Summary

• Pluto
  ‘s low popularity and lack of nominations in Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards can be attributed to Netflix’s limited promotion and the choice of a batch release, which hindered the series from gaining a wider audience and generating sustained hype.
• The sci-fi genre in anime has a smaller fanbase compared to fantasy, resulting in fewer nominations and recognition for sci-fi series like
  Pluto
  . The industry tends to thrive on fantasy and comedy genres.
• Pluto
  faced tough competition from other critically acclaimed and popular anime titles in 2023, such as
  Attack on Titan
  and
  Jujutsu Kaisen
  , which received more attention and praise from a larger and fresher fanbase.

This past January of 2024, Crunchyroll announced its nominations for its annual Anime Awards. While the community at large is fairly happy with most of the nominations, some individuals are being critics for valid reasons. Certain big-name titles from 2023 have not appeared once on this year’s Anime Awards nominations list, but one title in particular has several reasons it couldn’t have been picked.

When the anime Pluto released its first trailer, fans were hyped for the adaptation of the legendary Naoki Urasawa’s manga of the same name. Since the manga had achieved immense praise and awards and remains a critical part of anime history, the anime was assumed to follow suit. Unfortunately, the Pluto anime came and went with less hype than anticipated and even less recognition than it deserved. Other anime in the past have fallen off the radar, so to speak, and were still given recognition for Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards later on. Unfortunately, Pluto was not given this treatment and is only remembered by the limited audience that watched it. As excellent as the series proves to be, there are critical reasons that explain why it hasn’t received a single nomination.

Everything Pluto Did Right

Following the manga created in collaboration with Naoki Urasawa and Osamu Tezuka, Pluto follows Gesicht, an android detective, as he investigates the connection between a series of alarming murders, both of robots and humans connected to a major war from years past that Gesicht himself took part in. Based on the two first victims, one being a powerful robot and the other a human, Gesicht comes up with the theory that the culprit has to be a robot. With advancements in robotics at their highest, one part of society lives in comfort with the use of such advancements while the other lives in fear of the consequences they could bring. As Gesicht proceeds with his search for the murderer of his former colleagues, he is also faced with the heavy burden of creation, destruction and the emotions that drive humanity toward both.

The viewer is carried through this heavy psychological drama as each character, both human and robot, copes with their regrets, grief and anguish in the aftermath of a vicious war. At the core of this crime thriller mystery are the characters, who are carefully fleshed out to maintain the major themes of the story and carry the heart of the story. They help to lead the audience through the complex narrative, which effortlessly weaves together a multitude of conflicts and lore to build upon the main conflict the heroes face. As complicated as these themes of vengeance, war, regret and aggression are, the gradual revelations of the truth of the mystery are laid out with care and clarity, leaving the audience with an exciting roller coaster ride of a viewing experience.

Atop the deeper meanings of the plot, the surface-level details of Pluto are also made to perfection, primarily the animation and overall art direction of the mini-series. From the moment that the trailer was released, it was clear that the look of this series would be impressive, but the art direction goes even further than smooth animation. Following in the original art style, the character designs are reminiscent of Naoki Urasawa’s work, which was initially inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s style. With no disrespect to any other anime, there are no gravity-defying hairstyles or over-the-top character designs needed for this anime, as the clever focus on individual facial and body features is enough to convey personality and intent.

Kind and compassionate characters like Dr. Ochanomizu and Atom have softer features in their face and body, while more brutal and unforgiving characters like Dr. Tenma and Dr. Abullah have sharper features. Characters who are a little more complex in their personas, like Detective Gesicht and his friend Brando, have a mix of the two and have much wider variations in their expression depending on what their feelings and intentions are. The animation of the series is seamless and depends more heavily on 2-D art rather than 3-D. It is most impressive during the series’ brief action sequences. During these scenes, the art of blurring visuals and seamless animation are combined to create striking visual effects. Other tricks in art and animation, such as intense lines and sudden changes in colors, are used in perfect timing to convey the raw emotions felt by each character.

With how well Pluto was produced both on the surface and below it, one can argue that it should have been given several nominations in Crunchyroll’s Anime Awards. With its complex drama stitched together so carefully and successfully, it has reason to be nominated for the award of Best Drama. Then, there are the series’ many feats in art. Best Animation, Best Character Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction are all nominations that Pluto deserves. Unfortunately, there are valid reasons why Pluto wasn’t given a single nomination.

Netflix Is a Critical Reason Why Pluto’s Popularity Is So Low

Roughly a month after Pluto‘s release, fans joined together across Reddit to discuss a possible problem with the series — how the series hadn’t reached enough viewers. Some attested this to Netflix burying their titles, a common complaint with the streaming platform, not enough advertisement for the series, which only seemed to be an issue with non-anime watchers, and the pervasive issues of AdBlock and pirating that only promotes the biggest series. Looking at MyAnimeList, Pluto‘s popularity is currently at #1661, and the amount of members is at 118,348. The popularity rank is below average, and the number of MAL accounts that are considered members is significantly low — the series nominated across categories have at least close to 200,000.

With less of an audience, Pluto also suffered from the controversial choice of a batch release, which is when every episode is released at the same time as opposed to one episode released per week. When series are released in bulk, it’s much harder for fandom to have drawn-out discussions, which leads to a lull in hype and attention. That being said, one might argue that Netflix isn’t at fault since the series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was nominated under many categories and won Anime of the Year in 2023. The 2022 anime also had similar broadcasting issues and is tied to the controversial streaming site; however, the series already had a large and fresh audience from the Cyberpunk video game franchise. This was more than enough advertising that Netflix didn’t even have to promote the series, and there would have been many viewers as video game adaptations naturally come with a huge market.

Pluto didn’t have a wide audience, nor was it given the same hype. To be fair, in another context, one might also argue for the Netflix anime My Happy Marriage, which didn’t have that vast of an audience from its original novels. With this anime, Netflix did allow for a weekly broadcast of episodes, which helped with building up the hype of the series, but there is also the fact that the buzz of My Happy Marriage came from how subversive the series is. With a refreshing mix of genres and carefully avoided tropes, the series was able to stand on its own merits with the help of hype and pure originality. While Pluto unquestionably excels at driving its classic mecha and crime drama elements, those details aren’t subversive enough to stand on their own with its limited amount of hype from viewers. There is also the added issue of genre giving Pluto an unfair disadvantage.

The Sci-Fi Genre Is Overshadowed By Fantasy

Putting aside issues of Pluto‘s individual popularity and issues relating to Netflix, there is also a common problem with the attention to the sci-fi genre in anime. With nearly 6,000 anime produced, anime featuring the fantasy genre are the most common, second only to comedy. While sci-fi isn’t the least produced at 3,229 series listed on MyAnimeList, it has become the less popular genre in recent years. The sci-fi series that have garnered the most attention in recent years are Dr. Stone, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Heavenly Delusion — the latter was given five nominations for this upcoming anime awards, including Best New Series and Best Drama. Among the nominations for this year’s awards, the number of sci-fi series to be nominated is roughly a third or less of all series to be nominated. A vast majority of the nominations are fantasy.

With only two sci-fi series being exceptionally recognized in recent years, it’s safe to say that most anime viewers aren’t the biggest fans of the sci-fi genre. The industry thrives on its fantasy or comedy series, meaning that sci-fi anime have less of an audience overall. While the ongoing series Dr. Stone and Heavenly Delusion pave the way for sci-fi series to come, Pluto is left out of the running. In the future, there could be a growth of sci-fi anime fans, making room for more of these excellent series. That being said, the fantasy genre is doing well enough to hold the market for representing the anime community.

Pluto’s Competition Has Been Too Intense

The prominent feature of the fantasy genre, most often paired with comedy, is only a reflection of the fandom and not the genre itself. There is a vast amount of fantasy series worth praise, even among this year’s nominations. There are no clear criteria for how the Crunchyroll judges select nominations, so it can’t be said why the nominations were picked. That being said, many of the anime nominated, regardless of genre, have been rightfully praised in a variety of ways. Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen, for example, are critical titles well-known in the industry that have been considerably praised for details like their storylines, animation, characters and more. Newer series like My Happy Marriage and Oshi no Ko made huge enough waves in the community for their brilliant production value.

Many of these series benefitted from hype, popularity, and a larger and fresher fanbase, and are also series with plenty of merits. While fans have already jumped into the comments section with forgotten titles like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Pluto, the decisions have been made, and, for the most part, the anime community appears to be happy with the nominations. Certainly, Pluto deserves recognition, but so do other titles from 2023, most notably Frieren. Unfortunately for Pluto, there is too much in favor of other series to attain a nomination. It may not be given recognition from the anime community now. However, there is still the chance of Pluto becoming more of a cult classic and, by extension, won’t be forgotten for all of its awestriking merits.