Pluto Review

A triumph of a TV show

                There is an unmistakable rift between those that love anime and those that don’t.  It’s hard not to see why: anime has been playing by its own rules for decades.  As such, it means those that love anime can’t get enough and it means those that don’t care really don’t care.  Me?  I’m somewhere in the middle.  I grew up with DragonBall and Outlaw Star, both of which made quite an impact on me.  And when I got older, I loved FLCL, Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill, Hunter X Hunter and more, but I also don’t find the writing compelling in a lot of anime to call myself an otaku, so I get it.  But ever so occasionally there is an anime that makes a bridge for that rift.  Cowboy Bebop is a melancholy look at growing up and loneliness; Fullmetal Alchemist is an intense look at exploting natural resources and dictatorship, Ghost in the Shell excellently explores existentialism, and Akira is just extremely entertaining (perhaps it’s not a coincidence that 3 of those 4 predate the 2000s).  And now I can say that Pluto, the latest adaptation of a manga co-written and illustrated by the legend Naoki Urasawa (Monster, 20th Century Boys, both of which are great mangas that I’ve read and cannot recommend enough) is part of that list.  An engaging piece of fiction from start to finish, Pluto is a triumph in every way, and I can tell the biggest anime dismisser that they can watch it and really enjoy it.

                Based on the iconic Astro Boy series (and more specifically its The World’s Greatest Robot Arc, though one does not need to have read Astro Boy to watch the series.  I didn’t), Pluto’s 8 episodes are an engaging murder mystery centering on the murder of robots and humans that played a pivotal role in a great war and on the case is a robot named Inspector Gesicht, an agent of Europol.  While entertaining, Pluto is far from a simplistic bestseller murder mystery reminiscent of James Patterson, the show has a lot on its mind, fully exploring themes of human nature, the ethics of Artificial Intelligence and war, and takes some real swings at all of them with some intense and believable political intrigue.  Many of the conversations I was surprised to hear what was being discussed, not just for an anime, but for any medium.  If there is one fault of the story it is that the murder reveal happens early on, and it’s not brought up again until much later.  Fortunately, Pluto uses the time well to explore why the villain does what they do, which gives Pluto a lot of time to enrich its world.  And to be frank if they didn’t I would have figured it out before everyone else and that would have been really annoying.  And this isn’t the triumph of the plucky like Naruto, One Piece, DragonBall and other shonen works, in Pluto there is a murderer about, and those on its hit list are in for a brutal end, and its ending is a pessimistic one.

                I’ll admit watching Pluto, I was reluctant at first, even as someone who loves 20th Century Boys and Monster.  I’m someone who finds it very hard to buy into the whole machines being people trope, even now.  I really can’t stand the whole “Just go with it” mentality that similar works like, say, Blade Runner have.  Pluto, seemingly being tailor made for people like me, really goes all into the believability of the machines.  Whenever I was like “But what about THIS scenario in the world?” Pluto had an answer, and it was a well thought out and emotionally resonant one.  I’ll admit sometimes I didn’t buy into it, particularly some small gripes at the end, but it’s a serious testament to the series that I was able to live with it (and also I get that it’s a bias I have, so I just had to live with it).

                The characters, both robot and human, are rich and interesting characters.  A far cry from the basic, template teenagers that are prevalent in most anime (which is a neutral statement since most anime is aimed at kids), the cast of Pluto are adults that have well-defined beliefs and motivations that were all intriguing to me.  Every character, even the minor ones, feel important to the story.  I really got the feeling that all the pieces mattered, making a cast of characters I either really cared about or really cared to see dead.  The only character that felt a little flat to me was Atom’s (aka Astro Boy) sister Uran.  Her whole idea of “sensing” emotions was rather repetitive.  I liked her in the beginning when she developed a relationship with a certain character but after that she was a bit irritating.  Thankfully the rest of the cast is superb, and to be fair I would still want Uran in the story not out of it.

                I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the voice acting.  I’m sure the Japanese voice acting is great, but the English cast is excellent, so those who don’t watch anime because of bad voice acting or do not want to read subtitles are out of excuses.  Jason Vande Brake (Gesicht), Laura Stahl (Atom), Mike Pollock (Professor Ochanomizu), Adrian Pasdar (Brando), Richard Epcar (Hercules), Keith Silverstein (Epsilon) and so on, are all fantastic and are given excellent direction.  The ones that stood the most though were Keith David as Dr. Tenma, who brings a lot of gravitas to the role but also changes his voice in subtle ways in more somber moments that prove how great a voice actor he is.  The second was Nolan North, who goes against type here from his famous roles of Deadpool and Nathan Drake, getting to show how versatile he can be, playing pitiable and complex anti-robot terrorist Adolf Haas.  The most impressive to me, however, is Sungwong Cho as murderous robot Brau-1589.  He knocks it out of the park giving a voice role that’s intimidating as it is intoxicating to hear.  You wouldn’t have believed it was the guy that got his start with his popular Pro Zd YouTube channel (as well as Tumblr and Vine).  Even Patrick Seitz, who I usually don’t like, is excellent as the robot North No.2.  It’s a great voice cast that makes everything else even better.

The Verdict

Pluto is a triumph in every way in story, characters, and themes.  Despite the gloominess of it all, Pluto is an extremely entertaining story (with a knockout of a finale) that I could watch repeatedly.  While it has some flaws, they are forgivable because everything else works so damn well.  It is an anime that one could say to a non-anime fan say, “yes watch this” and they’ll probably love it because it’s not like a shonen or shojo work with cheesy speeches and over the top powers.  It may have a “kid” as one of its leads, but this is a rich tale anyone can relate to.  I can only hope someone takes Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys and it gets an equally excellent adaptation. 

10/10

Pluto is a marvel, an achievement in both story, character, themes and being something anyone can appreciate, anime and non-anime fans alike.