Dr. Stone (Anime Review)

So guys, I recently began watching a ton of new animes and reading new mangas. I wanted to try to watch more new stuff and make reviews for them. One of these was for the series Dr. Stone. I litterally only just began getting interested in this series a few weeks ago and I've started collecting the manga and getting the anime on DVD. So far, only two seasons have been made and the third season is being released in April, so, I guess you could say this is sorta in preparation for the new season. Not only that, but the manga has already finished. It was created by Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi and was another Shonen Jump property that ran from 2017 until last year. I'm only going to be talking about the anime because I finished watching both seasons recently after only just getting them recently too, though, I do also want to briefly talk about the manga because Boichi's art in the series is some of the best artwork for a manga I've ever seen. It's absolutely insane with how beautiful the art for this series is in the manga. I'd also say that this series is one of the most entertaining animes I've seen in a while too. Not that other animes I've started watching for the past few months haven't been really entertaining, but this one in particular has been so much fun to watch and I'm very excited for the new season to come out. I would say it's really up there as one of my new favourite animes ever. It's just been a blast watching it so far. So, let's get into it. And, like always, this will have all the spoilers for the series so far that's in the anime, so, if you don't want anything spoiled, go watch it then come back and read the rest of this. So, the plot is about the entire planet Earth one day somehow having some apocalyptic event that causes every single human being to turn into stone. Over 3000 years later, a guy named Taiju is able to break free and the entire planet has seemingly become like the Stone Age again. But, he's able to find his friend named Senku who's a genius and has been awake for a while and is trying to figure out what exactly happened and how to fix everyone back to normal and restore civilisation. After being attacked by lions they revive a guy named Tsukasa to help, and he does seem to want to help, but then he gets an idea to only revive the young and strong and kill all the adults. So now, Senku decides to go off on his own to find some others that are around too while Taiju and a girl they revived named Yuzuriha go to Tsukasa and pretend to join the empire he's making and Senku is also trying to make scientific advancements to bring back a lot of what's now gone. I'll stop there for now. So, I will say, the first couple of episodes weren't really doing it for me. I found them fine, but I didn't really like them all that much. I liked Senku, I thought he was really likeable and a really fun protagonist, but I personally didn't like Taiju. I thought he was kinda annoying so it got a little annoying following them with him around. But, after those first couple of episodes when Senku goes off on his own and has Taiju and Yuzuriha go to Tsukasa, the show got a whole lot better for me. We see Senku trying to find other people due to seeing some smoke somewhere and taking that as there must be some more people out there. so, eventually, he comes across a village where a small civilisation is and meets the people there. And everything that happens in the village is fantastic, it's some of the most entertaining stuff I've seen in an anime in a while. Senku meets a whole bunch of characters and tries to show them different ways of using science and tries to tell them about different inventions they can make. At first, they don't want to have anything to do with him or what he's talking about, but after he begins to actually make some inventions with the few things they have and tells them what they do, they begin to get interested and want to learn more and now to do it themselves. They also begin to want to learn about how the world used to be as well. So, that's really the first season in a nutshell. Senku and the village doing all these inventions and trying to make something Senku is calling The Kingdom Of Science. He's trying to make a bunch of inventions and save as many people as he can to stand against Tsukasa who's trying to rule over everyone himself. So a lot of Season 1 is really entertaining and interesting to have all of this with having Senku and the people in the village doing this. The characters there are also a big help with making this extremely entertaining. Like I said, I never really liked Taiju, but I was glad we went away from him really quickly and met some really entertaining and likeable characters in the village. I already mentioned how I really, really liked Senku, but other characters like Chrome, Kohaku, Kaseki, Suika, Kinro and Ginro were all very likeable and very entertaining, especially Chrome, I really like him, he and Senku have a really fun friendship. And, really, just following these characters as they learn more about these inventions that Senku is teaching them and them learning about the world is very fun and interesting to watch. It's weird, but it's kinda like Death Note where this is Shonen Jump property but it's not an action series. There are a couple of small action scenes, but they're not the same as other action Shonen Jump stories, and they don't last for very long anyway. It's really just an adventure story and they do that extremely well. I like all the different events that come from that too like the Grand Bout or when they find out the name of the village which is called Ishigami Village, which is Senku's surname and they learn that Senku's adoptive Dad, Byakuya, and some other people were in space when the whole population got turned to stone and they were able to get back to the planet and tried to find out what happened. But, he ultimately left a record behind at his grave for Senku to find and Senku is able to make a record player to make it work and hear it. That's not to say that's the only thing that happens because they also have to deal with Tsukasa and his army who're trying to stop them and kill Senku so they also have to learn how to make weapons to stop them. They also have to deal with someone who comes there from Tsukasa named Gen, but Senku eventually manages to get him on their side too and he becomes an important character too, as well as just a super fun character in his own right. And, again, I just love all the different circumstances that come from them trying to do all these things like when Senku, Chrome and another guy named Magma, who was previously a small antagonist, have to go to some cave and get some stuff there and they manage to team up to get it. And the first season ends with Senku and the others fighting off some of Tsukasa's men and making them retreat with the different resources they were able to make so far and being able to make a telephone and trying to get it to Taiku and Yuzuriha and tell them about the advancements they've been able to make. Plus, not only did they manage to get the record from Byakuya and hear what he said on it, but they discover he also had a song on it sung by a singer who was with him too, and that becomes really important in the next season. But, for the first season alone, I honestly loved it. It was super fun, funny and extremely enjoyable. Just watching all these characters gradually go from making one invention to another was super fun to watch. It was kind of a weird thing where I clearly didn't understand a lot of what they were necessarily talking about, but it was still so entertaining to watch that I didn't mind. But, even then, there was one or two small things I did understand, but the rest was still fun to watch too. And, like I said, the characters were definitely a huge help in why it was so fun. Again, I really loved Senku and thought he was one of the most fun anime protagonists I've seen in a while. And the other characters were fun to watch with their unique personalities too. I just had so much fun with this and couldn't wait for more with Season 2. And, in the end, I didn't exactly love Season 2, but it was still a lot of fun. At the beginning of this, Senku and the others are able to use the telephone they made to talk to Taiju and Yuzuriha, who are still trying to get people from Tsukasa's side onto their's. They eventually manage to get a lady named Nikki onto their side after she learns about the record that has the song on it. So, the big main thing that happens in this season is that Senku and the other people in the Kingdom Of Science begin their attack on Tsukasa and the rest of the people on his side to also get back the Revival Fluid, which is the thing they've been using to unpetrify people. They begin to but then Chrome gets kidnapped but manages to escape and get back which leads to their attack and it looks like they manage to win until more arrive and stop them and it looks like Senku and the others are gonna be beaten, until Senku is sorta able to make a truce after Senku figures out that Tsukasa was actually doing all this for his sister and was hoping to make a safer world for her. Yeah, I will say, that part here felt kinda flimsy. I mean, she was never mentioned before and it did seem kinda out of nowhere, especially since we already heard him talk about how he wants to build this new empire for the strong only and, yeah, he did say he wanted to protect the weak, it was still weird. Anyway, this all leads to Senku and Tsukasa teaming up against Hyoga, one of the guys who was on Tsukasa's side who liked how things were before and now hates how they're all teaming up so he almost kills Tsukasa and Senku manages to stop him and they figure the only way to save Tsukasa is to freeze him and then petrify him again and then use the Revival Fluid hoping that'll cause his injury to heal. Not only that, but Senku and everyone else has decided to find out how the whole planet got covered in stone so they build a ship to sail to where the light came from that caused it. And that's litterally how the second season finishes, Tsukasa's been frozen and now Senku and the others are off to discover what happened. It's obvious that the next season's gonna be focused on picking up where that part leaves off. So, as for these first two seasons alone, I'm really, really loving it so far. Even though you'd almost say there's not that much happening in this, it really does have so many entertaining aspects about it. Like I've said a lot already, just with how Senku and the others talk about all these things and actually make these various inventions is so entertaining and so fun to watch. That's not to say the character writing isn't there because it totally is. The different ways the characters develop is fun to watch too, like everyone learning to trust Senku when he first enters the village and tries to learn what he's explaining is great too. Again, I just love the friendship that begins to build with all of them, especially with Senku and Chrome. Plus, the series is really funny, I love the different placements of comedy and it's done extremely well. The characters as well are just so great too. Senku is one of the most fun anime protagonists I've seen in a while, Chrome might be my second favourite character in the series other characters like Kohaku, Suika and Kaseki are great and hilarious with Kohaku's dedication to the people she cares about but still getting annoyed by them occasionally, Suika's obsession with wearing her melon helmet thing and Kaseki being another hilarious old man in anime. And even other characters I wasn't a fan of like Taiju did get somewhat more tolerable later on. And I really liked some of the antagonists too. I really like how Tsukasa wasn't exactly evil and still had some likeable aspects to him even before he became good. And, even if I did think that part was a little flimsy, I still liked him becoming good anyway. I also love how there's pretty much no filler in this at all. It's only 35 episodes so far so far and every episode is just so entertaining. Not to mention the fact that the manga is already finished like I said so that makes the idea of reading all the chapters really exciting. Speaking of, I already mentioned how absolutely incredible the art for the manga is, but, the anime looks outstanding as well. This was done by TMS Entertainment and they really did a phenomenal job with this because it's really stunning. Not only that, but this series has some of the most fun dub performances I've heard in a while too. Aaron Dismuke is amazing as Senku. I really liked him as Alphonse in Fullmetal Alchemist, but this is really his better performance in my opinion, he's really incredible as Senku. And everyone else like Felecia Angelle, Matt Shipman, Ian Sinclair and Kenny Green all do fantastically. So, in the end, I'm very excited for Season 3 next month, as well as the anime to finish in general, and I'm also really excited to get the last of the manga volumes. So, yeah, I do recommend checking this out. It's another great series to binge-watch, especially since there's not that many episodes yet anyway, and, like I said, none of them are filler. I'm just really excited for more. So, guys, those are my thoughts on Dr. Stone. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.