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A review by thisotherbookaccount
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 5 by Osamu Tezuka, Takashi Nagasaki, Naoki Urasawa
3.0
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Guys, I am a little worried.
In my review for the previous volume of the series, I wrote about ‘yellow flags’ — not ‘red flags’ — that I see in the horizon for this series. While we are not quite in the red just yet, the yellow flags are certainly still flying high and proud.
I don’t think Volume 5 of Urasawa’s acclaimed manga series has allayed any of my previous concerns about where the series is going. There seems to be a crescendo of sorts that the story is building to but, before it’s properly revealed to us, I cannot help but feel like Urasawa’s just spinning the wheels and wasting time.
I miss the character moments at the beginning of the series, before the plot took over the wheel. I miss the story about the super robot soldier who’s spending his retirement as a butler for an eccentric musician. I miss that other story about a robot helper missing her dead robot husband. Instead, for the past few volumes, we’ve been served repetitive robot battles (the robot flies into a tornado and dies — rinse and repeat) and plots that inch forward with more questions than answers. Yes, we discover the memory that was erased from Gesicht’s head two volumes ago, but having a robot that kills in a world where robots can’t kill is the most cliched, overused plot ever.
It also doesn’t help that Pluto, like many other mangas that I have read, sinks into these pseudo-intellectual debates/conversations about the nature of humanity, when it’s just a whole lot of hot air. We’ve all met that one guy who says a lot during a business meeting but isn’t actually saying anything of substance. Tenmu, the man who created Atom, sprouts a bunch of scientific mumbo jumbo that honestly makes zero sense.
So yes, I am a little worried. I am curious but not invested. We are three books from the end, so let’s just push on through. I am not holding my hopes up anymore, though.
Guys, I am a little worried.
In my review for the previous volume of the series, I wrote about ‘yellow flags’ — not ‘red flags’ — that I see in the horizon for this series. While we are not quite in the red just yet, the yellow flags are certainly still flying high and proud.
I don’t think Volume 5 of Urasawa’s acclaimed manga series has allayed any of my previous concerns about where the series is going. There seems to be a crescendo of sorts that the story is building to but, before it’s properly revealed to us, I cannot help but feel like Urasawa’s just spinning the wheels and wasting time.
I miss the character moments at the beginning of the series, before the plot took over the wheel. I miss the story about the super robot soldier who’s spending his retirement as a butler for an eccentric musician. I miss that other story about a robot helper missing her dead robot husband. Instead, for the past few volumes, we’ve been served repetitive robot battles (the robot flies into a tornado and dies — rinse and repeat) and plots that inch forward with more questions than answers. Yes, we discover the memory that was erased from Gesicht’s head two volumes ago, but having a robot that kills in a world where robots can’t kill is the most cliched, overused plot ever.
It also doesn’t help that Pluto, like many other mangas that I have read, sinks into these pseudo-intellectual debates/conversations about the nature of humanity, when it’s just a whole lot of hot air. We’ve all met that one guy who says a lot during a business meeting but isn’t actually saying anything of substance. Tenmu, the man who created Atom, sprouts a bunch of scientific mumbo jumbo that honestly makes zero sense.
So yes, I am a little worried. I am curious but not invested. We are three books from the end, so let’s just push on through. I am not holding my hopes up anymore, though.