although mostly the same as his original version, he is given more dimensions to his personality, feeling closer to a redeemed Gendo Ikari in this version, both in the way he reconnects with Atom and what he does for him, and for his later revealed responsibility in the whole conflict, thus easily being the best human character in the whole show.
As a whole, the characters are overall very good but could have been a bit better if the antagonists weren’t as simplistic and the secondary cast, besides Tenma, could’ve had more screentime and a more important role.
Despite all my praises, Pluto is certainly not a masterpiece in my opinion, as there are weaknesses in its writing, besides the ones I already mentioned, such as how lucky Gesicht is at times, and how the main characters are passively waiting for the antagonists to act.
Near the end I was noticing that Gesicht was firing his cannon that requires authorization all the time, yet I also thought that maybe he was given such permission before that, and that’s how he was able to do that.
What I can’t excuse, however, is how underwhelming and rushed the ending feels compared with everything else, Tenma, the one that was most against improving machines, ends up being responsible for the whole thing and yet doesn’t try that much to fix his mistake, what was up until that point explained mostly through reason, logic and science, ends up being mixed with mysticism and emotions, which although kind of anticipated in a way, it still doesn’t feel that it fits much within the setting and story, the anti-robots organization plot point loses its focus and most likely gets resolved out of screen, several characters have a sudden change of heart in the end, leading to a solution that feels like the power of emotions and friendship solved everything, and also, everything regarding the teddy bear feels unpolished and unfinished, where did it came from?, what was it doing exactly?, what ended up happening with it? It felt ambiguous and unfinished. Perhaps it was a major villain in the original manga and anime, and the information and resolution of this character are present over there, but Pluto needed to have its own version of that so it doesn’t feel like it ends up having loose ends.
The main message is kind of naïve but also sweet and properly built throughout the whole series, so it fits the plot, it’s just that is delivered straight to the viewer’s face, when the rest of the show was having better exposition up until that point.
Despite its minuses, Pluto is overall a great sci-fi, political and existential war drama and murder mystery in my opinion, all packed in a tightly paced show that’s worth consuming despite its lack of hype, hour long episodes, very serious tone and mostly static animation, with a better established setting and a complete story, thus overall better than its direct competition this year in the form of NieR:Automata Ver1.1a, even though I enjoyed that one far more. And for all the reasons mentioned, I consider it to be the best anime of 2023 I watched, and the best one that came out in years.
8/10
