Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 8

Another great Urasawa volume!

This series surprised me in many ways. I definitely didn't think this murder mystery would turn into an anti-war themed story with real world implications (some being VERY clear references to real life events). Some may be disappointed by the seemingly abrupt ending, however this entire series was only ever meant to be a relatively small portion of an overall story with Atom and the Astro Boy universe. While I would absolutely love to see Naoki Urasawa adapt more of the Astro Boy lore, especially since his interpretation of the characters is my favorite; I think this stand alone story more than holds it's own.

PLUTO is the perfect collaboration between Urasawa and Tezuka, as it basically touted on the covers of the entire 8-volume series. Urasawa crafts a signature work that shows his style of suspenseful storytelling, while at the same time updating the original Tezuka Astro Boy story of "The Greatest Robot on Earth" for a modern, mature, and more cynical audience. More than that, it's a love letter to Tezuka the "God of Manga", exploring themes present in his expansive bibliography. Regarding the themes, I do not purport myself a Tezuka scholar. In fact, I'm only familiar with a handful of his works, which I should remedy as definitive English editions make themselves available (like his samurai manga, Dororo, and my review of the oversized complete volume). Each volume has an afterword by a notable manga creator or critic, and it's through these articles that I've expanded my understanding of this seminal work, adding several layers of nuance and appreciation of Tezuka and his works.

Amazing manga and amazing author with amazing ideas. A must buy for anyone who loves good quality manga.

other than the title of this review, this is great!!!! heck i don't even mind the whole bird incident b/c it was easily cleaned up. this came fast and is great. anything urasawa or tezuka is manga gold period

(So I'm not one for writing reviews, since someone else has usually done a helluva better one before I ever get around to it... so I'm completely shocked that this has yet to see one.) This is the final volume, of course, and Urasawa finishes it with a bang... literally. All loose-ends are tied up in some way or another and the series ends in a satisfying manner despite this truly only being an 'arc' from a bigger story of Astro Boy. For being only eight volumes long, Urasawa actually surprised me on how tight of a job he did with rounding the series out. Monster is 18 volumes and 20th Century Boys (including 21st) is 22, I believe. So seeing him create the whole universe and atmosphere in only 8 volumes is some extremely crafty scripting on his part. Not really going to delve into the plot of the volume. It runs slightly longer than the previous volumes... and Viz's presentation of the series is just as nice as the previous volumes including yet another interesting interview following the end of the series. All-in-all, another amazing work for the mastermind Naoki Urasawa. If you have yet to read his other series, go ahead and jump on them. Viz has released all of Monster (and the first DVD boxset for the anime) and is currently releasing 20th Century Boys. Also, if you haven't read any of Tezuka's works, go pick up Apollo's Song, Black Jack, or Buddha from Vertical. I personally hadn't read anything by Tezuka before reading Pluto. And though this work really has nothing to do with Tezuka, it made me think about reading somethings from him and I wasn't disappointed.

Urasawa has executed an almost flawless storyline. It draws you in from the first few pages of volume one and leaves you satisfied with the ending here in volume eight yet still wanting more as most excellent stories do. Personally I really got into the characters and cried quite a few times during the series due to the events that unfold and the character's reactions to them. If you've never read manga or would like to try something different, give this series a read. At only eight volumes it's nowhere near as daunting as something like One Piece and, I think, appeals to all. Do be aware though that if you're thinking of Astro Boy from your childhood cartoons, this is much more violent and dark. The first volume starts off with the horrific murder of a beloved robot and it only continues from there. However, Urasawa makes sure the violence and darkness never overwhelms and there is always an undercurrent of hope.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 008” by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki is the last book in an eight-book science fiction manga series Pluto. The whole series is based on “The Greatest Robot on Earth,” the most popular story arc in Astro Boy series written by a legendary manga master Osamu Tezuka. Thanks to Gesicht’s memory chip, Atom, a.k.a. Astro Boy, wakes up. However, he is different: provided with the memories and emotions of the other six great robots of the world, Atom has learned to hate. Bu will his hatred and anger be enough to finally stop Pluto, the murderous robot controlled by his villainous creator, and to save the Earth from the impending apocalypse? THUMBS UP: 1) Great ending to a great story. The last volume, just like the whole series, is action-packed, thrilling and suspenseful but at the same time extremely thought-provoking and touching with complex and relatable characters. As before, the illustrations are very detailed, realistic and simply gorgeous. However, “Pluto, Volume 006” still remains my absolute favorite with the fifth book as a close runner-up (check out my previous reviews to see why). Moreover, detective Gesicht is BY FAR my favorite character. I still cannot believe that, after reading the very first volume, I dared to call this robot passive and boring. Ha! 2) Important takeaway. Although every single volume is thought-provoking and touching in its own way, the main message - “nothing comes of hatred” - and its gravity become clear just at the very end. As a bonus feature, in the eight volume’s postscript, co-author Takashi Nagasaki beautifully summarizes the takeaway of Pluto series and also builds a very convincing case speculating on what Osamu Tezuka meant by his famous story’s title “The Greatest Robot on Earth.” COULD BE BETTER: 1) Rushed wrap-up. Comparing to the excellent story building in the earlier volumes, the last two volumes seem a little bit rushed as some revelations are way too convenient, not very logical and thus less realistic. Also, it feels like the authors were just too eager to wrap things up and did’t bother to tie some loose ends. For example, I might be missing something, but how exactly is the evil teddy bear involved in the assassinations of the seven great robots of the world? 2) Lack of color. Throughout the whole series, my only constant complaint is the black and white illustrations. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t look bad at all, but at the beginning of every single volume there are six to ten colorful pages which just look SO MUCH better. I understand that it might be too expensive to color the whole book, but even the black and white illustrations with additional shades (like the first eight pages in Act 63) are so much more appealing than the rest of the artwork. VERDICT: 3.5 out of 5 Although a little bit rushed, “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 008” by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki is a great ending to a great story with a powerful takeaway. However, just as I predicted in the very beginning, you really need to read ALL eight volumes to truly understand and appreciate Pluto series. POST SCRIPTUM: Check out my reviews of the previous seven volumes: 1) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 001”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R39D2RIEIAPZRO/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm 2) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 002”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3PJZDE2SFGRI6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm 3) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 003”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R39D7281G5TKZQ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm 4) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 004”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R5LDPO6IH4KUW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm 5) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 005”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2142JT7QBOFIZ/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm 6) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 006”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2KID8Z4LSG4R9/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm 7) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 007”: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3GNH4K0UP97JT/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Best Manga ever written in history, It's a MUST read!. Also Manga came in perfect condition.

In a sense there was no way that the final volume of Pluto could not be disappointing. Whatever huge, awareness expanding conclusion you'd started to see the shape of in your head, it was not going to be the same thing as appears on the page. Similarly, the story continues to deviate from its template story "The Greatest Robot in the World" by Osamu Tezuka (which you can pick up in a reasonably priced Astroboy collection from Dark Horse - it's volume 3 you want). Atom is awake, revived by undergoing an upgrade of a similar nature to the process that created Pluto, the monstrous robot that has wreaked vengeance on the world's mightiest robots for the sins committed against Persia by the United States of Thracia and their allies. He is on a collision course with Pluto, who we know is sort of being coerced into his villainhood by Doctor Abullah. Atom can now hate and he seems intent on using that hate to defeat Pluto. But there's still the threat of Bora and that terrible teddy bear, Dr Roosevelt to clear up. And what was the deal with the robot who murdered a human, who Gesicht visited? It is undoubtedly a compelling ending, though the events of the previous volume mean that it feels as if this is the only way it could end, and therefore has a sense of a mechanism winding down, rather than a flame burning its brightest. Uran highlighted early on, and the only one able to reach Pluto previously, plays a smaller part than I had hoped she would, as does Dr Tenma. But Gesicht, who has moreso than Atom, been the lynchpin on which the story has turned, has a resolution to his story and Atom, similarly, has more revelations to hand. Emotionally as well as visually, it's a rollercoaster. And the final twist in the tale, involving Dr Roosevelt is a fine one. The art is astonishingly good as ever, simple, clean but perfectly composed that makes a wannabe artist want to cry in frustration, because I will never produce something as good as that. Which is to say, that while the excellence of the story so far had me hoping for something exquisite, what I got was still by far and away the best comic series I've read all year. This is one of those series that should be mentioned with Watchmen, and Ghost in the Shell, and Nemesis the Warlock as the high watermarks of the adventure comic strip as a narrative.

Mangá de ótima qualidade

As the stories by Urasawa are often so interesting, I often read them too quickly and end up having questions at the end. The literation process I seem to go through. In the case of Pluto, firstly, I do not what the bear is on the last page of Pluto. Secondly, I do not completely understand why Gesicht and his wife lost part of their memories. Is it because Gesicht took out what he was not supposed to take out?

Ce volume est la suite et la fin d'un très excellent hommage à Osamu Tezuka, le défunt créateur d'Astro Boy, le manga des années 1950/60 par lequel tout l'univers des manga et anime est arrivé. Naoki Urasawa, lui-même aujourd'hui considéré comme l'un des meilleurs mangaka, et le co-auteur Takashi Nagasaki s'inspirent de l'oeuvre révérée de Tezuka, et notamment d'une aventure d'Astro Boy (The greatest robot on Earth), pour développer une histoire originale sur la relation entre hommes et robots, admirablement écrite (et traduite) et remarquablement dessinée. Les meilleurs robots du monde, certains parmi les plus aimés des hommes, sont mystérieusement et brutalement assassinés les uns après les autres. Les concepteurs de ces robots, mais ausi les membres d'une commission d'enquête sur les robots de destruction massive produits en "Persia" sont également ciblés. Un robot policier, Gesicht, mène l'enquête. Les différents volumes nous apprennent à connaître les robots assassinés, pour la plupart vétérans vainqueurs d'une guerre menée contre la "Persia", ainsi que leurs concepteurs. Ces robots ont des pouvoirs impressionnants mais aussi une AI exceptionnelle et, pour certains (seulement certains ?), des émotions. Depuis Akira, je n'ai jamais lu avec autant d'intérêt, de frénésie et de plaisir une série dessinée. Il s'agit sans conteste d'un chef d'oeuvre dont la lecture commence ici Pluto, Tome 1 : ou là Pluto Urasawa X Tezuka 1 . Ne passez pas à côté.