Pluto 8: The Greatest Robot in History
Ah, Montblanc... Ah, North No. 2... Ah, Brando... Ah, Hercules... Ah, Gesicht... Ah, Epsilon... Ah, Pluto... You lived the live given you without hesitation, self-doubt, shame, or resentment... You carried out your duty, and then you were gone... When will they sit in judgment of the humans who created temporary life, out of a limitless lust for power and control, and then destroyed it?
And just like that - only 18 full months after we began, we've reached the end of our journey with PLUTO. It's been a long weird trek through Urasawa's adaptation of one of the most famous Astro Boy stories of all time - who would have thought that it would take us through the Iraq War, a global financial crisis, and the crushing realization that we're facing a climate apocalypse? Who would have thought that this decade-old comic would still be so relevant today? Join Matt and Quinn for a 5-star runtime discussion of PLUTO's finale - with all the things we love about its plot payoffs, its emotional beats, its cinematic fights, and its incredible artistic restraint and characteristically Urasawa simultaneous metaphoric excess. (Speaking of excess, what is Matt on in this episode description!) Thank you for joining us on this science-fiction odyssey, please enjoy this final outing - folks, it's a good one!
Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 56 - 65)
Next Time: Pluto - 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 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, war related trauma, the Ku Klux Klan, modern US politics, bugs, child abandonment, and parental trauma. Please proceed with caution!