Pluto

Episode 2

"We came here for a just cause, didn't we? To liberate robots from oppression. That's why we came, right?"

Is everyone mentally prepared to discuss the Iraq War?

Throughout episode one and, more prominently in episode two, Pluto has referenced the 39th Central Asian War. The location of the conflict is not Iraq (it's Persia), and the invading force isn't the United States (it's the United States of Thracia). The parallels might as well have beaten the audience over the head with a shovel.

Some authorial context for everyone: I graduated high school in 2005. Like many millennials pushing 40, America's war in the Middle East came about during my adolescence and just...kept going. It was unlike learning about historical atrocities of the past, and as I approached graduation, deployment became a matter of course for a significant portion of my peers. It's startling, but not surprising, to see that war become the new backdrop where narratives previously inserted Vietnam. The criticism is certainly deserved, and if anyone were going to do it, it would be Naoki Urasawa. The scene with Mont Blanc questioning his participation in the war (and the propaganda) felt far too real.

The 39th Central Asian War is the major event that connects the seven "super robots," although one was spared from seeing the destruction it wrought. Something is sickening about deploying Atom (Astro Boy) to be a one-robot USO show. His childlike appearance is a ruse, but they put him in a tank like some war-friendly Shirley Temple and paraded him through the wartorn streets. Meanwhile, his brethren are piling up robot corpses and questioning why they're languishing in the desert over humanity's hatred for one another.

When it's all over, for weapons of mass destruction that may have never existed. That's where Pluto's invocation of a real conflict gets a bit dicey. Atom learns from Professor Ochanomizu that before the war, Thracia falsely accused Persia of constructing (robot) weapons of mass destruction. Ochanomizu, along with the recently deceased Lanke and now confirmed dead Junichiro Tanzaki, were part of the Bora Inquiry Commission tasked with investigating whether these weapons truly existed. Viewers could conclude this is a parallel for UNSCOM or UNMOVIC, and like the real-life counterpart, Ochanomizu found no evidence that Persia was stockpiling such weapons. They did find a suspicious robot dumping ground under a mosque, and I cannot help but feel suspicious that Pluto was birthed there by the mysterious genius scientist Dr. Goji. It's also worth noting that the commission members do not know what "Bora" is (but readers familiar with Astro Boy will).

This possible discrepancy while using the Iraq War framing device is...possibly a problem. If my hypothesis is correct, it would mean there was a legitimate threat in Persia, although its overarching effect on Mont Blanc and North No. 2 doesn't change. Atom also seems shaken by his time "over there," not only by the weight of it all but because his AI makes him a highly empathetic individual. He's the first robot we've seen shed tears, although it's evident even older models feel sadness, like the constable-bot's wife.

Gesicht spends the episode globetrotting as he tracks down Brando in Persia and Hercules in Greece. Both veterans have taken up professional fighting to earn their keep after the war in a sport similar to sumo. Brando is married with six adopted human children, but Hercules is satisfied living as himself, a robot. He's disinterested in replicating human behavior. Following our introduction to North No. 2, Pluto has unfortunately slipped into the "building rapport is a death flag" territory. Brando's death is evident the moment he brings Gesicht and the audience into his home. A broken promise to his kids and a lie to his wife are all classic calling cards for a character about to look death in the face. As a result, his demise doesn't hit as hard as it could in the moment, even as we're treated to an emotional view of his life flashing before his eyes.

Hercules' stoic grief rings a bit truer as he invests all of his money in recovering Brando's corpse. Eventually, he's found with a similar horn treatment as previous victims. The kill count keeps increasing, and while it initially looked like the killer was taking out proponents of robot rights legislation, we now know those same advocates were part of the Bora Inquiry Commission before the war.

Pluto's updating of Tezuka's sci-fi story for a modern world continues to impress. The tightly wound thriller shows it won't shy away from humanity's ugliness while interrogating emotions that connect us all.

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Pluto is currently streaming on Netflix.