Pluto is a mature retelling of Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka, more specifically of the arc called The Greatest Robot on Earth.
It’s about an alternative future where robots that emulate humans are becoming a reality, with the world’s seven strongest robots being the “perfect models”. There’s a global conspiracy in the world and said strongest robots are being destroyed one by one.
The story might not seem original if you have read or watched classics like the Watchmen, Blade Runner, I, Robot or Pinocchio as it borrows elements from these stories, but as a whole is very intriguing and the themes are presented in a mature way.
One of the positives of this manga is how the story jumps from different point of views, through the seven strongest robots that are targeted and in danger of being destroyed, having their own meaningful side stories that connects with the other robots, while each one is contributing more to unwrap the mystery.
While initially I didn’t care much, the story gives enough focus and number of distinctive interactions to the characters so you get to know them before they meet their death. The way the manga builds the drama gives weight to these events, it’s quite subtle and nothing is overblown. The manga greatest achievement is making his robotic characters human-like and worthy of compassion. Part of the trick to achieve this was to give these robots a human appearance, with their advanced technologies they felt in some way like androids or cyborgs instead of robots. They also felt like incomplete humans, beings that could feel sad but couldn’t feel like dying, beings that had frustrating memories but couldn’t forget.
The villains and their motivations are certainly the weakest aspect of the manga. In the end all of them are generic well-intentioned extremists, for example that anti-robot organization that resembles the KKK, they have resentment to the robots because the old models had failures and have hurt the humans by accident but this seems pretty exaggerated and unjustified when you start to think that this organization is against all robots, and in the context of the story the robots that caused their resentment are scarce, being replaced and the new models are literally unable to hurt humans because of their programming.
The teddy bear is just as bland, with a similar lame motivation. Pluto, one of the most important characters, has a pretty simple characterization. The villains are over the top and in certain way, unjustified.
The last two volumes are rushed (it goes from a mystery/suspense story to a more action-packed one) as some revelations are way too convenient, especially the finale, with most problems being resolved quite fast. Also, the story leaves you with loose ends. You don’t really get to know who exactly was that teddy bear, how Bora turns magma to ice or how Brau 1589 escaped the prison. It’s too far-fetched in general. As if this wasn’t enough the final message is delivered in a non-subtle way.
In all, Pluto has great build-up but with generic antagonists and a lackluster ending. It’s still one of the best sci-fi manga when it comes to portray a robotic futuristic scenario and treat all the philosophical subjects that entails.
