This is a manga about the beginnings of Astro Boy. Yes the Astro Boy we all know and love except in this one things are REAL. I thought it would be warm and fluffy but NO. You will cry, you will rage and cry again then rage some more. Remember this is the author that brought us 20th Century Boys and Monster, it was never going to be that simple. It is beautiful, dark and sad from beginning to end. I actually didn't realise Astro Boy's beginnings could be so tragic, This is one super hero story told unlike any other.

The art is phenomenal, the stories of the characters and the characters themselves are well told but it's real draw is its emotion. There is alot of emotion hence the crying and the raging. At the same time it is also deep in its philosophical exploration of what it means to be human and an AI. How they live, how we live is continuously juxtaposed to show how similar both are in the end and maybe our differences are skin deep after all. Sometimes the robots appear more human than humans. This applies equally to the idea of good and bad because there are bad robots and bad humans and sometimes they work together to do some really nasty stuff.

Another question is, if the AIs aren't meeting the standard of what it means to be human then what do we need to do to make an AI that is indistinguishable from humans? These questions are what Pluto attempts to answer and as the story progresses, you will realise that the robots themselves despite their superior intelligence struggle to answer it too or even find their own identity. And to be fair, the answer is not as simple as you would think. By the end, I believe I had a new appreciation of how complex it is to be human physically, psychologically and spiritually. Alot goes into a human despite our frailty.

At the same time, you realise that there is no universal standard of humanity because it means something different to each of us but we can reach mutual understanding that certain innate qualities are fundamental to what it means to be human and without them, we wouldn't be humanity but something entirely different. I am talking about the good and bad qualities of humanity btw, not just the good.

The story length is perfect and nothing is wasted when compared to 20th Century Boys, where in my opinion Urasawa dragged things on unnecessarily long. In true Urusawa fashion, the suspense was there and I couldn't stop reading until all was revealed. Everything that needs to be told and drawn gets told and drawn with no BS. This is a prime example of how you can tell a complete story without needing to go into hundred and hundreds of chapters. One of the best manga I have ever read hence my absolute score of 10/10.

But honestly how does this not have its own anime? It is really really amazing.