Dr. Stone

When a mysterious light suddenly engulfs Earth, humanity is left petrified, frozen in stone. Thousands of years later, the world is teeming with vegetation, and forests have taken the places of cities that once stood proudly. One of the very first to emerge from their stone prison is Taiju Ooki, who finds that his good friend, a brilliant young scientist named Senkuu, has been preparing for his awakening. While Taiju wishes to save the girl he loves, Senkuu is determined to figure out the cause behind the strange phenomenon and restore the world to its former glory.

But when they free the infamously powerful Tsukasa Shishiou in order to gain an upper hand against the dangers in an unfamiliar world, they realize that their new comrade has other plans. Tsukasa sees their predicament as a chance to start over; free from the corruption and destruction wrought by technology, he will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. With both sides unable to see eye to eye, Senkuu and his devotion to science will clash with Tsukasa and his primal nature in what will truly be a battle of the ages.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

As a part of the JUMP START initiative, the first three chapters of Dr. Stone were published in English in VIZ Media's digital Weekly Shonen Jump on the same day as the Japanese release. After, the series was added to VIZ Media's Weekly Shonen Jump lineup and it was also simulpub through MANGA Plus. The volumes were published in English by VIZ Media under the Shonen Jump imprint from September 4, 2018 to July 4, 2023.

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Related Manga

Side story:	Dr. Stone Reboot: Byakuya
Sequel:	Dr. Stone: Terraforming
Adaptation:	Dr. Stone: Stone Wars, Dr. Stone: Ryuusui, Dr. Stone, Dr. Stone: New World, Dr. Stone: New World Part 2

More characters
Characters

Ishigami, Senkuu

Main

Asagiri, Gen

Main

Chrome

Main

Kohaku

Main

Nanami, Ryuusui

Main

Shishiou, Tsukasa

Main

Ooki, Taiju

Main

Suika

Supporting

Kaseki

Supporting

Saionji, Ukyou

Supporting

Reviews

Mar 6, 2022

Leblunk

Recommended

Dr. Stone [9.5/10]
|**SPOILER FREE**|

Do you love science? Action? Adventure?? Are you looking for a beautifully executed shonen series that can successfully tackle all of those genres and more? Look no further than Dr. Stone. Get excited for this unforgettable journey to restore humanity back to it's former glory, or as some might say, former ugliness.

The story of a world petrified in stone for thousands of years, one man breaks free of his stone prison, literally, and immediately begins to use his vast knowledge of science to save humanity. With the help of his old friend, Taiju, Senku little by little begins to work his ... way back to modern technology.

Now that I've established a premise, if you're not already hooked then please continue reading. Personally speaking, Dr. Stone, as a series, is genius. Our story teller, Riichiro Inagaki, known best for his hit sports shonen Eyeshield 21, incorporates real science and experiments into this manga, fact checked by real scientists. Some being so dangerous there have been multiple warnings stressing not to preform anything you see and learn at home. As Senku would say, Exhilarating.

Speaking of exhilarating, the art made by none other than the legendary Boichi made this manga feel alive and unique. For those who don't know much about Boichi's style, he uses heavy realism and detail, sometimes to the point where backgrounds feel like I'm staring at a photograph. Some of Boichi's more famous works include Sun-Ken Rock, Origin, Hotel, as well as 2 One Piece chapter re-tellings drawn in his art style. He is also well known for his previous works in... *ahem* adult manga.

2 brilliant professionals combining to create a magnum opus. There were times I was genuinely laughing from the comedy, times where I feared for certain characters lives, times I was tearing up over unexpected circumstances, and yet there was never a time I found myself bored while reading a single chapter. Some of the inventions Senku and his crew were able to create genuinely had me shocked, especially with the simplicity of the creation. Just when Senku claims they are going to build something insanely difficult and the comedy sets in, we are often treated to a fairly accurate blueprint of a shitty makeshift version of said creation; and the reactions are always priceless.

While I have 9.99 billion percent praise and love for Dr. Stone, the only thing I felt was just shy of 10 billion percent was how rushed the final arc felt. While Senku is often portrayed as too smart for his own good, this arc definitely proved that. (I understand there was expertise and help involved in the final inventions, but it still felt unreal). I wished for just a smidgen more time with our lovely cast of characters, but when it's time to conclude there's nothing I can do but appreciate the time I spent with them. Well done, Dr. Stone, you've definitely earned a permanent spot on my Top Manga of Alltime list. [9.5/10]

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Mar 6, 2022

n6ah

Mixed Feelings

There’s a lot to talk about in regards to Dr. Stone, but I’ll keep this review short and simple. Here’s a few things that I want to note:

- Story/Characters: Basically, the this show revolves around Senku starting mankind from scratch. He’s a pretty lovable character with his limitless confidence and pride. He’s not some overleveled isekai protagonist that has everything go his way. The direction of the show can vary from his proud accomplishments or his critical mistakes. I’ll admit that Senku can feel too smart for the convenience of the story, but I mean hey he’s the protag. The side characters who get involved ... with Senku’s journey are solid. They have unique motives and sense of humor. Your perception for a few changes as new information is shown to you. Though I’ll say every new antagonist introduced got weaker in a complicated manner regarding their motivations. This is mostly due to the story feeling like a sandbox game. There isn’t a need for villains in a setting like Dr. Stone. I never got the feeling that anyone in the main cast would be in real danger.

- Art: It’s solid. Boichi’s art is pretty distinctive if you’re familiar with his works (his most famous being Sun-Ken Rock). But the men look more unique than the women. I’m not sure if I had a hard time recognizing the minor female characters because of their wide eyes or whatever. It’s not something I’d consider a flaw.

- The pacing: The step-by-step process of building new inventions was great. The science is pretty accurate, sometimes blown out of proportion for the sake of comedy. But this got progressively worst. I understand that they can’t dedicate a few chapters for every single project they make. But the process got to the point where they can build whatever, all within in a few panels without a cohesive explanation. No more of the good ol days of seeing the grit and grind pay off. Now the characters usually say something similar to "wow science is amazing" almost every chapter like Senku is a magician. You could tell Inagaki started to fast forward civilization after Stone Wars which made the admirable side of science look more meaningless.

- Continuing the narrative is a tricky situation (following my previous point): This story would go on for a long time if they continued to be analytical from the start, which has a good chance boring most of us readers. It’s hard to say how the manga could improve in this manner, but it’s evident that this lead to the ending feeling rushed.

- No one ages: The story goes on for many many years yet everyone looks the same. This could slide if the whole cast were adults, but they’re not. The majority of characters look young. I get how convenient it is to make everyone’s character design the same. But cmon, you’d expect them to age a bit, especially from the characters who do the hard labor they’re not used to. They should look more sturdy than the average person right? Welp, Suika has the Ash Ketchum treatment.

Conclusion: It’s pretty simple for anyone to get a grasp of the story of Dr. Stone. This was never meant to a a psychological/thought provoking. Just pure entertainment. Even with the few complaints I had, it should be clear that you don’t need to use your brain to enjoy this. Just be aware that the quality of pacing and logic will fall off a bit around the last few arcs.

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May 17, 2018

Dreade

Not Recommended

Preliminary (58/233 eps)

This review will contain spoilers up to the marked chapter.

A modern-day take on the ancient battle of Athens and Sparta with new twists and turns. What happens when one day all of humanity is petrified by an unknown light and humanity must rebuild? Enter your cast of The Brain, the Brawn, the Girl and the Enemy. Dr. Stone starts off strong with an engaging premise that has a ton of potential something that I wish was explored more often in anime and manga - the rebuilding of human society after a mass tragedy. Most of the time we see the after-product without seeing the process ... that was used, the mistakes that were made and the things that were learned. Dr. Stone shows us all of this but that's about one of its only strengths.

I don't believe a lot of what Dr. Stone goes out to accomplish is done well. Our protagonist, Senkuu is a prodigy of the sciences, so much so that he built his own rocket that exited Earth's atmosphere before the tragedy happened. Prodigies are totally acceptable but knowing this creates an aura around Senkuu that just seems like he can find himself through anything. Specifically, in the tournament arc where one of the gags is that the heroes want to rig the tournament in a specific way, of course, they have to rely on chance for it to work out. Luck is against them in every shape and form and the worst matchup happens first. But the story can't just throw out it's most important character of the arc right away right? Of course, so through sheer luck, he wins. While this bit was executed well, it solidified that the aura around Senkuu was strong and I had predicted by this point he would succeed in the tournament and I was correct. I'm a believer in that you need a certain level of predictability in your work so the consumer can understand it, even if it only makes sense in hindsight. However, this isn't the only time Dr. Stone is so obvious. Upon its reveal of antagonist Tsukasa early in the story - his appearance is just so genuinely evil that there's no reason for you to question his allegiances from the moment he's introduced. You just know he's not gonna be allied with the heroes from the minute you see the guy.

Tsukasa and Senkuu create an interesting and philosophical duality. Where Senkuu wants to rebuild the world and Tsukasa wants to purge humanity and create his perfect world. It's nothing new, we've seen it in Death Note, Code Geass, Evangelion, Durarara, JoJo and more by this point. Tsukasa hasn't had his time yet to shine so his character is still very underexplored but this is an interesting part of Dr. Stone that has potential to be great. Likewise, the exploration of science through Senkuu's character is interesting but as smart as Dr. Stone portrays itself with science and philosophy it has a few glaring issues that it doesn't take Newton or Plato to find out.

First, when we learn of the village of survivors, later to be descended from Senkuu's father we know they've passed down 100 Stories known as the Hyakumonogatari, we even get an entire chapter dedicated to the establishment of the stories. But none of these descendants knew how the old world used to be. They passed down knowledge of what foods, materials and other items would be necessary for survival but no stories of the past, where they came from, what they could strive for? It's not like it was out of the realm of possibility for this either. They made 100 Stories, why not 101 where one is just a brief history of the past. Another glaring issue with the Hyakumonogatari is the original generation of surviving humans seemed to gamble on the entire idea that Senkuu would even emerge from this rock slumber. In the possible case that he never awoke, they never took any precautions for that.

Second is a bit of an ongoing issue but it deals with the humor. The humor exists in primarily three ways: sex jokes, facial expressions, and vocal inflections. I don't really need to explain why the first one can get old real fast so let's focus on the latter two. Facial expressions are probably the most common type of humor in Dr. Stone and it's very hit and miss. While the artwork does the expression justice, constant weird face making does not make good comedy. Tell me some good jokes, give me some funny dialogue, both of these are to be found in Dr. Stone but not all that often. Most of the dialogue based jokes kind of fail too, not as a result of poor writing though but because certain lines require an inflection of the voice. While most manga run into this issue Dr. Stone doesn't do much to mitigate against it. Sakamoto desu ga and Watamote were manga that had me laughing out loud, and Dr. Stone has the potential to have some laugh out loud moments. But if all of your jokes in this vein rely on the same kind of drawn out line like Spongebob saying "Reaaaaaaaaaaaaally?" you have a bit of an issue. In fact, I'm sure as an anime, most of the humor would work in general just because of how fluid it would work and the timing it could have. As a manga, Dr. Stone misses out on some of the comedic timing it needs for the jokes it uses, so if it ever gets an anime adaptation I totally expect the humor will improve.

Overall, I'd love to love this series it just has so much potential underneath all its problems. Nothing is extremely standout about it, but nothing is extremely offensive. But as a series based on science and the on-going themes of Brains vs. Brawn and ambiguous evil, there seems to be a huge level of suspension of disbelief I need to not question some of the things that are actually happening. If you've been through the song and dance of 100 shounen before and are bored of the same old same old, Dr. Stone probably isn't for you. But if you're looking for something with a different premise with the same general storytelling techniques you'll like it. But I'd rather go for Death Note or Hunter x Hunter personally both of which contain better twists, better philosophies, less predictable outcomes, and a smaller threshold of things that I need to accept to believe in the world and what's going on. They've also both been published in the same magazine as this so why not just grab those?

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Poll: Dr. Stone Chapter 196 Discussion ( 1 2 ) MegamiRem - May 14, 2021	55 replies	by KuyaKai »» Aug 31, 5:35 PM
Poll: Dr. Stone Chapter 200 Discussion deg - Jun 11, 2021	19 replies	by Drstonekohaku »» Aug 31, 12:10 PM
Poll: Dr. Stone Chapter 129 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 7, 2019	22 replies	by delsix »» Aug 31, 4:02 AM
Poll: Dr. Stone Chapter 121 Discussion Mei-o_Scarlett - Sep 11, 2019	28 replies	by delsix »» Aug 30, 2:59 AM
Poll: Dr. Stone Chapter 232 Discussion ( 1 2 ) ArtaRay - Mar 2, 2022	81 replies	by ryzxgum »» Aug 27, 11:08 PM

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