APADFTMOM Day 14: Dr. Stone, and A Primary Focus On Education

This month has been a journey of self-discovery for myself as I’ve written these posts. My goal with my series-centric posts is to showcase a manga series while highlighting an aspect of its writing that it does really well. So far I haven’t had any repeats on the series or topic and I’m proud of that, but today’s topic is a little similar to one we’ve covered. With Misoshiru de Kanpai!, we discussed how its educational messages give the series an additional merit but are not necessary to its overall plot. Today our focus will be Dr. Stone, and we will be taking a look at how it’s possible to not only thread a story around education but make learning a requirement as the whole plot is built on it.






Dr. Stone by Riichiro Inagaki opens its story with a romantic confession scene between schoolmates Taiju Oki and Yuzuriha Ogawa right as there is a large flash of light that turns humanity to stone. A thousand years later, Taiju is resurrected from his stone state by his friend and classmate Senku Ishigami, who himself was resurrected months prior, and the two begin reviving humanity both physically and culturally while also working towards unraveling the mystery of what happened that fateful day.




Taiju is initially set up to be the main character by being the first character that the series focuses on, but that is shifted to Senku soon after Taiju’s revival and with good reason. Taiju is a solid character, albeit a bit generic: He’s decently smart, a loyal friend, and an all-around swell guy. Taiju does have the unique trait of incredible physical stamina both in terms of taking damage and being able to run quickly for long periods of time, but Dr. Stone establishes itself as a brainy series instead of a brawny series fairly early so Taiju is good support character material.




Senku is the actual main character of Dr. Stone and he is incredibly worthy of that title. Senku is the character who establishes Dr. Stone as, for lack of a better term, an intellectual manga by being extremely science-minded but also excited about all things science. Senku has a lot of book knowledge as well as common sense and defies a lot of “smart guy” stereotypes by being a fun person that other characters enjoy being around as opposed to a strictly serious character who plays the straight man. A positive, energetic attitude is needed to get an audience invested in learning any topic, but this is especially true for traditionally boring topics such as science and history.




Dr. Stone’s primary plot is about the revival of humanity as Senku and the gang bring humans back to life while also bringing themselves back up to the technological level of modern day. The structure of the plot feels as if the plot was laid out in a timeline of important moments and the journey between those moments was dictated by what sort of technological advancements would be required to get there. These advancements are then laid out to fit either one or two at a time per chapter, during which Senku explains how and why the focus for that chapter is necessary through both scientific fact and historical references.




There is a lot of scientific knowledge within Dr. Stone, but there is also a large importance placed on history as well. Senku and friends will explain either why an achievement was important in the past or how it was initially developed, and that helps show the audience that the writing is taking this material very seriously despite having a light-hearted touch. Historical importance helps to show why each breakthrough was a big deal when it initially happened while also tying into why that same breakthrough is a big deal at that point in the series universe as well.




While Dr. Stone is essentially about rebuilding human civilization from the ground up and Senku asserts himself as wanting to use science to bring the world back to the modern day, there is still a very strict narrative in place. Senku does not work towards technological goals just for the sake of achieving them; Each goal is a necessity, and each necessity is dictated by the story. This style of writing is very reminiscent of One Piece with how everything is a step towards the ultimate goal of Luffy becoming the pirate king, but with the goal of finding out what caused humanity to turn to stone.




Ultimately the overall goal of Dr. Stone is to find out what happened at the beginning of the story to set the events in motion. One could argue that the ultimate goal is to revive humanity and bring the world back to the way it was, but that is not so much a goal as an inevitable byproduct of the cast chasing their actual goal. Setting the revival of humanity as the goalpost is a bit tricky because it is hard to define when that goal is met. The revival of humanity is such a broad event that cannot be narrowed down to one defining moment when the author and audience can agree that it has been achieved.




As a final note, it is worth mentioning that the art of Dr. Stone is exceptional. Dr. Stone is drawn by Boichi, known best for authoring and drawing Sun-ken Rock, and his artistic talent really helps to cement the series as a feast for the eyes as well as the mind. Boichi has a talent for drawing a very serious style that is detailed yet clean that helps showcase characters, environments, and items as big deals that are worth taking a moment to admire.




If there is one series I’ve written about so far this month that’s worth investing into for the long run, it would be Dr. Stone. Every few years a series comes along that stays consistently great long enough to give off the aura of being looked back on as one of the greats of its time, and Dr. Stone is definitely shaping up to be that way. There is a western release through Viz, with the easiest way to read it being through the Shonen Jump app for $1.99 a month. That’s 1 cent less than a Bud Light at my favorite bar.