Pluto | |
![]() First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Gesicht | |
Genre | |
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Manga | |
Written by | |
Illustrated by | Naoki Urasawa |
Published by | Shogakukan |
English publisher | |
Magazine | Big Comic Original |
Demographic | Seinen |
Original run | September 5, 2003 – April 4, 2009 |
Volumes | 8 |
Original net animation | |
Directed by | Toshio Kawaguchi |
Produced by |
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Written by |
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Music by | Yugo Kanno |
Studio | Studio M2 |
Licensed by | Netflix |
Released | October 26, 2023 |
Runtime | 56–71 minutes |
Episodes | 8 |
Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa. It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Original from September 2003 to April 2009, with its chapters collected into eight tankōbon volumes. The series is based on Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, specifically "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc, and named after the arc's chief villain. Urasawa reinterprets the story as a suspenseful murder mystery starring Gesicht, a Europol robot detective trying to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths. Takashi Nagasaki is credited as the series' co-author. Macoto Tezka, Tezuka's son, supervised the series, and Tezuka Productions is listed as having given cooperation.
The series was licensed and released in English in North America by Viz Media under the name Pluto: Urasawa × Tezuka. A play adaptation directed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui opened in January 2015 and has been performed internationally. An original net animation (ONA) series, produced by Genco with animation production services by Studio M2, premiered on Netflix in October 2023.
Pluto was a critical and commercial success, winning several awards, including the ninth Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and selling over 10 million copies.