Dr. Stone - Season 1

The original review is from December 2019 - The main premise of anime in general, which I think is really interesting, is about rebuilding society and documenting its achievements after an unexpected downfall. The combination of two genres of anime resulting in "scientific shonen" is unquestionably something new, however, it struggles to balance science and shonen, and actually, the two do not exactly go well together. Even so, after saying that, this is an interesting and at times quite entertaining show. What exactly do I mean by that? Well, starting with the science part, in another review of High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even in Another World anime series, I wrote about the depiction of science as a complex multi-step process, requiring resources such as time, manpower, and skills. Because of this is Dr.Stone definitely more preferable to "High School Prodigies..." where in a ridiculously short amount of time they are literally pulling ballistic missiles out of their asses, building a working power plant in a few weeks, and so on. I think science needs time, resources, and most importantly people! Unfortunately, with only my ordinary high school education, I cannot judge too accurately if all those experiments and inventions portrayed are realistic. Fortunately these days, there are a few things that can be practically demonstrated, so for example, I can watch how to make a Senku Cola... While I am on the subject of YouTube, I am going to share probably the biggest problem I have with the portrayal of science in this show right now. All too often it comes across to me as some sort of dumbed-down YouTube science video. However, this is also a shonen after all, and so complicated explanations of the different processes and detailed tracking of the production of some "Senku machine" would probably not go down too well with the audience. This entire anime series sometimes feels a little too awkward and long-winded because of the focus on using scientific experiments to invent things (and so nothing else is actually happening story-wise). Then again, with all the effort to add in some action scenes to keep the audience’s attention, the science part suffers and does not come across as half as serious as I think it should do. So now onto something positive. For example, I think one hugely positive aspect is that most of the characters are fairly likable and I did not find them irritating in any way, which is unusual for modern shonen. As a result, I could handle some of the cheesy phrases and weirdness that this anime series is loaded with without getting too offended or irritated (they were more likely to make me smile). The story’s premise is also interesting; it is largely about the battle between reason and power, with the main villain having both. Despite this, he somehow does not realize that a balance of both is needed to benefit society as a whole, which the main male protagonist playfully shows him. The first season is now done, and it tended more towards the science part with a lot of inventions, etc. rather than action scenes, fights, and significant shifts or twists. The second season strikes me, so far, as the opposite, inclining more towards the shonen part with more action scenes and away from the science. Well, I am now actually quite looking forward to the second season despite all the peculiarities, imbalances, and other weirdness. 6.7/10. (02/02/2021) (moins) (plus)