Dr. Stone

Dr. Stone is an anime about this teenage Senkuu dude who is very smart. 10 billion percent smart. He has read few at-least-hundred-pages-long articles about agriculture, watched 2 if not 3 primitive technology videos on youtube, and the amount of chemistry classes he has skipped by 9th grade can possibly be counted with one hand fingers. Damn I wish I was this smart.

Dr. Stone is also about this other dude, Taiju Ooki, who is the opposite of this first dude, being a person who has average fit and is not a nerd. This dude is actually capable of doing very physically demanding tasks such ... as chopping fire wood, crushing berries with his bare feet, and throwing rocks that weight a ton a quarter mile in the air, not to mention the wide variety of other tasks from this 'manly shit' department. Damn I wish I was this manly.

Together these two dudes will re-inhabit the world after everyone has been turned into stone! They are Adam and Eve! And they will survive even if it kills them! (That's legit what they say, no joke). If only the smart dude had been as passionate about human biology and being alive as he was about those other three things he kinda doesn't suck at, they might have chosen a different reference to use here and a different phrase to yell out loud, but who cares! It's time to re-start human development from the stone age!!

Before continuing, there are two things that should be noted.

1) The idea is fantastic
2) Nothing else is

The story is quite literally just garbage. Out of all the things the story approach is comedic, and out of all comedic approaches the comedy mainly consists of either penis jokes, virgin comedy, or sequences which entirely rely on voice acting where our main characters yell and act so damn anime. It gets tiring after a short while and in generally appears incredibly generic. This is the type of content that could be used as an example of what people who do not watch anime think anime is like, because it's just that bad. The story also contains some drama, which is beyond fake and so dreadfully-horse-shit awful that it's ten times funnier than the comedy. Meaning it's absolutely impossible to take any of it seriously.

Rest of the story is exactly as shallow and superficial as its comedy and drama, filling the widest portion of the air time with irrelevant filler and dialogue that has no substantial value. Story events, drama, comedy: all of these exist for the sole reason that something needs to happen because nothing else is happening in this content-lacking, empty shell of an anime. Since these events are to such wide extent executed with over-reactions, the characters' personalities disappear, and all there is left are these clown-shells who do stupid things and try to make the audience laugh, or alternatively have monologues that are masked as dialogues which consists of 1st grade science lessons. It's dreadful to witness.

Especially big muscle dude seems to have endless stamina when it comes to being noisy and annoying. He yells in every single scene like Asta from Black Clover or Eren in the earlier Shingeki no Kyoujin seasons. As for me, he is way more annoying than either of those two examples ever were, because his character is cut down to dimensions below superficial. His thought process and way to think are the combination of plot device that solely exist to slow done the pace of whatever-the-hell is happening and counter-nihilism. His ideals are fake and impossible to respect. This dude's awareness level is the one of a chicken who keeps running weeks after its head has been removed. I hate him with passion, and he makes the content, that is already downright terrible, damn close to unwatchable. The humor sucks, the story barely exists, the word "pacing" feels almost alien after 6 episodes and the characters are the polar opposite of genuine humans. Quitting is a legit option with these cards.

There are also few other characters who... are given a lot of air time, but I won't talk about them because they are somehow even worse and I am trying to forget that they exist. They can be summed up with singular words: love-interest and baddie.

The production itself is bearable, but does nothing to carry the lacking content. Looking and listening to it doesn't offer any specific entertainment value. Animation is avoided during action sequences, backdrops consist of still nature and it has very little variety. In generally, characters are the only elements that ever move. It looks rough and non-fluid: like everything is literally made of stone. Occasionally close-up shots of waves or fire are there, but most of the time not. The rest consists of camera roll-overs (if not complete stills), dust that blocks elements, facial close-ups + empty background macros that are used in purpose of avoiding animation. The macros are incredibly cheap and pointless. If you compare the macros from Dumbbell (another seasonal show), you can see that those are polished, fitting to the series and contain actually some detail which shows that someone actually cared what they look like. Here no one clearly gave an f for these could be loaned from shutterstock. The character design is the only mildly original piece of art work here. Especially the color pallet makes the thing look outdated and something you have seen too many times. Looking at this only makes the series more boring.

I haven't found any legitimate reason to like this series. I was even unable to laugh at how bad it is because this might as well be the most idiotic anime produced in recent years. The only mildly entertaining thing about this anime is this one power-lifting scene related to boulders at which some people, specifically those who have played Resident Evil 5, are bound to laugh their asses off (or maybe it was just me), but other than that, nothing. I am utterly surprised Dr.Stone has been so positively received by the anime community, but I guess even this type of zero-effort series can get a free pass as long as it's not labelled isekai.

Dr. Stone is one of those sorts of anime which you love even though it’s extremely over the top. It’s realistic while being unrealistic, funny yet with high stakes. It’s set in prehistoric-like times and that’s what’s unique about it. Make no mistake, this is the kind of “you’ll either love it or hate it” anime. It’s got these moments that’ll either make you fall in love with the show because of its execution or make you hate it because of how stupid it might seem. I fall into the former category and I’ll explain why. Dr. Stone is as much a comedy show as ... it is about science. You’ll fall off your couch laughing if you continue watching it. I liked the concept to begin with and enjoyed the first few episodes, but they are nothing compared to what Dr. Stone has to offer later in the season. The build-up is quiet but every following episode is an explosion. This is when I honestly began to dig the show as much as I do now.

The setting of the show is so intriguing that you’ll get sucked right in: Earth has been petrified; turned to stone by a mysterious light that suddenly encompasses the globe. Not one person on the planet is left standing. However, petrification doesn’t mean death. These people are still well and truly alive, but they can’t move, can’t speak, can’t think? Well, there’s one person who’s still maintained his ability to think and through his steely determination, breaks his petrification. I’m talking about none other than the protagonist: Senkuu.

Now, Dr. Stone is a show that you’ll only fully appreciate if you can give a pass to its ridiculous science fiction stuff. A lot of what it portrays in terms of science is correct, however, the way the characters achieve it is fairly exaggerated. That’s all down to the genius of Senkuu. He’s a supercomputer in the skin of a human. Senkuu is a guy made by mixing all of the most brilliant brains to ever exist in the real world. He’s just ten billion times smarter.

The main focus of Dr. Stone is showcasing the brilliance of Senkuu and his little science team that he manages to gather. The gang of characters that he befriends all have their different goals and personalities. His initial encounters with them are not always on friendly terms but one of the things that’s good to watch about this anime is how these characters work together with an aim to form the kingdom of Science – Senkuu’s ultimate objective. Most of the inventions of the team wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation and expertise of each individual and this, in my opinion, is one of the major standout points in the show.

The story starts off with Taiju finally deciding to confess his feelings to the girl he’s loved for all his life. But, just like all great things, this does not come to pass. Right before his confession, the world is petrified. Along with Senkuu, Taiju is one of the few characters who partially maintained his ability to think, and that was largely thanks to his overwhelming love for Yuzuriha. He’s a hardheaded character (in both senses) who’s a perfect foil for Senkuu’s genius. He does most of the physical stuff which Senkuu isn’t great at, and their partnership together is what helps them overcome their greatest enemy.

Speaking of the enemy, that would be Tsukasa Shishio: the strongest person in the show thus far. He is another example of the exaggerations in the show as he’s shown to be powerful enough to kill lions with a single punch. His petrification is cured by Senkuu when he found himself in a perilous situation. However, the two soon find themselves to have totally opposite goals. Their rivalry is a great example of what Dr. Stone is about: brains vs brawns. We don’t see too much of Tsukasa after the initial few episodes but I do expect him to play a major part in the upcoming seasons.

The fiery Kohaku is the first of the many characters of the “new generation” that Senkuu encounters in his quest. She’s a fiery girl who’s one of the best fighters in this prehistoric world and one whose story I particularly enjoyed. Then there’s Chrome, the yang to Senkuu’s yin; a science user who’s shunned as a sorcerer as people find his interests weird. I personally think that Asagiri Gen, one of the characters introduced a bit later in the first half of the season, is one of the best in the show. I won’t go into details about him because almost anything I say about him would be more than some minor spoilers.

The art of Dr. Stone is great with extremely detailed backgrounds and character designs, but the animation does leave some question marks at times. It’s not that it’s bad, but you can certainly ask for something better, especially for a show that’s garnered this much popularity. There are times when stills are overutilized while the “chibi animations” were somewhat overused. That said, I can’t fault the overall art quality, although I fully expect and hope for this aspect of the show to be improved upon in the second season.

Unlike the animation, I have very little to complain about in the sound department. The OST has a variety of different tracks for various situations and their placement is pretty much spot on. I felt the voice actors too did a great job of mixing comedy along with the more serious stuff. The balance between the two adds a lot to the overall experience of the show. The first opening was good, but I think the second opening truly set the tone for the rest of the episode. I never really got bored of listening to it every episode and the visuals during the OP were perfectly directed.

Dr. Stone is definitely going to irk a few people due to its approach to the sci-fi genre and the way it’s handled. It has divided opinions over the last few months and I can understand where some of the negative opinions may stem from, but it covers up for it in spectacular fashion. But if you can ignore that, you’re in for a hell of a ride and an amazing watch. It kept me wanting more after every episode and I watched it as soon as possible most weeks during its run. Its transition from comedy, which is better than most pure comedy anime out there, to a darker tone whenever required was one of the highlights for me. Overall, Dr. Stone was a great source of entertainment, and definitely one of my favorite anime of the year.

---The review contains spoilers---


Dr. Stone is an anime that took itself too seriously, and not serious enough — at the same time!

It did this by highlighting the ‘cool’ aspects of science (through Senku’s re-engineering of past inventions), via methods that were beyond human capability. Sure. Humans can grow their own antibiotic (penicillium) through the natural molding process of bread; in fact, this was taken advantage of in ancient Egypt. But is it reasonable for one man to memorize the entire process of producing a sulfa antibiotic, and creating the various instruments necessary in doing so?

Seems rather absurd.

But what’s more unbelievable than these ... absurd scientific feats, is Senku’s eccentric personality. Actually, everyone’s personality is turned up to an eleven on the ridiculous scale (Taiju would probably be around 3,700). This wouldn’t be a problem if said characters were funny, yet their personalities are anything but. Starting with the man of science himself, Senku, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of all scientific inventions (actually, he puts encyclopedias to shame with their dearth of information). Senku offsets his profound cognitive abilities with an edginess that redefines the trope itself. Essentially, think of Senku as an extreme version of Light Yagami. But where Death Note succeeds in providing an engaging, thought-provoking plot, Dr. Stone is as fake as Matsuda’s girlfriend (forever alone!).

Even bad anime have one character that can make the show, somewhat, bearable. That is not the case for Dr. Stone. (Google) Chrome’s inane antics and exaggerated facial expressions would normally be sufficient to categorize him as the worst character of the show; however, Taiju’s tomfoolery is second to none (although, Ginrou’s cognitive bêtise was something to behold — so many awful characters). Moving on from the comedically impoverished lot, Shishiou is the token evil dude who is bent on world domination. Instead of a personality, he perform epic physical feats like punching a lion or snatching a bird in mid-flight (dude thinks he’s a f—kn’ falcon). Kohaku is your basic action-girl, and Yuzuriha is just that…m-minus the action, meaning: she’s just a girl (hard to believe, I know).

The amount of posing in Dr. Stone puts runway models to shame. Every time Senku inspires Chrome — which seems to be at least once per episode — they overly dramatize the situation to make it look like the two are going to save the world. Incidentally, this tone matched numerous events, particularly the tournament for Ruri’s hand in marriage. The staff conveyed a sense of urgency in winning the tournament, but zapped all tension away when “liquid hot” Magma lost in the second round. Also, the tournament itself was a travesty of bland fights, mismanaged pacing, and excessive stupidity.

Dr. Stone sort of had an interesting concept (turning everyone into stone), but it quickly dissolved into bat shit. The isekai-ish plot, along with the MMORPG style of acquiring new items was a stark reminder that Dr. Stone was a video game masquerading as an anime, meaning: we all got played.

Dr. Stone is one of those anime that try to look smart but end up looking like pretentious Instagram models craving for attention. I know it’s a shounen and all so it doesn’t need to be the most believable of stories, but when you put “Science” into the equation, the characters and their actions need to be pragmatic. Dr. Stone tries to put refreshing stuff on the plate but soon after starts following the same generic formulaic quintessential path most shounen are loathed for.

The plot is pretty ingenious, I’ll give them that. Strange green light turns all of humanity into stone and after about ... 3700 years humans start, for a lack of better word, thawing out of their petrification. Nature takes over and the civilisation built over hundreds of thousands of years is lost. Quite a thought provoking concept is turned into ashes thanks to lame characters and ostentatious presentation. We've yet to see the entire consequences of the petrification, but it is what it is right now.

I stated the anime comes off as pretentious, let me explain why. Senku, one of the main characters is a scientific genius and manages to count the passing seconds for 3700 years which is absolutely and scientifically bullshit. The anime is classified as Sci-fi and not fantasy so I’m under the assumption that no magic is involved. Let us find out how many seconds there are in 3700 years, shall we? 3700(years) * 365(days) * 24(hours) * 60(minutes) * 60(seconds) = 116,683,200,000 seconds. There is no way in hell that one can retain one’s sanity for more than 3 and a half millennia doing the same thing over and over again for over 116 billion times. Moreover, Senku’s friend, “Big Oaf” aka Taiju stays conscious because of his resolve to confess to his crush. Yeah, I don’t really see anything scientific in that. Also, Senku’s “10 billion percent” phrase is fucking annoying af. It just sounds so stupid. A simple 101 percent would suffice, but NO, big number means big brain time.

Also also, Senku has Einstein’s most famous equation, E = mc^2, written on his jacket. A little science lesson, E = mc^2 works only for stationary objects and when the object is viewed from a non-inertial frame of reference, for relativistic motion (which is the only type of motion in the universe), it doesn’t work. I would think an anime delving into chemistry and mechanics of various compounds and chemicals would at least get this equation correct.

The other characters are nothing special. Yuzuriha is just a girl that Taiju has a crush on and until now we haven’t really seen her do anything except get kidnapped. Tsukasa is the main antagonist and the “World’s strongest high schooler”, so strong that he can punch a lion to death, wrestle three wild boars at once, catch a bird mid-flight, destroy boulders with one punch and catch an arrow travelling towards him at a speed of 200 km/h. I was starting to wonder why he wasn’t bald and why did he not have a cyborg sidekick. The plot armour is strong with this one.

The major conflict in the story occurs when Senku is trying to revive humanity while Tsukasa is convinced that if all of humanity is revived then nothing would change. People who were powerful before the petrification would still like to remain powerful in this new age and a new hierarchy would be set up. It’s a really compelling argument, but it’s Tsukasa’s actions that make no sense. He says he’s only going to revive the younger generation and kill the older gen. How in hell’s name would he be able to differ between the two? He can’t make a prognosis about the consequences of him reviving a person who would not agree with him. I hope this is resolved in further episodes.

The art is great and all but why does Senku’s hair look like a white radish? Was he pulled out of the Earth? The background art is vivid and detailed. The character designs are generic and dry.

I don’t like the music. No piece has stood out to me.

This show is 5 billion percent okay and 5 billion percent mediocre. The setting is great and I hope the characters are more built upon in upcoming episodes lest it turn into your typical shounen.

When I sat down to look at what would be airing for Summer 2019, I initially found it difficult to pick shows to watch. I had seen tweets and posts on reddit which said that people were excited for Dr Stone above all else. I took a look at the trailer and I thought “Hmm, doesn’t look very good.” In hindsight, this was incredibly foolish of me.

In my view, Dr Stone is an interesting take on the “mad scientist” trope. Usually a mad scientist is depicted as someone who cannot wait to bring about death and destruction, and ruin and calamity to all life. They ... devote their lives to science to pursue their twisted and vile desires. But Senkuu is not an evil person, he devotes his life to science for his own wholesome reasons and is aided by his friends who are not as capable as he is, but help him do things he cannot do. Senkuu is a mad scientist but a strangely wholesome one.

Story – 9/10
While Taiju is confessing his love to Yuzuriha, a strange magical light turns everyone in the world to stone. He wakes up 3700 years later and realises his friend, Senkuu, is responsible for helping him gain consciousness. Senkuu has already decided “Hey, I guess I’ll save the entire human race” and Taiju helps him along the way. They wake up two more people (as of episode 6) Tsukasa (a very strong fighter who helps them fight predators and hunt) and Yuzuriha. There is some drama but I want to keep this review spoiler free so I won’t say anything about that. But the story is very interesting.

Art – 8/10
Art is very subjective. I really enjoy this style and it also fits the story quite well. There are some very good facial expressions here for all you Hinamatsuri and DanBeru fans.

Sound – 7/10
Nothing special to my untrained ear. But this OP is fantastic. Regarding the seiyuus, I am fond of them. The seiyuu for Taiju also does the voice of Saitama in One Punch Man, as well as Suwa – the best boy from Orange. For Tsukasa, he has been Bucciarati in JoJo Part 5 as well as the lead in OreImo. Oddly suitable. I believe he is the most senior of the main cast, but they all work well together.

Character – 6/10
Ok so hear me out…I like every character that has been introduced so far but as of episode 6, there are only four people in this world. I can tell there are more going by the stellar OP. As much as I love the way the three best friends (think of the song from The Hangover) interact with each other and how they trust each other, I think I am going to have to wait until the cast expands a bit more to truly see how great this show it. But as it stands, the current cast is great. Unfortunately I cannot, in good conscience, rank the characters any higher at this time. When the show is over, I will revise this review.

Enjoyment – 9/10
I am giving this show a 9 despite what I just wrote about the characters. I have a good feeling. This is a great show. I highly recommend it to everyone. Even if you are a bit bored of shounen, especially battle shounen, then this is for you. Because I was a bit bored of shounen when I saw the trailer for this show.

This is one of those shows where the individual parts when looked at separately do not seem to add together to be anything special. but you put all the little pieces together you somehow end up with something super fun, easy-to-watch, oddly wholesome and very enjoyable. And with that I give you Dr. Stone.

First of all let's clear the air. This is not some mind-bending crazy intelligent show. It is not trying to be. It's premise is essentially "mad-scientist restarts civilization after an odd-looking apocalypse with his oddly strong buddy.'

And honestly it's not that much more complicated than that. The "sciencey" bits need to ... be taken with a pinch of salt, the whole "counting every second for 3700 years" is hilarious but, good people reading this, please remember... you're watching a shounen.

For comparison, I don't see reviewers complaining about how in Kimetsu no Yaiba or Demon Slayer, which is airing along side Dr. Stone, he is able to like, cleave a 10 foot boulder in two with a katana after 2 years of training. Like WTF.

But obviously... NO ONE CARES cause it's a show about a kid running around killing demons, much in the same vein this is a show about a genius kid who gets dumped in the stone age of mankind and decides to go about trying to do sciencey stuff cause he loves science and wants to make more of it. It's simple and it has just as much right to a certain degree of suspension of disbelief as any other anime or show out there.

Now as far as the show itself, clearly we are only 6 episodes in so commenting on story is a bit hard, particularly because this show has focused a lot of it's time both on Senku's (mad scientist) thoughts as well as his interactions with His meat-head best friend. It has had almost 2 full episodes of sporadic filler which I have seen a lot of complaints about... HOWEVER, I think the timing and pacing of them has been excellent.

I will ALWAYS choose a small cast of believable personalities getting good character development then a blind rush into a story line where i don't give a crap about what happens because the characters are bland and 2 dimensional. I LIKE these characters... hell I like the VILLAIN!!
And for that I'm already willing to applaud Dr. Stone

Music seems on point most of the time, quite enjoy both the OP and ED and i've also been a big fan of both the scenic shots and the character designs.

So yea! Give it a try! If you want to wait till more has been released that's perfectly fine but between Dr. Stone and Demon Slayer i've been eagerly looking forward to my Friday afternoons!

Having been a fan of Weekly Shonen Jump works for many years, their arsenal of genres continues to bring diversity to its audience. From ninjas in hidden villages to mages from magical guilds, it seems once in a while, there comes a new hot topic for fans to celebrate. Dr. Stone celebrates a post-apocalyptic adventure that serves as a love letter to science but also brings a refreshing look to its fans.

One of the more distinctive features about the anime is the illustrator of the manga. Boichi had previously worked as an illustrator on manga such as Sun-Ken Rock, Wallman, and more recently, Origin. To ... see his character designs being animated is a breath of fresh air. In fact, the previews and key visuals demonstrated that Dr. Stone can be translated into the anime medium. Studio TMS collaborated with Crunchyroll to delivery to us a definitive imagination of the post-apocalyptic world. Just as in the manga, the anime takes in a period some 3700 years after the modern times. Now you can imagine how much potential Dr. Stone can bring with its expansive setting.

As with many anime these days, it’s becoming easier to judge by the cover and more so by what to expect from the synopsis. Dr. Stone doesn’t hide anything from its fans as the first episode quickly unravels the depths of its plot. We are thrown into the story immediately as the world seemingly ends and mankind get petrified into stone. It’s too bad for a guy like Ooki Taiju since he was planning to confess his love to a girl named Yuzuriha. Then, we meet Senku Ishigami, a brilliant man with a fascination for science. Not only does have a big ambition to rebuild civilization, he also wants to revive science and discover the truth of the past. Comparing the two characters seems like apple and oranges at first but as time went on, I grew to appreciate both characters. They share similar goals despite possessing different skillsets. And unmasking the truth isn’t an easy task. Combining their talents together brings them closure to discovering the nature of the Stone World. However, you may be wondering what Dr. Stone is really aiming for.

The answer is quite simple and that is to explore the idea of science but translating it into without being dull or forced down our throats. Every idea spawned in the show has a purpose such as important inventions. Senku’s brilliance helps bring technology into the Stone World through his innovative ideas. It’s clear that his passions goes beyond just curiosity but genuinely wants to rebuild mankind into a civilization. As the main character, Senku’s natural charisma gave me the impression of a leader, someone who is capable of expressing his voice without much bias. Some of his actions may seem manipulative in nature but deep down, he is a selfless man who applies his logic to help people. However, Senku himself is not just the sole person to keep an eye on. If there’s one character to name that stands on the opposite side of Senku, it would be Tsukasa Shishio, a man with a desire to recreate a world without modern technology. Clashing against his personal ideas, Tsukasa serves as Senku’s main obstacle and antagonist throughout the show. Similar to Senku, he is also highly intelligent but also carries a great amount of physical strength. The plot details of his own ambitions and while not being promoted as much as Senku, we are shown about the true nature of his character.

As the cast expands, we are also introduced to Ishigami Village, a community from the Stone Age world where some of the major characters reside in. These include Chrome, Ginro, Kinro, Suika, Kohaku and her sister Ruri, to name a few. The village serves a symbol of mankind achievement. It’s where we see some of the science at work and inventions bought to reality with the ingenious work of the characters. These include but not limited to food seasoning tools, clothing, shelter, fire, traps, alcohol, gunpowder, iron, drugs, magnets, glass, weapons, and of course, the formula that de-petrified humanity. If you think about it really, the ability to make all these made possible may be the closest thing mankind has to a superpower.

With the manga still ongoing, the main plot is decorated into arcs that expands upon the overall storytelling. This is similar to long running Shounen Jump manga and also important to flesh out its colorful character cast. Dr Stone keeps its fans engaged and entertaining with its addictive character chemistry. We have characters such as Kohaku and Suika often stealing the spotlight with their personalities. Others such as Tsukasa and Asagiri develops rivalries with Senku to bring out the best of their characters. Unfortunately, not everyone can be appealing in the show. I quickly lost interest in Taiju and Yuzuriha’s relationship after being introduced to the Stone World. Even as one of the more important characters, Yuzuriha rarely ever stands out compared to the other cast. When we talk about Taiju, he holds a much lesser degree of presence compared to Senku, Kohaku, Tsukasa, or even Asagiri in later episodes. Fortunately, the character chemistry connects the show’s humor together to still bring out entertainment. There’s an immense amount of comedy that draws out character personalities. Sometimes, it may seem to go overboard but most often, it’s great to get the fans entertained.

Even as a 2-cour show, Dr. Stone doesn’t have enough material to cover to the manga story. With over 130+ chapters and ongoing, the anime did accomplish the mission to deliver a wealth of its ideas. If you managed to complete the anime from first episode to the end, you should have a great understanding on what the author is trying to deliver to us. Luckily enough, the anime remains faithful throughout its run without going off rail with its main plot. Even the ambiguous background storytelling is told through the eyes of the international space station crew. The animation quality is adamantly beautiful with its world setting from the prehistoric landscapes to its scientific inventions. I can’t thank Boichi enough to make his characters look more distinctive than the generic looking character models we find so often these years. Take me advice and read some of his other works. As with the animation, soundtrack brings a colorful sense of charisma with its theme songs. The character voice mannerisms synchronizes well with each personality especially Senku, our scientific genius of the Stone Age world.

There’s no doubt that Dr. Stone tried to be unique with its science culture and storytelling. Every now and then, there’s an anime that I find myself deeply indulged in with its creative ideas. This show proved itself to be a refreshing take on the science fiction genre that 2019 needed. Toonami also recently took steps to bring the show to a broader audience in the West. Hopefully, that means more fans will get to experience the fascination of Dr. Stone’s style of science. I mean, what more could you want? Another season? Well good news because we're getting it.

If Dr. Stone was a human being, it would be that one really annoying and narcissistic kid in class that thinks he knows everything about whatever sh*t and cr*p, but in reality, is just a whiny little p*ssy that nobody respects. I wish I could say that this analogy is 100% accurate, however, that is not the case as the fanbase, which encompasses of Turbo virgin redditors and other uneducated meaningless lifeforms, deeply respect and defend the show almost making it impossible to criticize. I get that this is a shounen and all, so there are bound to be some “illogical” things here and there, ... but if you’re going to add “science” as the main idea, then there can be absolutely NO ERRORS with the basic scientific laws that are used. But there is anyways. I feel like anyone with a basic understanding of the physical sciences (physics and chemistry) will be able to identify at least one or two scenes in which the writers just completely devoid themselves of all logic and break the laws of physics. The only positives in the show are the art and setting, but obviously that is not enough to make a good anime, yet it somehow worked anyway considering the crazy amount of promotion from Crunchyroll and the mentally “special” fanbase members.

Ok. Now before you hardcore fans begin to go all Mob Psycho 100 on me, just take a moment to relax and catch your breath because this train is going to be a one-way ticket straigth through the inferno all the way down to the ninth circle of hell.

Starting ez, as I said earlier, the only thing good in this show is the setting and how the art manages to capture the idea of a “Stone World” which on a side note, is a very creative title for a post apocalyptic world. The only problem I have with this doesn’t exactly have to do with the setting, but rather the writing, which is that they didn’t make it clear at the beginning that it was only humans and some birds that were affected by the unusual phenomena that turned them into stone.

Now, let’s get into the filth. So make sure you get the hot water running in the shower right now before continuing.

As I mentioned earlier, I acknowledge that this is shounen and there are bound to be some “illogical” things and one of those things is the fact that Senku was able to count roughly the exact number of seconds that pass while still stone for 3700 years. Now normally I would give this a pass with the assumption that this “plot convenience” would have an important role to play in the course of this show. Unfortunately, it didn’t. The only reason it existed was to add a “hype” moment for the ultra turbo virgin redditors and lonely youtube surfers to make a big deal out of. It was that awful.

Another filthy aspect of this show is the characters---every single one of them.

Senku is a guy with some Rick and Morty level IQ. Can confirm 10 billion percent true. His entire character is completely generic with such minimal personality that honestly just appears to be cringe most times. He’s a bearable character in the beginning, but in the village arc everything just seems dull.
Taiju is the guy that packs the brawn of the duo. Just like Senku, Taiju is also completely generic in his respective character archetype and neither of them receive any development at all. It’s just the same two characters doing their thing to speedrun scientific advancements.

Not to mention, but if Senku really does have such scientific intuition then wouldn’t he want to discover the cause of the “Stone World” in the first place. I mean seriously, any real scientist would first want to discover the problem before fixing it.

Tsukasa is the type of guy that is dumber than Senku (but still somewhat smart) and stronger than Taiju. Because of this I went under the false impression that he would be a good villain. The reason he doesn’t want scientific advancement is because of a “story” about a guy that wanted seashells for his dying sister but then some adult comes by and is like “OH! You can’t do that this is my property or something.” Therefore Tsukasa doesn’t like science because it makes adults corrupt. Honestly, WHERE IN THIS STORY IS THERE ANY MENTION OF SCIENCE CORRUPTING. IF ANYTHING IT SHOULD BE CAPITALISM OR PRIVATE PROPERTY AND IT WOULD STILL BE SH*T REGARDLESS.

I’m not going to go into much detail about Kohaku, but all you need to know is that she left the tournament arc, THE VERY IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT TO DECIDE THE VILLAGE CHIEF, because of the slight probability that some child might be drowning since they were alone. That same child was alone exploring the forest multiple times but NO, now all of a sudden I care about being paranoid about a child’s safety. PLOT CONVENIENCE!!!!!!

I also want to note that the character design was one notable thing at the beginning, however, they still managed to screw the one unique thing up entering the village arc.

Overall, Dr. Stone had a good premise and setting and a few artistic scenes that can make you feel at ease, but horrible execution throughout. The entire show is riddled with an unquantifiable amount of plot convenience, appalling characters, unfunny jokes, and ofcourse---downright fake SCIENCE in a few instances for the sake of coherency in the storyline, which is utter crap to begin with anyway.

Just to clarify, it’s not the fake science that’s the worst part of the show but how the characters are written. The most important part in any show I believe is the characters and how they develop and contribute towards the overall story and that is what the writers screwed up the most.

If you really want to watch a good shounen science show, watch FMA Brotherhood. Seriously I would much rather watch this 10 times in a row if I’d known Dr. Stone would be such utter sh*t that make my brain cells melt.

EDIT: Ok, so I wrote this review like 2 years ago during the peak of my adolescent-like weeb stage, hence the plentitude of jargon only people who watch a lot of anime would understand. Looking back on this, I'm not particularly proud of my presentation in this review as I was going for a dark-comedic vibe, but, I guess the comedic part I was going for may not have landed so nicely (Comments have been equally positive and negative). To be clear, my opinions on the show have not changed much at all. I still think its trash for how it gets away with minimal animations and other stuff I mention in the main body of this review. As for the use of the term "fake science," I will agree that it is not the best use of words to highlight my point. What I meant to say by "fake science" is an issue with the writing with how conveniently everything plays out for the main characters that it just feels so unrealistic and lacks immersiveness. Although on a side note, I wouldn't be surprised if the author did in fact sneak in some plot holes. If you feel the need to go on a rant and comment on a review from almost 2 years ago, maybe you should rethink your own life instead.

The preliminary of this story is really interesting, but I think the way it is developed is just poor.
The characters are very flat, I can't tell anything about them except than Senku's smart, Taiju's always screaming and the obligatory love interest and obligatory enemy with really terrible motives to be a "villain".
The first two episodes were really good and nice to watch, the science touch made it different from other stories that can be similar, but the deductions of the characters get lazier and lazier with every episode.
Art and music are really good, you can see that there's a lot of money put ... on this, but I don't thinks that's good enough to follow this series.

What got me interested in the show was this idea behind humanity reverting back to the stone age and having to rediscover and re-create all modern inventions and utilities. When this is the main focus, that is really where the show is at its strongest. It is then, rather unfortunate, that it doesn't really go too in-depth with it and so I don't necessarily feel like I really learned anything once done watching. I think the show should have capitalized a lot more on this aspect and made this the central theme of every episode. Show some naturally occurring conflict that would happen when it ... is just us vs nature, and then show the methods that we have learned to overcome those difficulties. For instance, perhaps have a person become envenomed and die, and then show the methods we use for creating antidotes and voila -- one challenge overcome + if done in a way that is entertaining and informative, we could even learn something from it once we are done watching! This could continue as they built a bigger and bigger settlement and solving more and more of the problems that would arise. Perhaps focusing on how we discovered certain medicines or other useful resources to treat illnesses. The show has some light inkling of this, but too little and too much of the silly drama/comedy/and cringy dialogue. Basically have the science really take the forefront and relying on the problem solving being interesting enough to entertain the audience without the need for villains with evil, world-dominating plots...

Well, the show doesn't really do this, putting science at the forefront I mean... First off, it starts off with one of the most ridiculous post-apo setups I have ever seen, and it is just so... lazy... I really like stories that, even though they are dealing with a completely implausible idea, still do their best of grounding their stories in reality. It adds a sense of care, esp. if it is supposed to be taken seriously. If you have played the game 'The Last of Us', that would be a great example of this: Sure, it is at the end of the day a glorified zombie-apocalypse, but they decided to ground it enough by saying, hey, there is this mind-controlling fungus that actually exists and can control ants and bugs, what if it jumped to humans.. hmm? It shows some care that I think this show is sorely lacking.

The second big thing for me is the drama/conflicts. Like I said, just the everyday problem that humans would naturally encounter in a pre-technological world and the ways of overcoming this could be interesting enough. Instead, we are served this emo, self-centered maniacal revolutionist who wants to take over the world and bring about a new era of something... not exactly clear what he is trying to accomplish but apparently, youths are good, as longs as you are pro-him, and grown-ups are bad and must be killed. They crack a bit of a "joke" that it would be bad if the first person they wake is a murderer and sure enough, they got that and something even worse.. a hippie!

And the third big thing is the characters. ALL OF THEM ARE TERRIBLE. The loudmouth idiot that does nothing but scream, the pretentious doctor with lots of monologues and pro-humanity quotes (reminded me of a bad version of Sora from no game), the contender for the least interesting villain ever, and the girl just there to act cute and do absolutely nothing, with a super annoying voice to boot.

--

So apparently 3700 years have passed and how did Dr. Stupid Hair know this? He, with perfect pitch, counted the seconds perfectly! It's things like this that makes everything feel so... I don't really have a word for it but so counterproductive if we are meant to take the science side of it in any way seriously with throw-ins like that. And yet again, here was an opportunity to add some actual science to it. Perhaps explain different methods of dating, such as carbon dating, counting tree rings or perhaps some astronomical fact such as how certain astronomical objects would appear in the sky assuming some thousands of years have passed.

Dr. Stone is amazing

First off, this anime may not be for everyone

The story: Some mysterious green light turns everyone into stone statues, then after 3700 years our main character Senku wakes up. He knows what happened and he wants to turn everyone back into living beings. Then he starts his quest on resurrect everyone. He starts off by building essential tools and equipment. Later on his best friend Taiju wakes up. Senku wants to rebuild humanity with science.

Characters: Senku is very weak body wise but his intelligence is off the charts. Taiju is kinda dumb but he is strong and has a god like ... stamina. Yuzuriha is Taijus "girlfriend", she is very skilled with her hands. Tsukasa is the main bad guy of the show and he is kinda a communist. Kohaku is very strong and has very good agility. Chrome is another scientist but he has no clue of modern science. Kinro is one of the villages guards and is very strong and determined. Ginro is somewhat strong and kind of a coward. Gen Asagiri, is a mentalist who switches sides like Italy. He is best boi. There are a lot more.

The art is very beautiful looking even though the characters eyes are very far away from each other.

The sound work in this is great. The ost is very beautiful and both openings are bangers.

This anime has done something remarkable. It made me enjoy physics and science.

If you are a man of science and physics, you should check this anime out. The characters are nice and so is the story

I would recommend this. I fell in love with this show.

Local turnip hair kid wakes up in a prehistoric future and uses the power of science and improbable percentages in an attempt to beat the anime version of Sid Meier's Civilization in record time.

This basically sums up what I’ve seen from Dr. Stone, and I’m 99% percent certain that its unique premise has drawn the attention of a lot of anime fans. Ha, bet you were expecting a cheap 10 billion percent joke, but I still have my dignity. Of course just because this anime has a plot that isn’t “dude dies by truck-kun and is revived as an OP isekai god” doesn’t mean that ... the show itself will be great. With that said, let’s dive into my thoughts on Dr. Stone!

Plot: 7 billion out of 10 billion (So much for my dignity…)

Premise aside, I actually kinda like what they did with the execution of the story. Now naysayers will surely argue that this anime fails because despite it advertising that the protagonist Senkuu uses science and reason to solve problems, the anime is still crazy over the top. And yeah, things are incredibly overblown, like people in this anime accomplish feats that should be physically and mentally impossible. But now I’d like to remind everyone that this is an anime. A shounen at that. One that takes place 3700 years in the future. Did anyone actually think that Dr. Stone was going to aim for absolute realism? I personally believe that it does a seamless job at combining fantasy and shounen elements with the application of science. And Senkuu’s experiments really spice things up with how innovative and useful they can be. Also, the anime goes on to explain how he was able to make all of these modern achievements with such primitive tools, and it’s actually kind of believable. Its even kinda fun, and I actually learned a little about the construction of scientific elements. But hey, if Dr. Stone’s approach turns you off, you can always learn about science by watching Bill Nye the Science Guy before he became a shill or something. Your choice!

The plot is definitely the high point of the anime for me, and while it’s a little held back by some of the weak characters, the story still manages to be great. It has some solid progression in both science as well as the advancement of the primitive village people. I honestly think that their development and curiosity with the modern world is endearing and shows that no matter how far civilization has regressed, humans will alway maintain their desire for progress and innovation. I’d also like to give a shoutout to the backstory episodes revolving around Senkuu’s dad, which, while rushed, were really interesting and added a lot to the narrative.

Animation: 4 billion out of 10 billion

Visuals are probably the weakest point of this show. One thing that Shounen anime are typically known for aside from deafeningly loud protagonists and bloviated power levels are their fight sequences. And the ones depicted in Dr. Stone are pretty lackluster. They use the typical easy-outs like close ups to hide the fact that nothing is really being animated and a bunch of still shots with nothing but the characters’ voices to remind us the characters are actually battling. Also, the art, which is generally fine and consistent, can get really bad when characters are drawn to look “funny.” Now this is just my opinion of course, but I thought the CrAZy faces the characters made were closer to cringe than comedy so…they just didn’t work for me.

Sound: 5 billion out of 10 billion

Did anyone notice the catchy Celtic sounding music that would play right after the theme song? I love that kind of stuff. The soundtrack was also infused with some similar sounding music from time to time, which was cool. I’ll probably get a lot of flack for this, but I wasn’t a fan of any of the theme songs. They just weren’t my style, ya know? When it comes to voice acting, the performances sort of go both ways for me. While the seiyuu generally do a good job, they also sometimes go a little overboard with their acting, and it just seems really forced sometimes.

Characters: 4 billion out of 10 billion

Oh boy, here’s where the anime could have been a great success in my eyes had they done this part right. Unfortunately, a lot of the characters are hit or miss. And for me, the science wizard Senkuu falls in the latter category. He’s a super duper spectacular unparalleled genius dude who uses big brain time 10 billion percent of the time. He knows all there is to know about science and cackles annoyingly when he figures something out as his companions look on in dumbfounded wonder. I praised the show’s usage of science, but I have to bash the guy who they wrote to apply it. He’s more of a plot device if anything, and despite the anime’s best efforts to make him a deep character by doing things like providing his backstory, it just doesn’t work for me. He’s just a character who feels sorta…empty.

Senkuu’s childhood friends, Taiju and Yuzuriha, are featured a lot at the beginning, but get absolutely zero development. And of course right when you think they’ll become important and useful, they’re completely removed from the anime without a trace. A bit of a waste if you ask me. There’s also Tarzan-kun, the antagonist of the story who’s a big guy with a big heart. Except not really. He’s supposed to be one of those hero antagonists who despite his questionable actions still wants what’s best for the world. Tarzan-kun just wants to make a utopia consisting of only untainted children with the goal of them living in harmony. Except he counteracts his own goal by literally reviving con artists, murderers and sluts, so…so much for that!

The characters who save this anime are definitely the village people. While none of them have stood out yet as particularly special, I believe that a lot of them have the potential to get there down the line. I like warrior girls, so I ended up liking Kohaku. Yeah, I’m actually not that hard to please. Chrome ended up being a solid character who would honestly be a better protagonist than Senkuu. Suika is absolutely adorable and actually useful, and the other villagers like Ginrou and Kaseki just add some needed humor and fun to the anime. They’re all around pretty solid characters, and I started to enjoy watching Dr. Stone a lot more after their introduction.

Entertainment: 6 billion out of 10 billion

I honestly got pretty bored with Dr. Stone at the beginning. While the plot was definitely interesting, I feel like the writers weren’t effectively using what they had and instead focused on some one dimensional characters making terrible jokes with a little bit of random science thrown in here and there. But as I said, once Senkuu got to the village, the anime started to turn around for the better, and I actually found myself becoming a bit invested in the show. It wasn’t a dramatic shift or anything as the core problems of Dr. Stone were still apparent, but the show was able to alleviate some of these issues by actually becoming fun and enjoyable to watch.

Overall: 5 out of 10, because I can’t handle any more billions

Dr. Stone had a lot of potential. Now while it wasn’t completely squandered or anything, I feel like this anime could have really been so much more if it wasn’t for the failings of a lot of the core characters and the general mediocrity of the first six or so episodes. And while it certainly got better down the line, it wasn’t a big enough improvement to elevate this show to new heights or anything in my mind. But hey, its still a fine show, and you might actually learn something from watching. I know I sure did! Wanna know what I learned?

Appreciate soap. It can be just as effective as any old doctor. Yep, that’s what I got out of this anime.

Yesterday, I watched the recent episode of Dr. Stone and right after finishing it, I sat down to study chemistry (something I had been avoiding for a few weeks because I suck in chemistry). That's how much power this show and the mc has.

This show has been added to the list of reasons I want the week to end quickly. Every Friday, I wait intently for the new episode to come out. I have also read the manga of this series and till now I can say that it has mostly done the manga justice with very minute changes here and there that doesn't really ... affect the plot all that much.

So, this series is about this extremely intelligent, 10 billion percent smart guy, Senku and his not so intelligent but good guy friend Taijuu. There's this stone apocalype thingy that affects the whole of humanity (and swallows?). So all people and birds have been petrified and turned into stone.

Senku, the genius, remains conscious this entire time that he is in the form of a stone and keeps a count of the second that have passed.... for 3017 year. (talk about jobless and genius. WOW!)

but anyway, he miraculously is revived and that's how his adventures of building a whole new world with the help of science begins.

The Art is excellent in my opinion. Sound effects are great as well. Characters are unique, and the premise is mind blowing.
Also, in some way, this anime is actually educational. Because the stuff they show related to science are actually real facts and not some made up bullshit. So that recipe for soap? Yeah, it's true. Gunpowder? A-ha but don't try it please.

Overall, this anime has been really enjoyable so far with adequate amounts of comedy, action, logic, and emotions all packed in perfectly to give us DR. STONE.

Thrilling and satisfying, but imperfect and some times ugly, are the words I would use to describe dr.stone. While on other shounen animes you can only get the satisfaction at the end of an arc that takes dozen of episodes to get to, this anime does it in less than three episodes by putting smaller goals. Although, that doesn't mean it the best anime ever or even this season. The rewarding feeling that you get every few episodes is enough to make up for a ton of its flaws and make it memorable.

story______________________________
The story feels a lot like an isekai (and I know many people ... would describe it that way), and that is in no way a bad thing. The anime starts with a little intro that gives us a brief look into the world and the main character before the disaster happens. The intro doesn't waste much time, and the disaster hits off fast on a sort of cliff hunger (a bad one because you don't care about the character as you have just seen him for the first time in your life). Making this into a good starting goal for the anime. (The goals are one of the things that shine bright in this anime.) The story then continues into a steady base until the antagonist is introduced. There we establish the big goal of the anime, which is a mouse and cat scenario of two kinds of judgments/ways of saving the world(at least that what I thought it would be when I first saw it). The thing with these two approaches that i don't like is how black and white they are. Having 2 grey approaches would have been much better. Still, after the story continues, this makes more sense because the antagonist feels a lot more like white noise, although that doesn't mean that this approach is good or even bad. Still, honestly, all doesn't matter much when you think of the anime as a whole package. Where is the jest of the anime is the goal completion part. In many ways, this anime feels like a video game, and they knew that about it. Some moments kill peacing. Like a long flashback of Senku's past that didn't add to his character or the story. Wrapping things up the story in no way groundbreaking, but in this case, it doesn't matter, making the story just a background for the quest completion feeling was the right thing to do.

Characters ______________________________
In most isekai the protagonist is someone unfit for their world but super in the other world, this by itself isn't enough to build a story around most of the time, thus the huge amount of bad isekais. These kinds of stories demand the main character being excellent, the story writer clearer knows this so well to a level of having every character be just a supporting for the main character. Making them weak on their own, but when Senku is in the picture, they make him grander, which reflects on them making them a tad bit more memorable than they ever should be. In the end, Senku is a great overall character and more than capable of carrying the story and even the other characters, but this still doesn't hide the fact that the other characters are quite weak.

Sound ______________________________
Nothing to talk about much in terms of sound. The anime is a tad bit better than a lot of other animes but isn't amazing enough to be remembered for how it sounded. There is one thing I would like to mention, and that is how poor of a decision it was to change the first op that fits the anime so much, into more generic bog-standard shounen op.

Art______________________________
Unique in good and bad ways. The art is nothing to write home about being just good with some questionable character designs that to this day still feel so weird and a tad bit creepy, don't get me wrong I love when animes try to go for unique character design but not when they miss it up.

Conclusion _____________________________
Looking into this anime is just like looking into someones face it doesn't matter how beautiful they may seem. Looking too much to their face is going to bring its imperfections (and how creepy you are) but looking at it as a whole (the way you should look at it) makes look as beautiful as it supposes to be(well I feel like a serial killer or a creep writing this).

Have you ever thought that the civilization now, which we built more than 200,000 years will be destroyed in a few seconds? Dr. Stone tells the story of a modern world that was destroyed because everyone turned to stone. I don't know even I don't want to know why they turned to stone. Senku who wants to accelerate science and bring it to the stone world. He tried to build a modern civilization to restore it to normal. Focuses on two things namely natural science and moral science, while the story itself, seems boring and unattractive because with that difference they create conflict that is ... too forced, as if they were created so that it has an enemy. Yet what's interesting here is how they develop science from zero, From how they make fire, knives, soap, electricity, lights, medicine, and how Senku gathering for friend to create a kingdom of science.

Now I will discuss the characters that have a big impact on the course of the story. Senku, He is the main character in this anime who has the nature of not caring about anything except science.Taiju Ooki, he was the first person raised by Senku because he really needed his muscles. Kohaku, she was the second person needed by Senku because of his exceptional skills in things that needed energy such as the Taiju. Tsukasa, he is an enemy in this anime, who wants to stop the development of science in order to create an ideal world without mortals.

Next is the character design, in my opinion the character design in this anime seems normal. For this animation is good because I like their animation very clearly, where the picture should be made for comedy and to explain something about science. They use images that are simple but easy to understand, when they explain the plan to build civilization or when making something. From the beginning, maybe this anime's purpose was to educate, so it was made as simple as possible and easy to understand. For the accuracy of knowledge, better open wikipedia or google to make sure it, not that I mean to say this anime is misleading or the other but be wise viewers and sort out which ones are genuine which ones are fake.

An anime usually has its own signature, don't care whether it's from the storyline, voice actors (seiyuu), soundtracks, characters, and also the opening theme. What's interesting here is the opening theme which I think is very extraordinary, the song titled "Good Morning World" sung by "Burnout Syndromes" caught my attention. The conformity of the theme and song poetry is very suitable and encourages me to watch, although being heard several times it still remains interesting. For the voice actor I think it's good, nothing needs to be added, but what I like most is the voice actor Senku, because his explanation of science is easy to understand and is suitable when joking or serious.

Additionally, did I as an audience become smart after watching this anime?

The answer, I leave it to you but, what needs to be known is that this anime functions to trigger our curiosity about science, not to make us become smart instant, so don't you try to go out of your house and live in the middle of the forest then you apply Senku science ... because it is a very strange thing.

I´m studying to become a chemist. I had lost my passion to the field for a long time, but this series reminded me why I came to love science. Failure is okay if you can move forward. I think everyone can and should follow such teaching.
Story is simple but message is clear and can take many directions. Literally outer-space is the limit.
Art is great all around which go both with serious and comedic moments.
Music ost Humanity's Scientific Endeavor tells it all.
Characters are the best. Everybody has a meaning in the story and have great chemistry with each other. They also feel real. Not too much ... or too little. Everybody has weakness and strenght. Everybody is welcome to kingdom of science.
Enjoyment? Can´t you tell that I´m enjoying it?
Overall I´m happy about how this series turned out.

I was quite interested in this series going into it, with such an interesting premise it had a lot of potential to be something great. To have everyone get turned into stone and have our protagonist awaken 3,700 years later where he has to re-build society from scratch makes for a lot of interesting possibilities. However before this series was able to take advantage of this premise they drove it off a cliff by introducing what can best be described as a communist gorilla. I guess it couldn't be a shounen jump series without a shitty villain, huh?

Our communist gorilla by the name of Tsukasa ... immediately change the series from a promising civilisation building series into what is essentially another battle shounen, this time scienence vs brawn. Because of this most of the science stuff is related to eventually fighting the communist monkey kingdom which works the same way as a training arc in a battle shounen as they prepare for combat. If a rinse and repeat of the battle shounen story structure wasn't enough pretty much half the show is comedic relief. Gags after gags after gags, I have no idea what they were thinking, this might not be a big deal in the manga as you can skim past it but here we are constantly interrupted by chibi faces with obnoxious voices making appaling facial expressions.

The only saving grace for this show is a few episodes where we stray away from this and we get to see what this series could have been if it was done competently. Though to be honest at the same time this also felt like a punch in the face as it showed that there were competence somewhere behind this but they chose not to take advantage of it and make something new but instead opting for yet another a semi-battle shounen.

I wanted so much to like this anime. The premise and first 2 episodes are completely fantastic, you've got one guy in the entire world who has encyclopedic knowledge of how to advance out of the stone age, and you have the potential to introduce LITERALLY ANY CHARACTER at any time. So much potential.

The problem is, the pacing in this story IS THE WORST. You get timeskip montages but then no time has passed at all. You get half-baked drama that the show refuses to either cut out, or do properly. At one point you have a character who is ... LITERALLY THREATENING ANOTHER CHARACTER WITH DEATH and the show cuts away to a relaxed montage about the time somebody got a telescope for his birthday. If you want to write a BS high school slice of life story, fine, but don't put that stuff in your post-apocalyptic survival thriller.

The only word to describe it is amateur. As an anime it's a 4/10 but as a show it's a 2/10

There isn't much good to say about this series so far and from what I've heard from those who seem to agree, the manga doesn't get much better as it goes. I think it should just drop trying to be "science fiction" or at least adopt the "superpower" genre in addition to it's current listed genres. There is far too many superhuman feats in the first few episodes to try to take it seriously as a story set in a realistic world, not to mention the whole premise of being frozen in stone for 3,700 years and surviving is ludicrous to begin with, absolutely impossible ... by any stretch of the imagination. It's not a matter of "oh it could be possible with some unknown science beyond our understanding" as it's just outright impossible. It's like saying "you could spontaneously grow another pair of lungs in your butthole, it's not impossible it's just never happened YET!"

The characters are extremely bland one dimensional boring sacks of trash a child could easily write better, particularly the supposed genius, Senku. Senku has a number of annoyingly unscientific catchphrases he can't go more than a single second without spewing in an effort to sound smarter than he is. I rate his character negative ten billion points.

The production quality is about the only saving grace, with the art, animation and sound design being rather enjoyable and arguably of better than average standard for the industry.

“Mix the chlorosulfuric acid into the acetanilide we just made, and we get para-acetamidobenzenesulfonyl chloride.”

Dr. Stone is a very, very good children’s cartoon. Easily one of the best series to ever come out of the Weekly Shonen Jump. Normally, I wouldn’t care about a children’s cartoon enough to review it, cause I’m an adult (it’s a joke, it’s hard to convey the comedic intent in writing because you can’t do intonations… so you wouldn’t get it unless I explain it). But the polarized audience reaction to this show is a phenomenon interesting in itself.

Dr. Stone very vividly demonstrates that any show has two completely distinct ... components to it - the plot and the story. The plot is a summary of the events that happen during the show - who goes where, does what, fights whom, etc. The story is the show’s ideas, themes and messages, i.e. the point it is trying to present to us, the audience. And this is where the root of the polarized response to Dr. Stone lies. People who like it, like the story. People who hate it, hate the plot. You could say that they watched two different shows. I wouldn’t say that, though - I would say the first group watched an anime called Dr. Stone, and the second group didn’t watch anything because they failed the act of watching a TV show on a fundamental level. Because the plot is completely irrelevant, only “the point” of the show is what matters - it’s literally in the freaking name of the thing. Prioritizing the summary of events over it would also very literally be “missing the point.” Have I made my point clear? Good, I will now proceed to describe both the plot and the story of this series to elaborate.

The plot of Dr. Stone is a Sunday morning pop-science show framed as your typical WSJ battle shounen. It’s a steady stream of flashy physics/chemistry experiments meant to get children interested in science by making it look cool. It’s also a steady stream of training, battles and tournaments as you would expect of the battle shounen - but here they’re meant to show off to children the scientific method and scientific way of thinking - which is done by contextualizing those things as the means to achieving the fundamental WSJ values of Friendship, Effort, Victory (i.e. knowing how stuff works lets you save people, planning and preparation gives you the upper hand in battle, etc).
The target audience defines the show’s simplicity of presentation - clear-cut good guys vs. bad guys, absurdly over the top developments, physical comedy, etc. - and these are the parts that get targeted as “contrived” or “unrealistic” by the segment of the audience incapable of engaging a work of fiction on any level except the most literal. If you consider the “world's strongest teenager” punching a lion to death unrealistic - that’s a wrong show for you. Also, anime is a wrong medium for you, because the whole point of animation is the absence of constraints reality imposes on live-action, and any anime that has the level of realism of a TV show is by definition a bad anime, but that’s just fyi.
Incidentally, what I called “simplicity” is only simple by the standards of high-brow literature - the show’s writing is miles better than your average shounen. It stays clear from most of the insufferable birth defects of the genre - for example, it doesn’t subject the audience to any of the “narrating things literally happening on-screen right now because children can’t be trusted to process visual information.''

And here’s what makes up the story - the part responsible for Dr. Stone being one of the best series to come out of WSJ like I said above:
1) The best representation of science in a TV series, period. Characters have to slowly and painfully grind to get results, to obtain any sort of a complex thing multiple people with different skills and competences are needed, trial and error rules the day, etc. While artistic license is employed, it’s very minimal - if some process takes half a year in real life it WILL take half a year in-universe.
2) Reconstruction (as in, modification that makes it more in line with reality) of the standard shounen tropes. The protagonist is a genius kid - but his genius is a bunch of encyclopaedic knowledge. He read a lot of books, i.e. put in hard work and dedication, and got rewarded for it. No inherited genetic superpowers, no power-ups acquired by being hot-blooded - just a good old effort. When he encounters something outside of his area of expertise, he fumbles and struggles like any of us would. An actually relatable role model.
3) Campiness and unpredictability. Larger-than-life characters and over-the-top developments that keep you awake because you haven’t seen them in 500 other shows before.
4) Theme and narrative consistency. One of the main messages of the show is that science can explain any mystery with enough time and effort - there is no such thing as supernatural. The story introduces quite a few things that appear ridiculous or nonsensical (hence campiness) - and lo and behold - they do get the in-universe explanations eventually, even if it takes a lot of time.
5) It does, in fact, make science look cool. One of the best scenes of the series is a presentation on how much of a difference for one’s quality of life a simple pair of glasses makes. Teaching/reminding the audience just how amazing are the fruits of civilization that we take for granted is the most inspiring thing ever.

Some other unrelated notes:
- The artist is Korean so the art is manhwa-like, unusual by the normal anime standards. Female character faces are definitely not for the faint of heart.
- The series effectively reboots itself after ~6 episodes, to a point where I question why those early installment weirdness parts weren’t given the FMA: Brotherhood treatment. You can’t exactly skip them, cause they’re full of plot points, just a heads up that you’ll be watching a very different show after a certain point.

9/10 for “having your children watch this would be good parenting”.