Pluto, Vol. 5

Pluto [プルートウ] #5

by Naoki Urasawa, Takashi Nagasaki, Tomohiko Murakami (Afterword)

Il detective Gesicht continua la sua indagine per scoprire chi o cosa si cela dietro l'uccisione dei più forti robot del mondo. Incaricato di scortare il signor Haas, non sa che questi tramerà ancora contro di lui, e che si metteranno in mezzo altre persone pericolose. Intanto Heracles ed Epsilon si troveranno di fronte a una mostruosa entità. I robot hanno fatto tanto per questo mondo, perché qualcuno vuole farli scomparire dalla Terra?

Genres: Manga, Comics, Science Fiction, Mystery, Graphic Novels, Seinen, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2007

About the author

Urasawa Naoki (浦沢直樹) is a Japanese mangaka. He is perhaps best known for Monster (which drew praise from Junot Díaz, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner) and 20th Century Boys.

Urasawa's work often concentrates on intricate plotting, interweaving narratives, a deep focus on character development and psychological complexity. Urasawa has won the Shogakukan Manga Award, the Japan Media Arts Festival excellence award, the Kodansha Manga Award and the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. In 2008 Urasawa accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University.

Series list (not including short stories collections):
- Pineapple ARMY (パイナップルARMY) 1985-1988, written by Kazuya Kudo;
- YAWARA! 1986-1993;
- Master Keaton (MASTERキートン) 1988-1994, written by Hokusei Katsushika;
- Happy! 1993-1999
- MONSTER 1994-2001
- 20th Century Boys (20世紀少年) 1999-2006
- 21st Century Boys (21世紀少年) 2007
- PLUTO 2003-2009, based on Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atom
- BILLY BAT 2008-2016
- Master Keaton Remaster (MASTERキートン Reマスター) 2012-2014
- Mujirushi (夢印-MUJIRUSHI-) 2017-2018, collaboration with Musée du Louvre
- Asadora! (連続漫画小説 あさドラ!) 2018-ongoing

Reviews

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todo va tomando sentido dentro de la historia. Las piezas encajan y yo solo quiero que no termine nunca. El tiempo se pasa volando mientras leo este manga.

Ah, y Uran es todo lo que está bien en este mundo. Que niña más sensible y comprensiva.

[Hosein · Rating 5 out of 5]

پشت یکی از جلدها نوشته بود:
تاکاشی ناگاساکی یک گنجینه‌ی ملی برای ژاپنه.

هر چه قدر میخونم بیشتر متوجه میشم منظورش چی بوده.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pluto is past it's midway point so a lot is being revealed.

This book mostly focuses on Gesicht and his past. It's a interesting take on the whole "did I or did I not kill a human" and one I thought was handled well. I also like how everything is coming undone. There's no hero so far who is stopping this gigantic evil fucking tornado of hell. The KR (KKK for robots) is coming down to their final plans and it's all coming to a big showdown.

Good: The art is still amazing. I love the pacing of this volume, it's highly entertaining and easy to sit and read in one seating. Also, how awesome was Hercules? Some sick moments from him. The ending leads up to a lot of "Well what now" but I'm very eager to find out how we'll end this one.

Bad: Some confusing dialog and panels.

Overall pluto remains one of the best mangas I read in awhile. A easy 4 out of 5.

[yel ᰔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5

"The strong are only victorious until they face someone stronger"

even robots have feelings as well. they, too, can feel hatred and sadness. and this volume is filled with those two emotions. the mastermind behind all the murders is yet to determined and the slow unraveling of the truth is really engaging. but please please, don't revive atom if you're just going to make him something other than his innocent, kind self. this talk about him possibly becoming a 'monster' if he ever survive is making me worry.

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

--Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 005

Postscript, by Tomohiko Murakami, Manga critic and lecturer at Kobe Shoin Women's University

[Agnė · Rating 4 out of 5]

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

“Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 005” by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki is the fifth book in an eight-book science fiction manga series Pluto. The whole series is based on “The Greatest Robot on Earth,” the most popular story arc in Astro Boy series by a legendary manga master Osamu Tezuka.

In “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 005,” a new assignment helps detective Gesicht to unlock a harrowing memory, the source of his unsettling nightmares, and to discover what he is truly capable of. Meanwhile, Hercules, one of the seven great robots of the world, challenges the powerful, mysterious villain that so far has been unstoppable.

THUMBS UP:

1) My favorite volume so far.
Pluto series just keeps getting better and better. The fifth volume has it all: it is action packed, thrilling and suspenseful with plot twists and revelations, but at the same time it is thought-provoking and emotionally powerful with complex and realistic characters. The story kept me on my toes throughout the whole book and I understood and truly cared about the main characters (well, maybe except for Epsilon). Oh, and the artwork is very realistic and simply gorgeous.

2) Things make sense!
As the authors continue to tie loose ends together, the events and characters’ motives make more and more sense. This volume also offers a very sound explanation behind the “perfect robot” idea and why such a robot might be disastrous, making the story more logically explainable and thus much more realistic.

3) Postscripts.
Although each volume has a postscript written by a different person, I especially liked the commentary at the end of the fifth book, in which Tomohiko Murakami, a manga critic and lecturer, describes Pluto series as “Naoki Urasawa’s dissertation on Osamu Tezuka.” This and the previous postscripts are interesting and informative, helping the reader to understand and appreciate Pluto series as well as Urasawa’s work in general.

COULD BE BETTER:

1) Lack of color.
I mentioned this in all my previous Pluto reviews, but I really prefer the colored first few pages over the rest of the book, which is in black and white. I think I would be fine with the colorless illustrations as well, but the colored pages always remind me that the book can be even better.

VERDICT: 4 out of 5

“Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 005” by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki is my favorite volume so far. Here you can find everything: action, suspense, depth, multidimensional characters… Plus, the story keeps getting more logical and realistic. Finally, a very interesting and informative postscript at the end of the book helps to understand and appreciate the series even more.

POST SCRIPTUM:

Check out my reviews of the previous four volumes:
1) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 001;”
2) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 002;”
3) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 003;”
4) “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 004.”

[Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Androides hechos a imagen y semejanza de los seres humanos, ¿terminarán reproduciendo sus emociones? Urasawa sigue dándole vueltas a esta pregunta en una trama que ya pone todo su foco en Pluto. Parece mentira que de una historia de Astroboy que era básicamente una de robots dándose de piñas esté saliendo esto.

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm rooting for humans or robots. Why can't we all get along?

[XOX · Rating 4 out of 5]

PLUTO: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 5 started with Gesicht remembered from a deleted memory. That he indeed killed Adolf's brother during an arrest. For a robot detective, he is not supposed to use deadly force. He did it out of anger.  Gesicht is still guarding Adolf and his family because the hate group KR, Kill Robot, is out to kill him. 

Gesicht needs to know the truth and he visits the imprisoned robot who had killed before. He got a clue from the robot that the strong emotions of anger and hatred are within the robots too.  When Hercules battled the killer robot that comes with a magnetic storm and tornado, he was defeated. Before he died, his battle was recorded and witnessed by Epsilon. This clue is important and Epsilon is trying to transmit it to Gesicht but couldn't reach him. 

Gesicht followed the lead and visited Darius XIV in prison. He knew about the robots and provided a clue as to who this robot was really.  Some flashback to the past. Gesicht and his wife adopted a robot to be their child. This robot is killed along with many other young robots that were kidnapped. The one who kidnapped them was none other than Adolf's brother. Now we understand why Gesicht lost control of his emotions. 

Professor Tenma, the creator of Atom went and he wanted to reboot Atom and wake him up. Some flashbacks on how Tenma has created Atom in the image of his dead son Tobio. Tenma had tried to create the perfect robot. The robot was in a sleep state and refused to wake up. Tenma believed that intense emotion would off the AI balance and wake him up. And he allows a dying robot's memory to be read by Atom's AI.  The reborn Atom might become a monster as it has strong emotions that potentially lead to outbursts. 

Uran, the sister of Atom was very sad. She seeks out other animals and humans who are sad too. 

4 stars read. 

[Derek Royal · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I've mentioned before, I'm really enjoying this series. I appreciate the way that Urasawa and Nagasaki pace their narrative and strategically place their reveals. I particularly like the way that Urasawa places his "retelling" of Astro Boy (or Atom) within a context inspired by the recent (at the time) war with Iraq.

Three more volumes to go...And you just know that Atom will come back.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Urasawa brings up the fundamental question if Robots are studying and trying to reach human consciousness then what does it mean to be human? I like to be the optimistic and support the level of achievement that humans can aspire to be in regards to change and a better future for mankind but I do recognize that we are a destructive force and wouldn’t be sad if mankind cease to exist because of Mother Nature or our own destruction.

So if that is how I approach it then it valid to see how Robots are able to kill! What I cherish the most about this volume is the backstory of Gesicht and dealing with the repercussions of having his memory erased and recognize that he killed a human being. I have no idea what will happen in the future and I am curious if that will haunt him and the other characters in regards to fighting against Pluto?!

I cannot get enough of this manga series and to give a proper review will always fail in my grasp but I cannot stress enough that everyone should check this out especially if you are looking for new mangas! It saddens me how many robots have died and at this point if they all die that wouldn’t surprise me but definitely I’m going to be in shock if that makes the world better without them similar to Watchman. Naoki Urasawa is a genius and I have faith in him for these final few volumes!

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

this

[Muhamad Tegar Pratama Putra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Identitas antagonis yang dijadikan tajuk mulai sedikit terkuak, sementara intrik dan dilema manusia dengan robot semakin ruwet. Menarik melihat Naoki Urusawa mengembangkan karakter-karakternya menjadi begitu kompleks dalam kisah yang makin muram ini.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible volume. We finally get more answers about the nature of A.I., Pluto, and Gesich's past.

[Alma · Rating 5 out of 5]

No sé si Tezuka fue tan intenso al escribir todas las reflexiones acerca de las capacidades neuronales y la IA como lo hace Urasawa (imagino que no) pero este tomo no me ha dejado indiferente para nada.
Me ha encantado la reflexión que tiene el Dr Tenma referente a las emociones de inestabilidad para crear estabilidad acerca de la personalidad en este caso por Astroboy y la reflexión de Gesich acerca del rencor humano y los sentimientos reflejados en las IA.. También el detalle de los robots padres que pierden a su hijo.... En general este tomo retrata lo que podria llegar a ser lo que actualmente podria ser un futuro no del todo lejano en cuanto a IA vs humanos. A por el siguiente!

[Jacob Mendelsohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this despite finally realizing that its just the story Astro Boy as a detective story

[Margarita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ya empiezas a entender toda la historia y los personajes ya que se empiezan a descubrir incógnitas. Está muy interesante.

[Minnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieser Band fühlte sich ein wenig wie ein Filler-Band an, aber es reichte trotzdem um die Spannung zu halten und die Story fortzuführen. Ich bin gespannt wie es weitergeht und hoffe auf eine gute Auflösung.

[P · Rating 4 out of 5]

ooooof????

[Phou · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75

[Christina Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Lots of action and suspense in this volume! It mixed in nicely with a lot of character development- especially for Gesicht.

Still really enjoying this series!

[Solim · Rating 5 out of 5]

More chaos but we are getting closer to some answers.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stuff I Read – Pluto Vol 5 Review

Well, things are definitely moving right along in Pluto, and volume five really doesn’t slow down at all, as the series keeps upping the stakes. The true mystery of the series to this point starts to get solved, or at least reaches a little closer, and yet another of the strongest robots on the planet gets destroyed. But more than that, this is about the mystery of Gesicht’s past and his own experiences with hatred and murder. As such this is very much a fast paced and thrilling volume of the series, one with plenty of action and intrigue and revelations. As I suspected leading up to this volume, all is not entirely right with Gesicht’s mind, and in his push for finding the truth regarding the recent murders and such he is brought into contact with his own nature and his own past. He is dealing with a lot, and in ways that bring into focus a lot of the themes of the series, namely what it is to be human and what it is to be a robot. That, more than anything else, seems to be the question the series is trying to raise.

And to contrast the point we have Gesicht, so is a robot and who yet possesses so much that is human and the Saddam Hussein-esque deposed ruler of the Persian Empire, who is human and yet who acts in many ways like a robot, in such a detached manner, a manner devoid of most emotions. There is a real turning here, where we see that while robots can possess the potential for hatred, it is humans that typically act much more inhuman. Take the leading conflict of this volume, which is the fact that Gesicht outright murdered a suspect, the brother of the man who has been trying to kill him and who now Gesicht is charged with protecting. This was an act of hatred, something that robots are not supposed to be capable of. And many people in the series are very against robots learning hatred, becoming more human. The creator of Atom says explicitly that terrible things will happen in trying to make a robot too much like a human, because it necessitates things like hatred. But I think what this volume demonstrates is that while the potential for hatred is indeed dangerous, it also unlocks the potential for real courage and love.

This is expressed rather dramatically when Gesicht is shot by a weapon powerful enough to presumably destroy him. Gesicht places himself directly in danger, risking his life for someone who tried to kill him, not because he was ordered to or because he, as a robot, had to but because it was the right thing to do. Before the story has been that robots incapable of feeling have been used to do terrible things. That is the saga of revenge that Pluto is telling, that these more unfeeling robots are being destroyed because they did great crimes. And it is being shown that the mistake in all of this was not with the robots who fought but with the humans who assumed that just because they were robots they were incapable of being affected by the horrors of war. In a way, it is because humans created robots to fight for them, to separate humans from that horror, that all of this has happened, and so the series seems to be laying the blame at the feet of the creators of the robots, which I guess is why they are also being killed.

I suppose I also have to mention that here is where Hercules is killed, as well, which leaves only Gesicht and Epsilon left of the most powerful robots. This volume also furthers the weird of the series by including a strange and evil teddy bear that seems to be running things, though what the hell that means I’m not sure. In any event, things are definitely running towards some answers, and we see here the mysteries concerning Gesicht and the murders starting to get wrapped up. The plot thread about the anti-robot group and the man whose brother Gesicht killed are wrapped up, in any event, and there is the sense that progress is being made. At the same time just enough new things are introduced to keep us going, to press forward with the story, and I am left wanting more. Still, this is only about halfway through the series and I can’t really imagine what the heck is going to happen once these elements are tied up. At the least we are reaching the end of a large arc, and journey for Gesicht as he discovers himself. And with all of that, this volume gets an 8.5/10.

[Dani Wladdimiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Después de haber pasado unos días intensos en la Japan Expo, donde justamente hubo una exposición de Tezuka, a raíz del aniversario de Black Jack, tuve más tiempo para reflexionar sobre lo que significa Pluto, y cada vez me sorprende más el nivel de tales volúmenes. El manga no solo trata de construir una historia bien contada, sino también es un desafío propio para dar una capa más a la historia ya planteada en Astroboy, sin querer tender a presentar una historia para vender más, sino porque él siente que tiene algo que contar. Luego de leer distintos artículos, menciones y análisis sobre Urasawa, es más que evidente toma la inspiración que recae de Tezuka, siendo el más evidente el doctor Tenma, pero también respecto a lo que desea relatar. Black Jack justamente esa es la gracia que tiene con su narrativa, el tratar de contar historias más allá del mero entretenimiento, haciendo sentir la tensión al lector o lectora como algo propio. Justamente esa es la gracia que tiene ver personajes como Epsilon, donde nos dejan la desolación sobre la situación ocurrida con Heracles, quién no tuvo ninguna oportunidad alguna.

Pero si bien es una gran carga drama de la historia, todo lo relacionado con el doctor Tenma es increíble, porque da rienda sueltas a una exploración más que lógica de la inteligencia artificial. Mucho de los primeros conceptos que se tenía sobre la IA era relacionado a comportamientos lógicos, haciendo árboles de decisión para determinar comportamientos. Para los entendidos en el área, el lenguaje de programación de paradigma lógico como Prolog, fue pionero en este tipo de tecnologías, pero rápidamente quedó obsoleto con el transcurso del tiempo. ¿La razón? Básicamente estaba basado en respuestas lógicas, donde la máquina según una base de datos iba tomando decisiones verdaderas o falsas según las premisas que eran dadas, lo cual llevaba a altas limitaciones, en especial su rendimiento. ¿Por qué? Porque si era necesario respuestas morales, debía tener un aprendizaje muy grande de todas las respuestas ciertas o no, y en caso que saliera de estos parámetros, la máquina sería incapaz de tomar una decisión. Por ejemplo, si aprende sobre que utilizar productos químicos en animales es erróneo, si no tiene un antecedente que sería inmoral hacerlo con humanos, simplemente la respuesta sería indeterminada, aunque lo lógico sería que no. Este tipo de racionamientos si bien se pueden ir mejorando con comparativas transitivas, tendríamos que tener una gran cantidad de conocimiento para finalmente llegar a un buen puerto.

Lo que quería expresar con todo esto, es que el Doctor Tenma tiene razón, es necesario componentes aleatorios, los cuales ayuden a tomar decisiones rápidas, para no tener un árbol de decisiones que su tamaño tiene al infinito. Hoy en día la tecnología ha cambiado y muchísimo, por lo que herramientas de IA tomando factores aleatorios justamente para dar el factor imprevisto a las decisiones, los cuales puede llevar a decisiones mejores o peores. Lo importante es que al realizar varios experimentos, podemos observar una pequeña variación en los resultados, todo dependiendo de muchas parámetros, por supuesto, pero mi idea es que la hipótesis del Doctor Tenma no es tan alocada, y tiene bastante lógica, al fin de cuenta, eso hace que terminemos haciendo cosas irracionales, los cuales hacen romper nuestro árbol de decisión, aunque sepamos que no es lo correcto.

[Doc · Rating 5 out of 5]

The case of Gesicht and the forgotten memory.

Although this volumes does have information on Pluto (as well as new sacrifices made along the way) this volume is primarily about Detective Gesicht as he deals with the reality that the man he was sent to protect is not only the brother of the man he killed in connection to a past case but is a member of a robot hate group. In the mean time he also has to investigate new leads discovered while on duty but will he be able to handle the emotions that suddenly seize him now and then?

Also Dr. Tenma makes a return to the story with the defeat of Atom in the last volume and attempts to revive the boy bot but something is wrong and being similar and it might require more extreme methods to bring him back. Even worse he might not come back as before but as a monster as bad or worse then even Pluto.

Also of note I still find the occasional addition of color for the field of flower art to be refreshing and I understand they can't do it every time but this time it seemed strangely out of place in this book not that I mind. Maybe it is foreshadowing to something big down the line.

[Bella Azam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume dealt with emotions. Whether robots are capable of feeling any emotions or not. How the robots showcase anger, hatred and sadness made me question whether robots created by human beings, are they more human than normal human? Its always fascinating to see the idea of robots with intelligent mind displayed human behaviours and how they respond to their environment by processing the situation around them especially Atom, a highly intelligent robot.
The aftereffect of wars destroyed both human and robots. There are grief and PTSD represented in here so delicately and we see the trauma from the robot's perspective and its so relatable that it hurts. Abominable crimes were commited against the robots and this angered me a lot because this happened to human too and the fact that robot were targeted the same way too showed how horrible humans can be.

[নাজমুল হাসান · Rating 4 out of 5]

A garden of flower reborn as a destructive hurricane- that's what Pluto is. Or that's how the event unfolded so far tells us. What gave such a rebirth to Pluto? Was it the excessive polarizing emotions that Dr. Tenma talked about. Or was it the war? Also the sub plot with Adolf and Geshict was really emotional. Revenge and hatred has been the central plot for the story so far. Still it seems there are more mysteries to unfold as the imprisoned ruler attempts suicide after his confession. Who is the real owner of Pluto is still not clear.

[Mikael Kuoppala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a tiny bit weaker than what's preceded it, the fifth volume of Pluto concentrates more on plot than on the characters and allegories that have fueled the series so far. Don't get me wrong, the plot is darn fascinating, but there were a few moments during this book that I felt like the story wasn't quite as beautifully balanced and orchestrated as has been the norm so far. Still, great stuff filled with plot twists and interesting developments, begging to lead us somewhere rad.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite issues of the series thus far, Pluto really opens up in this volume, revealing histories only hinted at in previous volumes. Human and robot interactions take on a much more interesting turn.