Dr. Stone

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This review will contain spoilers up to the marked chapter.

A modern-day take on the ancient battle of Athens and Sparta with new twists and turns. What happens when one day all of humanity is petrified by an unknown light and humanity must rebuild? Enter your cast of The Brain, the Brawn, the Girl and the Enemy. Dr. Stone starts off strong with an engaging premise that has a ton of potential something that I wish was explored more often in anime and manga - the rebuilding of human society after a mass tragedy. Most of the time we see the after-product without seeing the process ... that was used, the mistakes that were made and the things that were learned. Dr. Stone shows us all of this but that's about one of its only strengths.

I don't believe a lot of what Dr. Stone goes out to accomplish is done well. Our protagonist, Senkuu is a prodigy of the sciences, so much so that he built his own rocket that exited Earth's atmosphere before the tragedy happened. Prodigies are totally acceptable but knowing this creates an aura around Senkuu that just seems like he can find himself through anything. Specifically, in the tournament arc where one of the gags is that the heroes want to rig the tournament in a specific way, of course, they have to rely on chance for it to work out. Luck is against them in every shape and form and the worst matchup happens first. But the story can't just throw out it's most important character of the arc right away right? Of course, so through sheer luck, he wins. While this bit was executed well, it solidified that the aura around Senkuu was strong and I had predicted by this point he would succeed in the tournament and I was correct. I'm a believer in that you need a certain level of predictability in your work so the consumer can understand it, even if it only makes sense in hindsight. However, this isn't the only time Dr. Stone is so obvious. Upon its reveal of antagonist Tsukasa early in the story - his appearance is just so genuinely evil that there's no reason for you to question his allegiances from the moment he's introduced. You just know he's not gonna be allied with the heroes from the minute you see the guy.

Tsukasa and Senkuu create an interesting and philosophical duality. Where Senkuu wants to rebuild the world and Tsukasa wants to purge humanity and create his perfect world. It's nothing new, we've seen it in Death Note, Code Geass, Evangelion, Durarara, JoJo and more by this point. Tsukasa hasn't had his time yet to shine so his character is still very underexplored but this is an interesting part of Dr. Stone that has potential to be great. Likewise, the exploration of science through Senkuu's character is interesting but as smart as Dr. Stone portrays itself with science and philosophy it has a few glaring issues that it doesn't take Newton or Plato to find out.

First, when we learn of the village of survivors, later to be descended from Senkuu's father we know they've passed down 100 Stories known as the Hyakumonogatari, we even get an entire chapter dedicated to the establishment of the stories. But none of these descendants knew how the old world used to be. They passed down knowledge of what foods, materials and other items would be necessary for survival but no stories of the past, where they came from, what they could strive for? It's not like it was out of the realm of possibility for this either. They made 100 Stories, why not 101 where one is just a brief history of the past. Another glaring issue with the Hyakumonogatari is the original generation of surviving humans seemed to gamble on the entire idea that Senkuu would even emerge from this rock slumber. In the possible case that he never awoke, they never took any precautions for that.

Second is a bit of an ongoing issue but it deals with the humor. The humor exists in primarily three ways: sex jokes, facial expressions, and vocal inflections. I don't really need to explain why the first one can get old real fast so let's focus on the latter two. Facial expressions are probably the most common type of humor in Dr. Stone and it's very hit and miss. While the artwork does the expression justice, constant weird face making does not make good comedy. Tell me some good jokes, give me some funny dialogue, both of these are to be found in Dr. Stone but not all that often. Most of the dialogue based jokes kind of fail too, not as a result of poor writing though but because certain lines require an inflection of the voice. While most manga run into this issue Dr. Stone doesn't do much to mitigate against it. Sakamoto desu ga and Watamote were manga that had me laughing out loud, and Dr. Stone has the potential to have some laugh out loud moments. But if all of your jokes in this vein rely on the same kind of drawn out line like Spongebob saying "Reaaaaaaaaaaaaally?" you have a bit of an issue. In fact, I'm sure as an anime, most of the humor would work in general just because of how fluid it would work and the timing it could have. As a manga, Dr. Stone misses out on some of the comedic timing it needs for the jokes it uses, so if it ever gets an anime adaptation I totally expect the humor will improve.

Overall, I'd love to love this series it just has so much potential underneath all its problems. Nothing is extremely standout about it, but nothing is extremely offensive. But as a series based on science and the on-going themes of Brains vs. Brawn and ambiguous evil, there seems to be a huge level of suspension of disbelief I need to not question some of the things that are actually happening. If you've been through the song and dance of 100 shounen before and are bored of the same old same old, Dr. Stone probably isn't for you. But if you're looking for something with a different premise with the same general storytelling techniques you'll like it. But I'd rather go for Death Note or Hunter x Hunter personally both of which contain better twists, better philosophies, less predictable outcomes, and a smaller threshold of things that I need to accept to believe in the world and what's going on. They've also both been published in the same magazine as this so why not just grab those?

Disappointing to say the least. First half is quite fun because it's a survival story; you want to see how these people survive using science. It's a fantastic setup for a manga, but sadly it all falls apart in the second half. The second half is complete nonsense with most characters only existing for comedy gags. The science doesn't really matter anymore since anyone can create anything within minutes. Ridiculous villains show up for no reason just to pad the story out. It's so boring I really struggled to finish this series. If you are going to read it then set your expectations very low.

Some settings are quite exaggerated (catching belt, beating lions, knowing how to make literally everything) but those where necessary to even start the story so I omit longer complain.

Author lacks in very basic knowledge and replaces that with long chemical sentences and general confusion of other characters.

Manga challenges readers with more and more ridiculous ideas with each arc (it's hard to review this part without spoilers so here are some):

1. Village started by 6 ppl (at least 5 of them were fairly or very intelligent) 3700 years ago. (Forget about extinction caused by to small number or genes poll) They didn't develop anything, didn't use ... any of modern time devices and there is only 40 of them

2. Phones (communication) as response to enemies overwhelming advantage in numbers and individual strenght (even though mc already created crossbow in 1st arc and new ones could be much more powerful and even children can use crossbow pretty efficiently)

3. Rival wants to replace corrupted civilization with his paradise where civilization doesn't exist (resurects only muscles to create civilization based purely on strenght)

It must go worse with time but I already dropped it

Jeez, I really want to love this manga, the world is really cool, the art is mostly incredible, and the concept is really unique for manga. However I just can't get past the doe eyed hentai girls, and holy moly the cheesy fan service is just too much. On top of that you have some hardcore cookie cutter shonen characters, there is almost nothing redeeming about any of them, they're just there. Lastly, bad science, bad science, bad science, BAAAAAAAAAAAD BAD SCIENCE. My goodness I want to reach out and bonk the author on the head, nothing about the science in this is educational, it's ... pure fiction. For a manga that at first seems to celebrate science, it quickly turns it into a cheap gimmick that takes basic concepts and runs more wild with them than a child that's afraid of the dark.

Edit : terrible a bad case of not contrasting sources and the author believing weird internet stuff and mixing it all the create a mainstream/comercial abomination (It isn't that difficult getting a consultant of the different topics they touch).

I really liked the beginning and could overlook some Asian misconceptions with Edison /Amadeus vs Salieri / creation and acceptance of money...Way too many over simplifications. Even willingly hold some suspense of belief on exaggerations the that were necessary for the story to even take off. The author only remembers they are human instead of robots once in a while.

Some spoilers ahead:

But I just couldn't stand how ... they crossed the ocean the enemy is potentially in South America and the currents can change to worse in 1000+ years) instead of going to Africa /Asia /Europe or any random gold/ jewellery deposit. If it was for the food, India would be the easy choice...I ended up hating how the characters were so shallow and seeing the author trying to be smart .

The biggest contradiction apart from the undeveloped village and how almost none of the humans ,not even statues die, is that Japanese is only spoken in Japan ,so unless they stayed at a year stabilising the village and learning languages, the original crew will have a heavy language barrier (not only that ,but other human communities probably have unknown new languages/technologies after 1000+ years) It doesn't even give an explanation as to why they speak only Japanese in a settlement started by an international crew.

I thought that some things would go to better when Dr. Xeno was introduced as another scientist with more realistic approaches .But in the end he was easily subdued and they revived a regiment of USA military and they just force all the ugly stuff on him to make Senku shine brighter. Really don't know why Tsukasa was totally fine with this stuff.

I completely dislike the conception of necessary evils Manga forces upon the readers (Mafia ,pirates ,one other than the --mc taking the blame for all the bad stuff...) I just see it as the MC imposing his values in a hypocritical way whist washing his hands when anything inmoral appears.

Dr.Stone manga got a winning concept and a mediocre execution.

The characters are flat, generic and boring - unrealistic and extroverted (and so is the story!)

The story follow "Dr.Stone" a character that all it purpose is to spout science words from chemistry and to glorify science every 5 minute, and its sidekick an idiot shounen boy, that apparently isn't very smart at all.

I think I almost dropped the manga when Senkuu caught an arrow with his hand (that flys in 200 km?...)
But I tried to overlook it, because manga logic.
Senkuu character is boring, edgy and inhuman - I mean really all the dialog from this ... character is just random bad guy cliche. (and his vision for mankind or what ever is stupid and egocentric)

The first village is where I dropped the manga, in it 40-what people that calls trowing sulfur and other material into a fire "magic"
Its a boring arc about them trying to create antibiotic filled with random dialog about how "Dr.Stone" want to create the "Kingdom of science".
Do you honestly want me to believe that people will be stupid again (I mean really stupid, not just undeveloped) after an apocalypse, that's just bullshit.

I'm sorry about my harsh review, but its my honest review, I wanted to give this manga a shot, mainly because the anime is near by, but I can't recommend it to anyone.

Waste of time.

Might fit kids - ages 13-17 I guess.

Was this written by 12 year old with internet access? While the manga's initial premise is mad interesting, the utter lack of nuance when treating themes of civilization, war, violence, and community is honestly embarrassing. The presumptuous and erroneus assumption that violence is the central pillar of civilization is lame, tired, insufferable. I hear they develop this eventually (cell phones, wow...) but I dropped this 8 chapters in. I was initially drawn to Dr. Stone bc someone described as the 'new hope of Shonen Jump' (and so I recognize and understand that this is a manga for kids!!!!) but the series does not live ... up to the hype.
The characters are all extreme caricatures, and worse, some are caricatural morons - not only one-dismensional but also unnervingly grating. The humor....weird facial expressions and characters yelling at each other.
The art is lovely and detailed. EXCEPT for the tropey girl character who LOOKS LIKE ASTROBOY TO A DISCONCERTING EXTENT!?
Writing this review has actually convinced me to continue reading Dr Stone if only to indulge in the so bad its goodness of the series.

Dr. Stone is a perfect example of a formula that works fantastically at first, but soon becomes so restrictive that it sabotages its own potential success. The opening arcs of the manga are genuinely great. There's a great pace of new characters while existing ones continue to be fleshed out and feel important, the art is impressively detailed and the writing is decent enough all round. On top of that, it really feels like you're learning as you go, and it's incredibly satisfying. If you've ever felt a deep satisfaction as you advance up a tech tree in a survival game, Dr. Stone is basically ... that feeling rendered on to paper. Sure, it's a little melodramatic and I could do with a little less of the characters all just spouting how they feel at each other, and dear lord the fan service is a bit much, but all in all, a really solid start.

It doesn't take long for it to all go downhill though. The main problem with Dr. Stone is it refuses to evolve whilst not having much of a plan. Very early on, the finish line is set and the rest of the series feels like it can't wait to reach it. Earlier inventions and technological progressions felt believable and detailed, but towards the end Senku and co. are just pulling all kinds of nonsense out their arses. That narrative loop that was so satisfying to start with - goal, idea, progress, problem, solution, emotional conclusion - feels completely artificial very quickly, which is only worsened by the paper thin characters. Seriously, there are so many of these buggers. Hordes upon hordes of side characters, and with all of them refusing to die or go quietly in to the background, by the end every page has a different character with no relevance to the plot who's just there to spout their incredibly annoying catchphrases (oh god, the catchphrases). Almost no-one has any development either, beyond antagonists being seduced to do-gooderism with never a hint of regret or indecision. All of this on top of the leering art and eye-rolling character designs (even the young child character is aged up to be a sexy glamour model at one point) made for a borderline painful read before it was done.

Maybe it seems like I hate Dr. Stone, but really I was just massively disappointed in it. For such an interesting and original concept and strong opening to be squandered on copy and paste writing, boring characters and horrendous pacing feels tragic to me. You might hold out hope that the ending at least has a good answer for the series' central mysteries, but nope. Have a final showdown that is basically just the authors turning to you the reader and telling you the first thing they could come up with that makes about as much sense as how all the female characters always manage to fit both the chests and butts in frame at the same time. Honestly I would have preferred the ending be "and I guess we'll just never know why or how this happened, but that's science. There's always more to learn" than this incomprehensible mess. I've done my best not to spoil any thing here, but honestly it's just not worth reading. The first 80 chapters or so are great, but I really wouldn't bother past that.