Pluto

I actually read the manga up until chapter 40 and stopped because of a general reading slump, then I heard the anime was about to come out at any moment so I decided to wait and watch this with my husband.. It's been a year or so since then, and the anime is finally out! I know it's been in production for quite a long time.

From what I remember of the manga, the adaptation is pretty faithful. The animation, voice acting and so on are really on point too. As usual, Urasawa's storytelling is more than satisfactory and he does something many manga artists fail to do well, which is include foreign affairs and events in his work in a way that makes sense and has tact. Often when watching anime/reading manga you can tell how isolated Japan seems to be culturally from the rest of the world, and it's not like there's anything wrong with that (in fact this is what draws a ton of people into weebdom, for better or for worse) but Urasawa has a real interest in cultures outside of Japan and the USA and it shows, especially in stuff like Billy Bat and Monster... I'll mention this topic more once I get a chance to talk about MF Ghost, which comes across as the complete opposite lmao.

If you find the way I'm talking about this kind of sterile, it's because that's how I started to feel about Urasawa's work! I'm not sure WHY, I really loved Monster and 20th Century Boys when I read them in high school. I want to try reading some of his other stuff with female protags but something else always takes priority... Anyway, as great as Pluto was, with a fun plot, an amazing middle, the last two episodes didn't really grip me as much as I expected them to. I've read a lot about (even prior to the anime coming out) how Pluto made people bawl their eyes out and how they found it extremely emotional yet... it didn't go that way for me! I did cry during one scene though, the one with Dr. Tenma and Pluto's wife, without spoiling anything. Speaking of, I really loved Urasawa's portrayal of Dr. Tenma. I watched Astroboy (the 2003 one) a lot as a kid, and he was always my favourite character. Love a good tragic antagonist/anti-hero, especially in the form of a tall, slim and mysterious man lmao. I'm so simple...

This was still good and enjoyable, so don't get me wrong. Definitely one of the best seinen anime that came out in a long while, it's just that I have such high expectations for Urasawa for some reason, that I always end up bumming myself out a bit. Maybe it's a me problem...