Pluto Made Me Rethink Transhumanism… Then Cringe at Its Female Characters

I recently read Naoki Urasawa’s manga Pluto , and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head all week!
As a robotics enthusiast this manga struck me like a lightning bolt — equal parts inspiring and frustrating. Let’s break it down, because wow, do we need to!

Satirical critique of gender representation in Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto.

Why Pluto Is a Must-Read for Robotics Nerds

First, let’s discuss what makes this tale work. Pluto is an adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy “The Greatest Robot on Earth,” but you don’t have to know the original to enjoy it. (I didn’t!) It’s about Gesicht, a robot detective who is investigating the killings of the world’s most advanced robots — and the people attached to them.

What makes Pluto so compelling is the way it explores issues that feel torn from today’s AI discussions:

• The Trauma of War: The narrative doesn’t simply say “war is bad” — instead, it illustrates the way violence lingers in the minds of both humans and machines, shaping their choices long after the fighting ends.
• Robot Personhood: These aren’t just machines following code. They feel. They wrestle with morality, grief, and purpose — questions we’re grappling with right now in real-world robotics.
• The Dangers of Fear-Motivated Tech: The core conflict echoes actual-world arms races, wherein fear of “the other” rationalizes careless progress. Sound familiar? cough military drones cough
  … And can we talk about the global perspective? Most sci-fi centers on Japan or the U.S, but Pluto spans multiple countries, cultures, and political systems. It makes the world feel real — and the stakes even higher.

Opening crime scene in Pluto manga — a dismantled robot (Brau 1589)with horned head symbolizes the story’s exploration of artificial life and violence.

The Robot Gender Problem: Why Pluto’s Women Fall Flat

Alright, now for the part that annoyed me :)

I love books that deal with what it means to be human — but Pluto’s female characters are retro (so 50s!)
Almost every woman takes one of three roles:

1. The Supporting Wife (Gesicht’s wife, Helena, whose primary role is to worry over him and many other wives like her in the story, their characters are all interchangeable.)
2. The Empathizing Child (Uran, whose entire persona is being an “empath” literally)
3. The Assistant (AI assistant that guides Gesicht but doesn’t really act upon anything, and at least two female characters that work as florists and the rest are servants)

A collage of female characters falling in the gender tropes of a maid, wife, and florist in Pluto manga

But, the biggest puzzle?

Epsilon, a pacifist robot who shelters war orphans. In Pluto, he is the only male character who fully embodies empathy and caregiving, and according to the Astro Boy timeline, the character has a problematic history:

• Originally male in Tezuka’s Astro Boy (1960s)
• Rewritten as female in the 2003 remake specifically because their nurturing traits were seen as “feminine”
• Reverted back to male in Urasawa’s Pluto (2003), despite the androgynous design

Visual timeline of Epsilon’s design: 1) Male (Tezuka’s Astro Boy), 2) Female (2003 Astro Boy remake), 3) Male (Urasawa’s Pluto) — highlighting regression in gender representation for this nurturing character.”

While Urasawa’s decision to keep Epsilon male could have been a positive statement — showing that men can embody empathy without needing to be feminized — it rings hollow when contrasted with the manga’s regressive treatment of actual female characters. Yes, nurturing shouldn’t require a gender swap, but that message loses credibility when every woman in the story is still relegated to roles like maids, wives, or one-dimensional nurturers.

Iraq War Parallels: Sci-Fi as Political Commentary

Here’s where Pluto gets really fascinating. The manga was published in 2003 — the year the U.S. invaded Iraq based on false grounds (who could forget the “WMDs” that were never there?)
The villain of the story, a war-torn AI looking for vengeance, is such an obvious response to the time period.

Iraq War parallels in Pluto manga by Urasawa | Critique of post-9/11 warfare and false WMD justifications.

• War Justifications: Fear is used to justify violence, whether against nations or robots, both in Pluto and in the real world; and this is becoming evident now than ever.
• Cycle of Revenge: The novel demonstrates how destruction leads to more destruction with nobody really winning.
• Who Pays the Price? Innocent civilians (and robots) pay the price, while rulers go scot-free. It’s a vicious, yet needed critique — one that holds up all these years later as AI and drones redefine war today (with the same players involved unfortunately!)

A Story We Need — But Not the One We Deserve

Pluto is a masterpiece in many ways. Its exploration of trauma, AI ethics, and war is some of the most thought-provoking sci-fi I’ve read so far. But its gender dynamics feel stuck in the past — and that’s a problem.
Because here’s the thing: The future of robotics isn’t just for men!

Did you read Pluto ( or watched the Netflix version )? Did the gender bit bother you? Let’s discuss in the comments — i’d like to get your opinion.