Urasawa Naoki - Pluto, vol. 04-06 (Eng. trans.)
It's been so long since I've read these that my memory is extremely hazy.
...why did I think it was a good idea to try and catch up on at least some of my review backlog?
Anyway. I first read vols. 4 and 5 in Chinese and had no idea what was going on. I suppose robots and mass murderers and worldwide plots is too much for my Chinese. These volumes continue Urasawa's trademark ever-expanding plots; just as soon as we get one answer, three more questions pop up.
Spoilers
Like the comparison of robot-hate groups with the KKK, I also have qualms about what Urasawa is doing with the narrative about the thinly disguised Gulf War. I mean, it's nice that he doesn't draw his Persians to look like the evil viziers in both Aladdin and Fables, but that is such a low bar. Instead, it is the fairly standard "you attempted the genocide of my people, so now I will attempt the genocide of yours." While I have no doubts that this type of story has its roots in true events, I still dislike how we frequently get POC villains who react against racism or genocide by becoming mass murderers. It is like the ultimate white guilt scenario: the people we have systemically kept down for centuries are coming back to kill us! Also, it has the effect of making it seem like both sides are equal, which is frequently not the case. And finally, I feel it feeds into the fear-mongering that goes on, especially the anti-Muslim sentiment very prevalent nowadays.
Now that that is out of the way, I will say I am enjoying the series. I am sure Atom will come back, although I am not sure about Gesicht, since I have read the original volume of Astro Boy this storyline is based on. Nooo! I like Gesicht a lot. You can also see Urasawa playing again with what makes people good and what makes people monsters, especially when the two traits are contained in a single person, such as Gesicht or Sahad/Pluto. And although his musings on the nature of robot vs. human emotion, particularly grief, isn't groundbreaking, it's still done extremely effectively.
I'm curious to see how Urasawa will wrap this up in two volumes; my current impression is that he could probably keep going with the story for at least ten more. Although I think this series starts off better than Monster or 20th Century Boys, its length may be its strength and its weakness. It's short enough to not be daunting or confusing, but it also means we spend less time with the characters and therefore feel less strongly about them.
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...why did I think it was a good idea to try and catch up on at least some of my review backlog?
Anyway. I first read vols. 4 and 5 in Chinese and had no idea what was going on. I suppose robots and mass murderers and worldwide plots is too much for my Chinese. These volumes continue Urasawa's trademark ever-expanding plots; just as soon as we get one answer, three more questions pop up.
Spoilers
Like the comparison of robot-hate groups with the KKK, I also have qualms about what Urasawa is doing with the narrative about the thinly disguised Gulf War. I mean, it's nice that he doesn't draw his Persians to look like the evil viziers in both Aladdin and Fables, but that is such a low bar. Instead, it is the fairly standard "you attempted the genocide of my people, so now I will attempt the genocide of yours." While I have no doubts that this type of story has its roots in true events, I still dislike how we frequently get POC villains who react against racism or genocide by becoming mass murderers. It is like the ultimate white guilt scenario: the people we have systemically kept down for centuries are coming back to kill us! Also, it has the effect of making it seem like both sides are equal, which is frequently not the case. And finally, I feel it feeds into the fear-mongering that goes on, especially the anti-Muslim sentiment very prevalent nowadays.
Now that that is out of the way, I will say I am enjoying the series. I am sure Atom will come back, although I am not sure about Gesicht, since I have read the original volume of Astro Boy this storyline is based on. Nooo! I like Gesicht a lot. You can also see Urasawa playing again with what makes people good and what makes people monsters, especially when the two traits are contained in a single person, such as Gesicht or Sahad/Pluto. And although his musings on the nature of robot vs. human emotion, particularly grief, isn't groundbreaking, it's still done extremely effectively.
I'm curious to see how Urasawa will wrap this up in two volumes; my current impression is that he could probably keep going with the story for at least ten more. Although I think this series starts off better than Monster or 20th Century Boys, its length may be its strength and its weakness. It's short enough to not be daunting or confusing, but it also means we spend less time with the characters and therefore feel less strongly about them.
Comment | Read Comments (
) | Link