It is undeniable that Pluto is a well-produced and thought-provoking story with a strong vision. However, the magnitude that the show builds up is not properly fulfilled by a wholly satisfying resolution. The journey was fun to watch and scratches a highbrow itch that people who love Blade Runner will enjoy; I just wish it actually closed the narrative loops more effectively.

The structure of Pluto will hardly be unfamiliar to fans of the murder mystery, which is what the majority of the runtime is concerned with. I go as far as to call it "Hard Boiler Plate" as the patterns of the episodes become pretty obvious after a while. The stakes are steadily ramped up to a global scale which gives it proper anime bombast and plenty of varied locales you're unlikely to see in most shows like this. While it attempts to thread the tension into this story, I hesitate to call this a "thriller." The pace is far too slow and the storytelling more detached from scene to scene, allowing for a lot of familiarization with locations and relationships.

One of the most difficult parts of Pluto's storytelling is its method of dealing with flashback scenes. There is no clear visual transition from "present" to "past" events, which makes it jarring. This attempt to mirror the non-linear structure of other mysteries comes off as mostly unsuccessful because it rarely seems like we're being shown anything all that important that wouldn't have been better left to the reader's/viewer's imagination. I couldn't help comparing a lot of the events of the 39th Central Asian War to Full Metal Alchemist's own depictions of wartime cruelty; there's no question in my mind that FMA did it better (both versions).

Even when we're demonstrated that the characters have some significant history together, it never appears to weigh much on their actions. In fact at several points in the story it seems the characters are in ignorance of those connections until the plot needs another beat to move forwards. It felt there should have been a lot more going on in the story in terms of the struggles of the main cast to give them more ample reason to fight and defend what they love. Two of the characters have basically the same motivation, which all ties back to the theming that runs through this whole series.

Apparent from nearly the first scene is the question of "What makes us human?" and "How close can artificial life be to humanity?" This is an overriding social tension through the whole story, as robots have rights and live amongst humans. In some ways this is explored to interesting conclusions, but for a lot of the rest of it it's just... There. Those themes certainly make you think, but do they actually add anything to the narrative? In my opinion, not spending a lot of time pontificating on these interesting questions serves to make the story shallower, rather than deep. This feeling also feeds into many character decisions, which seemingly have little to do with the logic of the world and more about symbolism.

Symbolism and parallels - especially to mythology - are hard to do right without coming off as hokey. The original mangaka had some constraints as he was trying to recontextualize the story of Astro Boy (as an aside, I know nothing about Astro Boy beyond the cliffnotes and I don't think it's necessary to enjoy the story) but I can't find a lot of the attempts anything but hamfisted. The title itself is dropped in the series very early on and you get a completely false impression of what it means - until it does actually mean what you think it does, sort of? And the story's reconciliation feels not very earned because of the disconnection between its different pieces.

Several times, I just said "What?" to the screen at some of the logic. This was both of the world with its strangely adapted robots and at points in the story which never got a decent resolution. To me, little about the villains' plans made all that much sense given the world this was set in. I especially disliked the cockroaches - what was that even about?

The failures of the grander narrative does not mean you will not enjoy Pluto. The artistic quality is wonderful. It's presented as a prestige series and mostly lives up to that, if perhaps not always with the best direction or cinematography that can be found in animation or live action. The world is pretty well-realized and the animators set a wonderful standard for spectacle in a highly detailed anime like this. I watched it dubbed, which was very good, if not quite standout. Within each episode I was excited, but unlike the best mysteries or thrillers I wasn't thrilled to watch the next episode. It was just kind of pleasant, which I don't think is what people will expect from a show made like this.

Pluto stands on its own two feet as a production, shooting for the moon and missing. If you're into it and its ideas, you will have a good time and may even love it. For those looking for something very meaty and thrilling though, I don't think this has the necessary flesh to chew on.