The 2003 sci-fi mystery thriller manga PLUTO by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki is quite possibly one of the best stories you may not have even heard of. It didn’t win the 9th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for nothing, after all. So this manga finally getting an anime adaptation after all these years is a pretty big deal. At least, Netflix certainly thinks so. How else do you explain them snatching up this anime exclusively for their streaming platform?

PLUTO Only on Netflix?

I’m getting some very strong Blade Runner vibes from this anime.

Netflix is proud to announce that they will be streaming PLUTO on their streaming platform. As you can see in the sneak peek video above on YouTube, this is a sci-fi mystery thriller anime by new animation studio M2STUDIO and based on Astro Boy (specifically the Greatest Robot on Earth arc) by the late great Osamu Tezuka himself with more than a hint of Blade Runner in it. Heck, the main character Gesicht feels like a blonde Rick Deckard, but if he was a…combat android? At least, that’s what I assume Gesicht is, given how his right hand can morph into a blaster. Clever there, really. He doesn’t even need a gun as Deckard does. He is the gun, and he certainly looks like he needs it. What with all the creepy robot insects attacking him and all.

Unfortunately, Netflix is a bit vague on when we’ll get to see PLUTO. The end of that sneak peek video only reveals that this anime will make its debut sometime in 2023. No mention at all of a specific release date, or even a release month. I guess that’s something we’ll have to wait for Netflix to tell us at some point later this year. Tune back into THS later to find out when we do.