Urasawa Naoki - Pluto, vol. 07-08 (Eng. trans.)
Sat, Nov. 13th, 2010 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterWow! An Urasawa series that ends before it hits the double digits!
Of course, it's been so long since I've read vol. 6 that I'm a little hazy on how well this connects with prior revelations.
I knew Gesicht was probably not going to be resurrected, given the original, but Urasawa did a really good job balancing taking out the main character of a series two volumes before it ends with the improbability that bringing him back to life would make.
I rolled my eyes a bit when we got to Eden National Park and the Native people direly muttering, although I did like that Urasawa points out how they are basically being put on display.
And though Epsilon probably is my least favorite of the world's greatest robots (I still like North 2 the most), I loved the final image of his cut off hands protecting the robot and the little boy.
I wish there had been more for Uran to do in the end besides cling to Prof. Ochanomizu, though I'm glad we got that flashback to her talking with Sahad and his painting of the flowers. And yeah, it would have been a change from the original, but so is a lot of the series! I forget, though, does Pluto end up saving Atom in the original from a world-destroying bomb? I vaguely recollect that there was no world-destroying bomb and that Pluto let Atom win over him, but I may be completely off the mark.
And while I find the portrayal of Persia in the series to be sketchy, I cackled a bit at the portrayal of the United States of Thracia because I am mean like that.
I am guessing that the memory of the adopted robot boy is what got mindwiped from Gesicht and Helena? I find it very interesting that almost all the portrayals of parenthood in the series are fathers and sons, many male creators with children, trying to recreate children, trying to figuratively give birth to themselves by programming themselves into robots, trying to make robot children because they can't or don't want to have biological children. It isn't just Ochanomizu and Abullah and Tenma, but also Epsilon and Hercules and Gesicht.
Finally, I was a little afraid that Urasawa would make Gesicht's hatred corrupt Atom, much as I spent basically all of Monster being afraid that Tenma would fall from his pedestal, and I am so glad that Atom stays Atom in the end.
Overall, I still have some issues with the way Urasawa deals with the portrayal of Middle Eastern characters, as well as with the metaphor of individual and institutional prejudice against robots equaling racism. I found the original volume of Astro Boy that this is based on to be relatively uninteresting and focused on the tournament-style fighting that can be so frequently found in shounen, but Urasawa does an excellent job of looking at more of the underlying issues without ever changing the essential character of Atom. And although he doesn't up the number of female characters by much, I like his Uran so much more! But really, the main surprise for me was how much I loved Gesicht, a fairly one-off character from the original. Urasawa similarly adds depth to all the robots in the original, but Gesicht in particular walks that line between man and monster that Urasawa so likes to examine in the series of his that I've read.
The eight-volume length also allows me to keep track of the plot better, and to my surprise, Urasawa actually manages to pull together most of his loose ends. That said, while I think this may be a better-constructed and more grown up series than 20th Century Boys, I miss the latter's rush of adrenaline and idtastic ideas.
Of course, it's been so long since I've read vol. 6 that I'm a little hazy on how well this connects with prior revelations.
I knew Gesicht was probably not going to be resurrected, given the original, but Urasawa did a really good job balancing taking out the main character of a series two volumes before it ends with the improbability that bringing him back to life would make.
I rolled my eyes a bit when we got to Eden National Park and the Native people direly muttering, although I did like that Urasawa points out how they are basically being put on display.
And though Epsilon probably is my least favorite of the world's greatest robots (I still like North 2 the most), I loved the final image of his cut off hands protecting the robot and the little boy.
I wish there had been more for Uran to do in the end besides cling to Prof. Ochanomizu, though I'm glad we got that flashback to her talking with Sahad and his painting of the flowers. And yeah, it would have been a change from the original, but so is a lot of the series! I forget, though, does Pluto end up saving Atom in the original from a world-destroying bomb? I vaguely recollect that there was no world-destroying bomb and that Pluto let Atom win over him, but I may be completely off the mark.
And while I find the portrayal of Persia in the series to be sketchy, I cackled a bit at the portrayal of the United States of Thracia because I am mean like that.
I am guessing that the memory of the adopted robot boy is what got mindwiped from Gesicht and Helena? I find it very interesting that almost all the portrayals of parenthood in the series are fathers and sons, many male creators with children, trying to recreate children, trying to figuratively give birth to themselves by programming themselves into robots, trying to make robot children because they can't or don't want to have biological children. It isn't just Ochanomizu and Abullah and Tenma, but also Epsilon and Hercules and Gesicht.
Finally, I was a little afraid that Urasawa would make Gesicht's hatred corrupt Atom, much as I spent basically all of Monster being afraid that Tenma would fall from his pedestal, and I am so glad that Atom stays Atom in the end.
Overall, I still have some issues with the way Urasawa deals with the portrayal of Middle Eastern characters, as well as with the metaphor of individual and institutional prejudice against robots equaling racism. I found the original volume of Astro Boy that this is based on to be relatively uninteresting and focused on the tournament-style fighting that can be so frequently found in shounen, but Urasawa does an excellent job of looking at more of the underlying issues without ever changing the essential character of Atom. And although he doesn't up the number of female characters by much, I like his Uran so much more! But really, the main surprise for me was how much I loved Gesicht, a fairly one-off character from the original. Urasawa similarly adds depth to all the robots in the original, but Gesicht in particular walks that line between man and monster that Urasawa so likes to examine in the series of his that I've read.
The eight-volume length also allows me to keep track of the plot better, and to my surprise, Urasawa actually manages to pull together most of his loose ends. That said, while I think this may be a better-constructed and more grown up series than 20th Century Boys, I miss the latter's rush of adrenaline and idtastic ideas.
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Tue, Nov. 16th, 2010 06:13 am (UTC)My discomfort with using racism as an analogy to anti-robot discrimination relates to this. Yes, there are people of color in Urasawa's Pluto, but they are almost all Japanese, and if you're going to appropriate KKK imagery, I don't think it's fitting to do so without acknowledging actual black people in the work.
ETA: Also, would you mind signing your comments? I don't mind anonymous commenters at all, but it's hard to tell if I'm talking to the same person or not if people don't leave a pseud with their comments. Thanks!
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 17th, 2010 02:54 pm (UTC)But I'm not so sure I follow you with the Persia case entirely. In the first case, Sahad and Abullah's vengeful response is central to the theme of the series. This is not an element that occurs incidentally in any way, it is tied intimately to the question of "hate" that drives it. Further, the central issue of hate is one that is dealt with from multiple angles, including and especially paternity which seems more central to the motivations of Abullah and Sahad (to me at least) than the fact that they come from a middle eastern nation beset upon by the first-world, white Thracia. It is as much an issue with our caucasian protagonist Gesicht who resorts to vicious murder in response to the death of his child. Or even Adolf and his brother's father.
Filtered through a pulpy lense, it's also realistic. War leads to vengeful and hateful responses consistently (though not exclusively, of course). What it boils down to is whether or not Abullah/Sahad are entitled to their response as a result, ethically speaking. I don't think saying they are not (which Urasawa clearly does) implies that the actual violence inflicted on Persia is in any way diminished. The problematic element of the trope you discuss depends on some form of generalization occuring that leads to this diminishment. I don't think Urasawa is guilty of this kind of generalization. For one, Abullah is the only truly psychotic individual depicted. Sahad's initial response is much more reasonable, but it's only through Abullah's influence that he reaches that level by being turned into Pluto (IIRC).
- Krill
(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 17th, 2010 03:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Nov. 17th, 2010 03:08 pm (UTC)- Krill
(no subject)
Sat, Nov. 20th, 2010 01:04 am (UTC)I agree with you in that I think Urasawa does his best to show the complicity of Dr. Roosevelt and the President of Thracia in the war, and how brutal the non-Persian side was, as well as Sahad and Abullah not representing all the Persians, which is why I didn't throw the book at a wall. My problem, though, is that even though Urasawa's individual work is more nuanced than most, by the end of the day, he's still created a work in which the two main Middle Eastern characters are out to either destroy the world or destroy protagonists that we like (the world's greatest robots), and they are inspired to do so by the war wreaked on them.
By itself, Pluto might annoy me but not to the same extent. The problem is that almost every single narrative I have seen not originating from the Middle East that has Middle Eastern male characters almost always has those characters as terrorists, people out to cause violence to the West, and people whose hate may be understandable but still ultimately leads them to mass destruction. I say male because Middle Eastern female characters usually get the "must be liberated from the veil" narrative instead. As such, Pluto adds to all these works and it's yet another chance where we could have had non-killing Middle Eastern characters and yet again didn't.