Dr. Stone Episode 1

Dr. Stone Episode 1

Stone World

After conducting a poll over on Twitter, it was decided that Dr. Stone would be added to my weekly, Summer review schedule over Fire Force. While today’s review is on a Sunday, the rest of my Dr. Stone episode reviews will be in the Friday slot now that JoJo Fridays are over.

So what exactly is Dr. Stone? In short, it’s one of Shounen Jump’s newer hit series, which means it’s pretty popular. However, after watching the first episode I have some serious doubts about this series. As far as I can tell this is going to be another instance of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

And by that I mean that you guys are all going to love this series, but I’m going to hate it because it’s actually bad.

As for the plot, or at least what appears to be the plot, everyone on Earth was turned to stone and then 3,700 years later two high schoolers “wake up” from this fate. They then work together to revive humanity and bring it back to its former glory.

Yuzuriha Ogawa (petrified) from the anime series Dr. Stone
Yuzuriha Ogawa (petrified)

Aside from the more superficial complaints I already have about this series, the plot is a major concern for me. I’ll explain my reasoning for this in greater detail later on, but it just doesn’t seem like a sustainable plot. My guess is that the series will take a drastic turn for the worse after episode 1, much like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime did.

Though, if I’m being fair, I didn’t actually think episode 1 of Dr. Stone was all that great. Honestly, what did it do right? Other than pandering to people who like to think of themselves as smart, nothing.

The Birds and the Humans

The real mystery of the series is, why did all the humans on Earth become petrified? Maybe this question will be answered eventually, but at the same time I don’t think it really matters for the story the author wants to tell. This is a story about putting humanity back on top, not figuring out what went wrong.

Still, I can theorize. What’s so strange about the petrification event is how it happened. Every human on Earth was petrified in the same moment. This is key because it tells us that this isn’t some disease, but rather a single event.

However, there’s some competing information out there. For starters, this petrification event started with birds, then shifted to humans. Why was this the progression the petrification took? Also, why were birds being affected one-by-one while the humans were all petrified at the same time?

Could this mean someone caused this event to take place and was performing small-scale trials on birds? Further, after the event takes place, it seems that only birds and humans were affected. We see that other animals and forms of life are still thriving on Earth, but not birds nor humans.

What do birds and humans have in common which would make them the only ones affected? Surely if someone was using birds as a test group before launching this attack against humanity there are better animals they could have chosen.

I suppose it could work like the avian flu, but that still doesn’t explain why all humans were petrified in the same instant. I’m not expecting the secret behind this phenomenon to be explained from the start, but I’m interested in seeing how it’s eventually explained.

I am mad scientist! It’s so cool!

And now it’s time for some of my superficial complaints about the series before we get to the major one. I don’t like how the characters look. Specifically I hate the protagonist, Senkuu, but even the other characters look a bit strange too.

Why do they all have those jagged, vertical lines on their faces? I have no idea what those are supposed to represent. As far as I can tell, they’re just there to make the characters look more edgy (literally). The jagged edges of the lines make the characters all appear more serious than they otherwise would.

But the worst offender is Senkuu. We’ve all seen the “pick out the protagonist” memes, and I’m sure he’s going to become the focus of a few if he isn’t already. Why did they give him hair like that? Is this supposed to be Yu-Gi-Oh?

Senkuu from the anime series Dr. Stone

It also makes me mad that there are people out there (possibly you) who think his design looks good. It would be one thing if everyone in the series had crazy designs, but he’s literally the only one which is why it’s so bad.

Also the fact that he has E=mc² stitched onto his shirt infuriates me. It’s like he thinks adding the most cliche scientific formula onto his person makes him cooler. And it infuriates me even more knowing that some people (possibly you) agree with him.

I’m pretty sure this is the kind of character he’s going to turn out to be, and that actively harms series as far as I’m concerned. Disguising Deus ex machinas as “high IQ plays” doesn’t change the fact that an illogical outcome was achieved at the last moment simply because good guy would lose otherwise.

Plot: Complete

The biggest issue I have with this series is that I don’t really know what it plans to do next. Granted, perhaps there’s a great plot that I just fail to see at this point, but from what I know about the series, the plot has already been concluded.

Maybe I’m wrong, but this series is about going through all the technology from the stone age to the modern day as Senkuu and Taiju work to restore humanity. That’s fine and all, except for one major flaw. Within the very first episode they’ve already solved how to cure the petrification curse.

What this means is that they don’t need to work from the ground up to restore humanity. All they need to do is walk around town curing people, telling them how to cure others, and thereby spreading the cure around the world. Within a year the entire world could be back on track using this method.

Now, you may be thinking, well sure, everyone could be “revived,” but it’s still been 3,700 years. Yes, but the fact that all those people were “revived” means they retain all the knowledge they already had. They aren’t starting over from scratch and relearning all of human history and its technological advances.

For example, if you “revive” a ship building company they will still know how to build modern ships, not little wooden rafts. If you revive electrical engineers, they won’t have forgotten how to do their jobs. They’ll be able to get the power grid back up and running with a bit of effort.

So what is the plot of Dr. Stone actually going to be? My guess is that the one “primal” high school student, who looks like Kars from JoJo, will try to stop Senkuu and Taiju from restoring civilization.


So what are your first impressions of Dr. Stone? I feel like most people enjoyed the first episode, but I’m interested in hearing your thoughts anyway. I still enjoyed it, I just don’t think it’s going to be as good as it’s hyped up to be. Also, what do you think caused the petrification event? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. And, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any upcoming content. Along with Dr. Stone I plan to add Cop Craft and Okaa-san Online to the Summer schedule. Demon Slayer and Boruto (when not filler) will also stick around.

Finally I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can support this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

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