Hey Steemians! Hope that you guys had an awesome start of the week!
So today we will review a very popular manga that is called Pluto. A few weeks ago I ordered and read that Manga for the first time and it was such a pleasant surprise!!! So let’s go ahead and talk about it shall we? :)
1- Context and origin of the manga Pluto
Pluto is a re-adaptation of the manga “Astro Boy” which is still known as a masterpiece in Japan. Astro Boy was created in 1951 by the author Osamu Tezuka who envisioned narrating the story of a robot loved by all humans. The manga was so successful that in 1963 it was adapted to become the first ever weekly animated TV series in Japan. In September of that same year it was released in the US as well, with a great success.
2- The actual story and plot of Pluto (Vol. 1)
The manga starts with a very dark tone. The reader learns that there was a wildfire in the mountains and that the robot “Mont Blanc” was found dead by the firefighters and the Professor Reinhardt (his creator), in the middle of what was left. But Mont Blanc is not just a simple robot, he is a super robot that was really loved by all humans. Mont Blanc deeply cared about nature and piece for humanity. He was even developing a sustainable tree harvesting program. Mont Blanc was a unique robot. Soon, the reader finds out that there are some good chances that he was killed. But who could have killed such a strong robot? To make the matter even more complex, some horns are found on top of Mont Blanc’s head. Right there the reader is already intrigued. Inspector Gesicht also known as Robot Model HRS 0288 is in charge of the investigation. Very soon, he has to carry the investigation on another similar murder, a human victim found dead with horns on the head … Could it be possible that the two murder cases are related? Is the murderer a human being or a robot?
3- My impression of the book
I really enjoyed reading this manga because I found pretty interesting topics. Since I study artificial intelligence, I am very interested in robots. I am therefore very interested in the ethical questions that are related with them. The universe developed in the book is a universe where humans and robots work together as colleagues, where there are robots families, where a robot police officer can carry a top secret investigation … In the books, robots even need vacations! In a way, it reminded me of the new game “Detroit become human”, I found many similarities. But those two universe are also different because in the manga Pluto (Vol. 1) , most robots have very good reputation whereas in Detroit become human it is actually more complex than that. In Pluto, funerals are held after robot’s deaths. These seriously raises the question whether a robot will one day fully be considered a human? In Detroit become human, that question is there at any time.
I found the drawings pretty realistic and I like some of the hi-tech ideas that were in the book such as the “table-phone”. Basically a table that acts as a phone but on top of that you can see a hologram of the person you are talking to. Also, I like the idea that robots were absolutely forbidden to kill humans (whether they were good people or mass murderers). To me, that was a very good point in terms of ethics. Even the police officer robots did not have real guns but tranquilizers. Robots even have regrets after having participated in wars and they can even have nightmares. It means that in the book the robots are beyond self-awareness and they really want to emulate the human minds.
In terms of investigation, the reader never ceased to try to connect the pieces of the puzzle, because as the story goes more people get killed (in the most bizarre way). This keeps the story very intriguing.
4- Conclusion
If you are into fiction, AI or manga Pluto is the right book for you. The book raises many ethical questions. This book can be a real inspiration for anybody that wants to write fiction about AI or who is thinking about the ethics in AI. I also recommend the book “The moon is a harsh mistress” that I will review in a future post.
See you guys tomorrow for another post! :) Please refer to the link here [2] to see what’s coming next.
References
[1] Manga Pluto by Urasawa - Tezuka
[2] https://steemit.com/blog/@juv79505/updates-on-the-channel
Pictures
Picture 1 was taken from https://goo.gl/8WzCsc
Picture 2, 3 and 4 were taken from my Pluto book that I purchased on Amazon.
juv79505 sincerely thank you for reading this article. Please feel free to comment below in case you have ideas, questions, suggestions or simply want to criticize this article. Also, note that the first picture used in this article was extracted from the google section “pictures labeled for commercial reuse”. Stay tuned for more articles on health, environment, artificial intelligence, video games, technology in general, books, graphic novels, geography, history, sports and much more!
Oh! Pluto!
I'm japanese! I am happy that Japanese Manga are also popular in your country!
He is a very good manga artist and the 20th century boys were very popular in Japan!😉
Thank you!!! Yeah Japanese Manga remain popular in the US! I remember when I was in College (a few years ago) there was a very popular manga/anime club at the school. I would sometimes join them to watch some anime on Saturday late night and they had many anime book reviews!
I think that Pluto is one of the precursor of the popularity of manga because it's one of the first manga to have been very popular in western countries. I think I still have some memories of watching Astro boy when I was kid ;) ! My favorite animes/manga of all time are Full metal alchemist, Detective Conan, City hunter , Saint Seiya, BT'X , maison Ikkoku ... I think that I have many many anime that I really like!
Yeah I think that the guys who made Astro Boy and Pluto totally deserve their success because they are geniuses!
Thank you for reading my post :)
Oh, yeah!
You are very familiar with Japanese Manga!🤗
I did not know that Pluto was so popular in America!
His manga is full of very unique ideas and fascinates those who read!
Wow! Really? I also love Full metal alchemist!
I saw the movie series at the movie theater, I also have DVDs and Manga!
That Manga is also very popular in Japan, so I'm happy being accepted in the America!😄
The popularity of Conan is amazing!
In the Japanese movie rankings, Avengers3 ranked second and Conan was first!
Marvle studio was also surprised at this!😲
Thank you Mangas are somethings that I really like! I started learning about Mangas since I was a kid :) !
I think that the ideas that are in Pluto can well be used in many other domains like video games, movies or Artificial Intelligence!
I am a very glad you are a big fan of Full Metal Alchemist! There are so many historic and philosophical concepts in that manga and on top of that, the author had a lot of imagination that allowed her to create an incredible universe! In terms of anime, I watched both Full Metal Alchemist 2003 and Brotherhood. I really like both, but I think that I like Full Metal Alchemist 2003 a little more! I feel like there were more philosophical concepts that were developed in that anime, even though it had fewer characters. I watched also many Full metal alchemists film anime such as Conqueror of Shamballa. I haven't watched the actual movie that came out recently though.
Detective Conan is such a fun anime, I love it, and it always reminds me of my teenage years. Oh really??? I did not know that, thats impressive and surprising. I am a big fan of Detective Conan but I feel like here in the west people are less fan of Detective Conan than One Piece or Bleach. I have always thought that Gosho Aoyama is a genius anyway! :)
Wow! You are truly familiar with Japanese animation!👍
Yes! Your right!
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Full Metal Alchemist is very philosophical And also religious! Homunculus is the theme of the seven major sin ordained by Christ.
Yeah, 2003ver was very good! 2003ver was an animation like a darker and better quality opera house! The quality of the picture was also very good!
Shamballa set the parallel world further deepened the world view of Full Metal Alchemist!
If you are interested I will recommend a 2011 movie! This movie has a bit of painting like ghibli, but the suspense element is strong and it is very good!
Certainly there are few people who like Conan in the US and Europe.
I also liked Conan, but I do not see much now.
Why do you love Conan so much? I'm interesting🙂
Thank you my friend! Yeah the homunculus concept is really something deep, very deep. I feel like that can inspire lots of stories, animes, movies, basically develop our imagination! And you are right, originally it is a concept that comes from religion. There are a lots of religion references in Full Metal Alchemist, especially the 2003 one.
Actually, I have watched the 2011 movie too :)! It was on Netflix a couple of years ago I believe. I should try to rewatch it though. Yeah that movie is very good. It is better than Conqueror of Shamballa in my opinion, but I have to rewatch both to be sure.
Oh you do not watch much Conan these days? I think the problem that Detective Conan has is that it has been extended too much and also the timeline is not really linear per say. So for somebody that has watched it for at least 10 years, he did not really see the main characters drastically improve in terms of the storyline. So yeah probably Gosho Aoyama should have either made the character evolve (like in Dragon Ball Z for instance) or he should have ended the show. You see, FMA is very popular and I think one of the reason why it is is that it ended (not too many episode) This is good for at least one reason: the reader/watcher can use his imagination to envision what happens next in the story.
Yeah Detective Conan is definitely one of my 3 favorite anime/manga of all time! I feel like the universe that was elaborated by Gosho Aoyama is very deep and clever and when you watch the show, you have to constantly think, so it is mentally challenging :) ! Also watching Detective Conan as a teenager made me learn many things that I did not know about history, geography, biology etc ... So it made me being more curious about things and constantly try to learn and figure out things like Conan does. And watching Detective Conan always reminds me of my Childhood. I also like the atmosphere in Conan. Sometimes they joke, sometimes it is dramatic, there is a little of everything. I also like Conan because I have always liked investigation stuffs and Conan is definitely that.
There are many other reasons why I like Detective Conan but I cannot remember them right now. And I sincerely think Gosho Aoyama is a genius!
May I ask you why you like Conan? :)
Yeah! In Japan, there are very few people who believe in a particular religion, So it is interesting that animation like FMA became popular. I think that the content is really attractive!
Oh, really?🙂
I think so, too! I think that the balance between the suspense story and the battle scene was very good in the 2011 movies!
Your right! Your opinion is very precise!
FMA finished the story very neatly beautifully. That further enhances the completeness of the FMA.
It is difficult to keep a long-lasting story in good quality…It's like the recent STAR WARS series(I am sorry if you are a STAR WARS fan)
Your love for Conan is transmitted to me!👍
People who love Conan are concentrating in Asia, so the Western fan's opinion is very interesting to me!😉
Conan revitalizes the brains of the watching people That is also true for Death Note, but as you say Conan has a lot of fun jokes and is accepted in the family group.
You are a real fan who really knows Conan!
Probably now I have not seen enough to tell Conan's charm…😅
As you said, I lost interest in Conan's endless story on the way…But it is not only Conan, it is the fate of other long-lasting Manga and Animation.
I think the charm I felt when I was watching Conan was the same as you.
A lot of unique items such as reasoning and soccer balls and skateboards attracted me who was a boy😄
And, Fortunately I saw the first movie in Conan movie series at the cinema. That experience was very exciting🙂
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