Pluto, by Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka: An Overview

This week I'm giving a sort of overview to a series that some friends have been bugging me to read for some time. As my readers may or may not be aware, I have a bit of a fondness for robots and I'm a sucker for robot stories. Pluto, as you probably guessed, is a manga story about robots contained in eight volumes. Which makes it fairly short by manga standards. I actually was able to read all the stories in about a day. I'm going to try to talk about the series as a whole rather than addressing each volume of the series individually.

Pluto begins with the murder of the Swiss Forestry Reserve robot Mont-Blanc. This is especially tragic as Mont-Blanc was well-loved by thousands of people everywhere and had saved numerous lives in his work in the Alps, which leaves people at a loss as to who could be the suspect. Europol calls in our main character, Gesicht, who is a highly advanced robot and crack detective. As Gesicht continues his initial investigation a second body turns up, in this case a human and prominent activist for robot rights. It appears these murders are linked and it soon comes to light that someone is targeting both human supporters of robots and the seven most powerful robots in the world. Unfortunately, Gesicht happens to be on that list of robots. What follows is almost a wheels within wheels conspiracy and some really poignant moments.

I will say that this story is an unabashed retelling or reimagination of the Greatest Robot in the World story arc from the well-known series Astro Boy. Now I personally have never watched or read anything relating to Astro Boy in my life which leaves me of two minds on this story. On the one hand, I kind of wish that I knew the original story that this was based upon because I feel like it might have given me slightly more insight into the story and what was going on. On the other hand, despite not being familiar with Astro Boy I was able to come to this series and actually enjoyed it quite a bit. There's a deliberate choice to make Gesicht, a rather minor character in the original source material, the main character so you definitely get a very different perspective. So I did enjoy reading this series, even if it's very emotionally draining.

Of course I also really liked Gesicht as a character but he's almost tailor-made for me to like him. I like lawful policemen types like Sam Vimes, and I'm fond of robots. So I'm instantly going to be best friends with a robot policeman. Just stands to reason. And there's a lot of character development that goes on through the series which makes you realize these robots are just as human as the rest of us. They feel happiness, sadness, anger, hatred, grief, an extremely wide range of emotions just like us humans. Of course, this has been done so many times that it's practically the robot story, but I still enjoy it as a story when it's done well. And Pluto does indeed do it well.

I will warn my readers that Pluto is a pretty dark series too. There are a lot of emotional gut-punches throughout the series. Whether it's the death of a main character in the series or something very simple, you get hit a lot of times. I remember very early on in the series seeing a deceased robot policeman's body just being tossed away in the garbage, which just felt very wrong to me. Although personally that might have just been my fondness for robots and belief that sophisticated AIs should have the same rights as us humans. I don't know if that early into the series if people would be as emotionally invested or not. But there are a ton of little things like that in the series as well.

Overall this is a pretty good series, but be prepared to be hurt with all the feelings that have ever existed. And if you like stories about robots with feelings, this is definitely one for you to read.

- Kalpar

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, by Tanigawa Nagaru

This may surprise my readers, but I used to be an ardent Haruhist. Shocking, I know. For a number of years everywhere you turned there was just a ton of Haruhi-related stuff. Cosplayers, posters, models. (I even own two!) The reason behind all this hubbub was the release of the anime series titled The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, based upon a series of light novels written by Tanigawa Nagaru. For those of you unfamiliar with the medium, light novels are very much like novellas. Very short, usually not more than about a hundred pages or so, and often have a handful of illustrations. My first exposure to Haruhi had been the animated series which had taken stories of the several light novels to create about half a season of episodes. And for whatever reason I fell in love. Of course time went on and eventually a second season was released which included, in my opinion, an extremely frustrating time loop, and a theatrical film which I've yet to see. However, I think the mania seems to have died down quite a bit, granted I've been out of the anime scene for quite some time after safely retreating to the relative sanity of pulp science-fiction! However I still have a certain fondness for this series and so I've decided to look into the original light novels.

The stories are told from the perspective of Kyon, an average Japanese high school student who is incredibly unremarkable in every way. Kyon tells us as a kid that he really enjoyed sci-fi, fantasy, and adventure stories, desperately hoping that they were real and the world was filled with such wonders. As he got older he realized the world was much more mundane and came to accept it, satisfied with his humdrum life. When in high school it turns out there's a girl in his class named Suzumiya Haruhi who claims she's not interested in ordinary humans, only aliens, time travelers, and espers. Needless to say this labels Haruhi as an oddball, but Kyon is soon dragged into Haruhi's orbit. Things are only made far more complicated as it's revealed that aliens, time travelers, and espers all do exist and they're quite interested in Haruhi!

I think the real appeal about this series for me is it's very much gratuitous wish fulfillment. As someone who spent their childhood fantasizing about space and magic, and then read almost nothing but a steady diet of pulp novels in their teenage years, I too have often wondered what life would be like if we had superheroes, time travelers, and wizards running around. In a way I almost envy Kyon, despite his constant protests about finding himself in such strange situations, because he gets to be in exactly those situations. And it's fun to see time travelers, aliens, and espers all have to keep up the facade of being normal while doing perfectly normal things, like make a bad high school movie. (Which I am also guilty on multiple counts of doing.) Play video games, go on vacation, or play a game of baseball. There's just a certain charm in harmless wish fulfillment that makes it really appealing to me. If you're the same sort of person who's always sort of wished that the world we lived in was just a little more...fantastic...then you'd probably enjoy this series as well.

The first book I will admit, is a little dry because it has to do all the setting up for the later books. We get introduced to Kyon, Haruhi, and the other members of the SOS Brigade, as well as their unconventional secrets. We do get to see at points that Yuki, Mikuru, and Koizumi aren't lying, cementing both Kyon and our own belief that this world is littered with aliens time travelers, and espers. Well, maybe not littered but at least significantly populated. There are also a ton of awkward parts because of the sexual assault/rapey things that Haruhi does to poor Mikuru which perhaps a Japanese audience might find entertaining but I personally find really cringe-worthy. Fortunately I remember that diminishing as the series goes on, but I may have blanked that from my memory.

Personally I highly recommend both the anime series (where you can find it) and the light novels which are fortunately very readily available in e-book form on Amazon. I plan on continuing with the book series and eagerly anticipate the parts that were not included in the anime series.

- Kalpar

Fullmetal Alchemist: A Retrospective

I've been a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist for a very long time, originally picking up the series back in the summer of 2007. Granted I was coming in towards the middle of the American release of the series, but I've watched the series develop over these four years and reach its final run. I will say that I am sad to see the series end, however I think that's ultimately a good thing because it hasn't outstayed its welcome and has told the story it set out to tell. I highly recommend this series for anyone who likes sci-fi and is curious about anime and manga.

Let me begin by explaining manga and anime for the uninitiated. Manga is the Japanese term for what we would call comic books, however there are some significant differences. Manga is published entirely in black and white and most series release a chapter each week. The chapters from different series that have come out that week are published in a weekly anthology magazine which generally publishes stories in the same genre. Broadly speaking the Japanese divide manga into four genres: shonen, comics for pre-teen and teenage boys, shojo, comics for pre-teen and teenage girls, seinen, comics aimed at male adult audiences, and josei, comics aimed at female adult audiences. Thus a weekly anthology will probably publish a bunch of shonen titles, but not have much else. After their initial release in magazines, the chapters of a series are collected into volumes called tankobon, much like trade paperbacks of American comics, which is how I personally get my manga. Some series have a short run with as few as four volumes, while some longer-running series have close to sixty volumes. At twenty-seven volumes Fullmetal Alchemist definitely has significant length, and if you want to buy the books it represents a considerable investment, but I think it could not have told the story it tells as well as it did with less volumes.

That being said, like some comic book series, manga gets adapted to TV which is called anime. Pretty self-explanatory. Usually an anime adaptation will pretty closely follow the manga, however there are sometimes significant differences. It is very common for a manga series to get an anime adaptation before it has even begun to delve into its plot. Thus an anime adaptation can have the same characters as the manga but end up with a very different plot. A prime example of these differences is in the two anime adaptations of Fullmetal Alchemist, the first one called Fullmetal Alchemist and the second one called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I want to talk about those a little more, but I'll save that for the meat of the review. Right now it is sufficient to say the first series came out in the middle of FMA's publication run and as such takes a very different turn with its plot about halfway through, while Brotherhood follows the storyline of the manga.

Fullmetal Achemist, by Hiromu Arakawa, is set in a world very much like early 20th century Europe, with steam trains, developing automobiles, and forays into telephone and radio technologies. Even culturally speaking There is, however, a very important difference. This world has unlocked the secrets of alchemy, which enables people to transmute matter from one form into another. This does not mean that an alchemist cannot do everything, though. Perhaps most importantly on a day-to-day basis you have to obey the conservation of matter, however there are of course other rules. The series follows two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who are both highly skilled alchemists and attempted the forbidden practice of human transmutation. Unfortunately their transmutation went terribly wrong, and Ed lost his right arm and left leg. Al...Al disappeared entirely. Ed was able to bind Al's soul to a suit of armor, but what happened to his real body is still a mystery. Determined to regain their original bodies, the Elric brothers set out to find the philosopher's stone but in so doing discover a far more sinister conspiracy regarding their home country.

If there is one thing I absolutely love about Fullmetal Alchemist as a series is that the story arc is absolutely fantastic. We get to watch as Ed and Al, not to mention the rest of the cast, develop as characters throughout the entire story arc. Characters that initially appear shallow and one-note, such as Major Alexander Louis Armstrong,  reveal hidden depths and their own personal motivations. Furthermore a majority of the characters serve an distinct purpose in the story and help to move the plot along. Many of the characters we have met along the journey come back in the final chapters and kick an insane amount of ass. I do have to admit that a lot of people die in this series, and while some are far more heart-wrenching than others I don't think any of them are meaningless. I guarantee you will come away loving at least one of the characters in this series and won't forget the many other members of the cast.

As for the overall plot regarding the philosopher's stone and the Elric brothers' quest, we get the basics of the story in the very first chapters and watch it become deeper and more complex as the series progresses. Important hints about the final chapters are seeded in the earlier chapters and gives Fullmetal Alchemist an excellent re-read value. Now, Fullmetal Alchemist has plenty of kickass action sequences, but don't think that it's just a bunch of hot-blooded brawlers getting into fights. Arakawa blends thought-provoking moments of serious reflection seamlessly into the story and makes us think about friendship, family, and what it means to be human. Based on its story and characters I think both teenagers and adults will appreciate Fullmetal Alchemist.

Now, as I have mentioned there are two animated adaptations of Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, both of which are available on Netflix. (At least with streaming, I don't know about DVD delivery.) While I have not really watched either of these series, my associate Mr. Carvan has and he strongly recommends going with the Brotherhood adaptation. As Mr. Carvan has said, while the  Fullmetal Alchemist follows the plot of the manga it remains very strong, not to mention makes the deaths of certain characters incredibly heart-wrenching. If there's one thing it does better than Brotherhood it's pulling on the heart strings. However when the anime begins to deviate from the manga it seems to loose inertia. Characters other than the Elrics fall out of focus and even the brothers seem to be wandering around without a goal. This isn't to say a lot of people didn't enjoy the first animated series, but in Carvan's opinion Brotherhood is the better of the two.

If you're going to pick up the series I have to warn you that buying the manga can become prohibitively expensive. Twenty seven volumes at ten dollars a volume adds up to a significant chunk of change. However, if you're willing to lay down that much money it is well-worth the investment. For those of you who don't have such a large budget I recommend streaming the series from Netflix or seeing if your local library has the manga or DVDs of the anime. Again, with the anime it's probably best to go with Brotherhood which has the same plotline as the manga. I encourage all of my readers who have not picked up Fullmetal Alchemist to look into this series. 

- Kalpar