Netflix’s Pluto anime transforms one of the manga’s most emotional moments

Pluto, the long-awaited anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s 2003 manga based on Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, is finally here and it’s amazing. This eight-episode retelling is an incredibly faithful retelling. It follows the global adventure of Gesicht, a robot detective who investigates a series of mysterious killings. It’s a genuinely beautiful and engaging series, garnering effusive praise from none other than Hideo Kojima himself, and easily one of the most impressive anime to premiere this year.

While the anime is for the most part a one-to-one adaptation of the manga, there’s one crucial moment in the story whose impact may be lost on audiences only familiar with the anime — and it’s entirely attributable to the gap between the medium of animation and comics.

[Ed. note: Spoilers for the Pluto anime and manga follow.]

Image: Studio M2/Netflix

In episode 3, audiences are introduced to Uran, a highly advanced humanoid robot and the “sister” to Pluto’s secondary protagonist, Atom. Equipped with the ability to sense human, animal, and robot emotions, Uran is a mischievous yet kindhearted character who cares deeply for the safety of others (as seen in the episode’s opening scene, when she stubbornly rescues a young boy from a group of lions and tigers without any casualties).

Uran skips school in a later episode on a random basis after sensing someone who is distressed, much to her brother’s chagrin. She stumbles upon the amnesiac robotic figure slumped next to a black canister paint, while walking under an overpass. Nursing them back to health, Uran befriends this strange robot, frequently visiting and bringing them new cans of paint to finish the apparent mural they’ve begun. Returning one morning, Uran is greeted with the sight of the robot’s finished creation: a brilliant abstract mural of a field of blossoming flowers.

Image: Studio M2/Netflix

It’s a lovely scene, one that reveals a crucial dimension about this particular character, who, as it turns out, is none other than the mysterious perpetrator behind the rash of murders that have rocked human-robot society. Up until this point in the story, the character of “Pluto” has been something of a cipher, a ruthless assailant in the form of a horned and fanged shadow whose path of carnage coincides with a series of tornadoes that tear asunder everything in their wake. Urasawa asks the question repeatedly throughout his work by portraying Pluto in this manner, as an frightened and confused robot who struggles to reconcile its violent intent with his peaceful nature. What drives a person to do evil? Is it their nature or nurture?

Image: Studio M2/Netflix

This scene is a faithful rendition of the same moment in the manga, but it loses some of the impact of the original for one crucial reason: It’s one of the few instances of color in Urasawa’s PlutoThe manga is, as with most other types of manga, monochromatic, but there are various accents throughout. When I first read the manga in 2016, I was stunned by this scene; it’s an affecting window into the mind of a character whose outward barbarism and ferocity otherwise belies a quiet interiority of remorse and deeply felt sensitivity toward nature. In the anime, it’s a beautiful scene, no doubt — but in the manga, it feels downright revelatory.

Urasawa’s approach to creating Pluto is a fascinating one, a sophisticated and mature retelling of an influential text that homes in on the heart of what makes all living beings — human or robot — who and what they are. Introspective and philosophical in nature, his works also show in the artwork. Character designs and expressions are uniform in style, but are incredibly expressive and unique. In adapting Urasawa’s manga from page to screen, the PlutoIt is a stunning adaptation, especially when the story shifts from mystery to action with spectacular sequences. It’s a stunning adaptation, particularly when the story shifts from mystery to action with spectacular sequences, like the fight between Gesicht and a human suspect in the first episode or the climactic finale between Pluto and Atom.

There’s obviously something to be said for the specific affordances of comics versus those of animation, but my ultimate point is this: If you love Pluto, don’t just watch the anime; read the manga too. There’s surprises to be had there, different than the ones judiciously translated to the screen. It’s totally worth experiencing the story as it was originally written, and there’s never been a better time to do so.