Is Dr. Stone's ending disappointing or satisfying?
If you don't want to read all of this just talk about what you thought of the ending.
The Dr. Stone manga ends with chapter 232, where Senku is in the process of building a time machine with the help of the real Why-Man brought back from the Moon. Senku wants to save all 7 billion members of humanity.
Senku and the group of international scientists on his team refer to this mission as "the baaad science project." The project was only possible because of the "real" Why-Man, the only living specimen who chose to stay behind and accompany Senku back to Earth.
The ending of Dr. Stone is disappointing and satisfying in equal measure. For every con, there's also a pro I can think of, which makes the ending perfect, if a bit rushed.
Starting with the biggest problem most people, myself included, have: the Why-Man problem. Where did they come from? Who created them? Why did they leave without a fight?
No major fights
In chapter 231, I personally expected more of a show. It's finally Senku vs. Why-Man, the force behind the petrification of all humanity—but there's no fight.
Why-Man boasts of being able to assume human form and defy gravity, but nothing really comes of it.
Why-Man remains in his massive skeleton form and decides to abandon Earth because humans are unable to help them reproduce and also because, as Senku says, they aren't stupid enough to attack their hosts.
Time Travel
Humanity ends up with a single piece of futuristic technology that actually helps them create a time machine. Some people think it was a mistake on Boichi and Inagaki's part to include something like time travel in a scientifically accurate story.
But, as Senku says, a time machine was simply a scientific impossibility in the 21st century.
Millennia later, with the help of alien technology, it's not such a far-fetched dream. Of course, time travel presents its own set of paradoxes and problems, but this is Senku we're talking about here; the guy single-handedly evolved all of humanity from the Stone to the Modern Age.
He's going to discover ten billion percent. The entire series has been about progressing the past so it can catch up with the future. The final chapter of Dr. Stone attempts to use the future so the past doesn't have to catch up.
Conclusion
So, while most people believe the ending of Dr. Stone was disappointing, I don't entirely agree. Sure, it ended a bit abruptly, and the Why-Man vs. Senku fight was disappointing. But the ending justifies the beginning, just as the lack of a full-blown battle justifies Senku's philosophy.
The manga remains science-centric until the end, which is something to be applauded. Inagaki and Boichi's research certainly paid off. |
