Almost fifty years ago, Osamu Tezuka created one of the most popular Astro Boy stories, "The Greatest Robot on Earth." In this epic tale, Astro (or "Atom" as he is known in Japan) meets a powerful robot named Pluto, who is out to destroy the 7 most amazing robots in the world, including Atom. Why? So Pluto can be fulfill his master's wish that he become the biggest, baddest and greatest of them all.
Fast forward over 50 years, and master manga storyteller Naoki Urasawa and editor Takashi Nagasaki take a fresh look at this classic Astro Boy story. Much like how Frank Miller stripped down and re-vamped Batman in The Dark Knight Returns, Urasawa and Nagasaki have taken on an ambitious task: to remix this comic story for kids into a grown-up murder mystery. The result is Pluto, an award-winning, mind-blowing manga series from VIZ Signature.
To really understand the magnitude of Urasawa and Nagasaki's vision, you really should read the original Tezuka tale as featured in Dark Horse's edition of Astro Boy Volume 3. While it seems like a simple shonen manga action story, "The Greatest Robot on Earth" sneaks in some meaningful themes about war, the arms race and pacifism in between its dynamically-drawn robot fight scenes.
Then once you're done with that, leave your copy of Astro Boy Volume 3 handy, because you'll want to refer to it over and over again as you dive into Pluto Volume 1 and Pluto Volume 2. Comparing the two stories and seeing how they co-incide and where Urasawa and Nagasaki take this classic tale off the rails into new, unexplored territory will blow your mind.
I've read all three volumes several times and am constantly amazed at how masterfully Urasawa and Nagasaki have, like Miller did for Batman, stripped the story and characters down to their essentials, and added on layers of mystery, suspense, science fiction, world politics and heart-tugging drama. The end result is a compelling story that pays tribute to the past while remaining very relevant and powerful for today's audiences.
Check out my review of Astro Boy Volume 3 by Osamu Tezuka, and my reviews of Pluto Volume 1 and Pluto Volume 2, and see why I've been raving about this manga for weeks as a game-changing graphic novel that will leave even manga skeptics clamoring for the next volume.
Image credit: © 2004 Naoki URASAWA / Studio Nuts, Takashi NAGASAKI, Tezuka Productions. All rights reserved.
Comments
your article starts “over half a decade ago….” did you mean “half a century”? half a decade is 5 years
hee! you are correct! that’s what happens when i write these late at night!