Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Last week I reviewed The Promised Neverland one of the best animes from 2019 and the first anime that started off the year of Shonen Jump. Little did we know that this anime was only just the first strike Shonen Jump was planning for the year. Shonen Jump would keep the hits coming after Promised Neverland with Kimetsu no Yaiba which would go on to be the best anime of 2019, but more on that at a later date. When summertime came and the kids were out of school, they were treated to another hit from Shonen Jump that made science fun, Dr. Stone. Making its debut in 2017 from the creative mind that gave us Eyeshield 21, Riichiro Inagaki, Dr. Stone was the youngest of Shonen Jump’s series to be given an anime which was a pretty big risk as the series was only 2 years old at the time and some people felt that Shonen Jump might have been rushing things. Despite the series only being 2 years old, the fandom for this series was huge and strong in Japan that when they announced the anime adaption in 2018, fans went crazy. The anime was produced by TMS (Lupin III) and just liked The Promised Neverland it was met with high praise. In fact, it was praised more than Neverland. It was voted one of the best animes in the last decade, made my list as one of the best animes from 2019, and was the 8th most watched anime series on Netflix in Japan. Let’s get this exhilarating experiment going. This is Dr. Stone.
Opening and Ending Theme
The first opening is “Good Morning World” by Burnout Syndromes. Well I’m gonna make a lot of people upset. I did not care for this opening. Now, I don’t hate this opening. I don’t even dislike it. It’s not a bad song I just didn’t really care for it all that much. It never pulled me end it felt slow at a few parts for me. With that being said I will praise the amount of energy and passion going into the song. The main singer is really giving it his all and the drums are fantastic.
The first ending and hands down my pick for best ending of 2019 is “LIFE” by Rude-α. Words cannot describe just how great this song is. From Rude-α’s fantastic singing and rapping to the deep and meaningful lyrics to the great instrumental throughout the song. This was a song I always enjoyed listening to after an episode and a song I still enjoy today.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts in modern day Japan where high school boy named Taiju voiced by Makoto Furukawa (Saitama from One Punch Man), your average musclehead with a big heart tells his friend Senku voiced by Yūsuke Kobayashi (Zel from Interspecies Reviewers), your average genius (what is up with your hair son? You look like you belong in a Yu-Gi-Oh anime) that he’s going to confess to his crush Yuzuriha. The other guys make bets that he’s going to get rejected but Senku is 10 billion percent confident that she’ll say yes (I agree with him. We’re students of human nature). Taiju goes to confess to Yuzuriha where just before he can get the words out, a green light shines throughout the world and turns everyone into stone (cockblocked by the light. That’s a new one). With society turned to stone (you know when people say they want to get stoned, this isn’t what they had in mind) nature takes over (looks like we’re becoming the green planet). After 3,700 years, Taiju manages to break free of his stone prison and reunites with Senku who also broke out of his prison 6-months before him. The two quickly get to work trying to figure out a way to save humanity (scene here: https://youtu.be/qU3eTGDEwNI). Senku believes the answer lies in nitric acid but they don’t have any so they have to make it from scratch using grapes to make wine and this weird liquid in a cave that might be bat dropping liquid (nature is disgusting). After many experiments they manage to find the answer to free everyone from their stone prison to end the episode.
In episode 2 now that they know the nitric acid works, the first person they intend to bring back is Yuzuriha (for obvious reasons of course). They find her but get attacked and chased by lions (male lions don’t hunt so minus a point for that). Since neither Senku and Taiju can fight they have no choice but to find someone who can fight and the person they pick is another high schooler named Tsukasa Shishio a guy who was a master at martial arts and earned the nickname “The Strongest Primate High Schooler”. They wake him up from his stone prison, tell him the situation and he springs into action killing the male lion with one punch (okay, they earned their point back) and scaring the lionesses away. With Tsukasa voiced by Yuichi Nakamura (Gray from Fairy Tail) joining their ranks, getting food became a lot easier and more convenient but Tsukasa holds a dark motive. We all know Senku wants to revive everyone but Tsukasa doesn’t want to bring back any of the adults. He believes that all adults are greedy and selfish individuals who will corrupt this world just like they have in the past. He instead wants to revive all the young people and create a new society (now when you say adults where exactly is the cutoff line for that? We talking about age or matters of the heart?). Senku of course doesn’t agree with this line of think and says he’s going to stick with his original goal of reviving everyone (scenes: https://youtu.be/U6huYX6Mnqs and https://youtu.be/WvgN1rH7mKQ).
So in episode 3 they finally revive Yuzuriha (alright Taiju, get to work re-populating the planet. Don’t worry about me, I got my eyes on a more. . . potential target. (Corbin): I’m still deciding *takes out his smartphone and scrolls through a list of porn actresses*). Tsukasa reveals his true character to everyone and Taiju tries to stop him which forces Senku to take out his secret weapon, a crossbow. Tsukasa easily dodges the arrow and gets a hit in on Taiju which knocks him out for a minute or so (well, now we know where we fit in on the totem pole of power). Tsukasa takes his leave not wanting to kill but he vows to make them pay if they get in his way again (scene here: https://youtu.be/ADJYwC9yNuk). Senku and the others flee to Hakone where their goal is to make gun powder and guns (Isis: Now you’re speaking my language). Tsukasa catches on to their plan and begins going after them hoping to stop them before it’s too late (he can’t dodge a bullet). They get lost along the way, but find a promising landmark that lets them know where they’re at (scene here: https://youtu.be/G8uSEde-SwU).
At the start of episode 4 we see Taiju decide to hold off on his confession to Yuzuriha (even though she already put together what he was going to say to her). With the world in disarray (and a psycho trying to kill them) he feels that now isn’t the right time, but he promises to tell her later on when society is back to normal (oh piss off and confess to her you big simpleton). After that scene, they manage to make the gun powder where they accidently set it off and create a smoke signal. They soon spot another one off in the distance that isn’t from Tsukasa meaning there are other people in the world besides them. Senku rolls the dice and keeps the fire going which alerts Tsukasa to their location. He holds Yuzuriha captive and threatens to kill her unless Senku tells him the ingredients of the miracle water (and then you will tell him the Krabby Patty secret formula). Yuzuriha is actually willing to sacrifice her life in order to save Senku as she knows how valuable Senku’s life is to her life and logically speaking this is the right move (but does that make it right over all?). Senku lets his emotions win out in the end and tells Tsukasa the ingredients of the miracle water in order to save Yuzuriha’s life (that his bro’s girl, he can’t betray his bro like that). Tsukasa offers to spare Senku’s life if he gives up science to which Senku says no as that would mean giving up on his dreams of going to space (scene here: https://youtu.be/pXnqqE2vkds. Plus, a life without science is the equivalent of death to him). Senku says no and Tsukasa kills him in one swift and painless move (https://youtu.be/7tClSJgMDF8).
Episodes 5-8
So nothing really happens in episode 5. Taiju arrives and uses the gun powder with Yuzuriha to get away and try to revive Senku as he believes Senku wouldn’t be so dumb to get himself killed like that. They keep trying to think of a clue Senku gave them to revive him and finally think of one, his neck. Senku kept cracking his neck, something he never used to do. Upon inspection, they see that he still has one petrified spot still on his neck. It’s a little complicated to explain, but basically, small breaks on any part of the body get repaired when the petrification is done (in other words, whatever damage Tsukasa did to Senku’s neck can be undone). They splash him with the miracle water and wait/hope that he’ll wake up. As they wait for him to wake up, we see how he broke out of his petrified state and tried to survive and adapt to this stone world such as building tools to help him survive, creating traps to catch food, making clothes, and finally building a house (scenes here: https://youtu.be/BKrgJwolF_o, https://youtu.be/0r4WS0Q6hNA, and https://youtu.be/FZ7NjZ_xxek).
In episode 6 Senku is alive (yay~) and decides to use his death to his advantage. He sends Taiju and Yuzuriha to Tsukasa to act as spies while Senku goes to find the people who saw his smoke signal, get them to join his side, and defeat Tsukasa with science. It’s a sad goodbye but Senku and Taiju know they’ll see each other again (scene here: https://youtu.be/GOCSswu48_8). Meanwhile, Tsukasa gets attacked by a girl who sent out the smoke signal (and yeah, let’s get this out of the way, I have no idea why she looks cross-eyed). Despite her best efforts, she was no match for Tsukasa. However, Tsukasa doesn’t kill her (she’s still a child after all), he just leaves her stuck under a large tree trunk (scene here: https://youtu.be/CaGuWwamh8E) where she gets saved by Senku and introduces herself as Kohaku (scene here: https://youtu.be/l9TNff141l4).
In episode 7, Kohaku voiced by Manami Numakura (Hibiki from The Idolmaster) takes Senku back to her village which consists of about 40 people and unlike Senku who was petrified, these people are first and possibly second generation residents of the stone world (if that’s the case, where did they come from?). Senku gets stopped by the village guards Ginro and Kinro who say outsiders aren’t allowed within the village and won’t let Senku in. Senku distracts them with bubbles (https://youtu.be/oFs3lOqr1UE) and this earns the attention of Chrome the village sorcerer voiced by Gen Sato who just like Senku has been studying science (scene here: https://youtu.be/gHmyXX51qfE). After a magic duel (or science duel in this case), Senku wins ownership of Chrome’s hut as well as him where we see Chrome has collected a number of stones as well as plants in attempt to help Kohaku’s big sister Ruri who is the village priestess and is sick (Baron: Woah, and I thought Kohaku was attractive. Now I don’t know who to think about when I’m choking the chicken). Senku tells Chrome about life before the stone age where Chrome cries tears of sadness that such a technological advanced world could be destroyed in the blink of an eye (honestly, this stone world could do wonders for gen Z. It’ll put hair on their chest). He decides to join Senku’s nation of science and the two get to work on creating an antibiotic to help Ruri.
The road to making the antibiotic begins in episode 8 as they manage to get some iron sand and even gain the help of new ally named Suika, a girl who wears a melon on her head (it’s like the Chao from Sonic Adventures) and is considered useless by the village (scene here: https://youtu.be/6zNTvMJdWg0). After they gather the iron sand the next step is turning that into iron which runs into a roadblock as they don’t have enough manpower to burn the sand at the proper temperature. In order to make iron he needs more bodies but knows the village won’t lift a finger to help him unless he gives them something in return (bribery. Some things never change). Suika spies on the village to see what everyone wants. What she finds is some girls wanting a boyfriend (well that’s one thing we can’t solve with science. (Corbin): Or magic. (Baron): Trust us, we’ve tried) and someone tired of grilled fish. Senku decides to create a new dish for the people of this era. Using fox millet, Senku creates fox millet ramen. Despite it being crunchy and having a nasty aftertaste, Kohaku, Chrome and Suika like it a lot (scene here: https://youtu.be/8jEOsTWQxR0). There’s also a few other notable footnotes in this episode such as the Earth’s axis tilting a bit which explains why Senku and the others had a hard time traveling a few episodes back, Kohaku and Chrome know the story of Momotaro (although it’s been changed quite a bit), and Ruri seems to know a lot of stuff about our time (oh and Chrome has a crush on her).
Episodes 9-12
In episode 9 the ramen is a hit with the village and attracts the attention of a new character named Gen a self-proclaimed mentalist with a silver tongue (scene here: https://youtu.be/BMogJm31su4). He’s an agent of Tsukasa who’s been sent to confirm that Senku is dead (not that he really cares because he is scum), he doesn’t care if Tsukasa or Senku wins, all he cares about is siding with the one who is the highest bidder (Senku has Kohaku, so that makes him the highest bidder in my book). As Gen sees everything Senku has been working on he gradually starts to switch sides and with enough people, Senku is finally able to make steel which he plans on turning into powerful magnets to use in his generator to create electricity (why is this show like MacGyver if it was turned into anime?). During a thunderstorm he’s able to turn the iron into magnets and then creates his generator powered by the village guards/brothers Ginro and Kinro. At the end of the episode, Senku creates an Edison light bulb and for the first time in almost 4,000 years is able to bring light to the night (scene here: https://youtu.be/tUEY5Ngy8mo, it’s. . .beautiful).
Nothing much really happens in episode 10. Gen gets attacked by Magma the village Gaston (if Gaston was an anime character I’m convinced he would be Magma). Magma mistook Gen for Senku and tried to kill him to prove he’s stronger and so no one will get in his way to win the Grand Bout. The Grand Bout is a tournament they hold where the winner will become the new village elder and marry Ruri (not a bad deal). In the past, Magma came close to winning until Kohaku stepped forward to beat him (oh~ incest siblings ruling the village. (Corbin): Kinky). This of course got Kohaku in trouble with her dad but she didn’t care. Magma is a shoo-in to win the Grand Bout again, but Kohaku, Ginro, and Kinro are participating as representatives of the Kingdom of Science. Gen also joins the Kingdom of Science on the condition that Senku makes him a bottle of cola (flimsiest alliance ever). He runs back to Tsukasa (who is surrounded by people who look nothing like children so fuck him and his moral compass) and says that Senku is dead (scene here: https://youtu.be/ckYEoA4p5Pw. My kingdom for a cola).
Still nothing much to say about episode 11 but it is progressive. Senku’s group moves on to making glass and it’s here that we discover that Suika not only has a cute face behind her melon head (she’s been holding out on us) but she’s nearsighted. She’s not wearing the melon to make a fashion statement (although to be fair she could be starting something) but instead it helps her to see better if only a little. Senku and Chrome manage to make lenses for Suika’s melon head and she’s able to see (scene here: https://youtu.be/MpfRV9-2sDc, why not frames? Again, fashion statement). The duo move on to crafting beakers but aren’t very good at it (they’re scientists, not carpenters). Chrome kidnaps an old man from the village named Kaseki who is a master craftsman (and might just be a descendent of Machio from How Heavy Are the Dumbbells) who despite having no prior experience in crafting glass is able to make perfect beakers and everything. With the glass beakers and test tubes, Senku finally has a lab to call his own (scene here: https://youtu.be/Yq23a6udMqU). After this, Kinro and Ginro want a gold and silver spear to use in the Grand Bout. Senku agrees to make the silver spear but he warns Ginro the price might costs him his life.
In episode 12, the kingdom of Science comes across their greatest danger yet, getting sulfuric acid. For those of you who are like me and are noobs when it comes to science here’s the jest of it. Sulfuric acid is one of the world’s most produced substances in chemistry. It’s literally used to make hundreds if not thousands of compounds needed in almost every aspect of chemistry and modern life. Detergents, dyes, pigments, fertilizers, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfate salts, and many more are made possible thanks to sulfuric acid. However, it’s dangerous as all hell. Just one whiff of this stuff is enough to kill a person and Senku and the others need to venture down into a lake in order to get it in order to create the cure for Ruri. While they do present a little bit of humor into this situation such as having the lake have a physical appearance in the form of a beautiful lady whose skin is melting because of the acid (basically a siren) they don’t shy away from how dangerous the situation is (scene here: https://youtu.be/F0l6dr49MG0). We see Ginro scared as all hell of the lake and refuses to go back to it and Senku offers to give all of his knowledge to Chrome should the worst happen. Kaseki from the village crafts gas masks to venture down into the sulfuric acid where as long as they control their breathing and stay calm, they should be alright. Everything goes fine until Chrome slips and is about to fall into the lake. Luckily, Chrome gets saved by Ginro who overcame his fears and showed up to help him. The three manage to make it out safely and securely acquire sulfuric acid (scene here: https://youtu.be/a7G4X1c95RE).
And that does it for the first part of the anime. Class dismissed for a one-week recess. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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