A podcast about the collected works of Naoki Urasawa

Pluto 4: The Greatest Bodyguard(s) on Earth

Seminars on software to replace paperwork - a massive workplace machine disassembled into Ikea-esque pieces - newspaper interviews of a local heroic pizza parlor employee - a closet somehow collapsing with a deafening BANG! These are the forces that conspired to delay the release of this month's episode of Urasawa Boys: Pluto, which finally brings us across the halfway point, and many many steps closer to solving the mystery of The Greatest Robot on Earth! Join us for a discussion of the nature of man, fatherly robot professors (good and bad), the perils of extended metaphors for racism, huge water-based tornado demons, a tightening neo-noir plot with Jason Bourne-like action sequences, incredible comedic chapters, and a little bit of theorizing from Matt about how this could all shake out! Folks, it's a good one!

A quick note from Matt here - when we started this season on Pluto, we underestimated how much we'd have to say about this story. As a result, the reading, note-taking, and production of each episode has been taking significantly longer than it did for our season on Monster. For the remainder of our time with Pluto (4 more episodes) we'll be switching to a monthly release schedule, with episodes coming out on the last Tuesday of the month. Our hope is that this will better allow us to get everything out on time for you (which is always our goal) while still giving it all the care it deserves! Thank you so much for your patience, thank you for listening, and thank you for being a friend!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 24-31)

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 32-39)

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on BlueSky and support us on Patreon. The theme music for this season is the track "Clues to the Truth" from the official soundtrack to the anime, composed by Yugo Kanno. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war, civilian and child casualties (and other war related trauma), the Ku Klux Klan, modern US politics, and bugs. Please proceed with caution!

Pluto 3: The Worst Detective on Earth

Move over THE BRUTALIST - Urasawa Boys is back with episode 3 of our season on Pluto! Just as long (three and a half hours) but also featuring powerful robots who understand abstract art! (Take that Adrien Brody!) On a more serious note - thank you for your patience during our delay, this week's episode features incredible exposition, classic Urasawa chapters on a shocking racist mystery-conspiracy in the suburbs, and a top-tier lanky disheveled mystery man with wet clothes and greasy hair. All the stars are here! Join us as we dig into how Urasawa adapts the Uran plotline, and marvel at how great the use of color pages are - folks, it's a good one!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 16-23)

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 24-31)

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war and war related trauma, the Ku Klux Klan, modern US politics, and bugs. Please proceed with caution!

The Quickest Announcement on Earth

Whoops! We accidentally recorded a 4-hour podcast on this week's reading. Matt has to teach a class at work today and tomorrow, so he couldn't finish the edit on time, but it will be here before you know it! And folks - it's a good one!

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 16-23)

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war and war related trauma. Please proceed with caution!

Pluto 2: The Luckiest Robot at the Bottom of the Ocean

Woah! Two in a row? We're BACK! This time, Urasawa Boys delves deep into the second volume of Pluto, and we talk about how maybe this comic about giant robots fighting (with not a lot of giant robots fighting?) isn't quite working for us? But never fear - there's still a whole lot of good stuff here - Hercules, Brando, robot wrestling, the fictional war in Central Asia, the real war in Iraq, and giant metallic dream statues from the Bible! There's a lot going on in Naoki Urasawa's adaptation of Astro Boy - and you don't want to miss even a minute of us digging in! Folks - it's a good one!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 8-15)

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 16-23)

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war and war related trauma. Please proceed with caution!

Pluto 1: The Saddest Robot in Scotland

URASAWA BOYS is back!! Exactly on schedule - 2 weeks (and 1 year) after our Episode 0 on "Astro Boy: The Greatest Robot on Earth," we're finally beginning our coverage of Pluto. After a quick review of what we've been doing in our barely noticeable hiatus, join us for our thoughts on Pluto's interesting shift of main character, the obvious (and not-so-obvious) intertexts, cool robots, sad robots, and what seems to be a prelude to a metaphor about the US war in the middle-east? Who could say. Folks - it's a good one!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 1-7)

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 8-15)

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war and war related trauma. Please proceed with caution!

Pluto 0: The Greatest Robot on Earth

And we're back! 2024 is off to a rip-roaring start with the first episode of Season Two of URASAWA BOYS! This time, we're covering Pluto, but before we dig into the main attraction, we take a look back at the original arc of Astro Boy that inspired Urasawa's one of a kind cyberpunk murder mystery manga. Join Matt and Quinn as they dig into "The Greatest Robot on Earth" and go long on this influential chunk of a classic manga, ponder on how best to make adaptive moves, talk about Dragon Ball, and generally just have an absolutely great time doing the dang thing. Folks - it's a good one!

Material Covered: Astro Boy - The Greatest Robot on Earth

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 1-7)

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war and war related trauma. Please proceed with caution!

Monster 19: Wrap-Up

We did it! This is the end! No reading this time, just some light fun discussion of what's going on in our lives, our thoughts on MONSTER a few weeks removed from reading the finale, and then a bunch of fun segments! We do some fancasting, tier-rank our favorite readings, imagine some AUs, take a handful of very fun listener questions, and then talk about a Reddit post (very bad) and a blog post (very good!). Thanks for joining us on this inaugural season of URASAWA BOYS - we're so excited to get into Master Keaton next!

Oh yeah, almost forgot - folks, it's a good one!

Material Covered: Monster - Wrap-up / Listener Questions / Final Discussion

Next Time: Master Keaton (Chapter 1 - 12)

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on Twitter and support us on Patreon. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Monster, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, child abuse, gaslighting/emotional abuse, racism, Nazis, terrorism, death, suicide, hospitals/surgery, alcoholism, drug abuse, weapons/guns, and transphobia. Please proceed with caution!

Monster 18: Great Physician Tenma

This is the end. Rain drums against the roof, and in between the low rolls of thunder, you hear something that you could have sworn was a gunshot. Outside, fear alone animates the hearts of those still stuck out on the streets - the devil has come to town.

Woah, hey, who let Matt write self-indulgent prose again? Sorry about that. Arriving not late, but exactly when it intended to is the FINAL READING of Urasawa Boy's inaugural season on Monster.

Across a new "record-breaking" number of recordings (2 each), Matt and Quinn update you on everything that's going on for them, and then spend almost three and a half hours talking about rain, atonement, micro-expressions, death-flags, guilt, history, consequences, metaphors, cutaways, psychic powers, illustration and interpretation, Stephen King, The Bible, 90s Action Movies, 90s Spider-Man comics, 90s Batman comics, and just about everything else we've gone nuts over while reading this finale.

Join us for showdown after showdown as the cast of Monster converges on Ruhenheim to finally experience Johan's vision of the end. Thank you for listening, and for waiting - folks; it's a good one.

Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 152 - 162)

Next Time: Monster - Wrap-up / Listener Questions / Final Discussion

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on Twitter and support us on Patreon. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

Monster 17: Wasteland, Tenma!

Coming to you a few hours late, edited LIVE somewhere in the swamps of New Jersey, it's the penultimate episode of Urasawa Boy's inaugural season on MONSTER! Join Matt and Quinn on the rollercoaster once again as we round the corner and begin barreling down the hill into a peaceful and unsuspecting town somewhere in the mountains of southern Germany. We dig into what it was that Johan saw, and what that means for him, and all of our other favorite characters that have gotten caught in the black hole that swirls around him.

Aside from that, all of your favorite things are here - long digressions to talk about other podcasts and media consumption habits, the two of us saying "we'll probably speed through the rest of these chapters," an hour into the podcast, Quinn providing context about which locations are actually real, and Matt making wildly big conceptual and narrative swings and then hedging those bets with plot ignorance. Folks, it's a good one!

If you have questions, or topics of discussion that you think would be fun for our wrap up episode, please send them to [email protected]!

Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 142 - 151)

Next Time: Monster (Chapter 152 - 162) - FINAL READING!

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on Twitter and support us on Patreon. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

Monster 16: Airplane Engineer Tenma

A tragic assassination attempt; a stunning piece of detective work; three heroes racing against time to stop a horrible plan - but whose plan is it really? The rollercoaster stalls for a second, before entering free-fall, as all is revealed. MONSTER is loading the last of its narrative bullets into Chekov's gun, and aiming directly at a shocking conclusion. This week's episode of Urasawa Boys (which also features a long discussion of Quinn's ambitious mech decorating project in Armored Core VI, and a fun "what's Matt wearing" segment) is not to be missed!! Folks, it's a good one!

Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 132 - 141)

Next Time: Monster (Chapter 142 - 151)

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on Twitter and support us on Patreon. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

Monster 15: NPC Tenma

Folks, we are in the small dip that the rollercoaster does before it crests back up the hill and climbs for the final breathtaking scramble - this is Monster at its most exciting, locking into place for a nailbiting conclusion. Join us this week as Martin becomes the main character, and then watch along as Nina's tragic flashbacks sum up all of the subtext from the past couple of readings. We're heading back to the scene of the crime in more way than one, as we draw on some long forgotten (and cut) theories about what this all means. Matt and Quinn have a grand old time puzzling through what the devil is and how he works, y'all - this is a good one!

Material Covered: Monster (Chapter 123 - 131)

Next Time: Monster (Chapter 132 - 141)

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on Twitter and support us on Patreon. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS