In 2019, one anime came and rocked the world (yes pun intended). When most Shonen Jump content is thought of as a glut of muscular teens using the power of friendship to punch each other with little variation on that theme. Enter a hero who used his brain instead of his fist in a world whose technology had been reduced to the Stone Age and you get a series that truly stood out and became a major hit. Protagonist Senku’s quest to get the world back to where it was in the twenty-first century was even more compelling a quest than your standard Shonen Jump hero’s quest to to be the best at punching things.
That’s not to say this show doesn’t have battle shonen style action scenes, but they often include battles using science gadgets rather than who has the strongest magical punch. Dr. Stone has been noted for it’s actual educational content, making this series an interesting combination of edutainment and adventure series. Compound that with the mystery of why everyone mysteriously turned to stone in the twenty-first century and caused the disaster that set off the plot in the first place, and, in my opinion, Dr. Stone, is one of the best anime of the current decade. So how does this third season hold up compared to the strong first two seasons that came before it?
To answer that question, season three is just as entertaining as
previous seasons, but continues a trend seen in season two. In that season, the show engaged in a more traditional good guys versus bad guys fight with less time dedicated to Senku giving the detailed process as to how a piece of technology works. Season two was still exciting and lots of fun, and season three was just as entertaining even when the action overshadowed the edutainment the show did strongest in the first season. One major problem with this third season was how rushed the parts with Senku inventing technology went. The season begins with Senku creating a ship to set sail for the Americas, but the process seemed rushed through and had abrupt timeskips. Once Senku lands on the island where his adopted father crashed landed on, “Treasure Island,” season three’s action picks up and becomes much more exciting. Unexpectedly, the action-oriented second half was stronger than the more invention-building heavy first half, which I expected to enjoy more.
At the island where the main action of season three takes place, our heroes finally come into contact with the magic petrification ray. It’s been a while since high school, but I don’t really remember any lesson about a magical petrification weapon, so it is obvious that this portion of the series takes the most artistic license with real science out of any portion. We also get some scenes of traditional physical fights with this arc’s villains, and these traditional brawls are all decent to actually pretty strong. A particular highlight was warrior girl Kohaku fighting off an army of goons. The climax involved Senku again using his brain to thwart Ibara the master of the magic petrification ray, although the science behind it is less real than in previous battles.
It must be noted that season three’s villain doesn’t quite have the thematic punch of season two’s iconic foe Tsukasa, where the brain versus brawn, anti-intellectualism versus intellectualism theme made the battles especially compelling. Ibara might not be as compelling in a thematic matter, but he certainly is an effective boo-able villain whose sleaze factor makes him easy to hate. He along with all the new characters met on the island all have striking character designs and his claw weapon was particularly cool. Season three’s back half essentially was a traditional battle shonen, but a well executed one.
The season ends with Senku declaring his next mission, to go to the moon. Going from the Stone Age to the Space Age does seem like a major leap in suspension of disbelief, if it weren’t for the fact that we already dealt with a magic petrification ray. The later sciences seem to be going all into the anime silliness and over the topness, making some possibly believe that the series has jumped the shark, er um, moon. Even with less scientific veracity, the overall fun of our heroes exploring the final frontier seems like an incredibly fun season four. It’s not like The Magic Schoolbus never used artistic license. I am excited to have Senku teach us all about space next season and face up against the mysterious bad guy known as the “Why Man.” Since this is the final season, we should probably learn why everybody turned to stone in the twenty-first century. My verdict is that Dr. Stone continues to be a must watch for fans who want a creatively different spin on action/adventure anime.
