Pluto Review: Naoki Urasawa’s Astro Boy Noir
Naoki Urasawa's haunting sci-fi noir reimagining of Astro Boy.
By Web Admin
Take one of the most famous stories in the history of manga, hand it to arguably the finest suspense storyteller the medium has ever produced, and let him retell it as a melancholy murder mystery for adults. That’s Pluto. Created by Naoki Urasawa — with story credit shared with Takashi Nagasaki, and made with the blessing and supervision of Tezuka Productions and Osamu Tezuka’s son, Makoto Tezuka — Pluto ran from 2003 to 2009 and reimagines “The Greatest Robot on Earth,” a beloved arc from Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy. The result is a complete, eight-volume masterpiece that regularly appears on lists of the greatest manga ever made. Here’s our review.
Pluto is the rare adaptation that honors its source while completely transforming it. Where Tezuka’s original was a boys’ adventure, Urasawa turns it into a somber sci-fi noir about war, grief, and what it means to be human. You do not need to have read a single page of Astro Boy to be devastated by it.
What is Pluto about?
In a near-future world where advanced robots and humans coexist, the world’s most powerful robots are being murdered one by one — and so are the humans who championed robot rights. The investigator on the case is Gesicht, a Europol robot detective haunted by dreams he shouldn’t be able to have. As he traces the killings, the story circles the seven greatest robots on Earth (including, eventually, the boy robot Atom — Tezuka’s Astro Boy), the trauma of a recent robotic war modeled on real-world conflict, and a killer whose motive is grief itself.
Volume 1 sets the mystery in motion with the murder of Mont Blanc, a gentle Swiss robot beloved by his community, and introduces Gesicht as our quietly grieving point-of-view character. From there the tension never lets up.
The mystery: Urasawa at the peak of his powers
Naoki Urasawa (Monster, 20th Century Boys) is the medium’s great suspense architect, and Pluto is his tightest, most controlled work. Because the series is complete and relatively short at eight volumes, it avoids the sprawl that some readers find in his longer epics. Every clue pays off, every character has a purpose, and the plot tightens like a noose across the final volumes. If you’ve ever heard that Urasawa’s endings can disappoint, Pluto is the definitive counterexample — it sticks the landing.
The theme: humanity, war, and grief
Underneath the mystery, Pluto is about what makes a person. Its robots love, grieve, create art, and are traumatized by violence, and the story keeps asking whether the line between human and machine means anything at all. It’s also, unmistakably, an anti-war story: the “robotic war” at the heart of the plot is a clear analog for real modern conflict, and the book’s compassion for its victims — human and robot alike — gives it enormous moral weight. This is science fiction used the way the best science fiction always is: to talk about us.
Honoring Tezuka
Part of what makes Pluto special is its relationship to its source. Osamu Tezuka is the “God of Manga,” and “The Greatest Robot on Earth” is one of his most famous stories. Urasawa treats it with deep reverence while reworking it completely — shifting the point of view from Atom to the detective Gesicht, aging up the tone, and deepening every character. It’s a masterclass in how to adapt a classic: respectful, but never timid. Longtime Tezuka readers will catch dozens of references; newcomers won’t miss a thing.
The art
Urasawa’s artwork is realistic, expressive, and endlessly readable. He’s a master of the human (and robotic) face, and of the quiet, cinematic panel — a character’s expression held for a beat, a landscape that carries the emotional weight of a scene. His storytelling is so clear that the pages almost turn themselves. The character designs cleverly nod to Tezuka’s originals while grounding them in Urasawa’s more naturalistic style.
What’s remarkable is how much emotion he wrings from restraint. Some of the most affecting moments in Pluto are almost wordless — a robot standing in the rain, a small domestic gesture, a face that can’t quite process grief. Urasawa trusts the reader to feel these beats without underlining them, and that confidence is why the book reads as literature rather than spectacle. It’s the work of an artist who knows exactly when to be quiet.
How it compares to the original Astro Boy
It’s worth appreciating just how bold this project was. “The Greatest Robot on Earth” is a short, energetic Tezuka adventure aimed at children, in which seven powerful robots are pitted against a monstrous rival named Pluto. Urasawa keeps the skeleton — the seven great robots, the threat, the names — but recasts the whole thing as a detective story told mostly from the sidelines, aging the tone up into something closer to a le Carré thriller than a superhero romp. The transformation is so complete that Pluto feels wholly its own, yet longtime Tezuka fans get the quiet thrill of watching a familiar tale deepen into tragedy. It’s one of the great examples of adaptation as genuine reinterpretation.
Content notes
Pluto is a seinen (adult) manga, but its intensity is emotional rather than graphic. There’s violence and some genuinely dark, war-related subject matter, but relatively little gore. The heaviness is in its themes — loss, trauma, and hatred — rather than in shock imagery. It’s suitable for older teens and adults, and it’s one of the more approachable “serious” seinen titles we recommend.
Pros and cons
Pros
- A complete, perfectly paced eight-volume story
- One of the best mystery plots in all of manga
- Profound anti-war and humanist themes
- No prior Astro Boy knowledge required
Cons
- Somber, melancholy tone throughout
- The full experience means buying all eight volumes
- Slower and more cerebral than typical sci-fi action
Which edition should you buy?
VIZ Media publishes Pluto in English in eight numbered paperback volumes. There’s no big deluxe omnibus in English, so the paperbacks are the way to read it.
| Edition | Collects | Approx. price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 paperback | Start of the series | ~US$13 | Trying it before committing |
| Full 8-volume set | The complete story | ~US$100 for all 8 | Readers who want the whole thing |
| Digital editions | Per volume | ~US$9 each | Reading on a tablet |
Our advice: buy Volume 1, and keep a shelf free — because you’ll want the other seven within a week. For more finished series worth binging in full, see our best completed manga guide.
AmazonCheck price on AmazonIs Pluto a good entry to seinen manga?
It’s one of the best. It’s complete, relatively short, emotionally accessible, and not reliant on prior knowledge — everything you want in an on-ramp to more adult manga. If you love it, our best seinen manga guide is full of similar riches, and it earns its place among the best manga of all time. It also pairs beautifully with Urasawa’s other work if you catch the bug.
The verdict
Pluto is a near-perfect comic: a gripping mystery, a moving character study, and a thoughtful anti-war story, all delivered by a master at the height of his craft and wrapped in genuine reverence for the medium’s history. It’s complete, it’s not too long, and it rewards every reader who picks it up. It sits proudly among our top recommendations across the seinen shelf and the wider manga hub. Read it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to read Astro Boy before Pluto?
No. Pluto is completely self-contained and reimagines a single Astro Boy arc from scratch. Prior knowledge adds a few nice references but is entirely optional.
How long is Pluto?
Eight volumes, and it’s fully complete. That relatively compact length is one reason it’s so tightly plotted and satisfying compared to longer manga epics.
Is Pluto suitable for teenagers?
It’s aimed at older teens and adults. The content is more emotionally intense than graphically violent, dealing with war, death, and grief, so it suits mature readers well.
Is Pluto better than Urasawa’s Monster?
Both are superb. Many readers prefer Pluto because it’s shorter and its ending is universally praised, while Monster is a longer, sprawling thriller. You can’t go wrong with either.
Keep going: explore the best manga of all time, or find your next binge in our best completed manga guide.
