On my way back from work the yesterday I realized that because I watch so many shows per season crunched inbetween my limited free time, I am unable to write about all the shows I actually want to write about. Typically the way I pick a show to blog about out of all the shows I am watching is that there has to be something I feel like I can impart about it or get my thoughts out there and be able to provide an angle or perspective that maybe I haven’t read anywhere on the internet yet. Most of the time it’s not nearly so “unique” and I just really like the show and want to write about it, so to that point I’m introducing a new concept – “the tldr”. It will be used for shows that were airing but I didn’t have enough time to blog about week to week during its run. Don’t expect any massive essays or anything like that, but I’ll write what I want to say and leave it at that.
If you’ve been keeping up at all with anime the past year, there’s probably no chance you haven’t heard about Dr. Stone. In fact, there’s probably a ten billion percent chance hahahahaha. Please keep in mind – mild spoilers for the show ahead.
Dr. Stone aired during the usually sparce and very often overlooked summer season of this year of 2019. Before watching I knew very little other than the summary and the image front and center of the main character, Senku. Quite a statement to make when talking about anime but I thought What ridiculous hair. Even by anime standards it is a little out of the norm. But with this hyperbolic character design and the promise of young adults starting a new world, there’s quite a bit of potential and ground to cover, isn’t there? Let’s start with the summary.
Dr. Stone follows a small handful of kids in high school who one day, along with the rest of the world, experience a phenomenon that encases every human being (and birds for some reason) into solid stone. Our heroes, Senku, Taiju, and Yuzuriha are unable to even process why or what has happened because being encased in stone is a state akin to stasis – your mind continues to function, but you are unable to move. Years, decades, even millennia pass as our main character Senku breaks free of the 3700 years of solitude his stone prison has bequeathed him. He discovers roughly six months later that his other friend Taiju has also broken free, and together they must discover a way to bring society back to what it was shortly before they were frozen, and secondarily discover the source of the incident to begin with.
A topic often covered in fiction, the beginning of a new world from the ground up with a focus on development isn’t an oft covered subject in anime. I was quickly reminded of what it was like to play a match of the original Starcraft and advance my buildings to greater states in order to produce greater forces. How does the anime progress and where is the main source of conflict?
Most of the show progresses through a need for something that modern society has taken for granted (soap, filtered water, readily available food) as Senku establishes a method for obtaining the necessity in order to reach the next objective. Senku is shown right from the beginning to possess far above average intelligence and be dedicated to memorizing insane details about the composition of elements and items (a convenient trait to have when tasked with rebuilding the world from scratch). The methods showcased are based partially in reality even if some liberties are taken, and yes, of course liberties are taken it’s an anime. So Senku and Taiju are rebuilding society slowly but surely, right?
This is where our source of conflict is introduced. Enter Tsukasa, who is for some reason called the strongest primate (A really odd title for a high schooler to chest thump about???). Living up to the moniker, he is strong enough to punch a lion and kill it. Now, for whatever reason, this is where people draw the line with their suspension of disbelief on this show. Nah, the petrification of the entire world, an 18 year old knowing how to make a cell phone from raw materials, and counting seconds 3700 years wasn’t too out there, it’s the damn lion punch that is just too much suspension of disbelief. Right.
Some reviews I have read have clearly formed some opinions about this show based on the premise and became disillusioned when it showed the audacity to take the material in its own direction.
Anyways, the problem is that Tsukasa does not want to see Senku redevelop society because it will mean a repeat of what they had prior to the mysterious phenomenon that petrified the entire populace – and with that means the same billionaires and adults ruling everything that they did previously. Tsukasa retells a story how he was unable to bring a friend to the beach because a man owned the land and did not want either of them there. This for enough of a catalyst for him to go on a rage about man’s arrogance (since he has clearly been shown to be a man respectful of nature) and thus a natural enemy to Senku’s desire to quickly rebuilt man to the prior level of advanced civilization.
Senku escapes death on more than one occasion against the would-be-gorilla-messiah and slowly but surely spends his days building up the “kingdom of science” for an eventual clash with his gargantuan enemy. Along the way he meets a chemistry-enthusiast (called “just chemists” in our time!) called Chrome, who doesn’t understand how to classify the chemical reactions he has been able to recreate in his lab and thus calls it “sorcery”. As an understudy to Senku, he helps note Senku’s understanding of chemistry and the makeup of elements in the narrative as well as provide him a means to “pass on his knowledge” to the smart but primitive people of the new world. It’s well tread ground for anime but the execution is solid and saccharine enough that anyone with a heart should find themselves with a slight smile
One thing that truly sets apart Dr. Stone from other shonen of similar ilk is the main character’s lack of unbridled altruism and lack of self-destructive desire to rush into danger without thinking of the consequences or potential benefits. Senku isn’t really your average shonen protagonist – I think at best he could be described as a true neutral. He’s a good person who cares about others, but only enough to further his goals and because he sees good as the natural default over evil, not because he “gets off” to showing everyone how heroic he is. It’s an archetype done before but I have to say that I found the execution quite enjoyable here. He’s still someone who can’t abandon a friend but he isn’t so nice as to give concessions to his enemy for no reason other than “it’s the right thing to do.” As a character it makes him much less predictable and as a set piece in a story it makes his next move enough of a mystery that you are drawn in to his thought process, trying to predict what he is trying to out-meneuver next. Best yet, he is not infallible in his thought process or planning – a plan of his in the first 5 or so episodes lands them all in a lot of hot water, himself especially!
Enough about Senku and Chrome – another character I’d like to quickly highlight is Gen Asagiri. A “mentalist” from Senku’s time in 2019, he carries knowledge of the modern world and also is shown to be superficially unsavory, flighty, and carry thoughts that betray the emotions he wears on his face. A delectable “snake” character we’ve seen before, he is always crossing the line between good and evil (at least in the beginning) enough to make us unsure of where he stands between Tsukasa’s kingdom of strength and Senku’s kingdom of science. A true testament to his character are his main motives for betraying Tsukasa – the man loves cola. Senku promises to make him a bottle of cola – this was enough for him to forever leave Tsukasa’s kingdom and defect to Senku….so he says. I think it has been made apparent that his true reasons was that he found Senku’s ideal world to be more interesting than what Tsukasa had in mind and the cola was merely the vehicle to explore this mentality.
Without spoiling too much – Senku and the others learn how the village that Chrome and the others originated from came to be, but come no closer to learning about the mystery of the petrification by the end of the show. A second season has already been announced.
Deep with intrigue, exploration, adventure, conflict, friendship, and carefully drawn alliances, Dr. Stone sets out to show how one incredible person could reshape the world if forced to start from scratch and the opposition they would meet by those who would benefit from a world without sophisticated weapons. It’s entertaining, the characterization is solid, and the relationships between characters and “goalposting” made by inventions is engrossing enough that if you enjoy shonen in any capacity you’ll probably have a good time. Definitely comes recommended. Just please don’t go in with any unrealistic expectations that you will be able to build circuit boards for cell phones from rocks and sticks thanks to the knowledge you gained, please.
