Dr. Stone - Episode 1 (Review)
By: Zelyhon
In modern day Japan, Taiju, a (relatively) normal high school student is about to confess to his crush Yuzuriha. His friend, science prodigy Senku, is confident that things will go well. However, the instant before this happens, everyone sees a strange light in the distance. A wave sweeps over Japan and, apparently, the whole world. In its wake, all humans are turned into stone statues. They are still conscious, but cannot see, hear, speak, or otherwise perceive the world. As we learn earlier in the episode, apparently something similar happened to some sparrows around Japan prior to the big incident. Senku, Taiju, and Yuzuriha are no exceptions and are all encased in stone.
About 3700 years later (by Senku’s count), Taiju’s statue body comes to rest underneath a cave of bats where, through the specific conditions within the cave, the stone covering his body weakens. Taiju breaks out of his stone shell in essentially the same condition he was in at the start (plus a couple scars from cracks in the stone). As he explores the new world, he finds the tree that sheltered Yuzuriha’s statue and finds a note left for him. It turns out Senku had broken out of his statue about six months before and had begun setting up a basic shelter and lab, with the intent to find a way to recreate the conditions that broke the two of them out of their statues. Through the use of nitric acid from bat guano and alcohol, Senku is able to produce nital, an industrial solvent. Using that, they successfully break a sparrow out of its stone shell, proving that they might be able to revive the world.
Dr. Stone is one of the most anticipated anime titles this season. As a huge fan of the manga, I couldn’t wait to see how the anime adaptation would be done. I was not disappointed by the first episode. I enjoy the interactions between the perpetually energetic Taiju and the more deadpan snark of Senku. I also how it showed that Senku had tried again and again with what he had, judging by the rows and rows of birds in the lab. It’s nice to see that he doesn’t automatically succeed immediately. It takes months and months to get the resources to even make the attempt. I also very much enjoyed the immediate refuting of “Well, maybe there are things science can’t explain” with Senku’s very good description on the methods and purpose of science and pointing out that it’s just that there are things science hasn’t explained yet. I very much appreciate that attitude.
The animation and production seem to be quite high quality. I like how the show did a great job of bringing the world to life from the black-and-white pages of the manga. It can sometimes be hard for shounen shows like this to grab peoples’ attention without a big action scene or something in the first episode. Judging by the reaction from my fellow Geekly Grind editors, the episode has done a great job of drawing people into the premise and the world. My only main concern at this point is that the series is going at a bit faster of a pace than I expected it to. I hope that they can stop and take some time to explore things and not race through the storyline. I know from the intro that there are places they have to get this season, but I’d hate for the pacing to leave too much in the dust.
I know the ads for this are everywhere and that sometimes that turns people off, but it’s definitely worth giving Dr. Stone a try.
I'm 10 billion percent sure you'll like it!
