The highly-anticipated Pluto anime, based on the manga series by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki, revealed new information on the main cast and the 2023 premiere date. A sneak peek of the series was also revealed. Netflix will be streaming the anime.
Studio M2 is animating the series, while GENCO will be producing Pluto. The main cast includes Shinshu Fuji as Gesicht, Hikasa Yoko as Atom, and Suzuki Minori as Uran. More information about the anime will be announced at the upcoming AnimeJapan 2023 event.
“I applaud the courage of everyone that has taken on the challenge of making an anime based on PLUTO. I am excited about the birth of this new series to win over people’s hearts. I hope that now more than ever, Osamu Tezuka’s message reaches the world“
Statement from author Naoki Urosawa
“PLUTO inherits the philosophy of Tezuka and does not merely convey a message of anti-war, but reminds us that there is suffering on both sides… but still, the only remaining answer is peace.”
Statement from co-author Takashi Nagasaki
This is the first major update from the Pluto anime adaptation since May 2022, when Studio M2 founder Masao Maruyama confirmed that the anime is still in production. The anime was first announced in 2017 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France.
The Pluto manga is based on Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy manga, specifically the “The Greatest Robot on Earth” arc. Pluto was serialized in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Original magazine from September 2003 to April 2009. Viz Media has licensed the manga in English, describing the first volume as:
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 detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case – and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets.
Source: Official Website, Netflix Press Release
© Tezuka Productions / Naoki Urasawa, Takashi Nagasaki / “PLUTO” Production Committee