Pluto: Episode 1

October 27, 2023 5:14 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

A beloved Swiss robot is found blown into in pieces. Meanwhile, Europol robot inspector Gesicht investigates another eerily related murder.

From Wikipedia: Pluto follows the Europol robot detective Gesicht in his attempts to solve the case of a string of robot and human deaths around the world where all the victims have objects shoved into or positioned by their heads, imitating horns. The case becomes more puzzling when evidence suggests a robot is responsible for the murders, which would make it the first time a robot has killed a human in eight years. All seven of the great robots of the world, the most scientifically advanced which have the potential to become weapons of mass destruction, seem to be the killer's targets, and the murdered humans are connected to preserving the International Robot Laws which grant robots equal rights.

posted by Alex404 (9 comments total)

So I first heard about this project at the beginning of the year. Even though I have no connection to the manga, somehow the "sneak peek" spoke to me. Also, for some reason knowing it's based on Astro Boy piqued my curiosity, even though I only have the vaguest memories of the show from my childhood.

Anyway, my vibes-based selection method appears to have worked, and my wife and I were pretty blown away by this first episode. The first half of the episode does an excellent job of stage setting and world building, so that you're really ready to dig into this mystery.

Then there's a very sudden context switch to a completely new set of characters, a much slower pace, and very little sense of how it related to what we were introduced to. At 71 minutes this episode is quite long, and after this shift my attention did start to wander a bit and I wondered if we should pause the episode for the night. But as its own arc started to form my wife an I became utterly engrossed. And then it all came together beautifully and tragically in the end.

This is the strongest first episode of a series I can remember seeing in a long time. Unless there's some huge drop in quality, I imagine we'll stick with it through the end. Reviews have been slow to release, but seem overwhelmingly positive. This is my first fanfare post, and I don't really know what else to fill it out with other than copy and pasted imdb/wikipedia info. If anyone else feels like making episode posts with more content feel free to go ahead. Otherwise I'll make new ones as we watch the episodes.
posted by Alex404 at 5:33 AM on October 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

I only just found out about this and my kid and I were surprisingly pumped for it. We are looking forward to watching this very soon.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:35 AM on October 27, 2023

damn you it is 2am and i meant to sleep!
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 11:04 AM on October 27, 2023

Love to see a thread for this here! I’m slowly savoring each episode.

This is the first episode of anything in a long while that made me cry uncontrollably. This might be the best show I’ve seen in some time if the landing sticks for me.
posted by ener at 4:22 PM on October 27, 2023

I read the manga years ago, during a phase when I discovered Naoki Urasawa via 20th Century Boys and binged everything he had ever written (I eventually gave up on Billy Bat, which was then still being serialized -- maybe I should try it again now that it's complete). I remember that I really liked Pluto, but basically don't remember anything about it, which seems like the perfect way to watch an adaptation.
posted by confluency at 12:53 AM on October 28, 2023

I started the manga many years ago, but never finished it, because the library stopped buying volumes. I'm 5 episodes in, and loving it.
posted by Spike Glee at 9:29 AM on October 29, 2023

Note that a key character is voiced by SungWon Cho (aka ProZD).
posted by praemunire at 12:15 PM on October 29, 2023

I was intrigued enough by the description to watch Ep 1, and will definitely carry on with it. It did feel a little like two tonally distinct episodes back-to-back, and I also felt the second half was slow but drew you in.

North No. 2 seems to have been a combat robot - and a brutally effective one - but introduces himself as having served as butler for the C-in-C of the British Army "for the entirety of the 39th Central Asian War". Was he eliding details of his military service? Or a battle butler in the mould of Alfred Pennyworth, who is generally shown as ex special forces in recent depictions? (Amusingly, to get the terminology right, North No. 2 would not have been a general's 'butler' - he would have been his batman.)

Mind you, I am probably going to describe Gesicht as "Simon van der Valk, if he was German, and a robot." It's the raincoat.
posted by Major Clanger at 4:30 AM on October 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Nosu ni ho…! 💔
posted by umber vowel at 3:46 PM on November 7, 2023