Dr. Stone’s use of science and how it tells an amazing story

Dr. Stone anime started airing in 2019 and is based on the manga written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Boichi. The anime has a post-apocalyptic setting where our protagonist is trying to save the world with the use of science. With great comedy, multifaceted characters and an amazing story Dr. Stone is a must-watch. 

Plot

The story starts with the modern world, where a wave of green light comes and turns every human on the planet into a stone statue. Years pass as nature slowly takes over the world, while destroying every man-made thing around. Our protagonist Senku Ishigami wakes up after 3700 years in a world devoid of any technology or civilization. Now it is up to Senku to re-establish the modern world with his amazing intellect and use of science. 

Senku successfully wakes up his friends but unfortunately, he also wakes up Tsukasa, who is a brutally strong guy but has no intention of building modern civilization. Tsukasa destroys statues of adults and only believes in the survival of the young in the world.  

The core of the story is about Senku and his friends building the kingdom of science while trying to win against the kingdom of might created by Tsukasa. 

Are Dr. Stone’s experiments real?

One of the key features of the story is its description of science and how instead of focussing on battles or action, the show focuses more on the use of science for the preparation of those battles and how Senku makes new tools. The science described in the show is quite grounded in reality with most of the tools made are already used by modern humans in day-to-day life. The show starts with more primitive stone and clay tools but slowly transitions to more modern things like iron, magnets, battery, and even a cell phone.

Dr. Stone has a unique ability to tell scientific facts in a more fun way. Unlike your typical classroom education, the show is more akin to “Man Vs Wild”, where knowledge and science are used in creative ways. Instead of telling straight facts, Dr. Stone builds over those facts, and it gets even easier to digest as the show often tells complex ideas in terms of roadmaps or steps it will take that idea to complete.   

The show sells the fact, that how wonderful use of science can be and how satisfying its pursuit is. The joy of experimentation and discovery, and mankind has built tools over years to bent nature to his will. 

Though we cannot disregard the fact that the show is a work of fiction and sometimes depicts things that are somewhat unrealistic and there is a shonen element to it. 

Dr. Stone characters 

Dr. Stone has a wide array of interesting characters which makes the show a blast to watch. In the story, Senku eventually finds a tribe of primitive people who are descendants of people who didn’t turn into statues, and the whole tribe has uniques characters. Some people are super strong, people who have strong craftsmanship, and some people are genuinely interested to know what is the use of science really is. The tribe becomes the Senku’s first colony in the kingdom of science. 

The characters though stereotypical acts as the main source of comedy in the show. It is interesting to see how a wide spectrum of people come together and interact. People’s reaction to scientific tools is especially amazing to watch. 

Even the bad guy’s team has pretty interesting characters. Our antagonist Tsukasa though on the negative side has a somewhat justifiable motive. And Tsukasa is so powerful that he can kill a lion with bare hands, which makes him scary as an opponent. Not everyone on Tsukasa’s team is bad though, some are just confused and some are just doing things for fun.

Among all the characters Senku, our protagonist is the main source of fun. Unlike other shonen series where the main character more often or not follows a story of some passionate person who loves everyone, Senku is more of a mad-scientist type character. The only reason he is building back the civilization is that he wants to go into space and for that he needs manpower.

Most of the time Senku’s plans are selfish and have a wicked vibe to them but that only adds to the humor of the show. Instead of having binary characters, having characters with both positive and negative sides makes them relatable and adds a grounded feel to them. 

Animation quality

The show has great animation quality with a lot of attention to detail. The director stated that how the show has many times more character expression than a typical show. The directors even went to the real glass blowing factory to get some beakers made just for reference for a similar scene in the show. The Production team acquired all sorts of strange things, just to make scenes in the show look authentic. 

The show has beautiful background art with a lot of attention to detail. As the show takes place in a world filled with forests and natural environment, which makes it even difficult to produce compared to scenes with buildings modern architecture. All in all the creators have done a phenomenal job with the show. 

Future of the show and conclusion  

The show has two seasons so far with the second season has finished airing in early 2021. Through the release of a further season is not clear but a sea adventure was teased at the end of Dr. Stone’s season 2. 

With amazing characters, a great story, and teaching us the use of science, Dr. Stone is a must-watch. Plus CrunchyRoll has a bonus episode of Dr. Stone describing how the anime is made and is also quite informative.