1st Episode Anime Impressions: Dr. Stone

The anime is part of our weekly reviews.

Summary

All of humankind has been petrified within a single moment through a mysterious phenomenon for thousands of years. Then a boy called Senku, who has a superhuman brain and a love for science, wakes up.

‘From the Stone Age to the modern times, I will make sure humanity will rise past these 2 million years of science!’

Senku decides to look for other people and revive humanity in this desperate situation!

Impressions

Thanasis

‘This is exhilarating’. I couldn’t agree more with Senku and this new anime catchphrase of his. Dr. Stone gave some Storytelling 101 lessons with its narrow focus, its interesting setting, and its attention to detail. It combined what I don’t like about shonen (ridiculoys hairstyles; a Pinky and the Brain stereotype duo; unrealistic strength, will, and brainpower; THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, the rival who you know will come soon because he has a cool name and he was mentioned in the first episode) with a fascinating setting that finds humanity turned to stone and the Earth returned to the rest of the organic species. If that doesn’t scream ENVIROMENTAL ACTIVIST VILLAIN, I don’t know what does.

The protagonistic duo wakes up from their stony slumber after 3700 years and tries to rebuild civilization from scratch, find a cure for the petrification effect, and survive in this new world they find themselves in. Its infotainment moments teach us more about science and how it can be used to learn more about the world around us and survive in almost every situation. I don’t care much about the shonen tropes and I am a little worried that they are going to get worse, but I am going to give the series the 3-episode run it deserves, if only for the interesting set and great visuals.

Kurumi

Is this anime worth the hype? If you were once a science-loving student who did enjoy lots of experimental activities, or someone who has a great fascination with geology and everything about mind-blowing scientific stuff, then Dr. Stone will definitely stun you with its first episode. The story seems like a generic shounen at first glance with its typical school setting and the cliché of love confession. There’s a cool-looking protagonist who seems to know a lot of things, and there’s also his best friend who is fondly called ‘big oaf’, and both of them find themselves to a stone world after the massive petrification of Earth population. Everything in their new world is made of stone. Does it sound terrifying? Is this the end of their life? Well, it’s actually a vibrant world. Their life has just started anew to create a beautiful civilization through science. Their adventure begins here: building shelter on their own and doing other survival things, discovering the micro-components of science, and experimenting things until everything comes to life. Their brainy stuff was really entertaining, and I hope to see more scientific discussions that would turn me into a mad scientist. I haven’t tried reading the manga, but I’d say that the premiere of this anime was beyond my expectations.

Steph

Dr. Stone has definitely set itself up as one to check out this anime season, and not just because of Senku’s crazy hair. The first episode was a joy to watch with its stunning animation and art. I will say I was not 100% sold on our two male leads, Senku and Taiju. As I say in my full review, they seem a bit like Pinky and the Brain from that old cartoon. There doesn’t seem to be much to their characters besides brainiac and muscle head. Of course, I’m sure that will change as the series unfolds but as a first impression that’s how I found them.

Scott

I am blaming Crunchyroll’s massively marketing on this, but I was completely underwhelmed by this first episode. Yes, I did walk into this not knowing anything about this show’s premise at all because I wanted to be amazed by what was revealed, but it didn’t work. The premise of rebuilding society after everyone has been turned into stone is rather fascinating and has so many places that it can go, but the execution was a little too simplistic. The science wasn’t wrong, but it was too simple. Also, the characters are very one note and I can’t say that I am a fan of them. Still, I’m going to watch more to get more of a feel of it before I decide whether I want to continue with it.

Asie

When I saw this anime on the list of upcoming shows and read what it’s about, I had a feeling that it was gonna be an amazing series. I’m glad to say the first episode didn’t disappoint that expectation of mine! The way it started was explosive, figuratively and literally! Seeing two high schoolers using each of their strengths, doing all they could to kick-start humanity once again, it was super inspiring. I also quite enjoyed the bits of interesting trivia the show gave us here and there! It makes the show not only entertaining, but informative too! And man, the visuals! I really appreciate how detailed and stylized the art style, and character design are! The backgrounds are eye candy, too! This level of quality is surely not easy to do, so I hope it will stay consistent until the end of the show. I’m incredibly excited to see more of what Senku and Taiju will do, what kinds of people will help them or prevent them from restarting humanity, and more importantly, what caused all the people in the world to turn into stone!