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What is Pluto (ONA) like? Community score: 5.0
©浦沢直樹/長崎尚志/手塚プロダクション ©浦沢直樹/長崎尚志/手塚プロダクション/ 「PLUTO」製作委員会
Pluto continues to comment on the Iraq War in episode three as it focuses on the inevitable effects of PTSD on humans and robots alike. It also tries to tie up its B and C plot: Gesicht’s recurring nightmare about selling something may have been a cover-up by Europol, and now he’s being targeted by an anti-fascist man named Adolf was determined to kill him.
Like the previous two episodes, there’s a lot to learn about Pluto. The plot is extremely dense, from the setting details that reaffirm the separation between humans and robots to the parallels between war orphans and the shared PTSD of robotic weapons of mass destruction. There are important clues about “Bora” from the Bora Investigation Committee, and we finally meet Pluto’s creator, Professor Abdullah, more robot than human.
Emotions are hit hardest when the series unintentionally admits how small things change. I’m watching an anime that comments on the Iraq War in a sci-fi setting. I was watching a Persian man scream in agony at Gesicht, a German parliamentarian, about “peacekeepers” dropping bombs and killing his sleeping child. I was watching CNN reporting on the number of children killed in Gaza. Gesicht responded to his distraught father with three words, his face cold.
“I am a robot.”
This may have come up early in Gesicht’s creative process, but even at the time, it felt like an excuse. “I’m not like you so I can’t understand how you feel.” We don’t have to make it out of metal to hide that reason. It could be as simple as living somewhere else, being raised differently, or refusing to consider empathy. Considering empathy would require reflecting on one’s actions and participating in the suffering of others. Gesicht is the result of a billion-dollar investment to become the perfect robot for Europol. He was not allowed to question whether all the casualties were necessary. At least 280,771 to 315,190 Iraqi civilians died in violence following the US invasion of Iraq. Were terrorists in Persia when Gesicht ransacked the ruins, or was this just a show of force? Just some more bad news?
A child’s entire community would be wiped out in an instant. A former soldier tries to create art but is haunted by the number of people he has killed. Everything is connected in the same terrible ugliness. Robot Episilon warns that the more human-like robots there are, the worse things will be. He and Heracles wondered if one of them would discover love and the other hatred during the war. Gesicht may not remember what he discovered.
During his examination with Professor Hoffman, Gesicht proposed the idea that he had false memories implanted and others erased at some point about three years ago, after the war. He discovered the difference when he decided to book a vacation with his wife to visit Japan. The travel agent had Helena’s information on file despite having never traveled with the agent before, and the agent mentioned a previously canceled trip to Japan. The couple looked back at photos of their trip to Spain and became suspicious of the sheer number of photos. Hoffman confronts Europol director Schelling, who gives him political shorthand for “Yes, and stop asking questions about it.”
Gesicht’s lost memories may include illegal killing, something that was outlawed.
Adolf is a family man with certain ideals. He doesn’t have a robot maid and his family lives in a traditional house amid high-tech skyscrapers. He is a member of some secret society that seeks to eliminate or subjugate all robots by revoking their legal rights. The group went so far as to stage the murder of a judge, and next they set their sights on Gesicht. This was partly due to Adolf’s discovery that Gesicht could have murdered his brother using a suitable Zeronium bullet; The fact that the government kept his brother’s body for three years lends credence to this theory. Why Gesicht killed what appeared to be a common criminal remains a mystery, although there may be more to his brother Adolf’s actions.
Adolf’s story is an opportunity for Pluto to interrogate extremism and bigotry while delving into the misfortunes and tragedies that led to their fate in life. Adolf’s story is intertwined with the anxieties often invoked by neoconservatism to appeal to the working class and the rhetoric that has time and again aimed at promoting racism, segregation gender, nationalism and other forms of bigotry. It is no different than a general hostility to technological advances, such as alternative energy sources. Someone or something will take over your job. Will automation and computerization create a wave of unemployment in the manufacturing sector? What if it happens?
If you Google “will it take your job” right now, the search results will show variations of “Will AI take your job?” or “Do robots take your job?” yours?” from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, BBC and more. Automation and mechanization have existed for as long as humans have been able to invent it, but the Luddites are a famous example of retaliation against automation in the early 18th century. The Luddites were textile workers in the UK, people enjoy working from home and the consistent schedule it provides. However, improved technology has greatly accelerated how much a worker can earn, reducing the need for a larger workforce. Additional factors increase worker poverty. By mid-November 1811, disguised workers flooded into the factories and began destroying the tools inside.
However, it’s not the tools’ fault; It is the factory heads who are counting the coins and deciding where to tighten their belts. In Adolf’s case, his father became obsolete, became a criminal and he eventually died. His brother also followed in his footsteps. Adolf’s feelings, his deep-seated anxieties have some merit, but they have blossomed completely unchecked into a repressed complex. Additionally, we are no longer talking about frames used to make socks; we’re talking about sentient machines with families.
Uran’s growing relationship with a strange man in an abandoned area once again shows that these machines have deep emotions. They carry with them perfect memories of the violence they committed and cannot rid themselves of the guilt. The consciousness that temporarily resides in the robot is Pluto, who is known as the god of the underworld, but his powers allow him to create life. He is an incarnation of Persephone + Hades, who seeks to abandon his more hellish form so he can paint flowers. Professor Abdullah will not allow this, although we do not know why.
Robots are not perfect copies of humans. If that were the case, they would be less reckless in giving up war.
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Pluto is currently streaming on Netflix.