PLUTO: A Mecha Noir Mystery (feat. Astro Boy)

A beloved robot is blown into pieces, a public figure tied to robot rights is murdered, and one eerie detail shows up at both scenes: makeshift horns placed like a calling card. That’s the moment Pluto stops feeling like a simple mecha story and starts reading like a global crime thriller with real moral weight. 

We walk through the core mystery and the key players, starting with Gesicht, a German robot inspector built with Zeronium alloy who’s powerful enough to be feared and human enough to be shaken. As more horned victims appear, the investigation expands into the lives of the seven great robots, including North Number Two, a former war machine trying to live peacefully, and the unsettling presence of Brau 1589. The deeper we go, the more the show points back to the scars of the 39th Central Asian War, where politics, propaganda, and grief blur the line between justice and revenge. 

Then comes the surprise that reframes everything: Adam enters the picture, and the Astro Boy connection becomes impossible to ignore. We talk about why Pluto’s retelling works, how it uses a murder mystery structure to explore robot rights, prejudice, and empathy, and why its “grounded” law-enforcement angle makes the sci-fi hit harder. We also share our final verdict: a 9 out of 10 for a smart, cerebral, and emotionally loaded anime that earns its ending. 

If you’re into Netflix Pluto, Naoki Urasawa’s storytelling, Astro Boy lore, or any sci-fi that takes AI ethics seriously, hit play. Subscribe for more Mecha Monday reviews, share this with a friend who loves robot mysteries, and leave a review with your rating: what score would you give Pluto?

Transcript

Welcome Back To Mecha Monday

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What up, gang? It's JB and the Zone Podcast is back at it again with another Mecha Monday.

Pluto And The First Shocking Crime

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Today's topic is Pluto. In the in an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere, a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated, except for one very conspicuous clue. The bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage, complete with makeshift horns placed by the victims' heads. Interpol assigns robot detector geish, or geish, I'm sorry, it's German and um I'm sorry if I mispronounce that. Gaisik? I'm gonna say geish. Yeah, sorry, but that's the best way I can pronounce it. To the most strange and complex case, and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seventh great

Gesicht Joins The Investigation

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robots of the world, is one of the targets. So we got a beloved Swiss robot found blown into pieces. Meanwhile, Europol robot inspector uh Gage investigates another eerily related murder. Now, Gage is a German robot with a body made out of an alloy called Zeronium, and he's capable of firing a devastating blast using the alloy as shell. He and his wife Helena both have a human appearance. Professor Hoffman is not only Gage's creator, but the creator of Zeronium as well. Pluto, the titular character voiced by Fred Tatoscue, uh Tatoscule. I'm sorry, uh I don't know why I need to keep apologizing, but you know, I can't help it. Like, you know, if I mispronounce any names, I apologize in advance.

The Seven Great Robots Explained

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And an extremely powerful robot created to destroy seven robots classified as weapons of mass destruction. North number two, voiced by the man himself, Patrick Sites, is a Scottish robot with six mechanical arms, formerly one of the most powerful fighting robots during the 39th Central Asian War. He prefers not to fight, choosing instead to work as the butler of Paul Duncan, a blind renowned composer. Brow 1589 is the robot that killed a human eight years prior to the story. He is imprisoned in an artificial intelligence correctional facility where Gage visits him to get an idea of the killer he is trying to track down. Another horned corpse is found, and Gage reaches out to Adam, the most advanced of the seven robots, to help analyze the serial murals. Adam is a Japanese boy robot who was formerly the peace ambassador toward the end of the 39th century Asian War. His artificial intelligence and sensors are more advanced than the other seven great robots of the world. Adam is assisted by two inspectors,

Adam Reveals The Astro Boy Link

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Tawashi and Nakamura. And crazy enough, while I was watching this, like maybe like at the end of the first play, I looked at this boy and I'm thinking like, wait a minute. No. No. Astro boy? This is an Astro Boy joint? Okay, I when I was watching this, I did not know this had anything to do with Astro Boy. Otherwise, I would have just thrown this into the Astro Boy streamer view because I'm kind of interested in doing that, but I don't know if I'm gonna do that this year or not, even though it would count as a mecha, but I just don't know if I would count it. Maybe like December, somewhere between November and December at the earliest, but don't hold me on it. But yeah, like I also remember that there was another anime at him the beginning where it's basically like a retelling of Astro Boy, and this is more like a reframing of okay, let's tell the story of Astro Boy from a different angle, and it's like played out like a murder mystery where it didn't have anything to do with Astro Boy or Adam that much up until the final battle. But bear with me. Now, Tenma is a genius robotics scientist and former head of Japan's Ministry of Science. He created Adam and is the authority on artificial intelligence. Then we have Abuah gets summoned by police superintendent Tawati regarding

War Trauma, Secrets, And A Bigger Plot

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Sakuzi uh murder. Gates starts to suspect that his data may be compromised. And side note, uh Professor Abuwa is the head of the Persian Ministry of Science who lost most of his body and his family in the 39th Central Asian War, with most of his body not being robot replacements. We also have Dr. Okanomizu, who brings a bad robot dog home and attempts to fix it soon after a mysterious man claiming to be the owner visits his house. Now, Okanomizu is a Japanese robot scientist and current head of Japan's Mentor Science. He's the creator of Uran and also looks after Adam. He was a member of the Aboriginal group, a UN dispatch group of inspectors sent to Persia to look for robots of mass destruction. Uran is uh Okanamizu's masterpiece and Adam's robot younger sister who can sense human, animal, and robot emotions. Now, after delivering Adolph Hans to a safe house, Gage looks into his past. Meanwhile, Hercules and Epsilon sense a mysterious threat approaching them. Adolf is a German trader who is a member of the anti-robot group KR and suspects that Gage killed his brother. Gage meets Abua in Persia to further investigate the case but detects a lie. He enters closer to the truth when he encounters a robot child. Dr. Tenma attempts to bring Adam back at all costs. A government official advises a distressed Epsilon to evacuate since he's the next target. Professor Okan Okanamizu closely monitors Adam's erratic behavior. Dr. Tenma confronts his past and truth unravels, triggering a world-destroying threat.

Robot Rights, Prejudice, And Perspective

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And on a personal note, I thought all of this as a very cerebral and political sci-fi murder mystery that's grounded with this local law enforcement and also cultural with all the different robots from various countries. The main thing is prejudice, advocacy, and perspective of robots living among us with their own emotions and aspirations. Honestly, I didn't even know, like I was saying earlier, I didn't even know it was a retelling of Afterboy until I saw Adam and remembered uh Adam the Beginning, which serves as a prequel to how Adam was built. So you could say this was like a seat, like this happened after Adam the beginning, but it was framed in a way to where you it was kind of like a red herring in a way. Like you you had to really sit down and watch this to see that, oh now this is uh Astro Boy joint. But then again, Pluto came out years ago. I'm just now I'm getting around to watching it, so find out he probably already knew that. Hell, I probably knew that, but just forgot until I start re-watching it. Or well, I just started watching it. So I might review that in the whole Astro Boy franchise later time. But like I said, don't hold me to it because there's a whole lot more things that we need to cover

Final Verdict And What’s Next

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this year. But for now, crazy enough, like for 12 episodes and the way they did this, I'm gonna give Pluto a 9 out of 10. It was pretty great, like leading up to the final battle and all that. I was like, you know what? I was digging this one. I was really digging this one. Like, uh, I was just really surprised it was an After Boy uh retelling. But uh that just got me thinking, yeah, you know what? Let me just do After Boy at some point. So with that being said, go ahead and have yourself uh good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night. But ultimately, just stay nerdy, remember that person is coming and take it easy on yourself. I'm gonna go ahead and sew on up out of here.