This volume brings up a lot of interesting issues such as human and robot identity and human-robot conflict. Also, background details and side stories not only make the story line more complicated, more relatable and more engaging but also add some layers to the main characters, making them multidimensional, realistic and more interesting. The more I get to know the characters in Pluto, the more I like and care about them. The final three acts in “Pluto, Volume 003” are especially absorbing, and although quite a few puzzle pieces are revealed, I feel like I have even more questions than I had before and thus cannot wait to read the next volume to find out what’s going on. New background details and answers to the previous questions introduce new mysteries, moving the story along as well as keeping the suspense at its highest.

The story unfolds slowly, but I wouldn’t dare call it slow-paced as it is thrilling and completely engrossing. Finally, Atom’s little sister Uran, a robot girl with ultra sensitive receptors, befriends an odd robot. Meanwhile, members of KR, a far-right group aiming to eliminate robot civil rights laws, come up with a sinister plan. The mysterious villain, who is targeting the seven great robots of the world and might be responsible for the related homicides, is still unknown. The whole series is based on “The Greatest Robot on Earth,” the most popular story arc in Astro Boy series by a legendary manga master Osamu Tezuka. “Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, Volume 003” by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki is the third book in an eight-book science fiction manga series Pluto.

Pluto urasawa x tezuka vol 3