If you have a decent familiarity with manga (Japanese comics), there's a good chance that you've heard the name Naoki Urasawa. Over the last 10 years Urasawa-san has become the gateway drug to the world of manga. His style is just realistic and cinematic enough to appeal to American and European comic fans unfamiliar with the more extreme stylistic choices found in most manga titles. I'm ashamed to admit that I've been lagging on my Urasawa "fix". A friend living in Japan told me I MUST read Urasawa's MONSTER manga. I picked it up, flipped through a few pages and wasn't really intrigued by Urasawa's art style. I later heard great things about Urasawa's 21ST CENTURY BOYS. The art style in 21ST CENTURY BOYS was mighty impressive. Urasawa brought a more sophisticated line and rendering style. It's a bit more European in its complexity while still retaining a clean and simple Japanese cartooning sensibility. It's gorgeous to look at. With tons of willpower I held off from jumping into a 21st Century Boys comic buying binge. But I kept hearing about its brilliance from various comic readers and friends. I was ready to buy everything that's available in English... and just as I was about to buy them, the Comic Gods must have heard my plea, as I got volumes 1-3 of Urasawa's PLUTO manga for Christmas. SWEET!

PLUTO is Urasawa's reinterpretation of Osamu Tezuka's "Greatest Robot on Earth" story from the ASTRO BOY/MIGHTY ATOM manga series. As a HUGE fan of Osamu Tezuka's comics, PLUTO was the perfect way for me to officially discover Urasawa's work. After flipping through a few pages, I had a feeling that I'd enjoy the series so I purchased the remaining volumes that are available in English (4-6 of a 9 volume story) and began reading.

Even though I am a Tezuka fan, I never had the pleasure of reading much of his Astro Boy comics. I recall buying and reading 2 of the 20+ volumes that Dark Horse released... but neither volume included any part of the "Greatest Robot on Earth" story. So it's impossible for me to compare and contrast the story to the source material. But based on my experiences reading Astro Boy (which, from what I read, focused predominantly on the Astro Boy character) PLUTO takes many creative and narrative liberties to make this as much an Urasawa story as a Tezuka one.

One thing I found very shocking and effective is that we don't meet the Mighty Atom/Astro Boy until the final pages of Volume 1. Essentially the story is a detective mystery. Somebody has been killing off the most powerful robots on planet Earth, and the remaining Robot super powers try to solve the mystery as they are murdered one by one.

Urasawa's style is incredibly realistic compared to the hyper-stylized Manga standard. His work feels closer to Otomo's work on AKIRA with it's realistic human proportions and environments. The characters never overact like you often find in manga books. So the reading experience feels far more cinematic than what we get from other Manga books. It all works superbly in bringing the reader into the world of Pluto. Every character emotes and reacts in ways that are familiar and sincere. All the primary robot characters are designed to look human... and it ends up making the reader immediately connect with the characters strongly; something that wouldn't have been as natural if the robots looked like robots.

As a detective story, the story starts with a detective character (complete with trench coat and the big nose) so on many levels the visuals give you cues to the appropriate mood and style. Once you're in that world, Urasawa uses tricks in narrative and plot development unique to the robotic characteristics of the primary characters. And amidst all this, Urasawa creates a story that explores philosophical quarrels regarding life, humanity, and the makings of the soul.

The pacing of PLUTO is impeccable. Much like the TV show LOST, very little new information is given to the reader... but the murder mystery and reveal of the various characters at play is unspooled in a manner that tantalizes you just enough that you HAVE to continue reading. I've been warned that a common problem in Urasawa's work is his conclusions never match the masterful way he teases the reader... but as I haven't read the final 3 volumes, I'll have to reserve my own feelings about this until later. For now, PLUTO has been a helluva ride... one that I'm sad will have to eventually end! Thus far, I am LOVING Pluto. So much so, that I think I'm going to have to get my hands on 21st Century Boys as well!

I found some amazing comparison pic between Tezuka's original design (in sepia) and Urasawa's (in black) on this website. They can be found below along with some samples of Naoki Urasawa's beautiful pages.