Having seen a lot of advertising for this particular anime, I decided to dive in and see what all the fuss was about. Based on the award-winning 2017 manga by Riichiro Inagaki (and illustrated by Boichi), the story sees all of humanity turned to stone for over 3,000 years, during which time each trapped human is apparently conscious. Sounds like an absolute hell, but our story concentrates on a few characters that have escaped their stone prison, including braniac Senku Ishigami (Dr Stone himself) and the muscular but dim Taiju Oki, the latter of which was confessing his love as the tragedy struck.
Essentially an Isekai series with our heroes displaced through time rather than just another fantasy universe, the show has a pretty good hook. The idea of being frozen but conscious for such a long time, especially as many humans have fallen to pieces as statues, is horrific. As such, the stakes seem pretty high from the get-go.
The animation is extremely sharp (TMS are the same studio behind the equally pretty Fruits Basket remake) and some nice designs are on show - Yuzuhari, Taiji's love-interest, is a particularly nice character design, and nobody could argue that Senku's turnip-like hairdo isn't striking.
Taiji seems like a really nice character, but if I'm honest, Senku seems like a bit of a git. He's arrogant and frosty, but I'm hoping that like Dr House M.D. there's enough depth to the character that the spikey and unlikable facade is hiding something more appealing. After all, not all good guys have to be nice guys.
The first episode ends with the only breakthrough you literally have to make for this show, and that's discovering the process of reversing the stone effects on those affected by it, but it seems pretty obvious that reviving some will take precedence over others, and with resources gathered slowly, it'll be a while before we're beset with new faces to remember - unless of course the plot finds a way to speed things up.
As a first episode, this has all the hooks you need to keep you interested - it's gorgeous, the music is great and the premise has real potential. I'm certainly in for more of this one, if only to appreciate more of the lush visuals and to find out if Senku is as much as an asshole as he appears!
Check out the official preview trailer below for a taster:
Follow A.I. on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to get all the latest site updates
