Dr. Stone review: Science meets anime in a most practical fashion and it works
Dr. Stone (2019, 2021) may seem like another post-apocalyptic series, but after two seasons which saw an expectant ending promising another sequel, it was revealed that the stone world of the future still had a rich lore to explore. What made Dr. Stone, whose protagonist was not really a doctor by profession, a potential classic? Also, despite its relatively high ratings, why did some give the stone world a rather stone cold reception? Warning: spoilers ahead! Only a preliminary review considering the prospective new season in the future.
Who knew everyday science could be so complicated?
It was 3,700 years after a mysterious light enveloped the world, petrifying all living beings, or at least humans and animals. A genius student, Senku Ishigami, found himself the first human to wake up from petrification. This was thanks to nitric acid which came from what he called Miracle Cave. How did he know how long he was trapped in stone? He counted in his mind to keep his thinking active, much like what Lelouch Lamperouge did in Code Geass (2006) to counter someone who supposedly stopped time. The only difference was that Senku had to count for over 30 centuries. Lelouch only had to count some 30 seconds. After waking up, Senku’s life mission in this post-apocalyptic world was clear from the start. He wanted to jumpstart human civilization through science, and to do just that, he began to revive the strongest humans he could find to work with manual labor he could not hope to do. One of them, Taiju Oki, was Senku’s best friend. But the other, Tsukasa Shishio, turned out to be a purist who wanted strength to prevail in the new era. Overwhelmed by Tsukasa’s might, Senku fled the Miracle Cave. Little did he know that his father, Byakuya Ishigami, and the astronauts who witnessed the petrification from space, managed to build a community which was named, strangely, Ishigami Village. From there, he began to earn the trust of their descendants in order to take out Tsukasa and his army of revived humans in an epic climax called Stone Wars. The condition of their victory increased the task difficulty: nobody had to die.
While the manga was more precise in its scientific details, the anime employed these with matching comedic effect and exaggerated reactions just as brilliantly, albeit of course, some of the more familiar in the science might want to delve into the technicalities as well. There may be no rocket science nor quantum physics so far, but the body of human knowledge was much more vast than that. What sounded like complex concepts turned out to be components of things people take for granted in this information age, making one appreciate further how ancestors of distant past managed to improve civilization without the benefit of technological knowledge like Senku’s. Think of ramen, cola, soap, medicine, and even the very phones we use. These all started as crude inventions, much like what Senku dealt with, but they worked, and so did Dr. Stone’s take on the practicality of it all. And more importantly, he acknowledged all the limitations he had. He was a scientist, not a magician nor a miracle worker. If at times it took much focus from the audience to understand, the series probably had done its job. As Senku would say, “It is a slow but steady effort.”
How believing in the future gave the protagonist victory
While Tsukasa dealt with correcting the sins of the past, rejecting the elite and reorganizing the world for the underprivileged, Senku looked forward to what could be done for the future while saving everyone who could be rescued. Ultimately, vision was what distinguished the two rivals of the Stone Wars. The one character who seemed to believe in Senku’s vision the most may not even be the other science man Chrome, but the warrior Kohaku, who was the first in the Ishigami Village to marvel at Senku’s creativity. For some reason, this would spur sufficient imagination for some audiences to ship the two. One might think that the plot progression would be too predictable considering the technological superiority of Senku and the Ishigami Village. However, it had to be recalled that not all great inventions met success in the initial phase. For instance, the Battle of Cambrai in World War I saw tanks in military action for the first time, but the results were indecisive in the end, resulting to British development of tank technology to stall. Meanwhile, the Germans who were at the opposing end of this metal onslaught saw the potential of tank warfare, providing the background for blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Senku also made use of tank technology in the Stone Wars, although it resembled more an armed locomotive than the tanks at Cambrai. Then again, he did not use it as the main force of his military campaign. He saw it as a one-time shocker that would throw Tsukasa’s troops in disarray. This reminded of European conquests in nations which met gunpowder for the first time, e.g., the Spanish experience in the Americas. To be fair, not all visionaries attain the future of their desires, and for multiple reasons, but time was the litmus test of their ideals. Of course, if the era chose Tsukasa’s purist movement to prevail, then the series might as well be named Power Stone or something along those lines. Get it? Not really? Well, okay, anyway.
Later on, the audience found not a survival of the fittest tyrant who wanted a reign of terror, but a traumatized youth who sought to create a better world for his sick sister. For a while there, did this sound a bit like the story of Code Geass, except that Tsukasa was the narrative’s antagonist? Meanwhile, the epilogue of the quick war may spur some reconsideration of roles. Did Tsukasa subtly intend to speed up Senku’s scientific development by posing as devil’s advocate? Was Tsukasa’s rather charismatic aura not just the result of his physical prowess, but also his concealed yet caring heart? Was Senku really the worthy protagonist of this series? With the anime somehow speeding up some of the subplots to the lead up to Stone Wars, the motivations of the rest of the characters did not seem too clear, like some of Tsukasa’s allies such as sonar technician Ukyo Saionji or the police officer Yo Uei. All their erstwhile enemies supposedly gravitated towards Senku’s leadership too well, albeit the transfer of power for Tsukasa’s empire was not as clear in the second season as the trial by combat that Senku participated for chief of the Ishigami Village in the first season. Hopefully, these would be answered along with the mystery of the petrification event (which phenomenon had been implied to concern with great healing capability) in time.
Saibancho, the verdict
Dr. Stone may have a number of experiments children should not really try at home, but this was nonetheless an exceptional example of using entertainment with stunning animation style for scientific education. This reminded of how other anime series like Ace Attorney (2016) inspired aspiring lawyers, Haikyu!! (2014) aspiring volleyball players, Yakitate! Japan (2004) aspiring bakers, Hajime no Ippo (2000) aspiring boxers, or Cooking Master Boy (1997) aspiring chefs, and so on, with their attention to detail while making it appear less intimidating through its story. With its down to earth approach, it easily shed the isekai (other world) feel and made it clear that it should be seen more like a setting which humans of distant past likely worked with. This may especially be the case for people who may think the past 30 or 50 years felt as far as the stone age with their floppy disks, cassettes, incandescent light bulbs, and books written on paper, among others. Recall how Senku always emphasized two great statistics: 10 billion points for the certainty, and 2 million years of science for the history. In this regard, Dr. Stone might as well get the points.
The anime’s underappreciated heroes, meanwhile, were the astronauts who endeavored to rebuild the world. They gave Senku invaluable knowledge to help him unravel the reason behind the petrification, and their vision of the future closely resembled Senku’s, except that it seemed only Senku had the sufficient stock knowledge to actually do it. Just think of how development seemed to have gone backwards for Ishigami Village in the past 3,700 years, so much so that the only intact piece of modern technology they inherited was a glass disk recording of a famous song. This gave a bit of Macross (1982) nostalgia, wherein a prehistoric pop song saved humanity from total destruction. Ratings wise, Dr. Stone’s first two seasons were almost in the same level, likely indicating how plausible a new season could be. For the animated franchise, this may just be the beginning of actual world-building, and this could make things more exhilarating. Have you ever wondered what the world would look like in the next 3,700 years?
(Photos from the series courtesy of TMS Entertainment)
