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A review by nolansmock
PLUTO: 浦沢 直樹 x 手塚 治虫 005 by Naoki Urasawa
3.0
I doubt I'd finish this if I didn't get the entire series for cheap, but since I have them, I'll read it all. There are a lot of good reviews here so it's just not my taste, I guess. It really should be though, because it's in the future, has robots, overdeveloped cities, and philosophical musings on technology. That's all I need. Comics are cool because if the story stinks, maybe the art is great, or vice versa. Both is even better. With those guidelines, I've yet to be let down, and generally have low expectations with comics anyway. That said, I realize I prefer it when the book is kind of a mess in some aspect.
This is like if Transformers was a David Fincher film. Both of those movies are directed within an inch of their lives, and very tidy. Every character says and does exactly what you think they will, and the plot moves in such a way that you know how the book will end before you're there. I miss the world of the first volume, when we spent half the book with an eccentric composer who couldn't get his groove back, and his robot butler, who used to be a weapon of mass destruction. That was so weird, but surprising, and they have since mostly quit character development, and everyone is a symbol in service of the plot. The latter is usually cool with me. I dig broad strokes and allegory. But at the core this is a retelling of a midcentury comic book that the original author has admitted several times wasn't his favorite work, and 'Pluto', while probably a great exercise in process for Naoki Urasawa, just comes off a little dry.
This is like if Transformers was a David Fincher film. Both of those movies are directed within an inch of their lives, and very tidy. Every character says and does exactly what you think they will, and the plot moves in such a way that you know how the book will end before you're there. I miss the world of the first volume, when we spent half the book with an eccentric composer who couldn't get his groove back, and his robot butler, who used to be a weapon of mass destruction. That was so weird, but surprising, and they have since mostly quit character development, and everyone is a symbol in service of the plot. The latter is usually cool with me. I dig broad strokes and allegory. But at the core this is a retelling of a midcentury comic book that the original author has admitted several times wasn't his favorite work, and 'Pluto', while probably a great exercise in process for Naoki Urasawa, just comes off a little dry.