October 27, 2010

Pluto, by Naoki Urasawa & Osamu Tezuka

I mentioned that Pluto was one of our new September manga. But the summary for it in that post doesn't really do the series justice.

Now, I have to admit that I haven't watched Astro Boy, so I don't know the original version of "The Greatest Robot on Earth" storyline. Urasawa's version was my first introduction to it. But reading Pluto has really made me consider tracking down the original!

Pluto is part murder mystery, part robot battles, and all suspense. While Atom (the Japanese name of Astro Boy) and his sister are the most prominent characters in the series, the actual plot of the story revolves around an Europol robot detective named Gesicht as he attempts to solve a string of robot and human deaths. It is set in several locations, mostly Germany, Japan, and Persia.

Initially the deaths are assumed to be a violent outgrowth of anti-robot fervor, since all the victims, human and robot, were with two exceptions participants or otherwise involved in the 39th Middle East War; but soon it appears that it's a robot doing the killing--meaning these are the first robot-caused murders in nearly a decade. Because robots exist in a sort of second-class citizens state (like that in Penny Arcade's Automata project, but not quite as bad), the idea that a robot is now killing humans causes Gesicht's superiors to put a lot of pressure on him to solve the case and present the public with a suspect, fast. But he also must deal with politicians who are trying to deflect attention from the war crimes that occurred during the 39th Middle East War, scientists who are attempting to conceal the illegal research in robotics that led to the creation of the murderer, and a human supremacist group with a member who is out to destroy Gesicht for personal reasons, all while trying to protect the remaining robots who fought in the war from being destroyed.

Pluto is published by Viz in the United States. It is a complete series at 8 volumes, all of which have been translated. So far, the Mooresville Public Library has volume 1. There is currently no anime version.