Dr. Stone First Impressions

“I’ve loved you… for hundreds of years… thousands of years…”

It can be easy to forget how innovative Shueisha, the company behind Weekly Shonen Jump, can be. I alluded to this back during my review of The Promised Neverland’s premiere, but I often fall into the trap of perceiving the company as being the immovable monolith that defines what constitutes “shonen” anime. The rationale behind this is obvious. For many years the anime landscape was dominated by the big three titles, all of which were based upon Shonen Jump titles. However, with two of the big three completed (and to some extent disavowed by the larger anime community), it makes sense that Shueisha would begin courting newer titles that didn’t fit into what many would consider “Standard Shonen.” There’s certainly a precedent for this approach with titles like Death Note, but those rare instances were the exception and not the norm. So, after that lengthy aside about the change in the shonen landscape, we have Dr. Stone. Is it a transcendent narrative that elevates the shonen medium to new levels? Well, no, I wouldn’t go that far, but it does have a refreshing premise that has plenty of potential, even if I’m not on board with the characters just yet.

The story is set in the year 5738 (I suppose it is 5739 by the end of the first episode). More than 3700 years prior humanity was abruptly afflicted with a condition that turned humans to stone. After millennia trapped in his stone prison, high school student Taiju wakes to find a landscape reclaimed by nature. He quickly rediscovers the girl he had a crush on still petrified under the tree, now grown to massive proportions, where he had last seen her. With her he finds a message from his friend, Senku, who he soon learns had woken months prior and had been preparing the means to survive and potentially restore humanity. This issue I have with our two primary characters in this story is that they exist in extremes. Taiju is a particularly extreme version of the muscle-bound idiot with a heart of gold stereotype, and Senku is such an extreme level of genius that he knows exactly what date it is because he counted every second he was petrified. That’s a level of ridiculous that just irritates me. Fortunately, those extremes do balance each other out a little, and I find them less annoying when their working off of one another. Still, I’d like to see their personalities turned down from 11.

The production is a solid effort from TMS Entertainment, but I’m not a huge fan of the character designs. Taiju is passable, even if I find myself aggravated by his overly expressive personality, but Senku’s hair is just too anime for me. In a different series, I could maybe overlook his overgrown Vash the Stampede but with green tips look, but here it just feels out of place. I also find myself questioning aspects of the setting, as very little leftover rubble from human civilization is shown in 5738. Petrified body parts are strewn everywhere, but no apparent remains of the school or houses? I’m not expecting anything to be left properly standing, but it seems that either both should still be present or neither. Still, I did enjoy Senku’s analysis and theories on how to undo the petrification, even if the actual process was rushed through in montages. Dr. Stone has a ton of potential baked into its premise, but it remains to be seen whether these broadly defined characters will lend to the narrative or detract from it.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• It’s more than a little strange that neither Senku nor Taiju make any reference to their parents and their well-being. This bugged me throughout much of the episode.
• This reminds me a bit of Assassination Classroom due to both featuring a solid premise that gets undermined by over-the-top characters. Assassination Classroom was wackier in its style though, so I’d argue I was generally less interested in it than I was by this first episode of Dr. Stone.
• The quote I referenced at the beginning was the one point in the episode where I found Taiju (in the absence of Senku) to be endearing… And if there aren’t a couple dozen AMV’s to “Thousand Years” by Christina Perri by the end of this season, then I will be surprised.
• I do love Senku’s caveman-Dr.Horrible cosplay outfit. I can’t deny that.