The Simple Beauty of Dr. Stone

We were on a bit of a holding pattern in most of the good manga last week, so instead I have a few articles that go a bit deeper into two series in particular, and first up is my new favorite, Dr. Stone.

Dr. Stone is written by Riichiro Inagaki, best known for the indescribable Japanese football manga Eyeshield 21 (which I will one day immortalize here, you can bet your coffin-cornered kickoffs on that) or, perhaps, for being the guy who makes One Punch Man readable. Eyeshield 21 is a strong manga, no doubt, but you couldn’t say it veered very far from traditional shonen sports manga. From the main character (a weak middle schooler who winds up on his sports team via random chance) to the video game style story (beat team x, y, and z to get to the goal) you wouldn’t be wrong to characterize the series as fluff. Fun fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

With Dr. Stone we have the evolution of the man’s style. He subverts expectations in small ways that add up to a truly unique experience. He almost uses what you expect out of him from his previous work (and probably some things he learned while re-drawing One Punch Man) to surprise you in fun, interesting ways each chapter. Add in that every chapter includes fun science experiments to add to a growing cast of interesting, deeper-than-expected characters, and you’ve got a stew, er, ramen, going.

The first time I knew this series was going to be special was a mere 15 chapters in, when it was ‘revealed’ that our perspective character would actually be Senkuu, rather than Taiju. Dr. Stone begins with these two, but definitely focuses on Taiju, a less than intelligent, incredibly perseverant middle schooler who needs to confess his love to his pretty, gentle, well-mannered love interest, Yuzuriha. If you could read that sentence and not sigh deeply, congrats, manga has not jaded you into oblivion yet. That’s the basic premise for 70% of the manga out there, regardless of genre. Then, we get our hook: Just as Taiju is set to confess everyone and everything on the planet is turned to stone. Fast forward 3000 years later and Taiju awakens from his stone cocoon, still HYPED to confess, only to find his good buddy Senkuu waiting for him.

Senkuu is a different sort, definitely not your usual shonen lead. He’s hyper-intelligent, about as dedicated to the scientific method as you can be, and yet still best friends with the somewhat clueless Taiju because they share one important feature in common: persistence. Senkuu believes that the root of all science is persistence, in other words, using every failure as a stepping stone towards a goal. Encouragement instead of discouragement. Taiju is persistent because he simply doesn’t know better, but he is aware enough to know that Senkuu does know better. He believes in Senkuu because the core of their beings is the same, and Senkuu believes in Taiju because he can clearly see how earnest Taiju is. This has created one of my favorite current relationships in manga: these two never doubt one another for even, as Senkuu would say, one billionth of a second, because they have no reason to. It’s a pure friendship that you rarely get to see in this medium. And I feel this way about it despite only getting 15 chapters of it!

That’s right, you see, 15 chapters in we get the setup for the real story: Senkuu wants to rebuild the earth using science. The first person he awakens with his magical awakening potion (nitric acid) is Taiju. Then, at Taiju’s request, he awakens Yuzuriha. After this, they get into a bind when some lions show up and he makes the decision to awaken the main antagonist, Tsukasa. Tsukasa is Senkuu’s inverse. He is a pure physical specimen, but also a true-born strategist. He has now been born into a world where his passion, the survival of the fittest, can truly be put into play. The very last thing he wants is for Senkuu to recreate the old world, a place where his true talents were discouraged. He believes that science caused the human race’s downfall and should be left to the sands of time.

Through their first confrontation, leaving out the details, Tsukasa believes Senkuu to be dead, and Senkuu tells Taiju and Yuzuriha to sign onto Tsukasa’s Kingdom of Youth to spy for him while he sets up a foothold for his Kingdom of Science. Since this moment we haven’t gone back to Taiju’s perspective, staying entirely with Senkuu as he locates a small village of humans and attempts to convert them all to his side and begin his new version of human civilization.

This move was impressive and incredibly satisfying for a number of reasons. One, we resolved Taiju and Yuzuriha’s story just as quickly as it needed to be. It was less a will-they-won’t-they and more of a jesus-guys-just-say-it. That kind of thing only serves to annoy the longer it goes on, and its been handled in a mere 15 chapters. Beyond that, switching the perspective to Senkuu has allowed the series to take advantage of its best character. Consider this: how many manga have you read, heck, how many THINGS have you read/watched where you could honestly say the lead was the best character? You might be able to count them on one hand. Senkuu has already been built into a simple-yet-complicated character who is impossible to dislike.

Senkuu’s motivations are, at his core, easily summed up as I did above. You can do it in one sentence. But as the story goes on you learn about the reason for the path he has taken, and more importantly, you learn that Senkuu isn’t just a one-note smart guy stereotype. He can treat people like tools sometimes, certainly, but he isn’t such a caricature that he forgets the people he is traveling with are humans as well. In the way he speaks with his current close companions, like Kohaku and Chrome, you can tell that part of why he loves science is the very human element that they represent. He isn’t a lab rat in the way you’d expect. He’s in love with science because of the mistakes, and the surprising reactions, and the unpredictability. He’s in love with the journey of science, not the result. I’m reminded of a panel featuring Kurotsuchi Mayuri of Bleach:

Credit mangareader.net obvs

It’s an interesting thought, and one that seems to inform Senkuu’s character here. Science is not, as the stereotype suggests, attaining perfection, but the journey towards attaining perfection. To actually create perfection means the end of science, which no true scientist would actually want. Mayuri himself is an enigma, and his speech on his personal ethos here actually informs his character. It makes the rest of his act make sense. He is strange and ever-changing because that is what he loves most. He’ll never stop changing, updating himself, trying new weapons or experiments whether they succeed or fail, because his science is about those acts, not perfecting the things he creates. It’s a difficult concept to pass on to an audience, but he does it well. And here, Senkuu seems to have inherited that ideal.

There are many more reasons to seek this one out, so let this simply be an appetizer. There are only 27 chapters available to date, so there isn’t much to catch up on. Give it a try! You will  not regret it.