In 2017, Writer Riichiro Inagaki and illustrator Boichi scored a hit with their adventure-comedy manga Dr. Stone in “Weekly Shonen Jump.” Both a popular and critical success, Dr. Stone went on to win a Shogakukan Manga Award in 2019. (Viz has published 15 volumes of Dr. Stone in English.)

For the 2019 animated adaptation, director Shinya Iino and his crew wisely stick very close to the original manga: chunks of dialogue are repeated verbatim.

After suppressing his feelings for five years, high school student Taiju Oki (Ricco Fajardo) tells his best friend, scientific genius Senku Ishigami (Aaron Dismuke), that’s he’s finally built up the nerve to confess his love to Yuzuhira Ogawa (Brittany Lauda). But before he can stammer out his declaration, a mysterious light envelopes the landscape and every human is suddenly sheathed in stone. Civilization ends.

More than 3500 years later, the rock encasing Taiju crumbles away and he’s free. The stone-clad Yuzuhira is still where he left her, but he’s amazed to find Senku, alive, awake and clad in animal skins. Senku explains that a nitric acid compound, formed from bat guano and other components, corroded the rock that covered their bodies.

Senku plans to revive everyone he can and jump start human civilization. His knowledge of everything from botany to organic chemistry (which eclipses even Nancy Drew’s) makes his plan seem feasible. As he would cheerfully admit, Taiju is not the sharpest flint in the cave, but he’s happy to supply brawn and endurance to help Senku.

Complications arise when they awaken Tsukasa Shishio (Ian Sinclair), once known as the world’s strongest teen-ager, to help fight off attacking lions. Tsukasa takes out the male lion with one punch, and assures Taiju and Senku that from now on, he’ll take over hunting, fishing and guard duty.

Taiju awakens Yuzuhira, who happily joins the little colony—she, Taiju and Senku were buddies in high school. Their ambitious plans are threatened when Tsukasa starts destroying stone figures of adults—committing murder in Senku’s eyes. He intends to “purify” the world and create a society ruled by the strongest, i.e. himself. The conflict between Tsukasa and the three friends rapidly intensifies. Senku fakes his own death and joins another colony of humans he’s discovered; he sends Taiju and Yuzuhira to spy on Tsukasa.

Taiju is a familiar anime type: the thick-as-a-brick jock whose enthusiasm never flags, while Yuzuhira proves tougher than many anime heroines. The brutal, calculating Tsukasa cares only about power and will do anything to obtain it. The filmmakers make Senku believably brilliant but not smug, and Dismuke’s low-key performance makes him all the more likable.

Although it has many slapstick moments, Dr. Stone feels very timely as its pits Tsukasa’s brutal vision of society against Senku’s desire to lead everyone back to the future. It also reminds audiences of the importance of science, which describes the world–and offers tools to deal with it. That message feels especially welcome at a time when climate deniers, COVID skeptics and anti-vaxxers are attacking science and scientists.

Iino and his artists keep both the dramatic action and comedic moments moving, although the animation is often minimal. The result is an enjoyable series that quickly won a loyal fan base. A second season, Stone Wars is scheduled to premiere in 2021.

Dr. STONE: Season 1, Part 1
Funimation: $39.99 4 discs, DVD and Blu-ray