Romancing The Stone: You were always on my Mind....

Pluto Volume 3
By Naoki Urasawa
Published by Viz

 I had a funny experience reading this issue. In the beginning of the issue we meet Professor Abullah and soon after we meet Adolf. Both are drawn very similarly to Gesicht, to the point that I thought there was going to be some sort of reveal about them being clones or relations or something. And as a matter of fact, Adolf and Gesicht look so similar to me, I completely confused them and their storylines.

Gesicht is barely in this issue, but boy are we fearing for his safety now. He's become the guy that the anti-robot folks - depicted in garb much the same as the KKK - want to seek revenge on and use as a scapegoat. It becomes clear that he is the only person, er, robot with access to Zeronium - which is exactly what killed Adolf's brother. I started to wonder if this act, this illegal act of a robot killing a human did, in fact, occur--and if this is the incident that was wiped from Gesicht's memory.

Many more things are revealed in this story, including Pluto! But I'm finding it hard to write about. I chose to read this volume because, while sitting around, I started wondering what was going on in the book. (It was a lot like the way you start to wonder how a friend of yours is, who you've not seen in a long time. I like that. That pull to find out what happens next.)

Look, I gotta be honest with you, though. I left the second half of the book to read until tonight, and I got really sleepy reading it. Some seriously awesome shit went down, but I can barely put it into words, so here's some highlights: 

1. Crazy-ish robot dude draws crazy murals as a result of friendship with Uran. 
2. Crazy-ish robot sees Atom and freaks out, has a system overload and we see horns of light come out of his head, makeing him resemble Pluot.
3. In another neck of the woods, (actual woods) some creepy guy with bugs flooding out of his mouth exists.
4. Somehow those bugs have something to do with the real Pluto emerging.
5. I don't get it and need to reread.  

That's sort of the way it was or me this whole issue. A lot of rereading. I don't know if it's because the art was unclear - like three important characters all drawn similarly - or if I was just having a hard time concentrating. Whatever the case - I'm not giving up. I'll reread volume 3 before I move onto number 4.  

It still gets a huge thumbs up for me. And so does my bed. Which I'm going to go visit right now.

-Nina 

Wait a second, one last thing. That's a weird thing to say, right? I didn't understand part of the comic--basically, most of the end--and I pretty much said that the beginning of the comic wasn't drawn in a way that I couldn't follow, and both of those things are pretty negative comments. Where's my "huge thumbs up" coming from?

If I had to explain it, I think it's that the first two volumes were really exciting, that I want to participate in something that one of my girlfriends really enjoyed, and that I think it's pretty unusual to feel the way I did, "missing" a comic and want to "check in" with it the way I would if it were a relationship.

I'm still pretty tired though. I will figure this out later.

-Nina Stone, 2010

Previous reviews of Pluto by Nina:
Volume 1
Volume 2

Comments

[Anon]

I have no idea how you confuse any characters Urasawa draws, they all have distinct facial features. I can kind of see the possibility with Adolf and Gesicht, but if you're confusing Abullah and Gesicht it's a problem with you not with the comic art.

[nina]

I have no idea why your tone is so abrasive and mean in your comment. Did you for some reason take my experience personally? Don't take it so hard.

And yes, all his characters do have distinct facial features. Which is why it's so striking to me that all three of the one's I mentioned above have the exact same nose. In fact, they are so alike I'm wondering if it's on purpose.

[Anon]

My tone was not intended to be abrasive or mean. I was only indicating that you misrepresented the similarity present in the art.

Abullah's nose is much more triangular than the hooked noses of Gesicht and Adolf. Adolf's is broader and more aquiline than Gesicht's as well. Their noses are not identical, though Adolf's is fairly similar to Gesicht's.

[LurkerWithout]

Nina is obviously a nose-racist...