Dr.STONE – 17 [A Hundred Nights and a Thousand Skies]

I hate to say it so flat out like this, but I did not enjoy this week of Dr.STONE. From the focus on the overarching story to some issues on the actual presentation of it all. I found a lot of issues with this week, and it’s time to just dive into it.

Across the board, nothing in this episode of Dr.STONE really wowed me. The whole thing just felt rather dull. This isn’t unique to the anime of course, I wasn’t huge on this section of the manga either. But for me it highlights one of Dr.STONE’s biggest issues, that being the overarching story. We saw it when the series first started as well, with Tsukasa. A lot of the opening section as it sets everything up was just weak. The series really only coming into its own as we left Tsukasa behind and transitioned to Ishigami village. Focusing much more on the science and such. Here we are returning for a moment to the overarching story. However instead of focusing in on our leads, instead its backstory. Even for good stories, backstory is a pain, so for Dr.STONE’s dull main story? It’s a bit of a death kneel.

To get into specifics, I always found the whole “Chosen One” thing to be rather weak. Across all storytelling, not just anime, it’s one of my least favorite tropes. And Dr.STONE really plays it up, by having the entire world rest on a high schoolers shoulders across thousands of years. With Byakuya having kids and such just so Senku has allies when he inevitably wakes up. Making it clear they are not related to him of course. Regardless of the fact that they have no idea of how the petrification works or if someone can get out on their own at all. Combine that with just how quickly we burned through all of this flashback and it gets dull. Effectively justying the villages existence just as Senku’s tool. When it would have been more interesting I feel for it to stay a product of humans who got free before Senku.

It also just feels like a wasted opportunity for Dr.STONE, as the whole thing is over quickly. Imagine how much more interesting this arc could have been had it taken its time. As we watch Byakuya and co work to escape the ISS before their supplies run out. Pinpointing a landing, focusing on building up a society and reading weather patterns and such. These are a set of incredibly smart astronauts with modern tech and a still functional internet/infrastructure, at least at the start. Had Dr.STONE focused on the science here instead, it could have been incredible I think and still worked as a setup for the main story. We got bits and pieces of that with the Hundred Stories, but even that sort of feels glossed over. Focusing only on a few for specific characters like Chrome. Its just a waste, I think.

None of this is even mentioning the actual science of the episode. Such as getting someone out from an upside down space pod. Rowing out to see, etc etc. My personal issue has always been the kids though. You need way more than 6 people to repopulate an area without inbreeding becoming a major issue. This is something called Minimum Viable Population, look it up its fascinating, and it ensures that those Astronauts kids would be messed up. To put it in perspective, it is recommended that with modern tech you need *at least* 160 people to ensure biodiversity in a colony. And that is with modern tech to work to ward off genetic defects and such from inbreeding. With 6… well lets just say, even though it’s been thousands of years, Senku might still count as *related* to most of Ishigami village.

This isn’t to say the episode had nothing going for it. Dr.STONE has generally good enough production that there is always something to like. And most of this was present in the manga anyways. For instance I thought the use of Social Media to identify the origination point of the Light was clever. As it spreads across the world with a delay, it makes sense things like twitter would be silent as that wave went. I also enjoyed the bookending of Pneumonia with the story. Introducing it as a major issue for Byakuya and co, killing them and the descendants off for millenia. All this right after we just saw Senku finally defeat it with Ruri. It really helped sell Byakuya’s point that Senku would be able to save the world. And while I don’t like that trope, Dr.STONE at least set it up decently here.

So, all in all, how was this week? Well while it did a little bit right, there was far more going wrong I feel. Even without getting back into the issues with the overarching narrative, things like the insert songs and VA switches. Small details like that just took me out of the episode during its run. I actually had to really push myself to finish I was so uninterested in it all. And while I adore the manga, mostly for Boichi’s art, anime is much more of a time investment. So when a series lacks consistency like Dr.STONE does it really impacts the series as a whole. Still, it’s done now, so hopefully we can move forward to something more interesting. As Tsukasa returns to plunge Senku into chaos once more.