Of the myriad reveals at Anime Expo 2023, one of the most exciting was a new trailer for Netflix's adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's Pluto, the daring reimagining of a classic Astro Boy story. Producer Masao Maruyama claims the show has been in development for over a decade, but does this new dazzling preview spell good things for the long-awaited anime?Naoki Urasawa wrote Pluto in 2003 in collaboration with the creator of Astro Boy and the "god of manga" himself, Osamu Tezuka, adapting the story "The Greatest Robot on Earth." The Netflix series is finally arriving on October 26, directed by Toshio Kawaguchi, and animated by Studio M2, which was founded by Maruyama, Madhouse co-founder/ MAPPA founder.
What Is Pluto?
In the original 1964 Astro Boy story, a robot named Pluto is created to be the king of all robots and therefore the king of modern civilization. However, before he can reign supreme, he first must defeat the seven strongest robots in the world, including our hero, Astro Boy. Urasaw reframes this story as a mystery following the robotic detective Gesicht as he investigates the destruction of a beloved robot named, Mt. Blanc.
Similar to Urasawa's other work, this is a mature drama and one which uses the Astro Boy name in order to explore a deeper message about the line between man and machine. It is a story in which humans and robots coexist and where laws have been created to protect the rights of the latter, but where the line between the two continues to blur.
Earlier this year, Netflix released the first sneak peek of the anime, which was less as a trailer and more of a collection of scenes to convey the overall look and vibe of the adaptation. There was no voice acting - just the animation, visual effects, and Yugo Kanno's nostalgic score, oozing with spy film energy, perfectly fitting the neo-futurism of classic science fiction which spawned Astro Boy
In contrast, the new trailer shown at Anime Expo is a far more thorough primer for the upcoming thriller's story. The trailer sets up the inciting incidents with the appropriate gravity and the mounting political and philosophical quandaries at the heart of the mystery. From there, it culminates in a haunting tagline, "Robots must not become any more human..."
The reception to the trailer has been mostly positive, with Pluto undoubtedly becoming one of Netflix's most hyped anime releases in ages, if nothing else because of Urasawa's reputation. He's the kind of icon in the manga world where if you are yet to be familiar with his work, it doesn't take long to figure out why his stories are such a hit. Just this year, Netflix started streaming the animated adaptation of his story from 1994, Monster, one of the most beloved manga of all time.
From the character designs alone, Pluto has an incredibly classic look that is blended with very modern-looking animation techniques and 3D visual effects. With the amount of detail alone, it certainly carries itself like a labor of love a long time in the making. But not everyone has been completely sold on the visuals.
Good Weird or Bad Weird?
There's often a big debate about visual effects in anime - most notably the usage of 3D animation and how it meshes with traditional 2D animation. While the efforts of dedicated studios and the overall improvement of the craft have changed audiences' minds on CGI somewhat, there can still be those who are resistant to it. It might be seen as a cost-cutting measure rather than a conscious choice to enhance a project.
One school of thought suggests that 3D looks better in anime when relegated to machinery or specific subjects on screen, leaving the characters hand-drawn. In this way, Pluto definitely makes a solid first impression, blending a myriad of visual effects while leaving the main characters gorgeously illustrated. Yet, that's not quite what some fans are concerned about.
In animation circles, the term "composition" can get thrown around a lot, and much like the term "cinematography," it can be misunderstood somewhat. To put it generally, composition refers to the blending of various elements in the animation. The way the characters interact with the background, the way the effects interact with both, and so on. Do these elements blend or clash with one another? That is the ultimate question.
In the case of Pluto, what's been shown so far tows a particular line between visuals that look interesting and visuals that feel out of place. There is this blur effect used in some moments, like Gesicht turning a corner with his gun drawn, that looks bizarre, but not necessarily in a bad way. It's not an effect that you see very often in anime. In that sense, it looks rather cool in a weird way. At other times, though, the effects, be they fire or smoke, can make the image feel cluttered.
There is something about the blend of 2D and 3D in Pluto that harkens back to a time when anime was first starting to experiment with CGI. @GetInTheMecha on Twitter shared this very sentiment prior to the reveal of the trailer, citing shows like Blue Sub No.6, where hand-drawn characters were intermixed with a lot of 3D effects that date the show quite severely.
I haven't seen an anime look quite like Pluto since 2004's Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, where 2D/3D were blended in ways that were rather impressive for the time and remain cool still. It's important to note that while some people have been more skeptical about Pluto's animation, it's less outright disdain for the style and more uncertainty as to how consistent the quality will be.
Why Pluto Is Worth The Hype
The Netflix series is said to be 8 episodes, each one an hour long, which alone is atypical by episodic anime standards, but it will reportedly cover the entire 8-volume story. Some occasionally wonky composition aside, there's a lot to be excited about from what has been shown. For every shot that looks a bit off, there are two more that inspire a sense of awe.
Between Shigeru Fujita's character animation and animation direction, Yugo Kanno's thrilling score, and a stacked voice cast, Pluto looks and sounds glorious. The nostalgic look of its world, painted in contemporary trappings as it may be, gives the project the feeling of a nod to a time when anime was ripe with dramas that thrived on experimental visuals, often in science fiction.
Anime certainly hasn't ceased experimenting, nor creating new classics of science fiction, such as last decade's Psycho-Pass, or this year's Heavenly Delusion, should history look favorably upon it. With that said, given Naoki Urasawa's namesake and the rarity of adaptations of his work in spite of that, Pluto stands as a once-in-a-decade kind of project.
It should be as visually bold as it is narratively profound, even if it might risk overextending itself visually. With Maruyama producing the series at his own studio just as he did with Monster back at his former home of Madhouse, there's a sense that Urasawa's creative license is in good hands. We'll have to wait until Pluto hits Netflix on October 26 to find out if it lives up to its namesake.
Sources: Twitter (@NetflixJP)