Unlike the more popular Monster or 20 Seiki Shounen, Pluto has a less intriguing plot but a much greater level of emotional impact. Never having been a supporter of the "androids who fall in love are worthy of being bestowed with human status" concept that most works of fiction in this genre flaunt in an utterly shameless and ridiculous fashion, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were no such petty, shallow ideals here. Certainly, these robots resemble humans -- but it is not the ability to experience sexual desire or romantic love towards a human being that grants them 'humanity'; it is the fact that they are capable of the compassion that most 'real' people are unable and unwilling to show towards their fellow man. It may strike one as being a cliche, naive and childish idealism (and I suppose in a way it is) but it's no less effective because of that. And certainly less brainless and simplistic than the typical "S/he fell in love and therefore s/he is a wonderful and complete human!" (Unfortunately, this is the path most authors take in their attempts to solicit the readers' sympathy towards any non-human, androids not excluded)

I can honestly say that Pluto is one of the handful of stories (in any medium) which succeeded in inspiring such powerful, melancholic and empathic emotions within me; something that more favoured and widely-read series with similar themes such as SaiKano and Ai-Ren failed at spectacularly.

The technicalities of the plot were interesting, though slightly weak compared to those of Naoki Urasawa's other acclaimed thrillers. The conclusion in particular was sub-par -- while it did not detract from the emotional and intellectual impact of the tale, the resolution of the mystery involving the robots, their creation and subsequent destruction was disappointing. The series certainly could have done with a few more volumes worth of clarification. I suspect the shaky ending may have been a flaw that stemmed from the mangaka's attempts to remain faithful to Osamu Tezuka's original work; but since I have no interest in reading Astro Boy this hypothesis will have to remain unconfirmed.

While the art is not particularly special, beautiful or elaborate, its bland, unattractive quality provided a very appropriate atmosphere that accentuated the bleakness and hopeless mood permeating the story and its characters.

Overall -- it could have been better, but I still recommend Pluto to anyone interested in seinen manga with a sci-fi touch and intelligent musings on human morality. As long as you don't expect a romance-packed, violence-filled thrill-ride, you should find it at least moderately satisfactory.

... Last updated on August 12th, 2011, 10:41am

A well thought out futuristic sci-fi manga. Funny how some mangakas try to use German terms without proper understanding of the language. If I'm not mistaken this case is no exception.

Aw man, this is pretty much the only series I've ever read where I actually cried. Osamu Tezuka is awesome, Naoki Urasawa is awesome, put together they make an amazing comic! For me, this was one of those comics that start out great, and then just keep getting better with every volume. I'd recommend Pluto to anybody.

This is one of the best stories I ever read manga or not. It is a masterpiece. URASAWA Naoki proved before in 20th Century Boys and Monster that he is a great writer and he proves it again in Pluto. He is one of the best thriller writers ever. I really love this masterpiece. It's one of my best seinen manga along with Gantz, Bokurano and Berserk.

... Last updated on April 8th, 2010, 11:04am

This is one of the best series that I've come across. Although the story jumps quickly from character to character, it does a great job depicting their hatred, sin, guilt, and forgiveness. Each robot and human really comes alive.

The ending doesn't quite live up to the tension that's built throughout the story. It only applies to a few characters, whereas the social and moral dilemmas was prevalent throughout the story world. Other than that flaw, I enjoyed the series and recommend it to others.

... Last updated on September 23rd, 2009, 8:10pm

or greedy.
At the same time while he was busy working on his would-be masterpiece "20th Century Boys", he created "Pluto", a retelling of an Osamu Tezuka story. Instead of focusing his mind completely on the one story that could have been a worthy successor to "Monster", he spent time to "spice up" an Astroboy story-arc.
And while it's still Urasawa at work, an experienced mangaka who knows his craft, he doesn't return to his former self. There's a lot of unnecessary "jumping" between characters and places, story parts that don't connect well letting the plot seem incoherent, a lot of pathos and cliched social criticism and references to real world events at the time.
There are some parts where "Pluto" shines though, but most of these scenes are merely recreations of themes found in "Monster" and "20th Century Boys".
Well at least there's no manga artist character speaking in length about his work and his ambition to create the best manga of all times.

"Monster" is my favourite manga and I loved the first 2 thirds of "20th Century Boys" but I didn't enjoy "Pluto" much.

This one is a greatest manga I've read

Actually, I've fallen in love with Tezuka's sensei work since read Atom and it's Urasawa Naoki who rewritten it! Wow, the story is great, much much serious and the humanity in this story is so strong! Questioning about our essence as human is flowing in the air as reading this manga.

Great!

The story's good, but I swear that the mangaka is the laziest ever - every character has *one* facial expression, and there are some pages that look like he just copy+pasted one frame over and over.

I honestly never thought that a retelling of a single story arc from a series would be so thrilling. Although some people who've known about Atom's lore would know what's going on in the story. So they know pretty much the plot, or so one would think they did. Not only was it an interesting maneuver to change the character point of view, it was smart. It let us know more about the lives of the more minor characters in the Tetsuwan Atom, and see how they would cope with the dangers they were facing. And as a definite plus Atom's presence in the story. An excellent read for anyone interested.

I have to say, I honestly didn't think I would like this series, but due to the high amount of positive feedback I decided to check it out. This series surprised me, and the art grew on me very quickly. The story is excellent and while some parts didn't keep me reading, I found that I kept coming back to this series to catch up to current release (at this time 63).

This story has a lot of heart, and really makes you feel for some of them. While I see the point of "What does it mean to be human?" I am not so much gripped by that, as by much as I am seeing things that are supposed to be emotionless machines, wrestle with these "waves" of what they can only call emotion. Awesome story, highly recommend reading it, and I am going to try to see if I can get my local bookstore to make some special orders for me to get this series.