Pluto

I'm very surprised by the high praises this show got. I was expecting to watch a somewhat hidden gem, but quickly ended up disillusioned. In short: if you're looking for good dialogue, good pacing, good characters, good setting and a well-written story, this show is not for you. The show has just barely enough qualities to keep you watching. The main character is fairly interesting and the show gives him a somewhat personal motivation to solve the case, again, just barely good enough to engage the viewer too. The overall story is coherent and feeds you bits and pieces of information at a steady pace, as any detective drama would. The character writing is okay-ish and the overall theme of the story stays pretty consistent and (very) discernible. Unfortunately, that's where the positive qualities end and the outdated elements of the narrative become very apparent. The dialogue is funny. Not intentionally and not through jokes, but through how bad it sometimes is. Characters will have a normal conversation until out of nowhere, one will start a 5-minute long sob-story about their past that will conveniently just so happen to contain clues for the big mystery. Some characters will blurt out thoughts in situations where it makes no sense for them to do so. The dialogue often breaks the immersion and makes it plainly obvious that the characters are just the author's tools to give exposition. The pacing feels boring. It's often due to an onslaught of flashbacks (one specific scene is almost as bad as Naruto's swing) and characters repeating themselves, then other characters repeating what they heard, but the most draining cause of this boredom is due to the next point. The characters are one-dimensional. Well, most of them. Aside from very select few, most characters have one defining personality trait that they show you soon after introduction and then that's it. No nuance or nothing, you know exactly who they are. None of their actions will surprise you. None of their lines will invest you. You know all that there is to know about them and every scene that features them feels pointless. It feels sad to say that, because this shallowness is juxtaposed with truly compelling and well-written characters. Each scene that features both types is a reminder of missed potential. It's evident that the author was more than capable of creating depth and complexity so seeing the majority of the cast remain this stagnant and uninteresting throughout the 8 hours of the runtime gives you a mix of boredom and frustration. The setting is an example of missed opportunity too. Pluto is a feast to the eyes for fans of 20-year-old futurism. The environments and visuals are consistently great, despite some CG horrors and stilted movements here and there. Unfortunately, the author took a lot of liberty in utilizing the setting in the story and demands A LOT of suspension of disbelief from the viewers. There are tons of sci-fi terms with intentionally vague meanings. The robots can communicate with each other over great distances when it's convenient for them to do so only to forget that capability in favor of plot convenience. Their consciousness resides in specific parts of their bodies, but they don't have any backups and get killed by a wound to the stomach. Everyone can travel at incredible speeds across the globe, until they're conveniently too slow. Characters magically know stuff, either because "they can tell" or because "they picked up stray brain waves". Oh and don't forget about "The 39th Central Asian Conflict", otherwise the show will repeat it to you every 15 minutes. The story is pretty okay. I mean, it's mostly anchored on motivations of decently believable characters and unravels itself pretty neatly. Unfortunately, contrary to any other detective dramas, not a single plot point really hits you. When the show gives you a poignant revelation in a well-crafted scene, it does so way after you were given enough clues to figure it out yourself. When the story shares some shocking secret, it does so at the end of a 10-minute force-fed exposition dump. When the characters experience any kind of shocking realization, they immediately start making decisions that are either laughably bad or frustratingly nonsensical. When the show tries to point at its underlying theme, it does it so plainly it might as well have a character write it out on the screen. Overall, Pluto isn't bad. It's very lacking in many regards, but has enough good qualities in the right places to please fans of the genre. Unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

Except The Last Episode, Show is hard overrated to me. Until we get to chapter 8: We watch so many boring, longer, bad drama, average action. First 7 episode is really bad and boring for me. Without Episode 8. My score with first 7 episode : Drama : 2/10 Action : 3/10 Mystery : 9/10 Story : 7/10 World Consistency : 2/10 Purpose Message : 7/10 Art Graphics : 5/10 Character : 5/10 Episode Time : 1 Hour (With a lot of boring staff..) İt is really overrated to me. Yeah Episode 8 is good but. What we gonna do first 7 average longer episode? I give 5 point Because I can watch the episode 8. But Until I try to reach 8, 4-5 times I want to dropped anime. Then I push my self for Story. because Mystery is good. Then I take my reward with last episode. But overal is overrated 5/10 anime for me

Alriiiiiiiiight. Pluto is here, and damn have I waited a long time for it. I’m gonna keep this concise instead of spewing meaningless drivel and elaborating on the entire synopsis of the plot. Here we have an adaption of one of Urasawa’s masterworks, as well as the finest series produced by Netflix as of so far- animated or not. The fact of the matter is this- the source material was already great. But what makes this series so spectacular is that it elevated everything you loved about the manga and made it better, and I’ll die on this hill. Pluto has been out for years upon years, and the original manga is already well reviewed. Fact of the matter is, I don’t need to rave about how remarkable and groundbreaking this piece of work is. It’s already well established that Urasawa is potentially the greatest mangaka of all time in respect to his ability to write narratives. Pluto is an exemplary manga that shows just that. Our trust in Netflix isn’t very well established on the side of anime. It had some break out hits in the form of Edgerunners and Castlevania, but few would have put stock in their ability to adapt such a work. All it took was ONE trailer, and my mind was changed. The result was a labor of love. This is an anime that had ambition. It didn’t want to just live in the shadow of the manga, it wanted to be everything the original work was, and more. They succeeded. It shows in every corner of the production. I’m watching this show in English dub, since it makes more sense thematically since it isn’t just centered around Japan as a setting. The English voice actors put their soul into each role. The music was astounding, making the emotion originally portrayed by Urasawa amplified. The expressions of the characters maintain the signature style developed by the author. And it goes without saying, but the art direction is among the best I’ve ever seen. It’s vivid, rich in detail, and filled with set pieces that make you question just how much money was funneled in for the budget. Seeing it adapted on the big screen with such care creates a substantially more remarkable foundation for the series. I found myself brought to tears on multiple occasions, all by scenes I thought little of upon reading them; but overwhelmed by when watching them. That’s right, I downright admit I think this adaption is better than the source material- which is a rare occurrence. This is a remarkable achievement in animation that brings me optimism when thinking about the future of anime as a whole. I’ve heard criticism about the pacing of Pluto due to the hour long episodes. To be Frank, it is a brain dead criticism. Each volume is adapted into each episode, which in turn adapts the pace of the volumes as they were released. In my mind, this is worthy of further praise. It is my hope that with the success of Pluto, an adaption will come of what is arguably Urasawa’s magnum opus, 20th Century Boys. Until then, one can hope. One can enjoy the result that has come from this adaption. One can enjoy what is by far the greatest anime to have been produced in years. Enjoy.

Pluto is something of a disjointed narrative that seems to want to say a lot but trips over itself so clumsily that I can't really take it as seriously as it wants to take itself. To be clear this is a mostly competent story but it's definitely strongest at the start and gets progressively worse as the series goes on, culminating in a fairly contrived ending. This is a similar pattern to that of the other Urasawa work I have read/watched, Monster, where the general concept of the story and sense of journey is strong but the landing can't be stuck and in the end it undermines the strength of the story overall. I am starting to recognize that his personal quirks as an author and his method of storytelling is at best not something I personally gel with and at worst comes across just not as proficient and skilled as his reputation would suggest. The world Urasawa creates here is admittedly fairly unique and creative, mixing elements of real-world places with a healthy dose of fictionalized aspects and overlaying it onto a semi-near futuristic setting that feels distant in some ways but not too distant in others. You have flying cars and advanced humanoid robots but police detectives still wear cheap suits right out of the 90s, that kind of thing. It's charming in many ways and you are left wanting to know more about the world and it's history but we don't get all that much. Ultimately Urasawa doesn't appear interested in showing us how this imagined human-robot society and economy even works. What percentage of the population are robots? How and why have they not fully displaced humans from the workforce? While it's fine for Urasawa not to want to get bogged down in the details, when your story centers around human-robot relations and interactions these kinds of details strike me as important to consider if you want to craft a fleshed out and believable world which is able to carry the weight of your messages and themes. The problem here isn't necessarily the setting, it's the fact that Urasawa seems to want to cash-in on the spectacle and novelty of futurism without thinking critically about how such a future could even exist. While this would be fine if this was a comedy or action-oriented series, it's clear that Pluto is intended to be a more cerebral and thoughtful piece of fiction. It comes across as Urasawa wanting to use robots and artificial lifeforms in a way to say something unique about the concepts of life and death but then not bothering to grapple with the details and mechanics around how or why loss in the context of an artificial and presumably fairly robust robot life would mean as much as loss of fragile and fleeting human organic life. As far as themes explored I find them to be rather ham-fisted and incredibly unimaginative for a work in a sci-fi futuristic fantasy. For instance why on Earth could a robot, once physically "killed", not have their intact memory chip placed into a new body and essentially reborn or revived? This is perhaps the entire point in having removable personality or memory chips in such a world. Your body gets destroyed? No problem, here is a new one. In fact actual human characters in this same world are described as having been turned into robots/cyborgs after their human bodies are destroyed but the actual robots whose bodies perish can't be reconstituted? This is never explained or explored and it's just so dumb given how the story tries to say so much about the tragedy of loss and considering the melodrama that is employed it's just hard to take anything else in this world all that seriously. Other aspects of the world are also begging to be scrutinized. Urasawa wants us to believe that there have been 38 previous central Asian wars prior to the continually referenced 39th? Where is the real-world analog to this to help make it even remotely believable? Come on. It would have sounded much more plausible if this event was the "5th central Asian war" for instance but Urasawa apparently wanted to impress the audience with such a high number. I'm not impressed, I'm just taken out of the world. This may seem like a small detail but these little contrivances are common and they add up and erode at your immersion and the believability of this setting and the perceived quality of the worldbuilding. When a story takes itself this seriously then so do I and that means some of the silly choices get less of a pass. The best parts of the story are the small snippets where interesting characters appear and vignettes that tell a condensed story within the larger narrative of Pluto. Sometimes it is the back and forth banter centered on a legendary robot murderer held in something approximating a maximum security prison who came across as a bit too cartoonishly evil but captivating and original at the same time. Other times it was the C plot like the journey of radicalization taken by a man whose murdered brother was part of a anti-robot hate group and the journey coming full circle to the man's subsequent deradicalization and grappling with forgiveness. These episodes within episodes were much more compelling than the actual A or B plots at times. Where Urasawa is strongest is when he starts to weave vague notions of international conspiracies, shadowy interest groups, slowly building up with the pace of a semi-psychological thriller... but this mostly falls apart as more is uncovered and revealed the less interesting it all turns out to be in the end. Many of the moments intended to be gasp-inducing pin-drops elicited only an eye-roll from me due to how predictable, telegraphed and self-indulgent they were in execution. I am left unconvinced that this story offers any kind of profound commentary on war, existence, purpose or really any other theme. The anti-war message for example that is touched on repeatedly came across as fairly simplistic and juvenile in it's black-and-white presentation of one side as totally guilty and the other fully framed and misunderstood. Beyond that the message could be summarized as "war is bad". It's all just way too neat, tidy and preachy to carry any real weight and this is how I received the story's other attempts at philosophy. Having both read the manga and watched the anime I can confirm that very much like Monster before it this is a very faithful manga-to-anime adaptation. It's basically 1:1. But like Monster that means that all the flaws of the manga's narrative translate directly to the anime as well. The soundtrack wasn't memorable but I don't recall it being bad. Watching the dub the voice acting was also serviceable but nothing particularly outstanding. The animation was however quite crisp, high-quality and in some places downright impressive. If I had to recommend one over the other I would probably go with the anime for the animation and presentation alone. As a work of sci-fi entertainment and as a decent thriller story it isn't bad at all but it is difficult for me to see it as something more profound.

Ah, ya cack-handed it. An initially compelling murder mystery involving robots, parts start falling off this chassis the further along it goes. I love Urasawa's style, but this story has the same issue Monster had where he takes an interesting premise and hefty themes to work with then just piles on WAY too many moving parts (characters, subplots) that don't work in harmony, with redundancy and overlap which ultimately lessens the experience. By the end, the viewer is just repeatedly hit with scenes of characters having revelations that we already know, repeating the same lines about memories, hatred, sadness etc ad nauseum, until the wife and I were just rolling our eyes at what a cliched overwrought anime melodrama the show had turned into. The show just seems to have been adapted scene-for-scene from the manga as far as I can tell. The initial robot detective plot is intriguing, but the series abruptly introduces story elements in a way that continually changes the stakes or invalidates previous dramatic tension (the rocketgun, the ability to bring back dead robots, the anti-photon bomb). There's also some anticlimactic/unsatisfying reveals (Pluto's actual appearance, the identity of Abullah etc) and just general pacing issues. Also some laughably weird musical choices for certain scenes. The more developed characters are likeable, Gesicht is an appealing lead; an advanced robot with a cool exterior and layers of artifice to his personality, haunted by dreams of suppressed/deleted memories. The themes of bigotry and xenophobia are undermined slightly by the fact that she show is pretty inconsistent with exactly how human-like robots are, how advanced artificial intelligence is etc. How are there robot children? Are they created small and then they get placed in increasingly larger bodies as they develop? Do they have child-like minds that eventually mature into adulthood? Are robots programmed to want to have families and live in spacious apartments where they pretend to drink tea? I understand that Tetsuwan Atom was written in the 50s, but Urasawa's Pluto misses a beat by updating the presentation and the tone while not really touching the underlying questions of *why* robots are the way they are. Some of the robot designs are cool, I like the mix of human-like and Showa-era style robots, but there is a 'child' robot of one of the main characters, that shows up later in the story that is truly just horrifying to look at. It looks like Johnny 5 with a congenital deformity. The viewer is clearly meant to identify this as a precious, innocent child but I could scarcely bear to look at it. Nightmarish. Visually we have a bright digital look with stylish designs. The art direction is great but the show-runners can't take any credit for using Urasawa's panels largely as-is. I must say I think that the colours are a little oversaturated and things just look too clean; just an old weeaboo complaining that modern digi-paint shows lack a textural, muted visual quality that older shows have, don't mind me. I can see people liking this but I can't really recommend it. Bit meh ay.

NEED TO ADJUST THIS REVIEW I don't know if they ruined the manga adaptation (cause I didn't read it), but nothing to do with Monster or 20th Century Boys, masterpieces by the same creator. Story Development ★★★☆☆ Art Style and Composition ★★★☆☆ Character Development ★★★☆☆ Character Design ★★☆☆☆ you can see the resemblance to monster characters, even some name references like Tenma. the drawing style is also present in 20th.. Voice Acting (Sub) ★★★☆☆ (seen in Italian) Music & SFX ★☆☆☆☆ only the composition of the second episode with the piano stands out, for the rest I didn't hear anything. Enjoyment ★★☆☆☆ finished in one day despite the 8 hours, passed without weighing however, it didn't involve going back to watch immediately. I expected more, something from Monster's plot, with the same heaviness and psychology.

Meh.. Monster was one of my most favorite shows ever, i had loved it's mind-blowing story with very well written characters. When i heard there will be another anime adaptation from same author i was really looking forward to it. But after years of waiting it turned into disappointment. Production quality is really good like 9/10, but i just can't empathize myself with the characters. How could i..?Characters are robots that pretending to be humans "all time", which is also whole story build on. All those conversations about their fake human emotions... I wish at least they were cyborg or bionic-robots but they are not, just 0 and 1 mechanics. Let's forget all about that, even if you assume them as human characters, they are barely likable. They "ALL" either are annoyingly, and unrealistically, kind or simple evil; "world forced me to be bad guy, now i will destroy everything as revenge". I can't stand those type of characters. Every episode has it's peak moments that i really enjoyed but they don't last long. Rest is uninteresting conversations and robot philosophy So who should watch, Most of you probably will enjoy this, i recommend those who like pretty good story with production quality Those ones who prefers teenish drama/romance, stay away this is a mature show. you'll get bored And i don't recommend those who have similar interest with me, unless there is nothing else to watch

Unimpressed. Technical side is well done: animation is fluid and interesting, characters are drawn in a semi-realistic way which gives the anime a more serious and mature tone, backgrounds are nice, the soundtrack is excellent. According to the one who made the story of this anime (or manga, if you want), "perfect intelligence" is a purely quantitative construct. Really? That's it? How absolutely underwhelming. Apparently, "perfect intelligence" here is nothing other than a sum of all individual human intelligences that exist in the world (which therefore is equal to the number of humans, in anime that is 9.9 billion of them), and since you would need almost an infinite amount of computing resources to simulate them all at the same time within the same robot, not to mention the necessity to resolve all the contradictions between them (of which there are many, just think of different worldviews those 9.9 billion hold), the authors then conclude that "perfect intelligence" may exist in theory, but in practice a robot having it never "wakes up" (that is, never begins to actually function upon being loaded with all those 9.9 billion individual intelligences), and therefore - "perfect intelligence" cannot exist in practice. That is laughably bad. Just how asinine people behind this creation are, exactly? What this anime, or this whole idea, story and plot, want to tell you is that intelligence is purely and only quantitative. So a "supreme intelligence" likewise is purely quantitative, a sum of individual intelligences. By necessity then, there is no inherent quality to human intelligence and, what is also important, there are no human intelligences inherently superior to other human intelligences. So a genius of Beethoven, of Buddha, or Jesus, or Mohammad, is based on an intelligence no higher, no better, than an intelligence of some low-IQ petty criminal, or what have you. But that is absolutely false. Not to mention that the whole idea of quantitative intelligence that this anime peddles is logically NOT proven by it. Just because, as anime portrays them, some of the brightest minds state that something is this way or that way, does not mean they are correct. This should be obvious, no? But anime never, EVER even tries to discuss the premise it puts forth, never even tries to bring a character that opposes this idea. Instead we are to take it at face value and proceed like it is a settled matter. Which, then, causes a whole lot of issues. No, you do not "need" to insert EMOTIONS, especially supposedly "unbalanced emotions", into an intelligence, in order to actually make it a functional intelligence. Because emotions are subordinate to intelligence plain and simple! This is why human intelligence is superior to that of a cat, even though both humans and cats can experience possibly the same kinds of emotions. Why exactly does one even need these supposedly "unbalanced emotions"? It is not like half the people are permanently hateful, the other half being loving. The anime wants me to accept how a "perfect intelligence" is not only primarily quantitative, but also that 9.9 billion individual intelligences are simply in a state of "equilibrium" between all the possible states of mind. But most people are peaceful. Most people are loving. Most people condemn crime. Etc. There is no, actually, equilibrium the anime implies. Well now I got a bit lost in my own considerations here, and I cannot express myself quite coherently just yet. I finished this just an hour ago. I still gave this 5 out of 10, on account of high-quality production values, music, compelling first several episodes, some very good characters and so on. But I was getting increasingly annoyed by the end of it, that the last episode I mostly just spent skipping through. P.S. Might edit the review later. "Later" including months, years and who knows...

One of the best hits of the year, and perhaps the decade, a masterpiece of animation and the world of series in general, episode number 1 was definitely a punch to the heart. Yugo Kanno does a spectacular job, and the soundtrack is a marvel. Despite being announced over 6 years ago, the animation remains fresh and wonderful. Urasawa shines with his work, and the adaptation does it justice on stratospheric levels. What is humanity, what makes robots robots, and humans humans? A significant part of the moral idea is based on knowing that neither humans nor robots are so far from themselves, but at the same time, they seem to separate more than the sun from the earth. A story full of emotions with a brutal cast, and personally, one of the animes you must watch even if you're not a fan of the genre. And if you are, you should watch it before you die.

If you love sci-fi and cyberpunk with a deep story since it is written by Naoki Urasawa himself (the creator of Monster, 20th century boys and billy bat) then this anime is for you. In a world where the line between humans and robots is thinner than a hair on a microchip, the story plunges into the abyss of the age-old quest: What does it mean to be alive? Based on Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy,” particularly the "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc, "Pluto" is more than just a rehash of old circuits; it’s a riveting narrative that delves into the hearts (and hard drives) of its characters. Gesicht is not your run-of-the-mill robot detective. His quest to solve a string of mysterious robot and human deaths is anything but a mere wild byte chase. Gesicht finds himself tangled in a web of conspiracy that could fry his circuits, with the eerie antagonist, Pluto, lurking in the shadows, ready to strike. The narrative is laden with themes of memory, consciousness, and the enigma of existence that will have you pondering if Siri has a soul. The juxtaposition of robots with the emotional bandwidth of humans against humans with the empathy of toasters presents a stark, thought provoking contrast. Urasawa artistry not only sketches the external world but also delves into the internal landscapes of his characters. The emotions etched on the faces of robots and humans alike are so palpable, you think they were crafted by Apple engineers. "Pluto" is more than a mere "Anime". it’s a philosophical inquiry. It's a sign, A prophecy of the future, a tale that will have you smiling, laughing, crying, and, most importantly, questioning whether your coffee maker has been plotting against you all along. Yes, a 10/10. that's it from me.

Kinda mind-bogglingly good. I don't know how Urasawa can write so many scenes in a row that feel so powerful and don't slow the story down at all, or how he can attach me to so many characters so quickly with only a handful of scenes without feeling like he's cramming things in, or how he can make me genuinely interested in so many different philosophical themes and questions without beating me over the head with them while there's still an entire murder mystery to solve, or how he makes so many moving parts not just fall into place perfectly but do so in such cathartic ways that feel like they barely give me a break from the tornado of emotions, or how, or how, or how... I really don't have bad things to say about this show. The direction here is a big step up from the last Urasawa adaptation I saw (Monster), with much more dynamic-feeling transitions from scene to scene, making it harder to pause, and especially making any revelations feel less belabored than they often did in Monster. The animation is... fine, great in some places, it does its job. The first episode essentially gives you an accurate taste of what's to come, but that specific episode also isn't completely representative of the others for specific reasons, so I'd say either decide whether to watch the show or not based on the first half of episode 1, or make up your mind about halfway into episode 2. Unrelatedly, one of the characters shares a face with Johan Liebert, for obvious reasons, and the moment he appeared in the show made me feel nauseous, like something horrible was about to happen. I've never experienced that with another fictional character. Must've been especially traumatized by Johan. I'm gonna have a fun time trying to figure out how to explain at family functions that my favorite show of the year is an Astro Boy fanfiction.

Pluto... my first association is the dog from Mickey Mouse xD but no, it is an anime based on Naoki Urasawa's manga of the same title. It is Sci-Fi in a world where "robots" and people live together in society, against the background of which a story takes place where one of the 7 strongest robots in the world was "murdered" and the famous detective Gesicht must find the perpetrator. It was very enjoyable to watch, but I was a bit disappointed. So yes... Imo it definitely stands out from other anime when it comes to the narrative and characters, I felt like I was watching a normal American series. This anime deals with a very interesting issue regarding human nature, the most prominent one was probably "hate", supposedly you can't build anything out of hate, but it is an essential element to create a perfect robot, overall the philosophical mambo jambo was very nicely done without being pretentious. A few advantages that first come to mind: -This anime has a nice atmosphere of anxiety and this untamed evil force lurking somewhere, the antagonist is not visible and it captures the imagination. -We observe several characters at once instead of following only one in a straight line, and this is done very well. -All characters are important and none of them seem unnecessary and most, if not all, have interesting plots, I didn't think for a moment that maybe a character had too much screen time because I didn't care about his plot. -This anime introduces new threads and characters very nicely, it is very fluid, sometimes a character that is introduced does not seem important until suddenly it develops significantly and you can like it. But as I mentioned, although it was an enjoyable experience, I was ultimately a bit disappointed. I'm not entirely convinced by the idea that there are thinking and feeling robots living in society, for me this is the biggest drawback of world building, and that's very bad since it is the basis of this series, I'm sure it could all be explained logically, but it doesn't do that . I understand the idea of ​​an intelligent robot, but what I mean is the sense of filling society with them, I understand one or these 7 intelligent robots, but I don't understand why everyone got such advanced emotions, how does logic work in this world, why would the government or anyone install robots designed to work? such advanced emotions in a factory, why should robots created for military purposes be able to refuse like Epsilon? As if it makes no sense, we are creating a new social group that will be discriminated against, as if we know that people can discriminate based on skin color, but we will still add thinking robots to society that will take people's jobs and these people will hate them, and then we will patch it with some act against discrimination against robots. xD It is not logical that the creators of the 7 most powerful war machines gave them the character they wanted, if they are created for a specific purpose, why give them unnecessary functions? What army would order a robot that would oppose them? and the scientists who created them are probably some sadists, since they knew what they would be used for and gave them the opportunity to acquire PTSD xD I understand why artificial intelligence might want to create a family, go to school and generally imitate humans, but I don't understand why anyone allows them to do so on such a massive scale. Why does anyone need robot dogs? Are there too few normal people in shelters? What are the benefits? including the person who produces them? In a children's story like "Astro Boy" this might work, but in something that is taken seriously, a scene where the robotic parents are sad about the "death" of their adopted robotic child, but not before they are happy because the child is "learning" to walk, is funny without any specific explanation why it is this way and not otherwise. I don't know why anyone needs robots pretending to be 1:1 human, why limit them to humanity? and teach them or give them all this human crap? why should a nuclear arsenal be as unreliable as humans? The anime does not properly establish the concept of thinking robots in its world and builds this entire philosophical veela on these unstable foundations xD Pluto relies on the detective story for a large part of the time and up to a certain point it is done very interestingly and convincingly, we learn new things in a smooth and understandable way and we get to the truth, although the technology they use for the investigation is a bit of a hassle like some solutions in the series CSA crime mysteries Maiamia but nevertheless fit into this futuristic world. Towards the end, unfortunately, this detective story seemed to get worse, sometimes in this detective case there are too many coincidences and shortcuts that make the mystery move forward too easily. Not everything seems logical and characters don't always act rationally, for example, it was completely ignored that one of the twin robots protecting the professor was hacked and not looked into, and then they sent the other one to protect another important character or (much more important plot) a good character is kidnapped by an evil character and is forced to do something that will have serious consequences, what does the good character do? makes the evil character realize that he can do it himself... and we have an ultra threat that was created by an ultra stupid decision of a character who is portrayed as the smartest one in the series xD But this is nothing compared to the stupidest illogicality in the entire series that pushes the entire plot forward. 7 robots are not protected even though they are important, just like the people taking part in that important mission in the war, we know that someone is killing the strongest robots and in most of the anime we don't care about their protection at all and then we give one of them, one weak robot, to protect , they should be monitored 24/7, this is one of the most important parts of the story and it was written so hopelessly and unreliably just to make the plot move forward and these robots could die one by one, if it was logical, the murderer was definitely would be useless and would not always have a convenient 1v1 situation to kill. What's stupid is that a character who easily defeated an antagonist later in the story couldn't help earlier when another character was fighting that antagonist and decided to run away because she would be "useless" They allow an endangered character to be around their children even though they could be attacked at any time just so there can be a storyline with the kid saying "Bora" Even though the antagonist clearly poses a threat, the characters are too laid back and don't behave rationally in the situation, why was such an important element presented in such a stupid and irrational way? and then this anime expects that someone will care about some drama related to these characters (usually their death), which is sometimes pushed to the limit, it is also not entirely understandable to me, because even if it survives with its head, the robots die from a hole in the body even though we have examples of the fact that other robots can literally detach their heads and live in another body as if nothing had happened, once again this anime tries to make it in an incompetent way that robots are 1:1 people. This seemingly "smart" anime is a source of such hopeless writing, it's just a pity. The most important part of world building in this anime are robots and, as I have already mentioned, it is done completely unconvincingly, the logic of the world has been stretched to the limit, and every now and then you wonder why the world in this story, even though it deals with serious issues, is so poorly constructed e.g. why are robots such an important military force? and the world has nothing else? wouldn't a cannon capable of destroying the MC be effective against the ant…

The first episode of Pluto caught me off-guard. There are no OPs or EDs, the protagonist is a middle-aged man, it's set outside Japan, and this and further episodes are 1 hour long. Pluto has definitely much in common with western tv shows, however, it still has a lot of elements that are usually attributed to anime. And I am still to this day uncertain about my opinion as well as the show is uncertain about its origins. From the get-go Pluto presents a murder mystery, but I didn't notice any investigations or twists in the first half. The detective's just visiting the possible targets and warning them. The whole mystery affects the story in an anticlimactic way by killing some characters in the first half and then in the second half having some bits of interrogation. In the end, characters solve the mystery off-screen and then provide the viewers with the answers. The anime also doesn't focus on a specific characters, depending on the circumstances, the show switches from one character to another. These character arcs badly need extra screen time, they feel short and detached from the main story. As I already mentioned Pluto is set outside Japan but it's not based around a single country, so the arcs take place in different countries including Japan. Characters in anime usually speak only in Japanese or Engrish even if it is an anime about Vikings, so I cut Pluto some slack here, but there is absolutely no difference between nations. Sci-fi genre can change the world in any possible way, but given that architecture and national languages are still present, the cultural homogeneity is more an overlook rather than a conscious choice. It's even more noticeable if you look at the design of the robots: every one of them is inspired by Japanese vision of sci-fi e.g. the destroyed Swiss robot, for some reason, is a precise copy of Tetsujin 28-go. The only outstanding aspect in the show I can think of is the presented take on the transitional state between an android and human. Most androids are programmed to behave in a specific way, nevertheless, some androids are allowed to choose their own personality but it would take ages to brootforce all 9 billion personalities. In that case androids are accommodated with irrational emotions to take the burden of rational choice off. But the ability to act irrational barely makes them humans, maybe more alive but these are different things. And only in case when instead of rejecting these feelings and trying to get back into the comfort state of being a machine, an android chooses to deal with these emotions, it can be considered a human. This adaption has no technical issues at all, but in the current era where every popular manga get at least a decent adaptation in contrast to how it used to be 10 years ago where every anime adaptation was a coin flip Pluto has nothing fascinating whatever it's the ost, fights, or cinematography, maybe only the backgrounds have some of beauty. So yeah I feel conflicted about my feelings: Pluto has a good meta narrative and the lackluster story and characters. I also want to give a shutout to Netflix for choosing/approving the poster that spoils some key plot moments.

With one of my all time favorite manga getting an anime adaptation, my standards were set high and this delivered. Its a prit near perfect adaptation that is very obviously a passion project from people who love the original story. Pluto tackles one of my favorite topics of AI and AI rights and does it from within one of my favorite mysteries being Mystery so from the start its a story I was bound to love. I think while in some parts it shows its age being written almost 20 years ago it also aged very well and still holds up as a good thought piece in current times where AI is becoming more and more of a real pressing issue. While I thought some of the color pallets in certain scenes were a bit bland that's pretty much my only complaint. The use of CGI was acceptable and the whole anime looks very nice. While I still think I like the manga better for pacing reasons, I think this is an amazing anime and I wish it would get more attention.

It's a bit of a mess. A beautiful, creative, devious mess. But still. Urasawa falls into the Ryōgo Narita school of writing. Neither of them seem to have the slightest idea how to drip feed information to their audiences, which information should be given freely, and which should be held back as plot twists. In Pluto, as in Monster and Narita's stories, Baccano and Durarara, this results in a mess. A simple story made convoluted to the point where it's borderline impossible to understand what's going on most of the time. Even many of Pluto's plot twists don't hit home, because it's more mess to add to the existing mess. It's not until you get close to the end when you're given enough information to make sense of it. At that point, viewers will often think 'wow that was hard to understand, which means it was probably deep.' Part of this is a pacing issue, but it's mainly a problem with the writer. It's disappinting, because Pluto has so much going for it. Great animation, great music (though it won't blow your socks off), great detail, production value, and voice acting on both the sub and dub. But it's all held back by the spaghetti slop story. And unfortunately, that story is Pluto's main draw. I can look past that enough to appreciate what the story had going for it - its themes and ideas. If they'd been structured differently, Pluto would have been the masterpiece many pundits will no doubt call it anyway. As it stands, the best I can do is a (generous) eight

Pluto is a show I really wanted to like but despite having a compelling mystery, it is ultimately disappointing on too many key aspects to be considered truly great. It adapts the eponymous manga by Naoki Urasawa - who gave us the amazing manga Monster (the great anime adaptation of which I highly recommend) - who significantly reimagines an arc from Astro Boy. The show presents itself as a tense, dark and suspenseful mystery in its trailers but the experience of watching it often doesn't live up to that promise. The story is often predictable and the pace is slow and meandering, making it frequently boring. The latter at least improves in the later episodes. The visual designs pay homage to the original Astro Boy (which is well over 50 years old now) but unlike the modernised 2003 Astro Boy anime which felt fresh, Pluto has mixed results and some designs really look very dated as a result although overall the show is fine in this regard. The sound and music are a high point although the musical highlights could have been used more. The biggest issue however is the world and several parts of the plot. The robots here have basically magic powers and their limits are only defined by whatever human aspect the writer wants to use for the plot without rhyme or reason. For example, robots supposedly cannot hurt humans but are active in war zones and act as bodyguards where hurting humans is almost guaranteed. The robots pretend to eat and mimic other plot-central human behaviours without actually understanding why and waste resources while expecting the audience to cheer for them. The supposedly emotional plot points which depend on the rules often fall flat as a result as there's no limit or logic to what the robots can and cannot do although that improves later on. Even worse though is that at several points the characters do illogical things just to keep the plot going. The world is nonsensical to the point that you can't really suspend disbelief and enjoy the show sometimes. The pacing issues, especially early on, really don't help the show when combined with this but the core mystery is compelling enough to at least try and keep going. The finale thankfully is worth watching even with the occasional issue as everything comes together although some aspects could be better explained. If this show was half the length or less and more realistic it could easily have been a masterpiece but unfortunately I really can't fully recommend it because of its glaring persistent issues. If you want to watch Astro Boy, check out the 2003 TV anime instead, that's true to the spirit of the original and modernises things nicely although it won't be as dark.

Okay, so maybe a 10/10 is a bit too much for most, but honestly, I'd beg to differ. The series does a beautiful job at blurring the lines between the intent of human and AI by offering a very unique perpective of what a potential future could look like between the two. It isn't your typical 'mankind vs robots' premise. Even when compared to its parent show, Astro Boy. It's more of a 'look at what it is we can achieve as a joint force/entity' sort of thing. I would hate to spoil anything so you'd have to actually watch it to understand what I mean. But before you give it an honest watch, here's some advice; pay attention, and the attention will surely pay you. This isn't your typical run-of-the-mill series. Although, I could understand why the average joe would dislike an anime as deep as this one. Being that it's only 8 episodes long, each one is on average ~1 hour long each, giving it the time needed to create the context necessary for this kind of depth. It isn't solely just about the animation, fight scenes (which are fairly lacking until further in), characters, or the writing in general. It's more so a culmination of all these aspects and then some. Throw in a touch of philisophical insight and you get a "chef's kiss" designed to keep those of a mindful intellect asking themselves "what if" by the end of the series. As mentioned, this isn't a series for everyone. But for those who do manage to understand, by the end of it all, you're going to love it. It could either be a masterpiece or massive flop, depending on who it is that's watching. Enjoy.

'Pluto' is first and foremost a detective story in a sci-fi setting rather than an action anime. The way information is reveal to the viewers about the world and unfolding the conspiracies, was the main hook for me. After watching too many stories that shout rather than show, 'Pluto' really keeps you asking and actively piecing the puzzles. I went into Pluto having watched 'Monster' from the same writer, so I at least know the tone will be more thinking rather than hype. Viewers who go in expecting a Shounen-type, fights will not be satisfy. There are robot actions, but it is not the main event as the story holds a strong pacifist stance. Story (7) The story shares a lot of themes and philosophical question with Blade Runner. Begging the question of what separate humans from AI and whether we should give the same value to things created from machine. Now that AI is closing in on replacing human in the fields of creativity, this series reveal the different perspectives on the subject. It is not a new concept, but I still find the exploration here interesting. Another aspect that sadly makes it timely is the aftermath of war. Although, Pluto takes a rather black and white approach of "wars only lead to doom for all", it is not wrong. I just personally want more depth on the subject especially since the world it create is so unique. Characters (7) The main characters are interesting, however, the focus isn't about their motivation rather it's their mystery that drives the story. This makes Pluto intriguing to follow because you keep questioning about each character's past, but I find it a bit hard to connect with Gesicht or Atom. It's actually the side characters that I care more about, especially Epsilon, who steals the show for me despite appearing later in the series and the villain, Pluto. Animation and Sound (7.5) The animation have many stand out moments that looks really cool, but there are many wonky scenes with CG and background that feels distracting as well. It's like the art style doesn't always meshed together sometimes. The voice acting was really, really good though. Each character has the perfect voice for their personalities. The music also fits the story mood and tone, leaning to noir suspense in the beginning and going bigger as the story expand. Overall (7) The review so far seems to go either Masterpiece or Mid, but I find it to be a fairly good story for its genre. I'm not always invested in mystery stories, but this tale really keeps me hook with the unique setting. While I haven't seen Astro Boy, as a fan of sci-fi stories, 'Pluto' pose a lot of interesting philosophical discussion and have a rich world I would love to revisit.

("SHORT" SPOILER-FREE REVIEW) Pluto is easily the best show I've seen from 2023 imo ofc. I read the Manga 5 years ago yet this still felt so fresh. After watching this I can easily say that this is vastly superior to the manga. It is the perfect adaptation. They conveyed the feeling and tone of original story perfectly while significantly enhancing the experience as an anime should. It is supposed to a revised version of Astro Boy while still being it's own thing. The story starts with the death of a world famous robot called Mont Blanc in the Swiss Alps. Robot scientists and influencers mysteriously end up dying one by one with horns attached to their heads. They're also after the 7 strongest robots in the world. Gesicht a robot detective from Europol is tasked with finding the killer, in a world where robots cannot commit murder. The case however dives MUCH deeper than expected. It grabbed my attention right from start of episode one. Tightly paced, it just glued me to the screen. The mystery was very intriguing throughout with some great foreshadowing. These eps are 1 hr long on average and I'd say that was the right call. Felt more like a Hollywood movie. Regardless it was engaging through and through. The characters in particular were the best part of Pluto as they were just Incredible. Naoki Urasawa the original author who is also responsible for Monster is extremely skilled at creating complex characters who interweave into story. You can see that here too. Completely random characters who unexpectedly connect to the main story. Every single one was lovable and have great stories behind them. All of the Main 7 were very well fleshed out along with the side characters too. I personally loved Gesicht, Brando and North No. 2 in particular. If you never thought a show could make you really empathize with robots this will. They have such "humanity" to them that it is hard to describe. No character is safe either as they can die at any moment. Every death in the show was meaningful and gut wrenching. Studio M2 came out of nowhere and blew it outta the park. Their only "recognisable" show Onihei so they didn't have much of a track record. Yet this was Excellently done. It looks very polished. They replicated manga's artstyle flawlessly. I have to point out that the dialogue scenes in particular look fabulous. They look very natural with lot of movement. Character expressions look impressive. The cinematography to accompany it is top notch. It's great in general with some fantastic shots. The OST is beautiful and fit the scenes perfectly. I'm really glad they went with Yugo Kanno (not to be confused Yoko Kanno) who also composed for Psycho Pass, Jojo and Ajin to name a few. There is no OP except for a Marvel style intro thingy where they flash the actual manga panels with the title card accompanied by an ominous BGM. Sets an eerie tone. There are credits for the ED with a couple of somber yet gorgeous tracks. Great as it is, it does have it's flaws. The Major one being the ending. Urasawa's endings have been well known to be odd or just confusing. I'd say that this was still the least wackiest of the bunch. The last ep was easily the weakest ep. The last quarter of the ep felt a bit rushed and abrupt along with a tonal shift which felt like it was actually Astro Boy for a sec which was strange. Biggest flaw being some unexplained stuff especially regarding the main antagonists. The 1 hr run time might also seem too long for some. I also wished they showed the names of the places they were in since the story takes place in several countries simultaneously and it can get confusing. There was a bit of repetition with some stuff which they could've avoided. Like they mention abt the "39th Central Asian War" and "Hatred" way too often. The Iraq allegory was too on the nose imo which felt out of place in the middle of a futuristic sci detective story. I would highly recommend watching the Dub for this. THE best dub I've heard in a long time. The Dub was directed by Patrick Seitz who also directed Monster's dub. The voice acting was phenomenal. You can feel such visceral emotions from everyone. The casting was also perfect. Surprisingly ProZD (from Youtube) is in on this too! All in all it's the best show I've seen in a long long time. It hooked me in right from start to finish. There was never a dull moment. The themes of the story have been well used before but it's executed extremely well here and it's surprisingly still relevant today even though the manga was made 20+ yrs ago. Humanity, Human Nature with the cycle of hatred in particular, War, the prospect of AI in our world, Distinction between man and robot etc. Even if you have read the manga, I still urge you to watch it. The scenes were much powerful here than the manga. You don't need to know about Astro Boy either. Since there is no 9.5, it gets a 10/10 from me. 1 point more than the manga as it felt much better.

Pluto is a perfect mystery, science fiction, drama series. The overall tone of the show from beginning to the end shifts from a detective show to a drama, then it becomes a thriller mystery title. After some point it turns into a thoughtful piece of media that approaches topics like human rights, it also provides shounen plot with solid understanding of artificial intelligence setting at some point as well. Even though I told tons of topics and genres this show handles they and more in an 8 episode (around 60 minutes for each episode) beautifully. But these are not the main beauty of the show. It tells and gives opinions on most humane topics using robots and their interactions. This makes this show brilliant and unique. With the newly developing sophisticated artificial intelligence, robots struggle to understands emotions and the result of these emotions. Watching this struggle also makes you realise humans also doesn’t understand these concepts fully as well. So, during this wholesome journey we start to think some solutions for these problematic topics, like the robots in the series. Because it respects the human as a subject and let viewer to think about the topics it provides. Furthermore, letting them have their own solutions during the show is the part what makes it one of the perfect pieces of media. The only issue about the series is the revelation in the end feels a bit rushed. But it doesn't make the show suffer at all. Also, it being an 8 episode is a big plus for the series. As a fan of Naoki Urasawa, Monster is a story with 74 episodes. Once it's consumed, it doesn't offer a rewatchability element, and it has slow moments that makes the show more thrilling. These slow moments also prevent viewers from rewatching the show. But Pluto on the other hand as a shorter piece provides more condense experience for viewer. As a final statement I can easily recommend this show to anyone that wants to have a thrilling experience and want to think about subjects the show presents. If you're not into mystery titles or want to watch an action-packed show without giving any thought the show would disappoint you in these aspects.