“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein
What They Say:
Several thousand years after a mysterious phenomenon that turns all of humanity to stone, the extraordinarily intelligent, science-driven boy, Senku Ishigami, awakens. Facing a world of stone and the total collapse of civilization, Senku makes up his mind to use science to rebuild the world. Starting with his super strong childhood friend Taiju Oki, who awakened at the same time, they will begin to rebuild civilization from nothing… Depicting two million years of scientific history from the Stone Age to present day, the unprecedented crafting adventure story is about to begin!
Episode #1: “Stone World”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Dr. Stone is an adaptation of a manga by Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi, running in Weekly Shonen Jump, and as such it is as shonen as shonen can be. We have the teamwork, the tenacity, and the impossibly gifted youth to save humanity from itself. Bringing this adaptation to life is the relatively unknown director Shinya Iino and TMS Entertainment.
This episode begins with a stereotypical love confession, as Taiju Oki meets his longtime friend and crush Yuzuriha under the large tree in the courtyard. His classmates place bets on the extremely deep-voiced boy while teenage genius Senku looks on confident in his friend. Before Taiju can confess there’s a bright green light and all the humans on the planet are turned to stone.
Yeah, check your logic at the door. This is shonen country.
What follows is the passing of time and the environmental changes that come from a world without humans. Infrastructure collapses, sea levels rise and abate, nature reclaims all. Somehow Taiju remains conscious and awake, through thousands of years, which is nightmare fuel. He’s washed away from his love, spends untold centuries in a cave, and eventually breaks free of his stone prison and confronts a changed world.
It turns out he’s not alone. Senku awoke six months before him. What follows is a crash course in surviving, which Senku and Taiju make look easy. Even when confronted with a disaster which appears to be magic, Senku is determined to overcome and rebuild civilization with science. He even fashions himself a lab coat and writes E = mc^2 on it.
Senku is, let me be frank, annoying in his intelligence. Taiju is ridiculous in his earnest shonen boy tropes and tends to yell lines more often than not. I really hope they hurry and start reviving more people after their discovery at the end of this episode because if we had to deal with just these two for any length of time it would drive me mad.
One thing I can say is that the show looks stunning and seems to capture the lush detail the manga has put into the scenery. It also captures the ridiculously pointy-haired and buff leads. What sort of work-out regime was Taiju following to get that swoll? (Or did he just get held back in school dozens of times?) Maybe Senku was giving him some chemical boosters or something.
I really liked the direction in this first episode, especially with the time-lapse scene of Taiju and Senku distilling alcohol. Despite the silly premise, there is a strange desire to depict some scientific processes with realism. Senku’s knowledge of science allows the show to gloss over the fact that they shouldn’t know how to make distilled alcohol. It shows them failing the first few attempts at making a still. Nearly a year passes before they’re able to succeed at making the solvent. I’m also impressed by the music in this episode, and the opening (which debuts at the end of this first episode) is catchy and visually impressive as well.
In Summary:
Not your typical shonen adventure of late, Dr. Stone combines survivalist fiction with real science, with post-apocalyptic shonen antics. The character designs might be a turn-off for some, as well as their personalities, but the lush scenery and quirky premise are enough to keep me interested. Overall, this is a very impressive first episode and I’m interested in seeing where this weird series goes from here.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll, Funimation
