Pluto Review

I would dare to say that Pluto is an anime carried almost entirely by its direction and art, while its story leaves something to be desired in many respects. I had difficulties with the way the author approached the problems inherent in the type of narrative he chose. In this review, I won't go into the technical aspects of animation and direction since I don't have enough knowledge to evaluate them. My focus will be on the writing and storytelling.

The story takes place in a world where artificial intelligence has evolved to the point where it is difficult to distinguish robots from humans. As expected of any work with this premise, the author uses this basis to raise reflections on humanity, ethics, morality and even religion. However, one of the biggest problems I found with Pluto was the attempt to draw a parallel between robots and slaves. On the surface, it may seem like a valid comparison, but it's not. The reason is simple: robots are not living beings, let alone humans.

Although there is a significant difference between a simple calculator and a robot with advanced artificial intelligence capable of simulating human emotions, that doesn't make it valid to equate robots with slaves. However advanced an AI may become, it will still be ARTIFICIAL. The moment you suggest that these machines should have the same rights as humans, you are actually lowering the meaning of what it means to be human, equating us with mere codes and circuits.

I believe that the two biggest flaws in the narrative are exactly these: the attempt to humanise the robots to the point of comparing them to slaves, and the implication that they possess genuine empathy. I'll explore these issues in more detail below.

I hope I'm not using a Strawman fallacy here, but my impression is that the author is trying to generate empathy for the robots through this analogy. By portraying the conditions in which they lived before the implementation of the International Robot Laws, it is clear that the intention is to move the viewer, evoking feelings similar to those we experience when learning about the horrors of slavery in real history.

However, there is a fundamental difference between the two cases: human emotions are real, while the emotions of robots are only SIMULATIONS. When an enslaved human being is forced to work under degrading conditions, both their body and their mind suffer real damage. Fear, fatigue, illness and death are concrete and REAL consequences. A robot, however advanced, merely simulates these states. Just as we feel empathy for fictional characters in a film, we can be moved by the robots in the story - but that doesn't make them comparable to humans.

This is another point that the author deals with in a paradoxical way. At the same time as he tries to convince the viewer that robots are highly humanised, he himself exposes the limitations of this supposed empathy. The best example of this is Uran. In the anime, her ability to ‘feel’ human feelings is described as impressive. After Atom's death, we see that she has ‘suffered’, something that is perceptible to the people around her. However, this idea is contradicted when Uran realises that the pain of a boy, a victim of bullying, is much deeper than hers.

This scene completely breaks the idea that robots can really feel like humans do. If even one of the world's most advanced machines, programmed to recognise and react to human emotions, shows less grief for losing her brother than a child who has been bullied, how can we equate these robots with human beings? This inconsistency ends up undermining the author's own proposal.

For me, the highlight of Pluto remains the first episode. The story of Sir Duncan, an elderly musician who has lost his sight and starts living with North #2, one of the most advanced robots in the world, is well done. Apart from showing the horrors experienced by North #2 in the war, the episode also explores Duncan's childhood in a more satisfying way than the rest of the series. Even the soundtrack of this episode stands out, being more striking than that of the rest of the anime. I could even say that watching just the second half of the first episode gives you a better and rewarding experience than watching all the following episodes.

The end of the story is different from the rest of the series. Yes, I understand that inside Pluto was Sahad, a ‘good-hearted’ robot, but seeing his shell of hatred defeated with a few words from Atom made it feel like I was watching Naruto, not a work by Urasawa. All the hatred that motivated the destruction of the seven most advanced robots in the world was simply dispelled with a ‘hatred isn't worth it’. And no, this isn't just a problem with the anime adaptation - it's exactly the same in the manga. Even if Sahad was a robot with no bad intentions, Pluto was pure hatred, and seeing him defeated with such a simplistic cliché completely undermined the climax of the story.

I also missed a more memorable soundtrack. There were several moments in the anime when the lack of an emotional music made some scenes less impactful than they could have been. Overall, the music in Pluto seems to serve more as a backdrop than as an element to intensify the emotions.

Pluto starts in a good spot, excellent direction and artwork, but it fails to explore its narrative and the problems presented. The attempt to equate robots with humans fails to sustain the complexity of this discussion. The first episode is exceptional, but overall the plot is very inconsistent. The anime ends in an anticlimactic and simplistic way.

In the end, Pluto raises interesting questions, but fails to answer them reasonably.