In recent days, the anime Pluto of the Fall 2023 Anime series suddenly skyrocketed across the rating charts.
Pluto is an animated film adapted from a famous manga of the same name by author Urasawa Naoki, which takes the plot from Tezuka Osamu’s famous work, Astro Boy .
More specific, Pluto adapted Astro Boy’s story “The Greatest Robot on Earth” in a psychological, dark horror direction. The story has eight volumes, each adapted from an original documentary.
However, there is one thing about Pluto What most people don’t know is that the story is said to be written by another author instead of Urasawa Naoki. This was revealed in an interview by Tezuka Osamu’s eldest son, Macoto Tezuka.
Interview with author Pluto
Urasawa and Macoto were interviewed during the manga project “Pluto” approved by industry officials (in September 2003). Both gave their views on the future of this manga. The detailed interview is presented at the end of the first volume of the manga Pluto.
To start, the interview asked both of them about their thoughts on the legendary manga “Astro Boy”.
Urasawa replied that he was exposed to Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy” when he was only 4 to 5 years old. He even tried to copy Tezuka’s art style and signature, which he was quite good at.
On the other hand, Macoto said he was lucky that “Astro Boy” was completely written and composed in front of him, and that he was one of the first people in the world to read it.
The challenge of composing Pluto was inspired by Astro Boy
The interview then turned its attention to Macoto, asking what his feelings were when Urasawa contacted him and talked about giving his father his most famous work, a completely different adaptation of the original Astro Boy .
Macoto began by praising Urasawa’s courage, as this project would be a direct challenge to his father, manga legend Osamu Tezuka. He knew Urasawa was a famous mangaka so he decided to at least listen.
Urasawa later described the first time he thought of using Atom (the main character of Astro Boy) as his main character. But then Urasawa changed because he had second thoughts. After all, he didn’t want to change his personality too much. Therefore, he chose the supporting character Gesicht as the main role.
Pluto is said to have been written by a family member of Osamu
Macoto continued the conversation by saying that Osamu Tezuka’s work had been challenging in the past because there were so many talented mangaka present. He then explained that he never thought he would participate in this challenge because he is not a mangaka.
So Macoto was expecting some other member of Osamu Tezuka’s family to take on this challenge, but Urasawa suddenly appeared and volunteered to take on this challenge first. Macoto also praised Urasawa’s confidence and changed the entire plot, some character names and even the main character.
They continued the conversation by discussing Macoto’s (Japanese film and anime director) career. They also urged young fans to read “Astro Boy” for that reason “Pluto” born.
Pluto content summary
Background Pluto takes place in a futuristic world where robots have become a part of society and there are government agencies that protect the rights of robots.
In this world there is Gesicht, an android robot who works for Europol as a detective. He is assigned a case involving the murder of a government official. The strange thing about this case is that it resembles the famous Mont Blanc robot murder case, as both cases involved two parallel objects inserted into the head area.
So Gesicht thinks that a robot is behind this, and the robot tells Gesicht that the person who did it is named Pluto. He also reveals that this murderer is after the lives of the seven most powerful robots created, and Gesicht is one of them.
Now it’s a race against time for Gesicht as he must save his life, while also fending off a plot to use the destructive robot Pluto to dominate the world.
According to Animesenpai