Pluto

''This article is about the character. For the manga, see here.Pluto (プルートウ Purūtō'') (also known as Bruton in the 1980's version) is a giant metal fighting muscular robot with enormous horns and red stripes on his face. He was built to destroy the strongest robots in the world, including Astro. At first, he wants nothing more than to fulfill his duty but soon he realized that programming isn't everything and befriended Astro. Like Astro, he has Kokoro, and despite kidnapping Uran, the two eventually form a deep bond and friendship.

Appearance
Pluto's appearance is largely consistent in all his incarnations, being an enormous, burly humanoid robot with a design that is reminiscent of a demon. His metallic exterior is jet black in color, with red accents on his cheeks that resemble tribal war paint. His imposing stature is further accentuated by a pair of long, bull-like horns, which stick out of the sides of his head and curve straight upwards.

The 1980s version of Pluto is largely unchanged from his original incarnation, with the most notable differences being more definition in his design, as well as his black exterior having changed to a deep blue. The 2003 version of Pluto has a greater number of differences, now being a dark green in color, having no functional mouth and appearing more armored than before.

The Pluto in Urasawa's manga appears very similar to his 1963 and 1980 designs, with a seemingly more demonic tone to him. In his original identity as Sahad, Pluto appears as an extremely-human looking robot with a large nose, dark curly hair and expressive eyes.

1963 Series
A Sultan wants to be the ruler of the robot world, so he hires a scientist to build a robot. It must have 1 million horsepower, plus various powers in order for it to become the "Strongest Robot in the World". Named Pluto, his first target is a Swiss mountain robot with 135,000 horsepower named Montblanc, which was an easy victim as Pluto was a complete stranger to him and he did not suspect the attack. With Montblanc finished, Pluto then goes on to fight Astro, who was not at home (plus Professor Ochanomizu insisted on Astro not fighting, much to the annoyance of Uran). As Astro himself does not engage in battle, Uran pretends to be Astro in order to fight Pluto, however, she is no match for Pluto's horsepower and strength. Overcome, Pluto holds Uran captive as a way of forcing Astro to fight. Enraged, Astro follows in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Pluto then goes to fight North MK II, a fearsome battle robot that acts as a butler. North is no match for Pluto's strength, being defeated almost instantly. Seeking Astro, he and Astro again meet (which so happens to be in Turkey) which by chance is the residence of the next robot, Brando. Sharing similar strengths and weaknesses, Pluto just defeats Brando - and only just - and as a consequence, he was heavily damaged and could die if his masters do not come instantly. In order for them to come, a button on his chest has to be pushed which sends a distress signal. However, as there is no one else nearby and he himself is unable to move his arms, the only way for the button to be pushed is if Astro pushes it. Pluto quickly hands over Uran and begs Astro to push the button. After much thought and consideration, Astro agrees. His masters come to collect Pluto and plant a suicide bomb in his chest; should someone defeat him, that someone would also be destroyed. Pluto then faces his next target, a German robot detective named Gesicht, made out of a unique material named "Zeronium", which takes the form of a protective metal alloy. Gesicht's machine guns prove ineffective against Pluto's shield, and he is also destroyed.

Astro, who was informed of the battle beforehand and sees the result of Gesicht on the news, realizes that Pluto must be stopped as no robot is a match for Pluto. However, he realizes that Pluto is simply too powerful for even him so he thinks up a solution and asks Ochanomizu to increase his horsepower instantly. Flying over to the ministry of science, Astro finds Ochanomizu "already busy", since he has tracked down Pluto's hideout by monitoring his movements, and flies over by plane to the hideout. Unable to convince the Sultan, he is held captive and the only way where he allows him to go is when Astro fights Pluto. Ochanomizu reluctantly agrees, and Astro and Pluto meet in the desert. Unfortunately, it is right in the middle of an oil field. If the oil explodes, the impact would be massive so Astro refuses to fight, and as a result, Pluto holds Astro in his hands and prepares to tear him apart, but then spares his life as he remembers that Astro saved him once. Reminding Astro he would only do it once, Pluto takes off and fights Hercules, a Greek gladiator robot with a high sense of nobility and bravery who soon becomes another victim of Pluto. Meanwhile, at Astro's place of residence, he receives a phone call from the southern continent.

The caller is Epsilon, who except for Astro, is the sole remaining member of the strongest robots in the world. Epsilon is a robot with a gentle personality that takes care of kindergarten children. As she needs sunlight, Pluto promptly chooses their day of the battle on a stormy day and therefore Epsilon is not at her full strength when they fight. Epsilon is also ultimately destroyed after risking her life to save a lost infant. Astro arrives too late, and the duo prepares to fight to the finish; the scientist, however, refuses, claiming the battle would take place on the Mountain of Tears, a volcano. While the battle rages on, the volcano explodes. Astro quickly tries to stop an impending explosion but fails: two robots are needed to effectively cover up the volcano itself.Pluto, after watching for a while, eventually helps Astro, implying that he has learned to value human life. The threat is stopped, however, and the scientist reveals his secret invention, a super robot named Bora with 2 million horsepower. Pluto, realizes that defeat is unavoidable, asks Uran not to forget him and then sacrifices himself. Bora and Pluto are then involved in an explosion and while Pluto is destroyed Bora emerges unharmed. Astro fights Bora by tearing the robot apart. Afterward, it is revealed that the scientist isn't human (much to the surprise of the Sultan) but his former robot servant, who built Pluto and Bora to show that horsepower isn't the only way to win a battle. He was killed by Bora, the only robot with more horsepower than him.

Pluto also briefly appears in the final episode of the 1963 Astro Boy series as a flashback.

1980's Series
Known as Bruton in the 1980's series dub, he was created with the sole purpose of defeating the worlds strongest robots. However, the fights are shortened to quite an extent. The fight with Montblanc was originally a minute long, but it was changed to be less than a minute.

The color-remake is very faithful to the original 1963 version, leaving most of the story unchanged.

2003 series
In the 2003 series, Pluto is shown to be the primary antagonist in the episodes The Rise of Pluto and The Fall of Acheron. Built by Shadow (a robot which is in turn built by Dr. Tenma) in order to help Astro evolve, he is shown to be often careless and heartless, with the sole thought of defeating his enemies and fulfilling his purpose (similar in a way to the 1980s series), and because of this does not display any sorrow or emotion to those who he has defeated. When presented with concepts he does not understand however, such as friendship or family, he will attempt to learn their significance, usually only to be rebuffed by his creator.

Pluto's method of attack is a set of homing missiles located in his chest (unlike the horns he used in the 1980s series) as well as some other tactics (depending on the robot he is facing). Every time during battle, he is nearly destroyed, however always foils his opponent's method after discovering a "weakness" or a potential flaw that he could use to his advantage. He is also given the ability to analyze and detect these flaws. Unlike prior incarnations, Pluto typically does not kill his opponents, usually simply fighting and damaging them until they are no longer capable of fighting back, thus proving his superiority.

Eventually, he develops emotions and a sense of kindness, shown when he sacrificed himself in order to stop Acheron, a robot duplicate of himself, from harming Astro and Zoran (whom he shares a relationship with). Pluto was later rebuilt during the robot war near the end of the series, where he was one of Astro's allies against Blue Knight and the anti-robot league.

In Other Media
Pluto appears as the final boss of the Birth phase in Astro Boy: Omega Factor. He is recruited by Shadow as the top of the world's strongest robots during a vicious war. He is the fifth and final robot Astro has to beat after he refused to join Shadow's cause. It should be noted that Pluto has his design from the 2003 series, yet he isn't the one fighting all the other robots this time, instead it is Astro.

Pluto comes with a whole variety of moves. He can spin causing Astro to be pulled in towards him, this also happens if he jumps in the air. One attack appears to fire an orange fire beam, it goes on the floor and moves towards him. Pluto can fire four bullets from around his body in a second. A simple attacks in moves towards Astro. Finally, he can fire purple beams from his horns that can drain Astro's health.

Once Pluto is defeated, he peacefully allows him to visit Shadow. Except he turns out to be Sharaku in a failed attempt to rule a timeline.

In the new Rebirth timeline, Pluto and the other robots are headed by Blue Knight instead of Shadow. After Pluto was defeated, Blue Knight demanded a fight. But Epsilon and the others reveal that Astro merely disabled, Pluto himself told him that this was a lost cause. As Astro transcends time again, he has Pluto take care of Zoran.

Much later, Pluto arrives to battle the fake and immortal Magnemite, allowing Astro to get closer towards Nuka. Pluto was last seen calling out to Astro after he flew into the sun with Death Mask to stop it from exploding due to Garon, he does.

Pluto
Urasawa's Pluto is significantly darker as he is seemingly capable of murdering humans and robots, and is extremely powerful, possessing some control over the weather by generating fierce tornadoes. He goes on to kill the entire "Bora Investigation Squad", always leaving behind a corpse with horn-like protrusions next to it.



Despite this, "Pluto" is actually Sahad, a peaceful, quaint, robot with a strong affinity towards nature and who wished to fill his desolated country of Persia full of flowers. He was created by the Persian Minister of Science, Dr. Abullah. Devastated by the 39th Middle-East War, with his country left in shambles and his family dead, Abullah came to harbor an intense hatred and vowed revenge. He died during the war as a result of a bombing, but before dying, he left the genius Japanese scientist, Dr. Tenma (creator of Atom, the story's version of Astro Boy), with a chip containing part of his brain, and full of Abullah's hatred towards the world. Tenma used the chip to awaken the perfect AI he and Abullah had been working on (due to being programmed with 6 billion personalities, the robot would take an infinite amount of time to simulate all the possibilities and would never awaken; Tenma had theorized that this could be overcome by programming intense, polarizing emotions into it, such as hatred, rage, and despair). The robot awoke, and despite believing itself to be Abullah, it also created a second personality, "Goji".

"Abullah" proceeded to create Pluto, and inserted Sahad's AI into the robot. Goji went on to create "Bora", another, much bigger robot, which was left underground; his plan was to insert his AI into Bora, and tunnel underground, causing a massive eruption that would destroy the planet.

Atom, who had been left in a similar state to that of Tenma's perfect AI due to an attack by Pluto, is reawakened by Tenma, who inserts a chip containing Gesicht (the main character)'s hatred and a recording of his moment of death (as he was defeated and then destroyed by Pluto). Initially, he behaves oddly, but after some time seemingly reverts back to his former self. After learning the whole truth of Gesicht's case, he heads to the source of the cataclysm in hopes of stopping it. He comes face to face with Pluto, who attacks him. At first, Atom is overcome by Gesicht's hatred and attempts to destroy Pluto, citing all the robots he'd killed did not want or deserve death and rips off Pluto's horns and one of his arms in the process. However, he then hears Gesicht's last words in his mind: "Nothing comes from hatred". Suddenly full of understanding, Atom and Pluto cease their attack on another and proceed to lie down for a few moments. Soon afterward, Atom goes to disarm Bora, with Pluto (whom Astro has begun referring to as Sahad) at his side. Bora attempts to dissuade Sahad, who rejects him, stating that his father has long been dead, and the AI controlling Bora is nothing more than a fake. He ends up sacrificing himself, saving Atom and the world from the disaster in the process.

Trivia:

 * Despite usually only making brief appearances in each incarnation of Astro Boy, Pluto is regarded as one of the most well-known antagonists of the entire franchise.
 * As only the first 104 episodes of the original Astro Boy anime were dubbed by Titra Studios, Pluto's appearance in the original series was never aired in the West.
 * Pluto is the final boss of Tetsuwan Atom for Super Famicom, though he is not implied to have a friendship with Atom and no dialogue after his defeat since all is left is his scrapped remains. Neither version of Bora appears.
 * Pluto is the final boss of the scenario "Birth" in Astro Boy: Omega Factor. He is one of the world's strongest robots who served Shadow and is fought after Epsilon.
 * In the show Jetter Mars, a character very similar to Pluto appears named "Mad Mask", who is even called the Greatest Robot in the World, which is the name of the episode Pluto appears in the Astro Boy series.
 * Pluto is named after the Roman counterpart of Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld. This name is fitting, as his design is seemingly based on traditional artistic depictions of demons.