| Pluto | |||
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| プルートウ (Purūtō) |
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| Demographic | Seinen | ||
| Genre | Mystery, Science Fiction | ||
| Manga | |||
| Author | Naoki Urasawa Osamu Tezuka (Original creator) |
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| Publisher |  Shogakukan |
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| Serialized in | Big Comic Original | ||
| Original run | September 9, 2003 – Ongoing | ||
| Volumes | 5 | ||
Planeta DeAgostini Comics
EMAPluto (プルートウ Purūtō?) is an on-going manga serial by Naoki Urasawa published in Big Comic Original starting in 2003. It is based upon events from the classic series by Osamu Tezuka, Tetsuwan Atom (a.k.a Astro Boy, literally Iron-Arm Atom). Specifically, the series uses the characters and original story from the popular "Chijou saidai no ROBOTTO" ("The World's Strongest Robot", Dark Horse's version: "The Greatest Robot on Earth") storyline from the 3rd volume of the manga (as well as a few elements from the 2003 anime series version of the storyline with bits and pieces added from other stories by Tezuka) and reinterprets the plot as a murder mystery and noirish suspense thriller. In terms of both tone and visual style, the series is a complete and modern re-envisioning of the Astro Boy universe dissimilar to the original manga.
Contents |
Plot
The main character of the series, rather than being Atom, is the Europol robot detective Gesicht ( German for face) and his attempts to capture a powerful killer in Germany who is attacking both humans and robot with no apparent motives. The case becomes much more puzzling when evidence leans toward the murders being the work of a robot, which is something that hasn't happened for eight years. Despite the manga not starring Atom, he and most of the characters from Tezuka's original story show up, with Atom himself becoming a recurring character after meeting Gesicht in Chapter Seven. So far, the manga has run for over 45 chapters, and has had 4 collected volumes published.
Awards
Pluto received an Excellence Prize for manga at the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival. The series also received the 2005 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Grand Prize, which Urasawa also won for his work on Monster.
Publication outside of Japan
As of August 2007, as a result of a copyright dispute between Shogakukan and Tezuka Productions, any publication of Pluto outside of Japan has been put on hold.
