Dr. STONE

"Even if you kill me, even if you kill anyone, even if you reset science… There's always an idiot who will try anything, and the shiny monkeys will inevitably create a technological civilization."
-Senku

The year is 5738, and the entire human population was petrified in stone three millennia ago. Three thousand years in the future, one kid awakens. He isn't your typical kid. He's Senku, and he's ten billion percent smarter than the average high school student. Now that civilization has regressed to the stone age, and the world needs a hero. Senku embarks on a journey to rebuild civilization with his knowledge of science.

First of all, if you are expecting a grand story about reconstructing the 21st century within twenty-four episodes, you will be disappointed. I initially assumed this would be a dystopian action-adventure—it's not; this is an edutainment comedy about science. I understand why this direction frustrated a lot of people. The trailers and promotional material were misleading. Unfortunately, this led to people harshly nitpicking it. It blows my mind that people have said the writing is shallow, without redeeming value and lacking focus. This series successfully uses an unreliable narrator; this gives it a sense of unpredictability. Anything can happen. It's exhilarating. I'm not going to pretend like this anime is perfect, but it's way better than some would lead you to believe.

In truth, this show is about Senku: The prideful genius who makes it his job to help everyone through science. Senku is overconfident to a fault. He prides himself on being ten billion percent logical, and he likes to think he'll always be right. Honestly, he makes his fair share of mistakes. He might be able to make a high-speed wagon in a couple of minutes, but don't expect it not to fall apart the first time he rides it. Seeing the show from his perspective is fantastic. He's not another overpowered blank-slate isekai protagonist who gets pushed through the story by coincidence. The story's direction is unpredictable because Senku is a force of nature. His encyclopedic knowledge of science is his main advantage. He's not invincible, he makes impactful decisions, and he makes mistakes. Much of the time, he has a utilitarian motive behind any of his kind actions. If he needs a lot of manpower, he baits villagers with ramen, with hard labor as their payment. It was always funny seeing the different ways he would trick people into doing what he wanted.

In this show, a life or death situation lies on whether or not Senku can create Coca-Cola from scratch. It does not attempt to hide how ridiculous it is. At the same time, it will also detail how to make cola with science. Once they have all parts of the latest science scheme working, we get a quick montage of it in action. He explains each scientific idea comprehensively before everyone begins working. It's all said in simple terms so the audience can follow along. I'll be honest; I don't know much about science. I slept through biology, chemistry, and physics. Somehow Dr. Stone got me to love science. Senyu taught me science can solve every problem. Like all good edutainment programs, the teachings are seamlessly weaved into the story.

The main characters are so likable—not just for their personalities and chemistry—because they have personal goals and senses of humor. The writers make sure to give each member of the science squad a considerate amount of development. For some of them, it's only a few minutes shoved in-between arcs, but their growth is visible throughout the rest of the show. I've said all I needed to say about Senku—he's the heart of the show. He has a subdued personality; even admitting he prefers not to show much emotion, but the show always subtly clues us in to how he's truly feeling. One of his pals, Kohaku, is entirely the opposite: She's a spirited girl who takes no shit.

On the other hand, his partner Chrome is another avid science fan, but he's more relatable because he isn't quite a super genius. He made a great deuteragonist, but I missed the original side characters Taiju and Yuzuihara. They're a pleasant enough duo even though they're only in a couple of episodes. I wish the story occasionally cut to their perspective. In the beginning, it's exciting watching Senku and Taiju trying to survive in the stone age. In a life or death situation, they revive the strongest man they can find, Tsukasa. With his revival, the antagonist enters the show. I've seen people criticize Tsukasa and say he's a weak villain, and I can't help but disagree. His goal for the stone world is to give everyone equal opportunity; no one will pay taxes; no one will own anything in simpler terms, libertarianism. To achieve his dream for the stone world, he endeavors to kill every petrified adult. He wants only to revive the strongest youth he can find, or the "pure-hearted youth," as he hypocritically calls them.

The first arc is an action-packed battle of wits, hunting for food, running from lions, creating the cure for humanity, friends reunite after thousands of years, the goddamn world ends. It's kind of epic. It's entirely unlike the bulk of the story, which is fine. It was an unexpected but welcome change of pace. I came for the exhilarating premise; I stayed for Senku and his band of goofy science trailblazers. When watching Dr. Stone weekly, my biggest problem was the slow pacing of the main plotlines. After rewatching the entire show, the progression didn't bother me as much. Even if it looks like the show forgot about your favorite character—don't worry—they'll be back.

Dr. Stone thoughtfully uses reincorporation in its narrative to hint at future plot points, new characters and foreshadow meaningful twists. In one of the early episodes, someone mentioned a specific electronic he missed from the old world; as Senku progresses science, he reflects on that conversation nostalgically and endeavors to make that same electronic. It seemed so insignificant at first, yet it became a central plot point later on. One of my favorite characters, Gen, the magician, is subtly mentioned in a book long before being introduced. Another clue sprinkled throughout is the modern pop culture references, which contrast with the archaic society. There's a pretty awesome in-story explanation for the villagers to use derivatives of modern Japanese. I have to give props to the writer for making someone from the stone age say "meme" without ruining the timeline.

These small victories might not seem like much on their own, but together it shows great foresight from the author. Senku's occasional unforeseen scientific solution comes to life satisfyingly—surprising both the audience and the other characters. Like any engaging twist, Senku's science is never contrived; every twist left me in awe. I could always look back and see the clues the writer creatively laid out. If the writer weren't just as brilliant as Senku, then he would not work. Thankfully, he is, and that's why Senku's a great protagonist. You could argue there's a lot of unexplained science in this series. I'd say it's not bad. There's no concrete explanation for the stone epidemic, and that's fine. I don't know science. I know stories. As long as the science stays consistent with its own internal logic, I think it has succeeded, and Dr. Stone does.

The humor is over-the-top but well-executed. It relies entirely on comedic timing and the presentation. Thankfully the editing in Dr. Stone is top-notch. Every part of the audiovisual production works in unison. The BGM, openings, and endings were all superb—this is the best soundtrack I've heard all year. Each background song is deftly synced up with scene transitions and set pieces. Jokes land with boisterous sound effects—absurd facial expressions pop-up on the screen, lined-up perfectly with the punchline. I understand why people have criticized the comedy for being idiotic. And they're right. All of these characters are either idiots or socially inept. If you don't like them, you'll hate the comedy aspects. The jokes mainly rely on the character chemistry and, fantastic directing aside, I think they have hilarious chemistry. Other than the stellar character artwork (warning: some of the female faces are borderline Lovecraftian horrors), the backgrounds are consistently beautiful. TMS Entertainment continues to provide great still art; however, the longer the show went on, the more animation hiccups I noticed.

Dr. Stone gets heavily scrutinized for its plot progression, pacing, and dumb characters. Some of the criticism is fair, but much of it underserved. I consider myself pretty critical, and I enjoyed this show way more than I thought I would. The amount of research put into the science blew me away. The way it entertained me while teaching me felt so nostalgic. I grew up on edutainment, like Bill Nye The Science Guy and Magic Schoolbus. This anime follows in their footsteps, but for an older audience. I never expected I would love these characters so much. I'm looking forward to their science shenanigans next season. It took humanity two million years to crawl out of the stone age to the modern era. Thankfully, it only took twenty-four weeks for people to realize Dr. Stone is a great anime.