Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Vol. 3 (3)

Who Killed Astro Boy?

In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something is after the seven great robots of the world. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case--and he eventually discovers that he is one of the targets!

In this daring reinvention of "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc from Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy series, the world is a place where humans and robots coexist. The lives of the seven great robots of the world--Atom, Mont Blanc, North No. 2, Brando, Hercules, Epsilon and Gesicht--are turned upside down into a virtual garden of terror filled with carnage and destruction. A killer is after them, but what exactly is his motive? The story intensifies when Pluto, the namesake of the lord of the underworld, makes his appearance in this finely crafted work of science fiction and suspense.

“The manga Pluto is one of the best robot stories ever told.”

 “Naoki Urasawa’s work is a masterpiece.”

 “Naoki Urasawa has a knack for turning simple ideas into sprawling manga epics.” - Polygon -- Karen Han ― Polygon

Naoki Urasawa’s career as a manga artist spans more than twenty years and has firmly established him as one of the true manga masters of Japan. Born in Tokyo in 1960, Urasawa debuted with BETA! in 1983 and hasn’t stopped his impressive output since. Well-versed in a variety of genres, Urasawa’s oeuvre encompasses a multitude of different subjects, such as a romantic comedy (Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl), a suspenseful human drama about a former mercenary (Pineapple ARMY; story by Kazuya Kudo), a captivating psychological suspense story (Monster), a sci-fi adventure manga (20th Century Boys), and a modern reinterpretation of the work of the God of Manga, Osamu Tezuka (Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka; co-authored with Takashi Nagasaki, supervised by Macoto Tezka, and with the cooperation of Tezuka Productions). Many of his books have spawned popular animated and live-action TV programs and films, and 2008 saw the theatrical release of the first of three live-action Japanese films based on 20th Century Boys.

No stranger to accolades and awards, Urasawa received the 2011 and 2013 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia, and is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award, a two-time recipient of the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize, and also received the Kodansha Manga Award. Urasawa has also become involved in the world of academia, and in 2008 accepted a guest teaching post at Nagoya Zokei University, where he teaches courses in, of course, manga.