Manga Pluto: Ironi Berbalut Imajinasi

Sejak beberapa bulan yang lalu, saya membaca manga Pluto karya Naoki Urasawa. Manga ini merupakan remake dari Tetsuwan Atom: The Greatest Robot on Earth karya Tezuka Osamu. Tentu saja hal pertama yang menarik perhatian saya adalah kedua nama besar tersebut. Tapi ada hal menarik lainnya yang saya temukan di dalam manga ini—ironi berbalut imajinasi.

Sinopsis
Pluto adalah manga psikologis fiksi-ilmiah. Ceritanya cukup berat dan keras dengan sasaran pembaca dewasa (remaja akhir juga bisa). Latarnya adalah masa depan ketika teknologi robot sangat canggih sehingga ada robot yang menyerupai manusia. Tokoh utamanya adalah seorang detektif robot buatan Jerman bernama Gesicht yang bekerja untuk Europol. Cerita dimulai dengan terjadinya serangkaian pembunuhan misterius. Orang-orang yang terbunuh ternyata berkaitan dengan Tim Investigasi Bora yang dikirim ke Persia beberapa tahun sebelumnya.

Comic Reference: Rocket Man

Cover of Rocket Man #1 (Japanese Tankoubon Version)

This is one of my current favorite manga (Japanese comic), Rocket Man by Motohiro Katou. I've just started reading it sort of 2 months ago. I picked it up because I really like Q.E.D. C.M.B. by the very same author. Both of them are mystery mangas, with low-profile yet unique main characters solving unexpected mysteries.

Rocket Man is a bit different. It's still a mystery, but with more espionage scents. The main character looks very lousy--a very ordinary shy 13 years old skinny boy named Mizunashi. The only thing special about him is his lost memories before he's 10 years old. Suddenly he met 'R'--a foreign guy who then revealed to be a spy from True Eyes. TE is an organization that even CIA can't stop. Its business is 'true information'.

Soon Mizunashi's world changed into sets of unexpected and staggering secret missions. Moreover, this lousy boy slowly discovered his awesome potentials!

Faith

Faith... is Better than Any Plan

It is stated by a character named Nagato in one of my favorite manga (Japanese comics), Naruto written by Masashi Kishimoto. This manga's essential message is about peace and the dreams to accomplish it. The story is still on going. So the the truth of the message is still unrevealed. But how the characters struggling to seek for peace and their own dreams encourage me to seek for my own.

It feels funny as thinking about how I've been learning about faith. I learned from books, comics, movies, friends, even video games.

Comics? I bet some of you'll be surprised. Comics are not all about fun. I read mangas a lot. And lately I'm reading great mangas that teach me so many things in life.

Another favorite manga of mine is Bakuman written by Obata Takeshi and Ohba Tsugumi. The story is about two boys (from 9th grade and now 11th but still on going) fighting for their dreams--becoming prominent mangakas (manga writers). It is such a powerful story that I can feel their spirit and strength when pursuing their dreams.

Both mangas have young main characters. In the beginning, they're just ordinary kids with a piece of dream. And then they grew up so much that many people acknowledge them. How did they do that? Talent is something but it only gives small contributions. The most important thing is they have faith.

FAITH

When you have faith, you believe in yourself. You will do your best to make your dreams come true. You won't let anything make you down. And you know that you will make it eventually.

So having a dream is how you start it. Then put your faith in it. I knew it because I'm doing it. Trust me =)

(Naruto: Chapter 448, Page 06)

(Bakuman: Chapter 34, Page 01)