Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka

AUTHOR: Nagasaki, Takashi; Tezuka, Osamu; Urasawa, Naoki

ARTIST: Naoki Urasawa (illustrator); James Gaubatz (letterer); Mikiyo Kobayashi (cover artist)

PUBLISHER: Shogakukan (Japanese); VIZ Media (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Puruto, 2003-2009 (English translation, 2009-2010)

Publication History

In 2002, award-winning manga artist Naoki Urasawa, along with his producer, Takashi Nagasaki, approached Tezuka Productions with the concept of adapting the “Greatest Robot on Earth” story line from Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy (1952-1968) in commemoration of Astro Boy’s fictional birthday. “The Greatest Robot on Earth” was originally serialized in the Japanese manga Shonen Magazine under the title “The Greatest Robot in History” from June, 1964, to January, 1965. It also marked Urasawa’s introduction to manga as a child.

Makoto Tezuka, Tezuka’s son, initially rejected Urasawa and Nagasaki’s proposal; however, the team persisted, and the project got the green light after an in-person presentation for Tezuka on March 28, 2003. This adaptation was originally proposed as a single installment. However, the concept was expanded, and Pluto was published in sixty-five installments in Shogakukan’s biweekly Big Comic Original from September, 2003, to April, 2009, with Tezuka acting as series supervisor. The series was collected in eight volumes (released in the United States by VIZ Media between 2009 and 2010 as Signature Editions) featuring a discussion between Urasawa and Tezuka, and “Postscript” essays by Tezuka, Nagasaki, and others. The series was translated into English by Jared Cook with manga scholar and longtime Astro Boy translator Frederik L. Schodt.

Plot

Pluto was conceived as a murder mystery featuring the German detective-robot Gesicht, one of “The Greatest Robot on Earth’s” secondary characters, as the series’ protagonist. The series is intended for older audiences and provides a self-contained narrative so that no previous knowledge of Tezuka or Astro Boy is required to understand the story.

The series begins with the destruction of the robot Mont Blanc in Switzerland, followed by the murder of robot-law preservationist Bernard Lanke in Germany. Special Investigator Gesicht of Europol is assigned to the Lanke case and immediately discovers a link between the destruction of Mont Blanc and the Lanke death. Both sets of remains had been desecrated postmortem by the addition of horns.

Gesicht travels to the Artificial Intelligence Correctional Facility to consult robot criminal Brau 1589, who links the horns to the Roman god of death, Pluto. He also predicts that the remaining six most advanced robots on Earth, including Gesicht, will be targeted. The murder of North No. 2 helps to confirm this theory, and afterward Gesicht warns the robot Brando and seeks the robot Atom in Japan.

Atom assists Gesicht from Japan when Junichiro Tasaki, the creator of the robot laws, is murdered. Atom learns that Lanke and Tasaki had served together on the Bora Survey Group, which had been sent to Persia to determine whether the kingdom was producing robots capable of being used as weapons of mass destruction. Despite the survey group’s total lack of findings, the United States of Thracia invades Persia, beginning the thirty-ninth Central Asian War, or Persian War. Persia is ultimately overwhelmed by the peacekeeping forces, when six of the world’s seven most advanced robots become involved in the conflict. In the present, Brando of Turkey confronts the killer of Mont Blanc and North No. 2 but is himself destroyed. As Brando’s functions cease, he signals the other robots that his enemy has been defeated; however, a search funded by the robot Hercules produces only Brando’s severed arms, positioned like horns on a rock.

In Germany, Adolf Haas, a member of a robot hate group KR, discovers that his criminal brother was killed three years previously by Gesicht, which was in direct conflict with robot laws prohibiting the murder of humans. Gesicht has no knowledge of the event, as the data were removed from his memory banks by Europol. KR decides to use this information against the robot community, and orders the assassination of Adolf should he interfere.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo City, Atom’s sister Uran befriends a robot who is an extension of the robot-killer Pluto, and who has the ability to manipulate the natural world. The head of Persia’s Ministry of Science, Professor Abullah, is revealed to be Pluto’s creator.

A blackmail attempt on Professor Ochanomizu of Japan’s Ministry of Science results in Atom’s defeat by Pluto. However, Atom’s body is not destroyed in the battle. Gesicht is temporarily taken off the Pluto case and charged with protecting Adolf Haas and his family after an attempt on Adolf’s life by KR. Adolf attempts to rid himself of Gesicht by showing the detective a video linking Persia’s former ruler, Darius XIV, to the murders of the Bora Survey Group members.

Gesicht is subsequently damaged by a cluster-cannon blast while preventing a second assassination attempt on Adolf. In Greece, the robot Hercules is destroyed by Pluto. Professor Tenma arrives in Japan, where Ochanomizu has been unable to revive Atom. The only way to revive Atom, Tenma reveals, is to introduce an emotional bias such as hate or anger. After repairs, Gesicht returns to his investigation severely weakened. He discovers a connection between Pluto and a Persian robot named Sahad.

In his search for Sahad, Gesicht travels to the Netherlands, where he learns that Abullah created Sahad. He learns, however, that news of Abullah’s death had prompted Sahad to return to Persia, where his artificial intelligence (AI) was installed in Pluto. Gesicht locates and subdues Pluto but refuses to destroy Pluto per Europol commands. Suffering from severe metal fatigue, Gesicht is killed shortly thereafter by a robot child sent by Abullah. Gesicht’s wife Helena gives her husband’s memory chip to Professor Tenma.

A flashback at the beginning of Volume 7 reveals that, prior to the Persian War, Tenma, and Abullah created a robot with perfect AI. It was programmed with records of all six billion people on Earth and was to awaken as a result of Abullah’s hatred for Thracia in his dying moments. The robot awoke believing himself to be the real Abullah and created Pluto to get revenge on mankind for the Persian War.

In the present, Epsilon, the only super-advanced robot of the seven not involved in the Persian War, defeats Pluto but does not destroy him. During their second encounter, Pluto pleads with Epsilon to kill him. Epsilon hesitates and is destroyed. In Tokyo City, Tenma revives Atom using the hatred stored in Gesicht’s memory chip as an emotional bias. Atom awakens, having received Epsilon’s final transmission about a threat far greater than Pluto: the robot Bora, who has the power to manipulate the world itself.

In the final volume, Abullah’s AI is installed in Bora. Having disposed of the world’s most advanced robots, Abullah/Bora plans to detonate the massive caldera below Thracia’s Eden National Park using an antiproton bomb and wipe out mankind. Atom flies to Eden where he briefly engages Pluto in battle. The two make peace and descend into the caldera in an attempt to disarm the antiproton bomb. Failing to do so, Pluto hurls Atom to safety before sacrificing himself to freeze the exploding caldera and save mankind.

Volumes

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 1 (2009). Collects acts 1-7. Covers the murders of Mont Blanc, Bernard Lanke, and North No. 2. Gesicht is assigned to the investigation.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 2 (2009). Collects acts 8-15. The thirty-ninth Central Asian War is detailed. Brando and Junichiro Tasaki are killed.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 3 (2009). Collects acts 16-23. Gesicht’s murder of a human is revealed. Uran temporarily befriends Pluto.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 4 (2009). Collects acts 24-31. Atom is killed. Gesicht is assigned to protect Adolf Haas and learns of the Persian involvement in the murders.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 5 (2009). Collects acts 32-39. Gesicht is damaged in the line of duty, and Tenma arrives in Japan to find Atom in stasis.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 6 (2009). Collects acts 40-47. Gesicht learns the true identity of Pluto, battles Pluto, and is subsequently killed.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 7 (2010). Collects acts 48-55. Abullah’s origin is revealed. Epsilon battles Pluto twice and is killed in the second encounter. Atom is revived.

• Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka, Volume 8 (2010). Collects acts 56-65. Abullah’s plan reaches its final stage. Atom and Pluto team up to stop Bora. Pluto dies.

Characters

• Special Investigator Gesicht, the protagonist, is one of the world’s seven most advanced robots and is composed of the virtually indestructible “zeronium” alloy. He is a detective serving the German division of Europol and appears as a slightly balding, fair-haired, middle-aged human with a large nose. He lives with his wife Helena and has nightmares linked to deleted memories. He heads the investigation into the Pluto murders. Although he is killed in Volume 6, his memory chip is used to revive Atom, resulting in the series’ resolution.

• Atom of Japan is one of the seven most advanced robots and is virtually indistinguishable from a human, even to sensors. He appears as a small boy with cowlicked hair and displays emotions uncharacteristic of robots. After being killed by Pluto in Volume 4, he is revived in Volume 7, and later teams up with Pluto to stop Bora.

• Pluto is a powerful robot capable of manipulating nature. Created by Professor Abullah using the AI of the peaceful robot Sahad, he is forced to battle the seven most advanced robots. He is large and monstrous, with two flexible horns that he uses as weapons. He sacrifices himself to stop Bora.

• Professor Abullah is the mastermind behind a plan to destroy humanity using the robots Pluto and Bora. He appears human and is registered by sensors as human, but until the final volume he is a robot believing himself to be the deceased Abullah. His AI is used to operate Bora.

• Brando of Turkey is one of the seven most advanced robots and appears as a stocky, middle-aged human when not wearing his pankration battle armor. He is the ESKKKR robot fighting champion, and for a time after his death he is believed to have destroyed Pluto in battle.

• Hercules of Greece is one of the seven most advanced robots and appears as a muscular human with a crew cut and rugged facial features when not wearing his pankration battle armor. Known as “the God of Battle,” he is the WPKKKR robot fighting champion. His death in battle against Pluto in Volume 5 provides Epsilon with valuable data about their adversary.

• Uran is Atom’s sister. Created by Professor Ochanomizu, she appears as a small Japanese girl with short pigtails. She has the ability to sense powerful emotions and invariably seeks to aid those in distress. Through her contact with an extension of Pluto’s AI, it is revealed that she is being manipulated by Abullah.

• Adolf Haas is a robot hater whose brother was murdered by Gesicht. He is possessed by an overwhelming drive for vengeance, but lacks the willpower to deliver the fatal blow against Gesicht. He provides Gesicht with the evidence to link the former Persian government to the murders of the human robotics experts.

• Epsilon of Australia is the only one of the seven most advanced robots not to serve in the Persian War. He is human in appearance; he is slim with long hair and wears a black turtleneck and black pants. He operates a home for orphans of the Persian War and discovers the purpose of Bora before his death in Volume 7.

• Professor Tenma is a Japanese AI expert. He is self-absorbed and cynical and thin with a chin beard. He has black hair that curls in the front and wears tinted glasses. He created both Atom and the robot Abullah, and is responsible for Atom’s revival in Volume 7.

Artistic Style

From the earliest stages of Pluto’s development, Makoto Tezuka challenged Urasawa to make the series a distinct work and to deviate from Osamu Tezuka’s Walt Disney-influenced style wherever possible. As such, the series is drawn with Urasawa’s typical realistic flair. Physics in the world of Pluto operate in approximate accordance to real-world physics, placing the series in marked contrast to Astro Boy. Human characters are drawn with less over-exaggerated features, and the robots are designed with greater emphasis on functionality and social status. As such, many of the more advanced robots are virtually indistinguishable from humans, while robots of lesser social importance, such as servants, are more machinelike in appearance. Urasawa does, however, stray from realism in his depiction of westerners as possessing large, hooked noses, per Japanese caricatures of Americans dating back to the 1850’s.

Urasawa’s realism is also characterized by a cinematic approach to panels and panel layouts. Urasawa employs cinematic informationals within his panels to create a dynamic visual experience, utilizing a wide variety of angles and compositions to the same end as their cinematic equivalents. Urasawa’s approach to panel layouts closely resembles cinematic editing: Small panels inserted in conversations act as cutaways to combat tedium; the largest panels expand time much like the long take in cinema; and sequences such as the robot battles are composed entirely of smaller panels to create the impression of speed and draw the reader’s eye quickly across the page.

Themes

The primary theme of Pluto is the absurdity of war and hate. In the first volume, although North No. 2 rejects war and wishes only to play the piano, he is lured into battle with Pluto and destroyed, leaving his blind, human master alone and unattended. In Volume 6, Gesicht learns that Pluto, built specifically for battle, was bestowed with an AI belonging to a robot who would otherwise have brought vegetation to Persia’s deserts. In the last two volumes, it is revealed that the thirty-ninth Central Asian War, intended to relieve the world of the threat posed by Persia, resulted instead in the near eradication of mankind.

As in Astro Boy, the relationship between humans and robots is strained by discrimination. While assisting Tokyo City’s Metropolitan Police Department in the investigation into the murder of Junichiro Tasaki in Volume 2, Atom is subjected to constant insults regarding his robot nature from the department’s superintendent Tawashi. Volumes 3 and 4 depict members of the antirobot group KR—modeled after the Ku Klux Klan—dressed in white robes and pointed hoods. Certain of human superiority, KR assassinates the world’s first robot judge and plots to ruin Gesicht in the media to create antirobot sentiment.

Another major thematic concern is memory. Throughout the series, numerous robots are implanted with others’ memories or are offered the opportunity to delete painful memories, since robot memories never fade. North No. 2 aids his master Paul Duncan in correcting the inaccurate memory of his mother, and Volumes 4 through 6 find Gesicht struggling with the recovered memories of his lost child and subsequent murder of Adolf Haas’s brother.

Impact

In the original Astro Boy manga, Osamu Tezuka attributed the date April 7, 2003, to Astro’s creation by Professor Tenma. Although Pluto would not begin publication until September of 2003, Urasawa and Nagasaki intended the series as a work commemorating Astro Boy’s birthday. Urasawa had previously won, among other prizes, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award and three Shogakukan Manga Awards for his original manga. With Pluto, however, he sought to pursue his first adaptation in order to inspire young readers to explore those works of Tezuka that had influenced him as a child. As such, Urasawa not only drew from various Astro Boy story lines in addition to “The Greatest Robot on Earth” but also referenced other Tezuka works throughout the series such as Black Jack (1973-1983), Kimba the White Lion, and Phoenix (1954-1988).

Pluto has received near universal critical praise. Japanese critics Torohiko Murakami and Gorot Yamada even provided the postscripts for Volumes 5 and 6, respectively. The series’ most significant contribution to the graphic novel is, as recognized by Makoto Tezuka, its standing as the first Astro Boy-related work to transcend simple homage or parody. Manga scholar Schodt predicts that Pluto is but the first of many liberal adaptations of Astro Boy to come.

Further Reading

Tezuka, Osamu. Astro Boy (1952-1968).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Black Jack (1973-1983).

Urasawa, Naoki. Twentieth Century Boys (2009-2010).

Bibliography

Davis, Jason, Christie Barber, and Mio Bryce. “Why Do They Look White?” In Manga and Philosophy: Fullmetal Metaphysician, edited by Josef Steiff and Adam Barkman. Chicago: Open Court, 2010.

“The Legacy of Astro Boy: A Discussion between Naoki Urasawa and Makoto Tezuka.” In Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka Volume 1. San Francisco: VIZ Media, 2009.

Nagasaki, Takashi. “Postscript.” In Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka Volume 8. San Francisco: VIZ Media, 2010.

Natsume, Fusanosuke. “Postscript: Why Is Pluto So Interesting?” In Pluto: Urasawa ´ Tezuka Volume 3. San Francisco: VIZ Media, 2009.

Schodt, Frederik L. The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Amine Revolution. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 2007.

Tezuka, Makoto. “Postscript.” In Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Volume 2. San Francisco: VIZ Media, 2009.