Dr. Stone does one of the things I love stories to do.
It takes several well-known aspects of other narratives and melds them together into something
almost completely new.
While I’m not going to assume exactly what the narrative took inspiration from, I can
see enough hints from other media that I’ve experienced coming into play.
While it could be described as having post-apocalyptic setting, usually when that label is ascribed
there’s still a level of technology that’s to be expected.
And while apt, I’m not one to apply the Isekai label to the series either, because
although the stone world of the far future is truly another world that our
protagonists now find themselves in, that’s really as far as the Isekai elements go and
other genres start to take more prevalence.
No, Dr. Stone is kind of its own mix.
It’s a survivor’s tale about humans in a world without technology but with the remembrance
of the society that came before, with the drive, nay, the duty to persevere in the face
of the adversity ahead of them and build a new ideal society from what remains.
But unfortunately everyone has a different idea as to what an ideal society looks like
and how to achieve it.
The disagreements that arise from that are the core of what this show is about so far.
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A green light engulfs the whole planet, petrifying humanity into stone-like sculptures.
Where did it come from?
Who started it?
None of that matters as the result is over 3000 years of an Earth without humanity, where
the remnants of human civilization rot away letting nature return and take its course.
But while humanity is frozen in stone, there are some who remain conscious through this.
These are our protagonists: Senku the genius who keeps himself mentally active by counting
the seconds since the incident for all those thousands of years, and Taiju who was frozen
mid-confession to the girl he loves, letting his passion keep him occupied, never letting
his love leave his mind.
Until eventually, through some miraculous circumstances they break free from the stone.
Our protagonists awake to find a world far different than the one they left behind, one
that now prioritizes survival above all else.
This leads them to spend months not only building the bare basics to stay alive in the wilderness,
but also begin to develop a cure for the paralysis so that others may too be free.
But freeing people, despite being their goal, may also turn out to be their downfall as
Tsukasa the “Strongest Primate High Schooler” is revived to save them from a group of lions,
only to realise that he has a different, more brutal idea of how society should be rebuilt,
and he has the strength and physical prowess to make that ideal a reality.
In Dr. Stone, there’s literally no modern technology that’s survived – at least
not anything available to our protagonists.
This is far less of something like Mad Max and far more like a Japanese Shounen take
on Lord of the Flies with BBC’s Sherlock as one of the main characters minus the insufferable
ego.
Senku however is still the character that’s hardest to pin down, while Taiju is designed
to be stupidly easy to get a handle on given his simple nature.
Senku is both a combination of the smartest human who ever lived, while still proving
to be fallible enough for the audience to not be left behind.
He was able to count every second that passed while trapped in stone, and he is basically
a human encyclopedia for survival and scientific techniques, but he still has moments when
the simple Taiju is able to point out the obvious things that Senku otherwise missed,
like how to produce alcohol.
For the purpose of the story then, his intellect is actually really easy to measure if a bit
meta.
If he needs to know something to progress the plot, he’s an expert, but if not knowing
something is instead beneficial to the plot, he becomes blissfully ignorant.
Thankfully, because he doesn’t have the same level of ego that other fictional geniuses
do, he doesn’t become grating in either situation.
What the narrative is also playing up are the problems associated with both of the major
mindsets presented on how the groundwork for their future society is to be laid.
Senku proceeds with his idealised mindset, where technology can save all and create a
utopia out of the horrors of their past, while ignoring the problems of the society that
once came before.
Tsukasa, on the other hand, is instead a bit less idyllic and more realistic.
He proceeds with the knowledge that there are those in humanity who would be grateful
for being saved, but would eventually succumb to greed and malice to gain their own form
of power to the detriment of all.
Unfortunately, his solution to that is to just kill all of the people he believes will
ruin society before they even get a chance to recover from paralysis, something Senku
wholly objects to.
What’s interesting is that neither of them is necessarily wrong with the core of their
mindsets, but they have wildly differing thoughts on how best to implement their version of
an ideal society in this stone world.
Senku is already dealing with the drawback in his plan to revive all of humanity now
that Tsukasa is freed.
Who’s to say that there won’t be others they revive that will agree with Tsukasa’s
mindset and leave to help him.
It’s 100 billion percent probable if his plan is to truly revive everyone.
How does he avoid it?
Stick to only reviving those who he knows will agree with him beforehand?
Seeing what he comes up with to deal with this problem will be exciting to see.
But of course the series leaves a lot of questions up in the air.
Where did the green light originally come from?
Who created it?
Why were only humans and some birds targeted, while pets and zoo animals left alone?
What allowed Senju and Taiju to wake up after all those years and, almost more importantly,
if they were able to wake up because of whatever circumstances, was there anyone else who woke
up in the last 3 millennia and where are they now?
Plenty of material to work with both narrative wise and manga wise, with 113 chapters to
adapt at time of writing.
TMS, the studio behind this anime, has quite a bit of breathing room.
Though what I find surprising is that with both Dr. Stone and the new Fruits Basket adaptation
that started last season, TMS is becoming a bit of a powerhouse this year for quality
anime.
Though being perfectly honest, as someone who hasn’t read the manga, I haven’t yet
seen exactly why the series is as hyped as I’ve seen it be.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not denying its quality or its potential; it would be ludicrous
to even try.
But even as much as I have been enjoying myself, I must admit that I’m not as hyped for it
as some other people have been towards the series.
While entertaining, I’m still waiting for the series to truly wow me.
Though, as per usual, this is only my first reaction to the series, and perhaps things
will turn out quite a bit differently than what I’m expecting.
Thank for joining me in this quick discussion.
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Until next time, WATCH MORE ANIME! – and stay frosty everyone.