PLUTO (2023) Netflix Anime Series Honest Review

Let's talk about Pluto, Netflix's latest anime series that adapts the popular manga series. I'm going to share my thoughts and feelings on this 8 episode mini-series and would love to hear what you think about it in the comments below. While you're there please check the link to our second channel The Horror Exchange but for now this is my honest review of Pluto. There will be spoilers ahead. Pluto is a show that fans of anime and manga have been anticipating. The original 8 volume run from 2003 to 2009 became a fan favourite series selling 8.5 million volumes worldwide. It was only a matter of time until we received an animated adaptation and a matter of time is an understatement. This show was first announced way back in 2017 so fans have had to wait 6 years for it to be realised. Was the wait worth it? Well if you're familiar with Naoki Urasawa's manga then this very likely may be a dream come true because this is one of the strongest animes to hit Netflix in quite some time. Now I don't think it's perfect, there are some flaws which I'll get into a little later but for the most part this was quite the experience to watch. So the main premise of Pluto blends together the genres of sci-fi and murder mystery as the seven most advanced robots on earth are being hunted down and killed as well as humans associated with robot rights. One of the seven advanced robots is Gazict, a humanoid robot detective who becomes the lead detective on who or what is responsible for the murders. What a cracking concept for a story, a worldwide murder mystery where even the one in charge of the investigation is a target of the culprit and coincidentally looks a little bit like Benoit Blanc. You do genuinely get a sense of scale, that the web of the story is enormous and that whatever is behind the murders is a supremely powerful entity. I loved the horror imagery too as the victims are left with their bodies having horns placed onto them as a symbol. The responsible threat is Pluto, the namesake of the roman god of death in robot form. Not only is the looming threat of Pluto tense, the eventual revelations surrounding what Pluto is and what he wants keep you on your toes. But the fact Pluto is a robot and is killing not only other robots but humans opens up a Pandora's box of questions and philosophies. This series isn't a balls to the wall non-stop action kind of anime. If that's what you're expecting you don't get an awful lot of that here. The odd sprinkling but it's not the sole flavor. Instead Pluto's core themes surround what robots mean and explores Isaac Asimov's laws of robotics. The show goes far deeper than a murder mystery. This right here is a poignant series of deep dives into the purpose, psychology and experience of robots. We journey through the emotional link between humanity and robots, touching on what makes people so special, what makes robots so special and the drawbacks to both. As such Pluto is a series that could be watched again and again learning something new every time or could perhaps even be studied and discussed on an academic level. What I find so beautiful is how close to humanity the seven most advanced robots are. Gazicht is a detective with a wife. Mont Blanc loves nature. North number two loves music. Brando has a wife and children he adores. Hercules believes in bravery and honor. Epsilon takes care of orphaned children. And finally there's the child robot Atom who was an ambassador for peace and yes this is Astro Boy. The Pluto manga is based on the Greatest Robot on Earth storyline from 1964. Atom is the Japanese name for Astro Boy so it was lovely they kept his Japanese name here. So with the scene set, with our robots and main enemy, how did this series kick off? Well I'm not gonna exaggerate here this first episode is one of the best introductions to a series I've seen in years. As far as investing me in a world goes it couldn't have been any more perfect. The opening act is quite a rapid fire piece, throwing you into the world at high speed and that's generally the case with similar anime shows. But what happened after this establishment was a move so bold and unexpected that it drew me in and provided me with an utterly spellbinding bit of science fiction. In what becomes a self-contained story we witness the relationship between world famous composer Sir Paul Duncan and his robot butler North Number Two. It's quite the chalk and cheese relationship here with Duncan being blind, living in his large castle grounds, trying to write a new piece of music but struggling to find the desired melody. But due to North's robot intelligence he's able to fill in the blanks and as a result it opens up Duncan's memory bank to the particular melody he is close to recreating. What proceeds is an emotional and personal story relating Duncan to his childhood through music all while North has a passionate desire to learn how to play the It's so succinctly beautiful after an intense opening to the episode. The pace goes the complete opposite direction and we effectively get a short story about how the power of music can connect humanity to artificial intelligence. It's like a little Twilight Zone episode tucked away right at the beginning of an epic global adventure mystery. It was absolutely my highlight of the series. I don't think for me personally anything that followed was as powerful to me and that is one of my slight criticisms of the series. It peaked early with anything afterwards suffering from having to compete but the remainder of the series is slightly more problematic than simply not keeping to the strength of episode one. A difficulty for me is still being an anime novice and I'm well aware that animes often have a lot of characters and storylines going on. This is absolutely the case with Pluto for me. The amount of main characters, supporting characters, minor characters, the number of plots and subplots, jumping from country to country and then adding in some insightful commentaries on extremely complex themes. It makes Pluto feel crammed full over the brim. Now that's a good thing for re-watchers because there will be a lot you didn't notice the first time whether it's lessons or little moments but for my first run through there were plenty of times where I struggled to keep up with the unfolding of events and had to take some breaks to catch up and comprehend what I'd seen. This is a me problem though. I'm certain that fans of the manga and seasoned anime watchers will be conditioned to experiencing a narrative unfold in such a sporadic way. It doesn't make me think less of the series though it did admittedly pay a small price on me on my first watch through. However when the series did take moments to calm down and reflect on the story that had taken place so far I thought it was utterly genius. I know that it's being compared with Watchmen in the sense that there are big real world ideas explored in an alternate version of reality using a lot of characters and tangling subplots to present its grandiose messages. I completely understand that comparison and just like Watchmen I didn't walk away from Pluto feeling baffled. I walked away feeling like I want to research and learn more about the world I'd just spent 8 hours in. And what a way to close off by the way. The series finale was astounding here with essentially Atom taking on Pluto in a big face off. It's the final boss battle that we were waiting to see and it knocked it out the park with an astonishing closer. Personally I didn't have the finale as stronger than the opening episode but it wasn't a distant contest by any means and it ensured that the series was bookended solidly. All of the stuff in the middle was also strong but due more to its deeper ideas. There's some really emotional stuff packed in here including the way robots become difficult to tell apart from humans and from an perspective you can easily form personal attachments with those characters as if they really are humans. Pluto begs the question if AI gets this far how will we feel about it on an emotional level? Can we connect? Can AI be even more human than humans choose to be? Can they have a better crack at the human experience than we can? And ultimately can we learn more about ourselves from artificial intelligence? All of these ideas and more are put on the table here in what is a fascinating anime series. Pluto gets a thumbs up from me and I look forward to digging deeper into its history. But what did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below. I'm Connor from Unleash the Ghouls, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time for another honest review. Cheers out.