Ah, Montblanc... Ah, North No. 2... Ah, Brando... Ah, Hercules... Ah, Gesicht... Ah, Epsilon... Ah, Pluto... You lived the live given you without hesitation, self-doubt, shame, or resentment... You carried out your duty, and then you were gone... When will they sit in judgment of the humans who created temporary life, out of a limitless lust for power and control, and then destroyed it?

And just like that - only 18 full months after we began, we've reached the end of our journey with PLUTO. It's been a long weird trek through Urasawa's adaptation of one of the most famous Astro Boy stories of all time - who would have thought that it would take us through the Iraq War, a global financial crisis, and the crushing realization that we're facing a climate apocalypse? Who would have thought that this decade-old comic would still be so relevant today? Join Matt and Quinn for a 5-star runtime discussion of PLUTO's finale - with all the things we love about its plot payoffs, its emotional beats, its cinematic fights, and its incredible artistic restraint and characteristically Urasawa simultaneous metaphoric excess. (Speaking of excess, what is Matt on in this episode description!) Thank you for joining us on this science-fiction odyssey, please enjoy this final outing - folks, it's a good one!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 56 - 65)

Next Time: Pluto - Wrap-up / Listener Questions / Final Discussion

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on BlueSky and support us on Patreon. The theme music for this season is the track "Clues to the Truth" from the official soundtrack to the anime, composed by Yugo Kanno. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war, civilian and child casualties, war related trauma, the Ku Klux Klan, modern US politics, bugs, child abandonment, and parental trauma. Please proceed with caution!

Urasawa Boys is BACK and there's no time to mourn for Gesicht! Just like that, we're in Australia! Tune in for some heated discussion of the story's pivot to Epsilon's turn in the spotlight, and all of its ups-and-downs. We tackle an opening flashback that may be one of the best to ever do it, and then dig into a volume full of loaded metaphors on queerness (Happy Pride!) along with some pretty sick robot fights. What's that? A typo in the episode description? No no no, you're mistaken, we just had to re-award the title of Best Boy with the sudden arrival of Hogan - who is definitely not a Poochie! Join us for what is somehow the penultimate reading for our season on Pluto, as we bask in the splendor of Epsilon's dying light! Folks, it's a good one!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 48-55)

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 56 - 65) - FINAL READING!

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on BlueSky and support us on Patreon. The theme music for this season is the track "Clues to the Truth" from the official soundtrack to the anime, composed by Yugo Kanno. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war, civilian and child casualties, war related trauma, the Ku Klux Klan, modern US politics, bugs, child abandonment, and parental trauma. Please proceed with caution!

And we're back! Here to welcome in the summer season after a nice 3-day weekend here in the US, Matt and Quinn re-convene for another episode of Urasawa Boys, to discuss the doomed, thrilling, and seemingly climactic reading that was volume 6 of Pluto! This one's got it all! New locales, dense discussions of orientalism and the loaded idea of saying "at least we got Democracy," classic investigatory chapters, a 3 chapter 90s action movie extravaganza, and a fittingly tragic end for our favorite robot detective. Also - we talk about dads! It turns out this adaptation of a work by the father of modern manga has a lot to say about dads! Who would have thought? The thrilling conclusion of Pluto draws closer every week, and who knows how this will all shake out! All I can say for certain is that folks - this is a good one!

Material Covered: Pluto (Chapter 40-47)

Next Time: Pluto (Chapter 48-55)

Urasawa Boys is a podcast hosted by S. Quinn Morris and Matt Fennell covering the collected works of Naoki Urasawa. You can follow the show on BlueSky and support us on Patreon. The theme music for this season is the track "Clues to the Truth" from the official soundtrack to the anime, composed by Yugo Kanno. Thanks for listening!

CONTENT WARNINGS

We're currently reading Pluto, which contains scenes of gore, violence, bodily fluids, racism, terrorism, death, suicide, weapons/guns, war, civilian and child casualties, war related trauma, the Ku Klux Klan, modern US politics, bugs, child abandonment, and parental trauma. Please proceed with caution!