Dr. Stone

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.

There’s a lot to talk about in regards to Dr. Stone, but I’ll keep this review short and simple. Here’s a few things that I want to note: - Story/Characters: Basically, the this show revolves around Senku starting mankind from scratch. He’s a pretty lovable character with his limitless confidence and pride. He’s not some overleveled isekai protagonist that has everything go his way. The direction of the show can vary from his proud accomplishments or his critical mistakes. I’ll admit that Senku can feel too smart for the convenience of the story, but I mean hey he’s the protag. The side characters who get involvedwith Senku’s journey are solid. They have unique motives and sense of humor. Your perception for a few changes as new information is shown to you. Though I’ll say every new antagonist introduced got weaker in a complicated manner regarding their motivations. This is mostly due to the story feeling like a sandbox game. There isn’t a need for villains in a setting like Dr. Stone. I never got the feeling that anyone in the main cast would be in real danger. - Art: It’s solid. Boichi’s art is pretty distinctive if you’re familiar with his works (his most famous being Sun-Ken Rock). But the men look more unique than the women. I’m not sure if I had a hard time recognizing the minor female characters because of their wide eyes or whatever. It’s not something I’d consider a flaw. - The pacing: The step-by-step process of building new inventions was great. The science is pretty accurate, sometimes blown out of proportion for the sake of comedy. But this got progressively worst. I understand that they can’t dedicate a few chapters for every single project they make. But the process got to the point where they can build whatever, all within in a few panels without a cohesive explanation. No more of the good ol days of seeing the grit and grind pay off. Now the characters usually say something similar to "wow science is amazing" almost every chapter like Senku is a magician. You could tell Inagaki started to fast forward civilization after Stone Wars which made the admirable side of science look more meaningless. - Continuing the narrative is a tricky situation (following my previous point): This story would go on for a long time if they continued to be analytical from the start, which has a good chance boring most of us readers. It’s hard to say how the manga could improve in this manner, but it’s evident that this lead to the ending feeling rushed. - No one ages: The story goes on for many many years yet everyone looks the same. This could slide if the whole cast were adults, but they’re not. The majority of characters look young. I get how convenient it is to make everyone’s character design the same. But cmon, you’d expect them to age a bit, especially from the characters who do the hard labor they’re not used to. They should look more sturdy than the average person right? Welp, Suika has the Ash Ketchum treatment. Conclusion: It’s pretty simple for anyone to get a grasp of the story of Dr. Stone. This was never meant to a a psychological/thought provoking. Just pure entertainment. Even with the few complaints I had, it should be clear that you don’t need to use your brain to enjoy this. Just be aware that the quality of pacing and logic will fall off a bit around the last few arcs.

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 basicallythat 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.

“Humanity Isn't Going Down That Easily. Two Million Years Of Human History Is Right Here Inside Me." Dr. Stone is a hard sci-fi series that tells its tale in moments of extremity and comedy, logic and science, emotion and ideas. Drawn by Boichi, and written by Inagaki, the story focuses on the ideals of a single person to save the entire human race with nothing but science. A tale of mystery, but also adventure and war, Dr. Stone takes Minecraft society simulations to another level, and produces an extremely satisfying product to read, its end sparking many a feeling in its readers. The story takes placein a world that has seemingly lost all its advancement. After 3700 years of humans encased in stone, the first human breaks free from his dormant state and see’s the world, at least what’s left of it. A landscape drawn with such captivating horror surrounds him, a world back where life started, full of trees, wildlife and no human inventions. Animals roam freely, the skyline is clear, and a world with a completely different landscape, an earth that seems to have reset. Most scary of all, each and every human has been turned to a stone statue, which, when you break reveals that even their insides have completely turned into stone, a phenomenon that modern science cannot explain. Following the scientific genius, we witness his journey to save the world and bring it back to its original state, will nothing but the knowledge in his head. However the story isn’t nearly as simple as that, and Boichi does what Boichi does best, writing some extremely human characters. While Inagaki’s writings were what crafted the story, Boichi’s technical and character-driven hand places its touch on characters as seen in his previous work Origin. Characters who are brought back realize the splendor of the new earth and fight to keep it this tranquil place. Products of the previous world they refuse to let the world sink to what it used to do and instead create the ideal society. Wars of science and brute force break out, as conflicting ideas clash, and the greater scientist is guaranteed victory. You come to realize certain facts about human nature and how people operate and think. The story focuses on societies and how the world operates, as well as the main characters. As different socies are explored, different ideas are introduced, and different people are introduced, the story becomes larger and more expansive and their projects increase in their crazy nature. However, these ideals and moments are the background and the basis of all arcs, the surface level story a light-hearted comedy. Yet, a good amount of time is withholding these tranquil scenes and emotional moments for the best times and for extremely well-drafted scenes. What also carries the show is how realistic the show is in how things develop, and how the science keeps getting more and more absurd to carry out, in a world that has nothing but stick and stones. Inagaki, with each arc doesn’t hold back, bringing a great number of different kinds of antagonist, requiring a degree of science that keeps increasing, but in creative ways. The wit and creativity of the science inventions and projects never fails, creating rising stakes, but also a degree of intrigue in what scientific invention is to be explored next. Bombs don’t get bigger or even created, paper is, missiles aren’t shot, chemical formulas are thrown. However the story isn’t perfect, neither does it adopt the tone of Origin. The story has 1 large issue in its writing, and that is the story arcs in the first half. A background story of stopping the stone petrification and finding the source is there, and the themes lay heavily inside the often jovial and comedic manga. The story does a great job organically integrating this larger plot into the smaller arcs, but the basic plots of each arc, while executed extremely well, lack a lot. Spending a whole arc gathering resources to solve pneumonia, saving a damsel in distress, were both arcs that suffered from an issue that the whole story faced. Pacing. The story was a mess of pacing, where years took place in a chapter, where 50 chapters were a couple days, where a whole character arc over years took place in a chapter. The first half suffers from pacing that stretches the arcs too long, arcs that are nothing but to setup the endgame that the last 100 chapters provide. Furthermore, the first half while really enjoyable and full of special moments, doesn’t prepare you for the tonal shift and the seriousness of the second half, and instead provided a light-hearted mystery that was an enjoyable read, with series elements. The second half is a perfect combination of Origin and the first half of Dr. Stone, where the stakes feel extremely real, and the light-hearted story with darker elements, becomes a story that has both light and darker elements. It’s a perfect blend, where the final 100 chapters flow so organically and without a hitch that reading it week to week was nothing but an uphill ride of excitement. The art is drawn by the Korean photographer, graphic designer, and one of the best artistic designers Boichi. The Characters while enveloped in comedy, each have realistic traits, moments and stories that they go through the story, creating an incredibly real cast of characters. The only thing that they suffer from is being forgotten, characters after their arcs, cast away, and often never seen again. The story and path of science is explored almost perfectly, and the main character, though seemingly a genius, seemingly the perfect guy shows small cracks, small moments that really develop him. Dr. Stone is worth the read and following the 10th volume is nothing but a fantastic ride of a story. Thank you Boichi and Inagaki for this wonderful story.