Dr. Stone - The Ultimate Science or Total Fiction - An honest review
Having recently finished on Netflix, this 3 Season Anime Series (4th season dates are not yet announced), I have to admit, i totally enjoyed it, despite its fallacies, the scientific errors, the repetitive ideas and concepts, and losing me in the middle. It teaches a lot, and its a hair's radius away from being a mad scientist story.
It's based on a Manga series by the same name written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Boichi. The story is about the world coming to an end due to a cataclysmic world-ending event that turns every living creature into a stone, and a science loving kid waking up after 3700 years due to some chemical reaction on his petrified form.
Story & Concept
Imagine you’re chilling in high school, doing some crazy lab experiments or about to confess your love to your childhood crush, and BOOM! A green light turns entire world to stone. Fast forward 3,700 years, one of those lab students, a genius science loving kid, Senku, wakes up and decides, “Yeah, I’m gonna bring civilization back from the Stone Age with the help of SCIENCE, and call it Scientific Society”. The premise is fresh, unique, and somehow manages to make science interesting.
Characters & Humor
- Senku, Ishigami: The scientist and main character
- Taiju, Oki: Senku's friend, more muscle than brain. He is one of the protagonists of Senku and was first one to be brought back into living by Senku.
- Chrome, a stone age scientist (known as sorcerer), offspring a a village established by astronauts who returned to earth safe after the world turned into stone.
- Tsukasa, the beast of a human, who wants to keep the world safe by not waking up everyone, only the pure of the heart.
- Gen Asagiri: My favorite, the mentalist, the trickster. He’s got that perfect mix of charisma and mischief. Whether he’s manipulating enemies with mind games or just messing around with Senku’s plans, he’s the ultimate wildcard and honestly one of the most entertaining characters in the series.
Animation & Soundtrack, and the world within.
The world created in this Manga is beautiful and revolves around Mount Fuji and Japan. It's beautifully portrayed and huge with panoramic views, scenic boat rides and wonderful hot air balloon birds-eye-views. Visually, the series is stunning. The colors pop, the petrification effects are eerie, and the science sequences have a cool “mad scientist blueprint” aesthetic. The music is wonderful too. They actually revive a record sung by Japan's most beloved singer, and invent primitive tools to play it too.
Science & Accuracy
Dr. Stone’s biggest flex is how much real science it throws at you. From making soap to crafting lightbulbs, making car engines, boats, drones, hot-air balloons and what not, it’s all theoretically possible (if you happen to be an unreasonably smart teenager with endless resources). You will 10 Billion Percent leave this show knowing how to make gunpowder and ramen from scratch.
Despite all the interesting stuff, there are many mistakes i think worth highlighting, i.e.
Senku’s survival: He supposedly stayed conscious for 3,700 years by counting seconds in his head. Cool, but... no. The human brain would give up way before that.
Superhuman strength everywhere: Tsukasa and other characters break boulders with their fists. May be Stone Age protein shakes?
Instant science: Some inventions feel rushed. Steam engines, antibiotics, and computers all happening within a few months? Even with genius-level intellect, that’s a stretch. Even if you know the blueprints.
Where are the old people: Older survivors are kind of missing in action? The whole world turned to stone, but why is everyone young and attractive when revived?
Dr. Stone is a good learning experience of many scientific concepts, or refurnishing them if you knew them already, and its pure entertainment with a pinch of war, and love affairs. It’s one of those rare anime that actually makes you smarter while keeping you entertained. Its a nerdy stuff, with fun. If you are a nerd who does like to have fun while being nerd, this is your jam.
I think you are looking for a lot of logic in an anime that obviously has to add fictional aspects to keep entertaining people but, many of the scientific aspects raised in the series are totally true, I have seen several videos of scientists verifying the veracity of the experiments and the vast majority are fine.
True…
Dr. Stone is a unique gem in the anime world! Its combination of science, humor, and adventure makes it truly special, despite its exaggerations. I love how you describe it as "a step away from being a mad scientist story," because Senku truly embodies that essence with his obsession with science and his exciting way of explaining it.
The flaws you mention are completely true, but I think they're part of the anime's charm. At the end of the day, the series doesn't aim to be 100% realistic, but rather to inspire scientific curiosity and entertain.
What was your favorite arc of the series so far? Do you think the fourth season will surpass the previous ones?
Wow… so obvious AI generated comment
Hi friend, due to AI? I don't think so. I always try to leave a comment that's as general as possible. I take the time to read every post and leave the best comment possible. This way, I get feedback so the user can go back to my post.
I always like to leave questions at the end of each comment. If you think it was AI, I sincerely apologize.
Yeah, I don't think the way old inventions are recreated by Senku is actually plausible, nevertheless I've bought Dr.Stone manga in paper precisely to be able to use it as reference in case of apocalypse :o)
They choose who to revive, since they don't have infinite resources. Even when revival fluid stopped being an issue, the simple matter like food still is, so it makes sense to revive people who can support themselves and others, instead of being a dead weight. Also the process of petrification and revival heals old scars etc., so it wouldn't be too outlandish to assume it might have a positive impact on cellular level, basically making people younger.
the population of old village was nearly 40 as i remember.
and they revived 110.. because they summed it up to 150 as science village's population. yet, they dont show anyone else except 10 main characters.
also senku can even create Ramen out of nothing... so food is not an issue