40+ chapters into the Pluto manga and I am LOVING it. To be honest, I like it quite a bit better than 20th Century Boys. It's probably the most emotionally-affecting series I've read/seen from Naoki Urasawa. As much as I like 20th Century Boys and especially Monster, for some reason, I've always felt pretty detached from the characters and what ever emotional turmoil they go through throughout the course of the series. But in Pluto, they'll make you coo over some little pipsqueak robot who only appears in one chapter. Maybe I should call this the Natsume Yuujinchou effect, lol.
But seriously, Naoki Urasawa officially rules. I guess this type of quality in manga is the product of decades and decades of practice. The build up and pacing of the story is just spot on, not to mention the complexity of the plot itself (as always). I feel like the characterization is better than usual, too, though this time, Urasawa has gotten some obvious help from Osamu Tezuka. And concerning the Astro Boy episodes Pluto is based off of, DON'T watch Astro Boy before reading Pluto. Pluto's better read with a sense of mystery about it. :)
In other news:
1) I got a haircut. I think it looks kawaii desu. :P
2) THIS VIDEO IS AMAZING. IT'S SO COOOOOOOOOL
39-song mash up. Apparently, this contraption is called a "Novation Launchpad." His hand movements are mesmerizing. o-o
3) I found a program that can convert Youtube videos into gifs.
The gifs it churns out are a little slow, but you could always fix that little issue by editing it w/ an animation program. :)
