Pluto

Pluto it's the name of  Mickey's dog but more especially the name of the new serie of Urasawa

This time he doesn't write all alone but with Tézuka (finally almost;o))

Story    Blah     How to read it in English/French     Some images

 

Story

    The history takes place  in a futuristic world where robots and humans cohabit with +/- success. That's similar to the world of I, Robot (the film and also the book) with robots with human appearance and others which have the look of robots and cannot be mistaken. The buildings are hundreds of meters high, the cars lead all alone, the television  is in 3d and the robots are married, live together and go to work like Mr. and Mrs. everyone

    The intrigue starts with the death of one of most famous and most appreciated robot on the planet: Mont Blanc, found scattered into pieces after a gigantic fire doubled of a tornado. Its death seems unexplainable as it was a rather strong and solid robot.

    At the same time in Düsseldorf an eminent member of the protective society of the robots is assassinated in strange circumstances, its apartment is devastated and someone planted in the head of the corpse enormous horns. The inspector in charge of the investigation is a certain Gesicht (face, in German) which is not other than a hyper sophisticated robot  with human appearance. The same horns were placed close to the head of Mount Blanc, would there be a relationship between the two deaths? It's what Gesicht will try to prove.

    Other murders occur, murders of humans as well as robots. The assassinated robots are all robots built to be massive weapons of destruction, all having jointly taken part in the 39th conflict of Central Asia. There are 7 robots, almost indestructibles, all having started over after the war and its horrors, Mount Blanc for example had become forester. Gesicht decides to find them to announce to them that they  can be in danger of death. Among them is Tetsuwan Atom (known in France under the name of Astro the small robot) who carries out a super normal  life in a Japanese family, goes to school and is just like any other normal little boy. His sister, Uran is  also a robot with human appearance, one would swear she is a small normal girl.

    Progressively more information is distilled on this futuristic society : there is a law which prohibits robots to attack the humans. But there has been one and single case of robot killing out of human, one will have the occasion to see it on several occasions (what remains about it!). This is important as it seems that the murders of the humans were perpetrated by a robot. Gesicht seems embarked in one crowned history faggot of mysteries. We discover at the same time the existence of a secret society (kind of ku klux klan, same "nice" hats) the purpose of which is to remove the robots  from the society, "Death to the Robots" being their slogan. One also discovers some more on this conflict in Central Asia and his consequences. One also learns a little more on inspector Gesicht who seems oddly dependent and who makes strange nightmares (odd for a guy of its kind)

    Here are some lines the summary of the first volumes, for the moment no publication is envisaged in France, 2 volumes have been published in Japan, 3rd in court of publication in Big Comics Original

Blahblah

Small explanation of the title of the manga: English Pluto is the equivalent of our French Pluton. It is not only one planet nor one of the girlfriends of sailormoon but also a former Roman divinity. Pluto, Hades for the Greeks, was the god of the hells and deaths. According to certain European mythologies he carried horns, this is to put in connection with the horns found on the victims of the murders inside the manga.

In fact this history is based on one of the chapters of Astro written in the years 70' S by Ozamu Tezuka, one of best the mangaka of all times, let's not be afraid to say it!! That's why we find this character in the manga. But this collaboration between Tezuka (finally rather its heirs) and Urasawa does not stop with a mechanical repetition of a chapter of Tetsuwan Atom. It is felt well that the scenario as well as the drawings (recognizable at 1st glance) are of Urasawa and that he's the one which controls its manga from beginning to end. We find here classical topics of science fiction and his masters in Pluto. Do the robots have a heart or are they vulgar pieces of metal with an electronic brain? Both points of view are in the manga. The law which prohibits the robots from hurting human beings is obviously  the one dictated by Asimov in its books. He invented the 3 laws of Robotics thus the 1rst is the one used by Urasawa, those which never read Asimov can throw an eye on film I, Robot with Will Smith it is exactly that. The universe and the questions are also that of PK Dick in Blade Runner (original title: The androïdes dream of electric sheep;o))), the film is to be seen urgently (with Harisson Ford), and the book too.

We knew with 20thCB that Urasawa liked the robots which had rocked his childhood (Astro had surely formed part of it), with all the references which swarm in the series, and there with Pluto not only that is confirmed but in addition one realizes that he is super gifted for that!!! And best of the best, he's co-writing with Tezuka, its big shot, his Master and that one is close to perfection!! finally it is my opinion and I share it!!

How To read Pluto in French/English

This  futuristic thriller is to be discovered urgently, so how to read it even if it's not published in your country?

It is easy like a mouse click, thank you Internet and  the translation team of the sites whose links follow:

http://www.iscariote.org/serie.php?idmng=89 for the French chapters, until chapter 20 for the moment (Thank you  Lord Tetsuo for the link) only for those who are not afraid by french ;o))

http://souhaku.free.fr/index.php?go=series&id_manga=43  for the English chapters, translated until the chapter 23,  (Thank you in Jipé for the link)

To read Pluto  you  only have to download the chapters on your pc, they are very light files zip,  they are downloaded super quickly with ADSL

Once the file zip in your computer, I advise you to create a Pluto file, to create inside under files by chapter (chap1,2,3...)

Then one needs to unzip the images: double click on the file zip of your choice, a window opens with all the images, select them all and made "extract towards" and choose  the correct file put the images of the chap one in the file chap one and so on.

Don't do like me, I had put the chap 17 in the file of the chap 15 and so I haven't got any clue of what I was reading!! LOL!

The only thing you can do now is to look at the images, be carefull at first reading a manga on a screen can be odd but  you get accustomed quickly especially with Urasawa

Here some images    :o))

Translation french to english  : Google, Jipé and Syrinxx ^_^

I you see any problem with grammar or anything just mail me !!