Highlights
- Pluto is a universally acclaimed manga that won numerous awards and has now received an anime adaptation.
- The characters in Pluto are the highlight of the series, as they are well-developed and leave a lasting impression.
- The anime adaptation of Pluto has the quality of a big-budget movie, with beautiful hand-drawn animation and a perfect blend of CGI. Netflix deserves credit for delivering this amazing series.
When the great Osamu Tezuka created Astro Boy in the 1950s, he set the birthday of the series’ main character, Atom, to April 7th, 2003. As the actual date drew closer twenty years ago, Tezuka Production, the company responsible for Osamu Tezuka’s works, planned to create something special to commemorate the occasion. That’s when the idea of creating a special one-off manga featuring Atom came up.
One of the authors who heard about such a brilliant idea was none other than the legendary mangaka Naoki Urasawa. However, rather than writing a one-off story, he wanted to write a full-fledged manga based on one of the most iconic story arcs in the original Astro Boy manga, The Greatest Robot on Earth. The result was a universally acclaimed and highly celebrated manga that won all kinds of awards, such as the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize and Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, including a nomination for the prestigious Harvey Award and Eisner Award. And now, in the Fall of 2023, Pluto finally received an anime adaptation.
A Riveting Character-Driven Story
There are loads of great things to be said about Pluto. A compelling premise that revolves around a mysterious robot who hunts and kills the seven strongest robots in the world one by one. A thrilling investigative story featuring a robot detective who unknowingly buried an unforgivable crime deep within his memory. A one-sided war that leaves a country on the brink of destruction and desolation. A grief-stricken genius scientist who will do anything to exact his vengeance, even if it means destroying the entire world. But above all, the best part of Pluto is its characters.
Beyond the intriguing premise and the thrilling action sequences, what makes Pluto so great is its characters. Every single one of them feels like a truly living breathing person who has reasons, purposes, emotions, and a wealth of life experiences that mold them into who they are at the beginning of the story. That is true be it for the robots, the humans, the main characters, the supporting cast, or even that low-level robot that Gesicht meets in the first episode to notify her about the death of her husband.
The series managed to make it clear that the characters have lives before, during, and after the story, even if we don’t get to see them on screen. They are carefully crafted three-dimensional characters who have a life beyond just moving the narrative forward. Whether they appear throughout the series or we only get to see them briefly in one of the episodes, like the little broken robot named Ali who tries to sell flowers to Gesicht, every single one of them leaves a lasting impression that will stay with the viewers long after the end credits.
A TV Series With Movie Quality Production
The original Pluto manga consists of eight volumes. Likewise, the anime adaptation tells its story within the span of eight episodes. That means every episode adapts one volume of the manga. That is also why every episode has around 60 minutes of runtime. Furthermore, every single episode of this series has the quality of a big-budget anime movie. So it’s not an exaggeration to say that rather than an anime series, Pluto is akin to a series of movies with one continuous narrative that was released at the same time. An Octalogy, if you will.
As if that’s not impressive enough, every frame of Pluto is beautifully hand-drawn by a team of talented artists and animators. From the medieval castle that sits on top of the lush and bountiful landscape of Scotland to the claustrophobic skyscrapers of futuristic Germany. From the vibrant tulip fields that stretch to the horizon in the Netherlands to the dimly lit café in the middle of a busy street in war-torn Persia. Everything is masterfully and painstakingly drawn to perfection. Truly a feast for the eyes.
And then there’s also the unsung hero that subtly appears here and there to glue everything together, which is the CGI. That’s right, although the overwhelming majority of the animation on Pluto is hand-drawn, numerous objects in this series are made by CGI. Some are quite hidden and unnoticeable, like the cars, the buildings, and that cupboard that instantly appears out of the desk when a character hovers his hand above it. Other times, the CGI is the centerpiece of the scene, such as countless fiery explosions, Pluto’s raging tornadoes, and the many buildings that are destroyed because of his attack. The perfect harmony between traditional hand-drawn animation and advanced CGI is the reason why this series looks so breathtaking.
Netflix Delivers One of This Year’s Best Anime
Along with Osamu Tezuka who created the original story of the mighty Atom, Naoki Urasawa who masterfully crafted the modern retelling in the form of Pluto manga, and the squadron of talented people responsible for producing the anime, another entity that deserves accolades is none other than Netflix, the platform that delivers us this amazing series.
Producing an anime adaptation of a series that is mainly geared toward adult audiences by translating every volume of the manga into a 60-minute episode for a total of 8 episodes, each of which has the quality of a big-budget movie, is nearly impossible to do with the traditional Japanese animation system.
After all, the reason why most anime have around 20 minutes of runtime is because the studio needs to account for the ads that appear during the TV broadcast. The reason why most series have 13 episodes per season is because there are 13 weeks in a season (Summer, Fall, etc.) and the TV companies need something to fill one of those weekly slots in their busy schedule. Going the movie route is also equally impossible because no companies are willing to bet money on this kind of niche project that requires tons of money to make with no guarantee of success.
This is basically the reason why it took decades for Pluto to have an anime adaptation. Without a streaming platform that doesn’t rely on ads like Netflix and the big budget that they are willing to spend to create an original series, there won’t be a fantastic series like Pluto. So let’s give credit where it’s due, and tip our hat to Netflix. They are far from a perfect company, but they certainly made the right decision with this one. So kudos to them, because with Pluto, they have created a new gold standard for anime adaptation that will be hard to top in the foreseeable future.
Pluto is available to stream on Netflix.