ANIME EXPO 2019 | "Dr. STONE" World Premiere
In the last decade, no manga series has captivated me quite like Riichiro Inagaki & BOICHI’s Dr. STONE. Its usage of science, deep characters, and surprising humor has made it one of the best reads in Shonen Jump magazine. Now, the time has come to give Dr. STONE its just dues: by giving it its own anime.
Produced by TMS Entertainment (Lupin III, Gugure! Kokkuri-san), the Dr. STONE anime is set to premiere later this week. With the aid of Crunchyroll, the very first episode had its first showing ever an entire day before its Japanese release. Adapting the first few chapters of the manga, Episode One focuses on the entire world being covered in rock. Three thousand years later, Taiju (Makoto Furukawa) awakens from his stone prison, finding his beloved Yuzuriha (Kana Ichinose) still holding onto the tree he last saw her at. It’s a message from Senku (Yūsuke Kobayashi) on said tree that leads Taiju to find his best friend, who aims to bring society back by any means necessary.
Animating BOICHI’s character designs seemed like a daunting task, but TMS Entertainment not only delivers with much polish, but brings the world of Dr. STONE to life in a very proper manner. They emote with much of the same detail as the manga, with both Kobayashi and Furukawa bringing practically perfect performances as Senku and Taiju. The jokes hit hard, and the emotional elements of the series deliver on high levels of excitement.
Although we’ll have a few weeks to judge the series as a whole, the Dr. STONE premiere is exactly how I pictured the manga in anime form. With the level of detail placed in both its voice acting performance and animation, the tale of Senku’s quest to return humanity back to normal is already shaping to be the summer anime to watch. In fact, you can be 10 billion percent certain that it’ll be one of the series to talk about. In the words of Senku, “Get excited!!!”
Dr. STONE will stream on Crunchyroll, VRV, and FunimationNow starting tomorrow.
