Pluto

Thank you Netflix, for adapting this story and that too so perfectly. I've missed this feeling. There are only a few anime I was able to binge non-stop (like Steins Gate or AOT). Pluto is no different. It's right up there with some of the best mystery/suspense anime.

There are many reasons why Pluto might be one of the best anime we've gotten in years. Let me explore those reasons one by one.

The storytelling and pacing is just perfect. A mystery is told perfectly, when a viewer is curious, but never confused. That's what this anime did. The story is shown to be complex, but still doesn't seem that way. The pace is never too fast. I never struggled to keep track of the information given so far. It's also never too slow. I just don't know where those 8 hours went. I was so involved in the story. It gave brief amounts of information, at perfect intervals in the story in order to complete the puzzle in our brain.

This isn't just a thriller. It's a story about humanity, about emotions, hatred in particular. Because of how concise the story is, every plot point leads to this theme. Each character plays a huge role in communicating the story's message. And I cared for each of them. The second half brought me to tears. The conclusion is very emotionally satisfying too.

I love how this story used AI in order to explore humanity, and to enhance its emotions as well as its theme. It's just brilliant writing. Such a story, seems impactful now more than ever.

The character that stole the show, was Gesicht. A flawlessly written character, with a very emotional arc. He deserved being the protagonist of this wonderful story.

Another thing I loved was that this was sort of a mix of a futuristic sci-fi mystery, a dark psychological mystery, as well as a detective story.

There's just one tiny problem I had. During the final episodes, they introduced some new plot points, that felt a bit out of place to me.

But overall, this is an emotionally heavy story, memorable mystery and it's brilliantly told. Please, watch it on Netflix. We need more anime like these.

Pluto is a mature adaption of one of the most iconic arcs of Astro Boy. The manga, by the same name, is widely considered a masterpiece and is a deep passion project for the writer. I want to keep this mostly spoiler-free.

Every single character from the original arc in Astro Boy has been given justice in this remake. Atom (Astro Boy Himself) and Gesicht are the main leads of this show and both of them never fail to keep me engaged. The suspense is all very well done and the conclusion to it all is personally among my favorite endings in fiction.

I would highly recommend going into this blind, and if you love Seinen anime/manga, you will have an absolute blast here. Pluto comprises some of the most well-written and heartfelt characters whose story reaches a perfect end. Pluto isn't just another humans & robots centred story, it is THE humans and robots centred story.

Going into Pluto I knew we would get a brilliant adaption because the project was led by Masao Maruyama. He founded Madhouse and MAPPA, who specifically founded this new studio to adapt extremely well-deserving and overlooked mangas akin to Pluto.

Moreover, some of the other masterpieces he produced are Monster, Perfect Blue, Death Note, Hunter x Hunter (2011), Nana, Trigun, Hellsing Ultimate, Paprika, Kids on the Slope, and Tokyo Godfathers, among many others, the guy has been the driving force for masterpieces left and right. Also, the music composition is being done by Yuugo Kanno, who is well known for his extremely popular JoJo opening themes.

The Mangaka Naoki Urasawa is well known for his genius in developing murder mysteries or suspenseful tales that get increasingly interesting as you read. He has genuinely created some of the most masterful stuff in modern entertainment, and to finally see this manga by him get such a phenomenal and passionate adaption feels so good; I waited for so long to get one. I hope that Pluto is successful enough that we get an adaption of 20th Century Boys, which is another manga by Urasawa.

First of all, I have to say that I'm an anime only and I haven't read the manga. I've only seen one other series by Naoki Urasawa and that is the anime of Monster.

So going into this blindly, I expected something similar like a realistic psychological crime story. But what I got was something completely different and it's honestly hard to believe that these are two mangas written by the same author. It's a science fiction that takes place in the future with a lot of fantasy elements, such as extremely advanced technology like robots and artificial intelligence on the level of or even more developed than humans. That was definitely a nice change and just proves that Urasawa is a genius of a mangaka who can write very diverse stories. The only thing halfway similar is the murder mystery aspect of the story, but I definitely loved that.

This anime had some interesting themes like the never-ending cycle of hatred. It's also very emotional with hard hitting deaths that almost made me cry for literal robots. Every episode is interesting and has some nice moments, but no episode is even close to the level of the masterpiece that is the last one.

That final episode is one of the greatest TV episodes I've ever seen. It has a plot twist on the same level of Attack on Titan, which absolutely shocked me. And that final fight had me on the edge of my seat the whole time as it's just pure craziness and emotion. It's genuinely the greatest finale that I've ever seen in any anime and this is not an exaggeration. I'm just so glad to finally see another very well executed ending. Most endings that I've seen felt kind of unsatisfying.

Overall, I really enjoyed this fairly short show and it was an incredible experience. The only thing I disliked was the animation of environmental elements like tornados and explosions. The studio used too realistic CGI for this that just looks a bit odd compared to the 2D animation.

I am only writing this review to put shame on the guy who gave it 2. How could you possibly go into this anime thinking it was going to be straight action scenes and that's it. That isnt the authors style what so ever. This show is a masterpiece of storytelling and emotions. The first episode left me in tears and the build up to the finale was beautifully done along with the finale itself. Pluto and monster which are both written by the same author are not meant to be action animes but more a story that slowly unravels and tears at your heart strings. I believe if you give this anime anything under an 8 you have to be a young kid or someone with a short attention span just eager for fight loaded episodes.

I rarely give a 9/10 but this show deserves it. This is an adaptation of an arc in Astro Boy, with Naoki's twists and changes, it became one of the best told story of this year if not in all time. It follows Gesicht, a German robot detective attempting to wrestle his career and his personal life and when a murder case whose suspect is a robot, all hell breaks loose. (It's a bit cliché as cyber murder plots go, but it's nothing unforgivable). It also features Astro Boy/Atom and the other popular robots as they realize they have become more and more human and as they realize what emotions and feelings feel like. The second robot has the most emotional story among them and I loved it, without spoiling anything. Although Gesicht's, the titular Pluto's and the others come close as well.

Excellent adaptation and animation. As expected from Mr. Naoki. Hope more of his manga is animated in the near future. (Waiting for 20th Century Boys and Asadora!)