Pluto

Pluto is a story that really shows its age, is a statement that best describes this experience. It's the equivalent of playing an old game in todays standards and you're just left thinking that we've just improved so much on the formula. It's a story with a pretty weak premise, weak setting, and weak characters. Flash backs are very poorly inserted that you often don't even realize you're in one until ten minutes later because you're constantly jumping around between characters who are robots with rockets for legs. There is a lot of nonsensical behavior due to over use of unwarranted empathy that goes beyond all logic, which is ironic because they're robots. I haven't read or watched Monster yet so maybe I haven't been sipping on the koolaid that bolstered this type of rating. I was just left very disappointed in the story and it just felt like the author was writing this with some sort of god complex (he'll save humanity and give robots empathy with this nonsense) in hopes that when AI does advance far enough they'll go learn about this and think, "wow this was a story that took no risks and was as bland as white bread." Only saving grace is that the production value on this was crazy, so it wasn't terrible to look at, other than the first episode where they had some weird frame issues making it really difficult to watch because it hurts your eyes.

Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto – A Post-Mortem I know most people who watched this show probably don’t care about this detail, but it’s one that I’m going to use a lot in this review, so I’ll get it as a starting point: Pluto isn’t just based on the manga of the same name by Monster’s author Naoki Urasawa, it’s also a remake of the “Greatest Robot in the World” arc from the Astro Boy manga by “God of Manga” Osamu Tezuka. Because of this, I’m going to compare Pluto to its original material a lot, as while I believe there’s aspects it improved from the classic story arc, it mostly doesn’t reach its level. From the most obvious difference between both stories, Astro Boy focuses on Pluto going to challenge the seven most advanced robots in the world one by one to claim himself the greatest robot in the world, almost in a tournament arc kind of vibe, while Pluto moves the focus away from the action and instead delves on a minor subplot about robot detective Gesicht investigating the murders knowing he could become a victim of them. Because of this, I’m not going to compare the stories, as they’re completely unrelated, and thus judge purely the fact that Pluto tries too much in too little time to an even greater degree than the original. While the original story feels rushed for the first part until reaching a more natural flow in the latter part, Pluto has so many subplots and side characters all happening at the same time that it’s very hard to tell what even is the point of it all beyond finding who Pluto is (an answer that at best works like Titanic in being a forgone conclusion), with characters coming in and out with no rhyme or reason. The reason Pluto reaches this level of over-stuffing is actually pretty simple: the other six robots that serve as Pluto’s targets have little character in the original arc, with only Epsilon having a full character, the rest are mostly one-note traits. To amend this, Pluto places heavy focus on them, with Gesicht straight up replacing Astro as the protagonist, so you have large amounts of screen time dedicated to developing doomed characters. Indeed, Pluto can be described as “the cryporn of the hour”, as every episode puts a lot of effort into making you feel for a character who’s going to die, something that didn’t affect Urasawa’s manga as there was a greater gap of time between each death, and of course doesn’t affect Tezuka’s because he didn’t try to get emotional response of every single character who died. Speaking of emotions, the themes in Pluto and Astro Boy for this story are something I want to address, as Astro Boy simply comes across as having more mature and meaningful ideas despite being the version aimed at kids. The original is an anti-war story, dealing with the sorrow of soldiers who’re forced to wage war against their will, as well commentary on how technology that could be to help people is being misused for power hungry goals, both reflected allegorically on the challenges posed by Pluto towards the seven most advanced robots. Pluto isn’t that, instead seems to ironically enough be written by a robot who has no idea about human emotions, because it posits the thesis that hatred is the source of all human evil and that we need to erase it in order to reach a better world. Anyone who’s actually human can tell the issue here: hatred is a part of human nature, you can’t “cure” it, and acting as if that was possible is incredibly childish. On that note, I want Urasawa to share with me the computer code for hatred, as apparently, it’s something that can be programmed into machines here (never mind the fact they explicitly say early on that not even Astro’s immensely advanced AI is still only imitating human feelings rather than actually having it as presented later). Now I may be coming across as very negative here, but there’s one aspect of Pluto I really want to praise: the characters. As said before, Tezuka doesn’t actually develop five of the most advanced robots in the world beyond one-notes, and that’s the part where this series actually surpasses Astro Boy. Gesicht appears for a whole of 2 scenes in the original, so of course he’s massively expanded compared to his counterpart and made into a compelling figure, all while maintaining his original presentation intact, a feat I’ll openly praise given how hard that must’ve been. The two characters that already had a lot of material to work with, Astro and Epsilon, are mostly left intact, as there’s really no need to do anything with them but what Tezuka set, but everyone else from the group who didn’t gets a glow up that helps make the cast far livelier and more memorable than the original, with each having its own story, personality and goals clearly set here. The only characters Urasawa fails with are Pluto himself, ironic considering he was the most developed of the original and this new version is named after him, as he loses almost everything that made him interesting and relevant to the story’s themes in favor of more cryporn, and Bora, mostly because of the reasons explained on how he missed the themes of the original meaning he’s filler now. Mostly unrelated note: There's this incredibly contrived scene where a kid is inexplicably surrounded by tigers and lions, who just stare at him until Uran calls them away, and they just seem to understand her somehow and it's all solved with no further mention, which I have no idea how to take as there’s no explanation how she can do this given how much focus is taken away from her here. An aspect of this anime that makes me split is the visual department, and I’m going to touch both sides of the issue there. The traditional art is nothing short of great, being always on-model, detailed and fluid, all of which are so rare to find in modern anime, I’d have to conjure something from the OVA era like Macross Plus to compare how well it looks. And just like Plus, the actual issue with Pluto is the digital aspect, not just the CGI, but everything that would normally belong the digital processing like the effects look off, with the storms/tornadoes Pluto creates being a particularly jarring example given we also see a traditionally animated one in the show that doesn’t look like a PS2 monstrosity, and that’s not even getting when the backgrounds become the digital and the characters look photoshopped over them. Reading Twitter comments from an animator who worked on the series before COVID, they explained that all these effects were added without him and the other animators knowing, which explains why the entire show looks like it was handled by two completely different teams, because it was. Also, while I’m not a fan of Urasawa’s character designs (the only characters that have designs escaping his trappings are the ones who are modernized versions of Tezuka characters), I can respect his art, and having cross checked the manga as I watched the anime, I can firmly say they screwed what looked good in his manga with this anime. In general, I think that Pluto is a good remake, as it expands greatly on the weakest aspect of the source it’s taking, but it fails to work as a standalone story, as its themes are weak and the story is so padded beyond what it needs to, both are which are issues plaguing his previous work Monster as well, but hey, this is still much more tolerable than that one. Also, I know this is a nitpick, but why does every translation of this series I can find call Astro by his Japanese name Atom? Seems like a weird attempt to try to distance yourself from the most important anime ever made. Thank you for reading

So, I took several days to cool down and now I'm ready to talk about Pluto calmly. I'll preface it with my thoughts on Urasawa. I've read 20th and 21st Century Boys and watched Monster. I had problems with all of it. Generally speaking, I don't like how unfocused his story can get, how some characters get enough development to become proper characters but not enough to do anything worthwhile with them. Most of his stories could be significantly trimmed down to focus on what matters. The degrees to which these problems manifest themselves in his works vary a lot as well. There is also a question of realism and plot holes. Urasawa writes stories that want to be taken seriously but all of them have elements that rip you out of the story, be it military personel not shooting a terrorist because he is is playing his guitar really well, a pregnant woman about to give birth climbing through ventilation shafts and over fences or a robot dog having a hearbeat. However, despite my problems with Monster and 20th Century Boys, they both have something to offer. 20th Century Boys has good character chemistry and a generally interesting story with nice atmosphere (until 21st Century Boys ruins most of it) and the art is pretty good as well. Monster has some phylosophical questions that, while not perfectly explored or presented, are interesting and the character of Johan is... Well, a double edged sword as he is is the biggest selling point and the biggest problem of Monster. Pluto though... Pluto has all the problems of Urasawa's writing in one messy package. There are no plot holes, there are plot craters. The whole technical aspect of the show is utterly nonsensical. Watching it made me angry. Despite Pluto being 8 hours it barely develops any characters beyond the basics. The story is simple and would've been enough in some battle shounen but is woefully basic and unfit for a show (I haven't read the manga, I'm only talking about the adaptation) like Pluto that is trying to be something serious, intellectual and profound. Pluto could've told a story of robots and humans, of how artificial differs from real or how close they can get, of what it means to be human, it could've been filled with political intrigue, sharp twists and mystery, instead Pluto does a bit of everything which amounts to nothing in the end. It has one main message of "Hatred is bad", barely any interesting characters, no intrigue, no logic, no point. And I have to mention that I was gonna give it a 6 but the last episode was such a dumpster fire I had to lower it. I wanted it to be over with so bad and it ended so unceremoniously I literally went "That's it?". Long story short, Pluto is a waste of potential, animation and setting. The only value it has is production value. I would only recommend it to people who can "turn their brains off" while watching.

Darn this would have been an easy 10 if it was traditionally animated. They went so hard on the stills, the static background art of the city scape, and character art style, but then just gave up everywhere else... Pluto is plagued by soulless CGI cars, CGI hallways, CGI buildings, utterly horrendous CGI fire/weather/special effects, and strange weightless uncanny movement when characters are doing simple things like walking. Seriously, there is a scene in the first episode of Gesicht walking and it looks like some slapstick 1930s character sliding along on a glass floor making whacky wailing flailing movements. Also the lighting is inconsistent to the point of distracting at times. Music was just okay, standard anime stuff really. Yet the story of Pluto is outstanding, it's what will hook you and not let go.

Pluto is a mature adaptation of one of the most iconic arcs of Astro Boy. The manga, by the same name, is widely considered a masterpiece and is a deep passion project for the writer. I want to keep this mostly spoiler-free. I would highly recommend going into this blind, and if you love Seinen anime/manga, you will have an absolute blast here. Pluto comprises some of the most well-written and heartfelt characters whose story reaches a perfect end. Every single character from the original arc in Astro Boy has been given justice in this remake. Atom (Astro Boy Himself) and Gesicht are the main leads of this show and both of them never fail to keep me engaged. The suspense is all very well done and the conclusion to it all is personally among my favorite endings in fiction. Pluto, isn’t just any story focusing on humans and robots, it is THE story focusing on humans and robots. Going into Pluto I knew we would get a brilliant adaptation because the project was led by Masao Maruyama. He founded Madhouse and MAPPA, who specifically founded this new studio to adapt extremely well-deserving and overlooked mangas akin to Pluto. The animation is stellar for the most part, but at times some special effects don’t go too well and make the scene look weirdly blurry. Overall, they have done justice to the source material and it is as good of an adaptation as any fan could’ve asked for, 10/10. Moreover, some of the other masterpieces he produced are Monster, Perfect Blue, Death Note, Hunter x Hunter (2011), Nana, Trigun, Hellsing Ultimate, Paprika, Kids on the Slope, and Tokyo Godfathers, among many others, the guy has been the driving force for masterpieces left and right. Also, the music composition is being done by Yuugo Kanno, who is well known for his extremely popular JoJo opening themes. The Mangaka Naoki Urasawa is well known for his genius in developing murder mysteries or suspenseful tales that get increasingly interesting as you read. He has genuinely created some of the most masterful stuff in modern entertainment, and to finally see this manga by him get such a phenomenal and passionate adaptation feels so good; I waited for so long to get one. I hope that Pluto is successful enough that we get one for 20th Century Boys, which is another manga by Urasawa.

Beautifully animated utter nonsense. Make no mistake, I absolutely enjoy many of the themes "Pluto" spends much of its runtime on. The "humanity" of robots, the meaning of "family", the vicious cycle of hatred - the show (and likely the original manga) has a lot of interesting things to say about them, and if you can turn off your brain (not unlike how the robots in the show can take out their "artificial intelligence" units from their bodies), you can definitely enjoy what it has to offer. The gorgeous visuals certainly help as well. Unfortunately, the show requires way more willing suspension of disbelief than I can give it, to the point that I feel that its writing is an insult towards the viewers' intelligence. The plot doesn't really advance - instead, "things happen", then some other "things happen", and finally the show just stops. (No, seriously, the ending is jarringly abrupt.) There are a few interesting twists here and there, but they feel utterly unearned, because the events leading up to them tend to seem so incoherent and nonsensical. Many of the characters' decisions make no sense, or go against what has been revealed to them mere minutes ago. Everything is subordinated to "where the story needs to go", regardless of whether that direction fits what's been established about the characters or the setting. And sadly, this only gets worse the closer we get to the end. Many people here seem ecstatic because of the visuals and the overall "hate is bad" message, but I think this show would have worked so much better if there was an actual, working plot to underpin it all. Such a good-looking, meaningful series deserved better than this.

Everything in this ONA is wrong, just everything. The characters are robots, that have "develop" human emotions and what not. At some point in the show we see that Robot can re attach their own heads from the body, and place them in a mecha suit. So why is it, that when their HEAD is FINE, they can't be fixed? why is it when a robot body is broken in two parts, and his head is just fine, we cant just place the damn head in a mecha suit, and he would be just fine? This ONA would have made sense if they were normal humans or perhaps Bio-engineered Humans, yet for some reason the characters are robots. Everything in the story fits much better if the Robot theme was entirely removed, and as i said replaced by a Bio-engineered humans for instance or a race of ORC i don't care. Why? 1. Bio-Humans clearly made by humans, we can harvest their organs and use them as slaves so this is fits the premise of robots were being "discriminated" at first. 2. Its science fiction so removing some emotions on them, and making some Bio-mechanisms to prevent them from killing humans can be explained with a willy nilly logic. 3. They are steal meat and flesh or can be half cyborgs, so when they Die, and the pulse stops we can all agree that yeah they are dead, and probably fixing them is as hard as fixing a dead human. 4. There are animals in this world that cannot reproduce, so making Bio-Humans without the ability to have children would also fit. 5. Later in the story we can introduce a Bio-children as a way for a Bio-Humans to have families. It all just fits much better. Now Let me RANT dont there why, this ROBOT theme ruined everything.... The Robots, in this show suppose to be super smart and idc, yet they all go and die, like some mosquitos that fond their way to an electric trap. And half of their bodies is intact yet for some reason no one tries to just replace the lets or hands or whatever... (You have cripled robots XDDD like wat? how does it work just replace the DAMN HAND). Then there are some dying doggo robot, that for some reason have a pulse? like what? How does it make sense? How does a robot dog die, simply by the fact that his heart stops beating, DUDE he doesn't suppose to even have a heart you know? We also have ROBOT CHILD Yes you heard me right, there are ROBOT children, and the people there applause when the robo child start WALKING, a MIRICALE. Even my stickman in UNITY learned how to walk how is that impressive? THEY ARE AIS they are MADE to walk, it like human breathing is an achievement. Then this ROBO child start saying "MAMA" "PAPA" and my tears are supposed to ROLL RIGHT? NO GOD, just STOP this is so STUPID. You realize how comic it is right? The shows tries so hard to make you feel bad about some of the characters, but with all this nonsense how?!! it's HARD to take this shit seriously. The only reason I even watched it because I was supper bored, and God thanks I watched only an episode a few days, otherwise my brain would have melted, as this show is plain STUPID. Again, this whole plot would have made sense, if the ROBOT were something else, NOT AI's as this doesn't make any sense.

It's bad, really bad. The world was intriguing at first, society where robots blended in but not fully, and that creates some conflict But they thrash it completely: robots can't lie, but actually they can, robots can't kill, but actually they can, robots don't have emotions, but actually they have. Robots here basically humans, sometimes with abilities, like x-mens. or tosters. And I expected to be sad because kid toster is "destroyed", but there was zero attempt to build any interest to said toster, so I don't care. Episodes are long and all over the place, they could change the pacing in the middle of episode and move it to completely unrelated direction. And honestly, they simply boring most of the time, IMO only detective story is interesting somewhat. Episodes mostly has no logic, characters can teleport whereever they needed by plot, make decisions that completely illogical, find out or forget their abilities. The ending is boring, pointless exposition dump, and main villain just meh Picture is nice though, the only positive thing here

Succeeding at realizing and utilizing their parent's story's potential, Pluto aims even higher than any height Astro Boy could ever fly into. But can they also be humbled down at the same low Astro Boy had fallen to be so relatable for all of us? I don't think so.. This is easily one of the matureest anime i've ever seen. The concept itself shouted loudly to let everybody know that we should take them seriously. But this seriousness could be very deceiving, because it makes some people overlook the conveniences that they took, and then easily throw 10/10 just because it's different. There are some glaring issues regarding the amount of suspension on disbelief that we would need to compromise in order to agree with the premises. There are too many robotic variables, like: for some reason, a robot has the same vulnerability as a human, and can't be revived even though their memory chips are easily extracted and preserved. There are set rules like robots can't feel and can't kill, but there's no prevention, academic proof or any failsafe being presented to us to back-up the said claim, they just use exposition to explain the effectiveness of it, while the first real proof we got is actually some robot breaching those rules instead! And there's the issue I have with Naoki Urasawa, which also steams from my experience watching his other work, Monster. Which is both feels too long. Ngl, he has some of the best premises and intricacies at the start of every story, but it takes so long and it goes through an exhausting route to just stick the landing. If you were to ask me, what is my main takeaway after completing two of his works? My answer would be: watching Naoki Urasawa's works, makes me realize again how much I adore a thriller-mystery that reflects on our darkest desires, but wrapped in a compact and contained format that doesn't overstay its welcome. That's why David Fincher is the best at it for me. But then again, maybe this is just me?

When I saw a trailer for Pluto scrolling through Netflix, I liked the kind of old-school look the art had so I gave it a shot. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I decided to start watching. Here's my review after watching all 8 episodes: Story: Honestly, cool story. Cool idea. There's a mysterious number of robot killings across the globe and a robo-cop tries to find out who that killer is. Plus it gets into some deeper existential stuff which honestly, should have had waaaaay more shine in this story, but if you're looking for a fast-paced, twist-and-turn kind of story, look somewhere else. Holy cow is this slow.... Yes, I get it, world building but man... I know what to put on if I want to fall asleep. I've never struggled so much to keep my eyes open watching an anime. Style: I really liked the art. It was good. There's a blend of 3D stuff and normal 2D but what anime doesn't have that nowadays? I liked how things were drawn. It was probably it's 2nd biggest plus of this review. OVERALL: I feel like the premise of the series was good. Execution in terms of story TELLING? Just too beating around the bush for me. Nothing is really straightforward. Things took too long to pick up and it just didn't do it for me. Is it BAD? No. Is it good? There are some things that I liked, but the pacing was just so off.

An unexpected takeaway I had from this is that hour long episodes are too long for an anime. This show's pacing dragged multiple times during the 8 hour run. Pluto is a story about the dangers of making AI too human except the story is mostly told from different robots' point of view. I am sorry, but I don't care about the life and death of these robots especially when the show makes it clear who is going to die with bright red death flags. They waste a lot of time trying to make you have empathy for these machines too which makes the show a chore to watch after a certain point. The lack of important human characters was a huge problem, and especially so with how rarely Dr. Tenma is in the series. This whole thing is really his fault anyway, and he does not really seem to process that or care. At least not that we see. The Jurassic Park quote comes to mind "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should." That question why were these hyper advanced AI's even made is never really answered because of the poor world building. I don't mean the top 7 I mean all of the robots are needlessly advanced with some level of emotions that just is not necessary. There are seemingly a large amount of them that live just like people for some reason. That could just be because the original Astro Boy is form the 50s and people's perception of what the future would be like is amusingly wrong often times. There are a few sloppy and unfinished plot threads like the war that happened before the start as well as a few things at the end so the finale just feels meh at best. A few character motivations feel unclear as well as if Pluto knows what was really going on. The last episode felt rushed in a show with a lot of slow tell don't show story telling that fact is more disappointing because they had a lot of time to reallot to the finale which felt underwhelming while also wrapping up too quickly. The show probably could have been cut to 6-7 hours as opposed to 8, and told the story just as well. There was some good in the show early on, but overall it was mediocre. The episode 1 storyline between North 2 and the composer was honestly the best thing in the show, and we never see the composer again. Which felt like a mistake to me. Honestly I cared more about the old man than any of the robots. The action scenes were a disappointment being barely there. Either covering up fights to hide Pluto, or simply because they didn't have the budget, time, or talent to make them any good. The CG cars don't look good per usual. The show looks very modern in the most unimpressive way. Very glossy with not very much actual movement going on. The art is fine, but the actual animation is just average. Some backgrounds do look pretty good though, but what I am rambling about is that visually it can't save the story. This series has a niche audience which is apparently people who love the mangaka. I went into this with no knowledge of what it was aside from a very different Astro Boy story. It is unique how rarely Atom is in this, but this was clearly by design. If you haven't already read the manga for this, or are a fan of Astro Boy this show does not stand on it's own well at all. There is a huge failure in world building to catch you up on why things work the way they do in their world's society. Pluto's high score is because of how few people have seen it to leave a review, and the mangaka's fanbase have ranked it undeservedly highly. Genuinely I wonder how much/if the score will drop when more people rank it than the almost 16,000 it has now. Don't be fooled the show is not actually good, and is not worth the 8 hour run time.

Pluto is an extremely disappointing series that seems to fail in all aspects, with poorly composed visuals, a boring narrative, and a structure that lacks mystery and suspense. The anime’s visuals are poorly executed, with digital effects and backgrounds feeling cheap and disjointed from the character designs. Along with the amateurish use of computer generation, especially evident in scenes involving vehicles, the series looks as if it were released in the early 2000s rather than two decades later. The narrative lacks depth, failing to deliver a compelling conclusion, and the lack of centrality on a singular character makes emotional connections more difficult. Mystery elements are either resolved off-screen or presented with insufficient detail, leaving viewers unable to form their own conclusions. Repetitive storytelling further dampens any suspense, making the plot predictable. There is no reason to watch Pluto as it will most likely leave the viewer disappointed and unsatisfied.

This is the golden standard for what a Netflix original anime should be, the best I have ever seen Netflix put out and story created by none other than the legendary Naoki Urasawa. Amazingly complex story about robots that gives you so much emotions, everyone put so much passion into this project from the animation to the voice actors. Definitely a must watch for anyone looking for mystery genre. Astro boy is a legendary manga and anime, Naoki urasawa was a huge fan of it and wanted to make his own spin on one specific arc. This anime is loosely based off the Pluto arc in astro boy. while respecting the source material, Naoki does his own thing with Pluto and it’s a worthy successor

I completely do not understand why Pluto has such a high rating. I get that it's a niche watch, but acclaimed critics scored this a "masterpiece", along with other titles like "the best netlifx original". Firstly I'd like to say that the animation is overrated - I could see the individual frames in most scenarios and even the "fights", which lasted 3 seconds lacked substance. It essentially follows a detective who is trying to uncover some plot or whatever, but it just lacks any depth on the combat side of things, and I just generally think there were some plot holes. Completely unrealistic and overly ambitious with a decent story that is stretched too far.

Netflix figured out a formula for an excellent anime adaptation of a manga. All it took was to make a movie length episode of each graphic novel volume and use the existing storyboards that are the manga panels by Urasawa Naoki. Pluto is modern retelling (and a love letter to Tezuka, see if you can spot the major Black Jack reference) of a Mighty Atom (Astro Boy) story by Osamu Tezuka. Urasawa turned what was basically a robot beat-em up into detective story about serial killer of robots and humans, and touch into international politics, racial discrimination, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. The story may be already great, but it needed time and talented animators to bring this to the screen, and fortunately, this production had it. I really like how the entire series was a rising crescendo that culminated into the events of the last episode. Pluto the robot was mostly concealed in the early episodes to build the drama and tension. Its full reveal with the battle with Epsilon had impact because of it. This way, it managed to sell the massive stakes of the last episode. Seldom could an anime production team being able to be in sync with the vision and intention of the original author. This time they nailed it. They even stuck the landing. This was enough for me to turn an easy 9 rating into a 10 because this is a masterpiece.

A potential masterpiece flawed by tonal inconsistency Pluto has an interesting premise, set in a world where robots and humans coexist after 39th Central Asian War. But the writing was very messy. It never seemed to find its rhythm, jumping erratically between locations, themes and sub plots. I enjoy complex anime but Pluto feels more like a simple story made unnecessarily complex by a poorly written, unfocused story. Characters - 8 The character design was pretty solid, especially Gesicht and Atom who were my favourites. I liked the way that certain character dynamics were used to influence how viewers interpret the relationship between humans and robots. For Monster fans like myself, there were plenty of identically designed characters which was fun to see (Johan, Dieter, the professor etc.). I believe the sub is the superior mode to watch with slightly better voice acting especially for the younger characters. Story - 5 As stated previously, the story was highly convoluted which made it a disorienting watch all the way until the final episode when things finally came together. I think they would have benefitted from giving more time to build a foundation to establish the atmosphere, themes and setting - one minute the anime takes place in Germany with a deep thriller / psychological feel, then it jumps to Australia and becomes an action/adventure. What made Monster so special (and a far superior product btw) was the atmosphere - it was so immersive, tense and intoxicatingly dark. Pluto felt like it struggled to form an identity and instead collapsed into the cliche tropes of mecha anime. The hour long episodes were a good idea because they created a more cinematic experience, however I believe there were pacing issues that may have come as a result. The story felt fragmented and lacked the 'flow' that the best quality always have. The second half of ep. 4 was exceptional but it lost its rhythm quickly after Music - 6 The music was not a big part of the show with not many memorable tracks but it was seamlessly integrated which was commendable. Art / Animation - 8 The art style followed Urasawa's uniquely realistic style and was quite enjoyable to watch. I wasn't a fan of the CGI and backgrounds though - it felt very artificial and was even a bit distracting in some of the scenes where it was heavily relied on. The production value was very high though, typical of a Netflix Original series, but there's something about the less 'touched up' style (90s anime demonstrates it best) that just can't be beaten in my opinion. Overall a solid watch with all the ingredients to create a legendary masterpiece, but failed with execution and flawed storytelling. It's very overrated on this site so far, probably because of all the excitement from manga readers waiting for the adaption and off the hype from Monster. If you're looking for a mecha anime I would recommend Ghost in the Shell Neon Genesis Evangelion or Code Geass over this, but it was definitely a unique anime worth a watch.

PLUTO IS FAILURE OF URASAWA Pluto follows the Europol robot detective Gesicht in his attempts to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths around the world where all the victims have objects shoved into or positioned by their heads, imitating horns Though the premise is great and you have urasawa sounds like a masterpiece but no its so boring you will fall sleep multiple time the mystery done here a so so bad It includes so many irrelevant garbage characters that dont matter in long term there are literally low hyped momments and I knew that because he made it based on astro boy corny robot manga but still I gave it chance but no its not good. Just watch masterpiece like monster or 20 th century boys and drop pluto

Pluto may easily be the most overrated series here. Let me explain why I think so. The animation and music are not horrible. The characters are often well-developed and some of them genuinely memorable. The storytelling is quite good and very professional. The anime is heavily emotional and it promises to tackle some deep topical problems. That does not sound too bad, does it? So where does it fail? First of all, the lore is horrible. Unlike in Casshern Sins, to give an example of a somewhat similar series, the world described to us is flat, boring and unimaginative. A future where there are robots and humans living together: that’s it. Second, the robots seem to have nothing in common with the real-life technological advances. None of the questions connected to them remotely resemble real-life issues connected to technology. Basically, they are humans who can fly and transform their hands into guns. Consequently, all the so called philosophy in the series is just pretentious nonsense. Third, the fights are just really bad. Most importantly though, the story is full of holes. Nothing seems to make any sense if you think about it for a second. Instead of any inner logic we are offered quite a few of emotional scenes. Some of them are rather good. No amount of good storytelling can mask that the story being told is, well, maybe the weakest I have ever had the bad luck to chance upon in my life. If you are looking for something to watch, look somewhere else. Despite its many irrefutable strengths, the anime falls flat and leaves you disappointed.

,,Nothing will be born from hatred." Another masterpiece from the mangaka Urasawa Naoki. Pluto is not your basic mystery anime, the story starts of as a weak breeze, and becomes a huge hurricane at the end. The characters are well written, and we can see some HUGE character development during the episodes, which is kinda familiar for those, who already met previously some of the mangaka's work (Monster, 20-21th Century Boys). The soundtrack just fits perfectly into the picture, and perfectly emphasize the mood of the current frames. Everyone should give this show a shot, even if they are not a fan of the genre, because it will be a heart melting memory to remember, and every minute of the show is totally worth the investment. Great Job, Naoki, Great Job, Studio M2

Based off of Astro Boy, Pluto is a story about a killer AI/ robot that turns on it's own kind. I think the show is very over rated based on other reviews and it's rating. I find it hilarious people are comparing this to the great works of Monster and Death Note. Plutos plot is very predictable at every step, the animation and music are average. The art is basic but the frame rate is good. The action scenes were quite bad, most of which take places hidden in smoke/clouds and you actually see nothing. Throughout the series there was not a single good fight. The "feels" missed me at every attempt. I'm sorry but I just can't vibe with feels scenes centered around robots/AI. They aren't real, they don't have souls and their feelings are programmed.... So should you feel something when one is destroyed? No. This causes a problem when trying to develop character attachment. Pluto was 8 hours long and I felt far less about their "deaths" then the 2 hours I knew human characters for in popular movies like Mugan Train or When the Promised Flower Blooms. Because of the flaws on every side of AI anime, I cannot give it higher than 6/10. I could understand giving this up to a 7/10 but any higher would be ludicrous unless you're an anime noob or obsessed with astro boy. Anyways. it's more entertaining than you're average generic seasonal, but it's not great. Certainly not worthy of being in the top 100.