Naoki Urasawa
Naoki Urasawa began "Pluto" after over a year of negotiating to get the rights to adapt Osamu Tezuka's "Astro Boy". With Astro/Atom's official birth date of April 7, 2003 approaching, Urasawa was initially going to do a limited or one-off manga in celebration. But due to the character's importance, he then suggested a long-term "serious" take on "The Greatest Robot on Earth" arc, which is his favorite. After re-reading it, he felt that some scenes were missing or different than he remembered, before realizing that he had created his own version of the story in his head.