Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. What happens when you combine science with anime? You get a lot of sci-fi shows, but let’s add in the stone age as well and you get Dr. Stone. Yes, Dr. Stone became a fan favorite during its run in Shonen Jump and its popularity only increased with the anime which was a hit. So when a second season was announced in 2021 fans were excited. Supposedly the anime was slated to air in 2020, but with the pandemic, it got pushed back to 2021. As if that wasn’t bad, there was only going to be 11 episodes instead of 24. While fans were upset by this they were still excited to see the second season since it was building up to the big confrontation between Senku and Tsukasa in what would be known as the Stone Wars. Who would prevail and lead society to a new beginning? Let’s find out. This is Dr. Stone S2: Stone Wars.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening for the second season is “Rakuen” by Fujifabric. So far this is my favorite opening from the series. I love the slow beat and build-up at the beginning as it sets the tone and lets you know that things are about to get serious. The animation was also great and pack full of great hints on what’s going to transpire this season.
The ending is “Voice?” by Hatena. Not the biggest fan of this ending. It’s not bad but not really all that memorable, especially when compared to the first endings. However, it does a good job of explaining Senku’s character. He’s constantly moving forward toward his goal of restoring humanity no matter what. Will there be mistakes along the way? Yes. But he’s prepared to adapt and handles those mistakes using science as his ally and tool.
Episodes 1-4
The season starts with Senku and the others working on their final invention to take on the Tsukasa Empire, space food. Or rather the techniques they use to preserve food in space so that the astronauts can eat it (it’s more exciting than it sounds, I swear). Rather than wait around for spring to arrive and be overwhelmed by Tsukasa’s army, The kingdom of science decides to strike first, but they’re going to need food in order to reach his empire safely and deliver the cell phone to Taiju and Yuzuriha. They manage to finish this project rather quickly (scene here: https://youtu.be/dKJqOF2I-n8) and Gen comes up with a dastardly plan to make Tsukasa’s army lay down their weapons and side with the kingdom of science (look it’s cool you got cola, but you’re going to need more than that to convince them to jump ship), use Lily. Gen comes up with the plan to speak over the cell phone while sounding like Lily to the members of Tsukasa’s army and make them believe that America is still around and sending ships over to rescue them. It’s an underhanded technique that will obviously piss off everyone when they discover the truth, but it saves Senku and the others from spilling blood and helps them catch Tsukasa (scene here: https://youtu.be/AWgKvp1zUwk). The next day the group gets ready to head out. They use some sonic bombs as covers to get past Homura (wow, I forgot she was watching them) and start heading out to Tsukasa’s empire.
Episode 2 is rather exciting. After hearing the explosions, Homura goes to investigate where she gets chased by Kohaku. Unfortunately, Kohaku can’t catch her as we learn Homura was quite the gymnastic star in the past (by the looks of it I’d say she was an Olympic hopeful) and uses her talents to her advantage. Senku of course evens the playing field by blinding her with a flare and catches her (scene here: https://youtu.be/84apY7Fq6Bg, check!). Unfortunately, Senku is a weakling and Homura is able to escape his grasp (you fail). Homura notices Gen, Chrome, and Gaston (I mean Magma) are missing and quickly pieces together that they’re heading to Tsukasa’s empire to deliver something. She quickly goes after them with Senku and the others following her using an ultraviolet flashlight to track her movements. Before Homura escapes, Senku rubbed some tungsten dust on her hands and feet (well at least he didn’t completely screw it up), so they could track her. Using morse code, Senku’s group is able to communicate with Gen’s group to coordinate a pincer attack (now this is the true power of communication warfare). They manage to trick her into believing they’re setting up an antenna and she goes to destroy it only to see it’s a fake and fall where she gets caught by Kohaku (scene here: https://youtu.be/0wXL9cgRn4Q, now knock her out). With Homura caught, Gen’s group makes it to Tsukasa’s empire where we see some of the soldiers he plans to bring back and Magma tries to destroy them only to get stopped by Gen as he can’t bring himself to kill people who might be innocent. They make it to Senku’s grave and plant the cell phone there for Taiju and Yuzuriha to hopefully find. We end the episode with Taiju and Yuzuriha finding the phone and speaking to Senku for the first time in forever (scene here: https://youtu.be/8Eip2BnNQsI. Dammit, why is this anime making me emotional?).
So nothing much really happens in episode 3. We see Gen, Chrome, and Magma get pinned down by Ukyo, an archer with superior hearing. Chrome and Magma act as a distraction while Gen runs back to the village to enact their master plan. Gen makes it back where Taiju and Yuzuriha pull over Nikki, one of Tsukasa’s soldiers who has been watching them. Back in the day, she was a part of a judo club and just so happens to be a hardcore Lillian fan (scene here: https://youtu.be/U__lDDWoNNU, man Senku has got the worst luck imaginable). She figures out that Gen isn’t the real Lillian, so they go to plan B, play the recording of Lillian singing. This manages to bring Nikki to tears as she now knows Lillian is dead, but her music lives on (only one song but it’s better than nothing. Oh God, there’s only one song in the world. Quick, somebody revive Eve, the Japanese singer) and Nikki agrees to join the Kingdom of Science (scene here: https://youtu.be/rsTkyrIrFtQ).
At the start of episode 4 Nikki says their plan to use Lillian isn’t a bad idea, the only problem is it won’t fool a guy like Ukyo who can tell the difference. Speaking of Ukyo, we see Chrome give himself up in order to save Magma who was about to fall into a trap. Chrome figured out that Ukyo had a clear shot at the two a number of times but chose not to kill them because he wanted to catch them alive (however, he’s not afraid to break a bone or two to subdue them). Once Magma runs by and tells everyone about Chrome getting captured they all prepare to mobilize an assault on the Tsukasa Kingdom (tonight, we dine in Hell), but they have a lot of supplies they need to bring with them, so before they leave they make a car to transport everything they need to fight. The process to making the steam engine works out well (shocking, I was expecting an electric engine) and they manage to complete it by the end of the episode (scenes here: https://youtu.be/JcAejJjw8MY and https://youtu.be/ai-UD8edcDo, we’ve now entered the Industrial Revolution). Meanwhile, Chrome gets taken before Tsukasa where Chrome tries to impress him with science only to fail (yeah, nothing you have will impress him). Tsukasa gives him one last chance to convert to his side but Chrome says no and gets dropped over a huge waterfall only to get saved by Tsukasa who was impressed by his resolve and unwavering courage in the face of death (scene here: https://youtu.be/JxaPKAXbXT8). When Tsukasa asks Ukyo where he was, Chrome thinks that they’re doomed, but instead he lies to Tsukasa to throw him off (looks like Tsukasa’s Empire has its own Game of Thrones scenario going on underneath).
Episodes 5-8
In episode 5, with the steam engine completed, the Kingdom of Science gets to work finishing the rest of the car. They make the tires out of bamboo woven together and use a boat as the body to carry them in. A majority of the village heads out and arrives just outside of the Tsukasa Empire where Suika sneaks in and scouts the area searching for Chrome (did you try Google’s customer service?). She finds Chrome and reports back to the others where Senku is about to turn their car into a tank using paper and even creating shields made of paper with molten plastic painted on them to make it carbon fiber (the stuff they use in cars and rockets. Scenes here: https://youtu.be/l7kN_tPxAZA and https://youtu.be/a9lJGvtKPY4). However, Tsukasa has predicted that they’ll use a vehicle to rescue Chrome and has set up traps to catch them. As for Chrome, instead of waiting around to be rescued (like some damsel in distress), he decides to escape himself using science.
Nothing much really happens in episode 6. Before Senku and the others can mount an attempt to save Chrome, he saves himself and escapes to meet back up with the others (scenes here: https://youtu.be/pj8GxBnEU9M and https://youtu.be/x-eY7Ky_BL0, take that you damsels in distress. Start saving yourselves).
After Chrome reunites with everyone (not telling them about Ukyo and how he didn’t sell him out. You sure you’re a smart guy?) and they initiate the Lillian plan. Thanks to Nikki’s training from Hell, Gen has perfectly matched Lillian’s voice and manages to pull people over to their side (boy are they going to be pissed when they find out the truth). Ukyo overhears them (damn, he hears like a bat) where he knows it’s Gen. Senku and Ukyo speak where Senku knows he’s the one who slipped Chrome that battery which allowed him to escape. Ukyo says he’s not on their side, but not on Tsukasa’s side either, he’s just a guy looking out for himself and his best interest (in other words, who’s the highest bidder?). He knows about Senku’s secret plan he gave Yuzuriha which was reconstructing the stone bodies Tsukasa destroyed. Senku theorizes that if all the pieces are put back together before they’re weathered there’s a chance the people can still be revived (scene here: https://youtu.be/US_pqsGZ2Ks, that makes sense). Ukyo is up for joining on the condition Senku doesn’t kill anyone. Ukyo admits he’s a coward and doesn’t like seeing people die for no reason. Senku accepts his condition and the Kingdom of Science gets ready to attack. We see Taiji and Yuzuriha meet up with Senku and the others (scene here: https://youtu.be/sVDG4VQKFK8), the tank is now complete, Tsukasa finds the hidden telephone (the number you are currently dialing is out of service. Please try again), and Senku fires the first shot to end the episode.
So in episode 8 Senku and the others retake the cave of revival. It went surprisingly well as they managed to take down Tsukasa’s troops and recapture the cave without having to kill anyone (scene here: https://youtu.be/r8aORV1UJ4c, impressive). However, this victory is short lived as Tsukasa arrives with the calvary, Ukyo gets taken down, and now the fight is on to decide who will control the stone world (scene here: https://youtu.be/jiSKDnR-noY).
Episodes 9-11 and OVA
In episode 9 Kohaku and the rest of the villagers take on Tsukasa and Hyoga while Senku, Gen, and Chrome make it to the cave and try to make a weapon to fight (a gun would be good right about now). The villagers stall Tsukasa and Hyoga long enough to reveal their newest weapon, dynamite fluid which stops Tsukasa in his tracks as he has no way to stop it, especially when it gets in the hands of Ukyo who has an arrow pointed directly at Tsukasa (and I’m sure he would like nothing more than to hit you right between the eyes). This opens up negotiations between Tsukasa and Senku (parley). Where it gets revealed that Tsukasa has a sister named Mirai. We find out that Tsukasa’s sister is very sick and was declared brain dead by the doctors, but Tsukasa believes that she’s still alive which is why he fights. He needed money to pay for her medical bills (those bills ain’t cheap) and his parents sure as hell weren’t going to help with that (scene here: https://youtu.be/XmySsPhV5AQ). Senku says there’s a chance that she’ll be healed if they use the revival liquid on her. While there’s no guarantee this will work, Tsukasa decides to trust Senku on this and a truce is made between them. The episode ends with the group going to the location where the hospital was and managing to dig her up.
At the start of episode 10 they use the revival water to bring Mirai back to life and it works (and she surprisingly looks like Suika). Whatever illness she had has been cured and she’s healthy again (scene here: https://youtu.be/znFR4IGGXII). Sadly, the happy moments don’t last long thanks to Hyoga. We see Homura escaped thanks to Yo and used some of the dynamite to destroy the miracle cave (not to worry. As long as we got bats we should be fine). Hyoga fatally stabs Tsukasa and kicks him and Senku into the river where the current takes them far downstream. Hyoga jumped in after them because he wants to talk to Senku in private and get him to join his team. We find out that Hyoga kind of had the same mindset as Tsukasa when it came to bringing people back to life. The world can’t sustain 7 billion lives, so Hyoga believes that only the elite should survive and everyone else should perish (what classifies as the elite?). Senku of course doesn’t agree with this, but Hyoga isn’t going to accept no for an answer. Luckily for Senku, Tsukasa gets back up to fight and the two former rivals team up to form the strongest team where they defeat Hyoga with an electric shock of 10,000 volts (pretty sure that’s enough to kill him) courtesy of Senku (scene here: https://youtu.be/FCO4_FbnLdY, now let’s save Tsukasa).
In the final episode, Homura saw the fight between Hyoga and history’s strongest team where she tries to kill Senku herself only to get stopped and captured by Kohaku and the rest of the villagers. After this, things wrap up quickly. Everyone pitches in on helping build a science facility and they find out that they can in fact bring people back who have been shattered as long as they find all the pieces (as shown by a confused manga artist). With all these advancements, this leads us to Tsukasa who will sadly die in a few days due to his injury. Senku says the only way to save him is to turn him to stone, but there’s no telling how long that’ll take, even if he’ll survive. Senku puts him into deep freeze where it’s a real heartbreaking moment as these two who were once enemies have become friends and are now forced to say goodbye to one another and there’s a chance they won’t see each other again (scenes here: https://youtu.be/FB95KsGUhb0 and https://youtu.be/OB2nTXCMfck). After putting Tsukasa on ice, Senku moves on to his next task, trying to figure out what petrified them and he believes it came on the other side of the planet. This means, their science project is building a ship (we’re going One Piece up in here).
In 2022 they released a one-hour special called Ryusui which serves as a bridge between seasons two and three (sort of like Mugen Train from Demon Slayer. Too bad the studio got cold feet and incorporated the movie into the anime). The special starts off with a play catching everyone up to speed on the events that happened a thousand years ago. After the play we see Yo, Magma, and Senku present their ship ideas. Yo is confident that he’ll win but Magma seems to have the better ship as the villagers are people of the sea. While Magma’s ship is good it won’t hold for long voyages and Senku presents his vessel (one worthy of a pirate king). As everyone gets to work building the ship, Senku finds them a captain and they find one in the form of Ryusui, a millionaire playboy with incredible talent and experience as a captain, but he’s too self-indulgent. Senku wants the most talented person leading his ship and thus he revives Ryusui. Much like Tsukasa he’s quick on the uptake of the state of the world and is willing to help. They quickly establish that he knows his stuff as he’s able to predict a storm and point out the flaws of their ship such as the timber they’re using not being strong enough and even the sails not fit for the long trip either (he’s got Nami’s knowledge of weather and Franky’s knowledge of craftsmanship). As for the fuel, Ryusui makes it clear what he wants, oil. Chrome, Ukyo, and Tohka head out to find the oil at an oil field Senku pinpointed for them and Ryusui says that as his payment for helping them he wants the rights to the oil field they find and then he plans to charge them for the oil which they have to buy from him (did he just introduce capitalism to this world?). he creates his own currency which quickly takes over and Senku allows it for now at least. Back with the expedition, they arrive at the place on Senku’s map only to see that the geography is way off (what did you expect? It’s been over 3,700 years. Your maps are shit). Traveling on foot is too dangerous now as they have no idea where they’re going, so they decide to go by air. First, they’re gonna need hemp (my man, for real?) and they get those who have become slaves to Ryusui’s money to get all the hemp they need (it only takes one word to destroy a currency. I’m looking at you, cryptocurrency). After getting the hemp that’s when Yuzuriha comes in. After creating a loom for her, they get started on creating the cloth they need for the balloons, but some of them are too thin. They decide to use those thin cloths to make clothes and sell them to make a profit. They put on a fashion show to get everyone interested in the new clothes (that’ll be $599, bitch) and before long the economy is booming (Tsukasa is rolling in his cold sleep). Once they finally make enough cloth for the balloon it’s time for the maiden voyage. They manage to trick Ryusui into being one of the participants for the first flight and he gets joined by Senku and Chrome (who literally ran all the way back just to get this chance). They take off into the sky which I have to admit is a good visual and experience from Chrome’s perspective (they do a great job capturing Chrome’s emotions here. His tears of joy are what I can only imagine people felt when they first flew into the sky and saw the world from above). The first flight will see them go to the village which should take them 2 hours, but they run into a bit of trouble on the trip such as a cumulonimbus appearing (the bringer of storms). They get caught in the storm and have no way of ascending without crashing into the ground so they have to ascend to escape. Using the revival fluid and all their fuel they fly out of the cumulonimbus and make it to the village safely (not bad for a first flight). This special was good. It’s got some good laughs, I love the advancements in clothing as well as science and the new character Ryusui is great. Definitely give this a watch before checking the third season begins airing.
Final Thoughts
While not as long as the first season this season manages to deliver on everything the first season was building up to. We get our emotional moments such as the reunion between Senku, Taiju, and Yuzuriha as well as Tsukasa and Mirai. They still deliver on the cool scientific inventions and knowledge which I thought was great. Again, this anime is making science fun to learn. The new characters are good. I like how Yo is this corrupted cop who keeps switching sides, Okyu being a pacifist and wanting to save everyone was a nice touch, and Nikki being a mega fan was funny and totally unexpected. I did like how we got to know who they were in the past and what they did. Once again, seeing Senku and Tsukasa come to an agreement and be on the same side was nice and their farewell at the end of the season is heartbreaking as you can really hear the emotion in both of their voices. Hyoga being a surprise villain was kind of predictable as we saw early on that Tsukasa’s army doesn’t share his philosophy and it was only a matter of time before one of them betrayed him and went into business for themselves.
I feel like the animation was improved this season. I don’t know, it just looks better in my opinion. The soundtrack is still great and does a good job blending the different genres together.
Final Score
The final score for Dr. Stone: Stone Wars is 7.5/10. I don’t have that many complaints about this season. It was a good follow-up to the first season and was paced well. I do wish this season was just as long as the first season, but I think due to forces outside of their control, they had to settle on just making 11 episodes. Hopefully, the third season will be longer. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.