Jan 16, 2025
Dr. Stone is a perfect example of a formula that works fantastically at first, but soon becomes so restrictive that it sabotages its own potential success. The opening arcs of the manga are genuinely great. There's a great pace of new characters while existing ones continue to be fleshed out and feel important, the art is impressively detailed and the writing is decent enough all round. On top of that, it really feels like you're learning as you go, and it's incredibly satisfying. If you've ever felt a deep satisfaction as you advance up a tech tree in a survival game, Dr. Stone is basically
...
that feeling rendered on to paper. Sure, it's a little melodramatic and I could do with a little less of the characters all just spouting how they feel at each other, and dear lord the fan service is a bit much, but all in all, a really solid start.
It doesn't take long for it to all go downhill though. The main problem with Dr. Stone is it refuses to evolve whilst not having much of a plan. Very early on, the finish line is set and the rest of the series feels like it can't wait to reach it. Earlier inventions and technological progressions felt believable and detailed, but towards the end Senku and co. are just pulling all kinds of nonsense out their arses. That narrative loop that was so satisfying to start with - goal, idea, progress, problem, solution, emotional conclusion - feels completely artificial very quickly, which is only worsened by the paper thin characters. Seriously, there are so many of these buggers. Hordes upon hordes of side characters, and with all of them refusing to die or go quietly in to the background, by the end every page has a different character with no relevance to the plot who's just there to spout their incredibly annoying catchphrases (oh god, the catchphrases). Almost no-one has any development either, beyond antagonists being seduced to do-gooderism with never a hint of regret or indecision. All of this on top of the leering art and eye-rolling character designs (even the young child character is aged up to be a sexy glamour model at one point) made for a borderline painful read before it was done.
Maybe it seems like I hate Dr. Stone, but really I was just massively disappointed in it. For such an interesting and original concept and strong opening to be squandered on copy and paste writing, boring characters and horrendous pacing feels tragic to me. You might hold out hope that the ending at least has a good answer for the series' central mysteries, but nope. Have a final showdown that is basically just the authors turning to you the reader and telling you the first thing they could come up with that makes about as much sense as how all the female characters always manage to fit both the chests and butts in frame at the same time. Honestly I would have preferred the ending be "and I guess we'll just never know why or how this happened, but that's science. There's always more to learn" than this incomprehensible mess. I've done my best not to spoil any thing here, but honestly it's just not worth reading. The first 80 chapters or so are great, but I really wouldn't bother past that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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