Famous for his previous military service in the 39th Central Asia War, the world is shaken when current conservation advocate robot Montblanc is violently murdered in the Swiss Alps. As both humans and robots mourn his loss, another famous veteran robot from the conflict living a peaceful life is similarly brutally murdered in Scotland.
Seeing a pattern, Europol dispatches Gesicht, detective and one of the most advanced robots in the world, to investigate. During his investigation, Gesicht uncovers a mysterious entity known as Pluto, a discovery that gradually leads him to unraveling a conspiracy to dismantle all eight of the most powerful robots in the world who participated in the war – Gesicht included.
With himself and others obvious targets, Gesicht starts to reach out to the remaining robots from the war, including Atom, a child robot from Japan.
Anime doesn’t always do thrillers very well, but Naoki Urasawa always does. It is good to see they did Pluto well. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Pluto, head on down below.
Anime Like Pluto
How is Pluto Related to Astro Boy?
While you won’t find Astro Boy anywhere among these recommendations, anyone who has been long-steeped in anime knows (or should know) Astro Boy, a series that is not the first anime, but among the earliest and most influential anime in the medium.
Most simply put, Pluto is legendary manga author Naoki Urasawa’s own take on what was clearly his favorite arc in the Astro Boy manga, a series written by equally legendary manga author Osamu Tezuka.
In essence, you could go read the Astro Boy manga and find the same arc, but Naoki Urasawa added in more mature detail and a psychological spin that made it his very own.
For Fans of Psychological Murder Mysteries
Monster
Dr. Kenzou Tenma has the perfect life as one of the world’s most renowned brain surgeons. However, one night he is presented with a doctor’s most painful choice – to save an injured child or the mayor, both mortally wounded.
Against his colleague’s advice, he saves the kid. However, when a series of crimes start happening around him, all evidence points to the child he saved.
Pluto and Monster share an author, and that author likes murder mysteries, psychological and philosophical pondering, world-spanning stories, and mixing Japanese characters with a whole lot of European ones.
While Monster and Pluto share many themes, Monster is set in the late 80’s and is not a sci-fi series about robots and how humanity interacts with them like Pluto. However, outside of that, you will actually find a very similar – and similarly gripping – tale about a murderer and the people trying to catch them.
If you enjoyed the complex characters and their even more complex morality in Pluto, Monster is legendary for presenting the very same.
Psycho-Pass
In the 22nd century, the justice system has changed.
The Sibyl System now determines the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for criminal intent. This has become known as their Psycho-Pass.
Once criminal intent has been identified, Inspectors like Akane Tsunemori are in charge of subjugating them. However, this tough job is not without dangers. This is why Inspectors are paired with Enforcers, like Shinya Kougami, latent criminals with just the right amount of psychopathy to keep other criminals in their place.
Both Psycho-Pass and Pluto take place in a technologically advanced world where the advent of advanced technology has lead to various altered human rights and a society similar, but also different from our own.
However, while Pluto focuses on a murder plot and conspiracy involving robots, Psycho-Pass is about police staffed by killers and their handlers who are hunting serial killers. While Psycho-Pass wanders into larger conspiracies on occasion, it always returns back to that police procedural formula where they start investigating a new case after the old one is concluded.
Babylon
Zen Seizaki works as a prosecutor in the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. In what originally was an investigation into claims of false advertisement, Zen uncovers that a Japanese pharmaceutical company faked clinical trials on their company’s new drug.
Further investigation leads Zen and his entire department into a growing case of suicides spreading across the city linking to a plot in the mayoral election of a newly formed district in Tokyo. As Zen gets caught in an increasingly more complex whirlwind of an investigation, he finds the truth challenges his very sense of justice.
Both Pluto and Babylon start off about investigating mysterious murders. However, where they start and where they end up are two very different places in each series. Yet, the journey to get there is a pretty gripping thriller that gets you invested in seeing the conclusion.
That said, while Pluto dwells on the psychological side of sci-fi robotics, Babylon is distinctly more philosophical about, oddly enough, the human right to suicide.
Death Note
Light Yagami is a high school prodigy and genius. However, he has an ever-increasing boredom and disdain for this rotten, violent world.
One day, he happens upon a notebook, called a Death Note, which states that if you write a name in it, the person will die. To his surprise, the notebook’s claims turn out to be true.
This Death Note, the property of the Shinigami gods of death, gives Light the power to change this world and he decides to become its new God by executing all criminals.
While Pluto starts off as a murder mystery about who is killing a series of powerful robots and why, Death Note has its own twist on the murder mystery by playing an Uno Reverse card. It follows the murderer and you get invested in watching him get away with it.
While those are two very different plots, what Death Note shares with Pluto is a way of captivating you with intricate plans and complicated characters. While Death Note is a little less mature since it can have some moments of comedy (intentional or unintentional), it is actually one of the more gripping anime thrillers and presents a murder mystery that continues to expand in scope like Pluto and its conspiracy.
B The Beginning
On the islands of Cremona, a vigilante named Killer B is running rampant taking justice into his own hands with seemingly superhuman abilities.
After being unsuccessful in their attempts to capture Killer B, the Royal Investigation Service brings in Keith Flick, an eccentric detective that was exiled to the archives department after a personal trauma effected his work.
However, as the crimes of Killer B begin to escalate, it becomes abundantly clear more than one person is responsible.
Like Pluto starts off as a series about a detective investigating the murder of famous robots, B the Beginning starts off as a simple murder mystery that continues to grow in scope and eventually becomes wrapped up in a conspiracy.
However, while Pluto is often examining a psychological side of its sci-fi world, B the Beginning enjoys more philosophical themes. Regardless, both series enjoy creating complex characters who have complicated morality.
For Fans of Discrimination and/or Revenge
No Guns Life
Thanks to the Baruhren Corporation, powerful cyborg soldiers known as Extended now exist. Juuzou Inui is one such Extended with no memories before he was used for war. Now, he helps take care of Extended-caused incidents around the city.
Recently, rumors of an Extended kidnapping a child have spread, and when Juuzou returns to his office, he finds the Extended there with the child in tow. With everyone seemingly out for this kid, it leads Juuzou into a mystery that threatens to unravel everything.
Both No Guns Life and Pluto take place in a futuristic world where there are humans, but also people who are more technology than human. Unlike Pluto that still presents a society similar to our own, but with robots, No Guns Life presents a society that is a bit less happy.
What No Guns Life and Pluto most have in common – other than both following detectives – is that they both feature a world where the most powerful characters in the world were used as weapons of war and now are living with the psychological aspects of both the fighting and being abandoned afterwards. Both robots and Extended are highly monitored so they don’t run wild, and it has a bit of an effect on their well-being since they can’ reconcile themselves as fully machine or human.
That said, while Pluto follows a linear and compact, yet complex plot, No Guns Life is – because it follows a private detective – more arc-based. It follows the main character on a variety of cases, but does have a larger plot that it introduces much later.
Beastars
This is a world of anthropomorphic animals where carnivores and herbivores live side by side with each other.
At Cherryton Academy, young wolf Legoshi is a member of the drama club. While he is often called menacing due to his appearance, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.
However, when one herbivore classmate is killed and devoured, Legoshi finds himself as the primary suspect.
What Pluto explores with a society of robots and humans, Beastars explores with a society of predators and prey.
Both Pluto and Beastars explore stories of discrimination between two different types of beings that share the same world. Furthermore, while they both actually start off as murder mysteries, they move onto exploring larger conspiracies that are gripping the world.
The big difference – other than Beastars being about anthropomorphic animals – is that Beastars is following a high school-aged character. It isn’t about a detective investigating murders, so it often drifts back into school life activities before returning to occasionally violent darkness.
Dimension W
In the future, humans have discovered the fourth dimension, or Dimension W, which is supposedly a source of infinite energy. Harnessing this energy in coils, the New Telsa Energy corporation has now set up a monopoly on its sale.
Ex-soldier Kyouma Mabuchi is skeptical of this energy and still drives a gas-powered car for his job to hunt down illegal coils.
Both Pluto and Dimension W take place in a futuristic society where humanity has embraced and integrated with an advanced technology. In Pluto, they utilized robotics while Dimension W is is about them finding a new power source in another dimension that allowed rapid technological advancement.
While Pluto starts off as a murder mystery before moving onto conspiracy, Dimension W skips the murder and goes right to the main character getting pulled into a conspiracy.
Both Pluto and Dimension W follow main characters who are military veterans that were left a bit damaged by the conflict they were in. You are then fed the information about the psychological trauma they endured in the conflict slowly over the course of the series since it is part of the conspiracy plot in both Pluto and Dimension W.
For Fans of Robotics
Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex
In the not so distant future, mankind has advanced to a state where the transplant of the complete body from flesh to machine is possible. This has blurred the lines between physical and technological worlds.
Unfortunately, criminals can also make use of this technology, which led to the rise of Sector 9, a government agency that operates independently and deals with this new kind of cybercrime.
Section 9, led by Daisuke Aramaki and Motoko Kusanagi, deals with these crimes typically with success, until they find themselves faced with the rise of a new hacker who goes by the nickname The Laughing Man.
Both Ghost in the Shell and Pluto start off about detectives investigating various murders of intelligent technology or humans integrated with technology. However, as the series goes on, both series expand into a larger conspiratorial plots and begins to explore either the complicated human psychology behind intelligent technology or the similarly complicated philosophy between humanities’ relationship with technology and pondering if the soul can exist in a machine.
Both series provide intricate sci-fi plots that explore deep concepts and do it quite well. However, as Pluto is technically an arc from Astro Boy, it moves onto that final “big fight” sort of finale while Ghost in the Shell is often more a sci-fi cop procedural.
Vivy – Fluorite Eye’s Song
In a theme park ran by AI, there is a lonely stage where the first-ever autonomous humanoid sings in order to fulfill her mission of making everyone happy with her songs.
This AI, named Diva but given the nickname of Vivy by a young fan, has an encounter with an AI named Matsumoto who explains he traveled from 100 years in the future where AI have advanced so much that they rebelled and started exterminating humanity.
Together, he guides her to singularity points on a hundred-year journey in order to change the course of history.
While Vivy is a bit different in its overall plot of being a unique sci-fi spin on the time travel formula using intelligent technology, it provides a similarly detailed sci-fi story the examines the psychology being intelligent technology who have to live alongside humans that don’t always treat them as equal.
While Pluto excels at creating complicated characters that can occasionally evoke emotion with their actions or motives, Vivy is often more about short stories that try to evoke a very emotional response – though the characters don’t always have the same level of depth since they often are only shown for a short while.
If you enjoy the thought-provoking nature of Pluto, but don’t necessarily need a murder mystery or a complicated conspiracy, Vivy can provide.
Ergo Proxy
After the explosion of the methane hydrate layer, humanity was forced into a select few domed cities where society is strictly controlled. To assist humanity, autonomous robots called AutoReivs were spread throughout the cities.
Enter Re-L Mayer, granddaughter of the regent, and charged with investigating a series of cases in which the AutoReivs have gone haywire. In her investigation she comes in contact with a mysterious monster called Proxy.
After meeting a man called Vincent Law that was blamed for several of the incidents, the pair strike out across the wasteland to unravel the mysteries of the Cogito Virus.
Both Pluto and Ergo Proxy start off in a futuristic society where humanity lives integrated with robots. They also start by following a detective who is investigating murders and/or curious incidents involving those robots. However, while Pluto laces psychology and some philosophy throughout, Ergo Proxy starts as a simple mystery and ends up in a high-minded ponderous philosophical place.
Like Pluto unravels the darker side of the Central Asia War, Ergo Proxy aims a bit loftier and sets it sights on the conspiracy unraveling the very truth of the world.
Casshern Sins
With the world over and humanity gone, all that is left behind is sentient robots. They were supposed to live forever, but as they begin to rust and die, a rumor goes around that eating one called Casshern will stop their passing.
Casshern, the target of their intentions, knows nothing of his past, but leaves death everywhere he goes as he is constantly hunted.
A large part of Pluto is you being fed the various past and present of most of the robots involved in the murder mysteries and exploring how that is involved in the conspiracy that is slowly unfolding. Casshern Sins is of a similar nature, but with a lot more emphasis on fighting.
Instead of the dialogue-dense thriller that Pluto presents, Casshern Sins follows the formula of Casshern wandering, someone picking a fight with him, his enemies’ story being told as they fight, that fight ending, and Casshern continuing his walk.
Both series present interesting psychological and philosophical sc-fi tales about robots, and are also newer, more mature/bleak re-imaginings of older sci-fi anime.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Pluto? Let fans know in the comments section below.
