Across a wild, stormy sea lies a gorgeous, green island of lush, old forests and clear, trickling streams. Somewhere on this miniature paradise, a treasure is buried. You need that treasure, but whether or not you can seize it will depend on your proficiencies in scientific knowledge, practical skills, and social cooperation. So, sharpen your mental tools, put on a smile, and heed the timeless call of adventure.
Welcome to Anime Rants. This is my review for the third season of Dr. Stone. Please note that Dr. Stone: New World will have two parts, with the second cours beginning in Fall 2023. This review only covers part 1, which aired in Spring 2023. In case you’re not familiar with my reviews, I judge an anime based on five categories. Each category gets a score, and the series/season also gets an overall score at the end. With that in mind, let’s get started.
Visuals: 7
Dr. Stone uses a slightly unusual art-style for the characters. They tend to have wide faces, widely spaced eyes, and slightly enlarged, detailed hands. Often, characters have hair with strange shapes or textures to it. During comical moments, they also make absurdly exaggerated face expressions that can look weird. Besides unique character styles, the visuals in Dr. Stone are defined by the abundant backgrounds and shots of beautiful nature scenery. The actual animation is of average fluidity and uses a lot of action lines.
I know some people who literally can’t watch Dr. Stone because they dislike the art-style for the characters so much. I don’t have that problem. I appreciate that anime art is subjective, and can be enjoyed even if it’s cheaper quality or has an unusual style. To me, the visuals in Dr. Stone are above average quality and I like the particular style in which the characters are drawn most of the time. I even like the exaggerated faces because they’re just so absurd.
When Dr. Stone had its first season in 2019, I was willing to give the visual category 8/10. By the third season, however, I expected some improvements or more creativity in the visuals. For example, we could use some smoother animation during action scenes, as well as more diverse lighting and angles. But I saw literally no changes in 4 years. In addition, the CGI for the moving ship was terrible. Thus, I decided 7/10 was a more appropriate score.
Story: 8
The overarching story of Dr. Stone follows Senku and his friends as they use science to try to bring back humanity, which was turned to stone by an unknown power. That much hasn’t changed. The story for the third season is the group’s journey to – and exploration of – a small island off the coast of Japan. Hidden on the island is the Soyuz space shuttle, which should be filled with valuable materials, including platinum. Senku needs platinum to make the “revival fluid” that brings people back from being stone.
The third season did a great job of establishing and setting up the smaller scale story. The execution and pacing were also good. With the introduction of “Why-man,” there were no problems with the story staying interesting. Once the characters got to the island, there were more intriguing developments and quite a sudden plot twist. The conclusion for the season was slightly rushed, but not too bad.
Besides plot, the story category also encompasses elements like humor, themes, and the overall attitude of the series. Dr. Stone: New World did well on all fronts. The humor occasionally made me smile. There aren’t a lot of interesting or profound themes, but the anime makes up for that with its refreshing positivity toward humanity and emphasis on the wonders of science. Due to all this, the story category deserves an 8/10.
Audio: 9
The audio for this season was amazing. The opening son is “Wasuregataki” by Huwie Ishizaki. It’s catchy and I liked the lyrics once I looked up the translation. But as good as that song was, it still paled in comparison to the ending song, “Where Do We Go” by OKAMOTO’S. I absolutely love this song and it will definitely be one of my favorites of 2023. I don’t know much about the names of different styles of music, so I can’t describe what the song sounds like, but I just love it. There’s a link to the anime version below, but make sure you go listen to the full version, too!
Besides songs and music, the other major part of the audio category is voice-acting. This is another area in which Dr. Stone did excellently. Note: I am only talking about the Japanese audio, since I don’t normally watch English dubs. Some of the characters in Dr. Stone have particular, quirky ways of saying their lines. The Japanese voice actors handled that well in each case. I was especially impressed with Kengo Kawanishi as Gen and Manami Numakura as Kohaku. While I dislike Ginro, the character was performed extremely well by Ayumu Murase. He always impresses me. Ryouta Suzuki as Ryuusui was also great in this season.
I couldn’t live with myself if I failed to mention the very best of the seiyuu, Maaya Sakamoto. She played Francois in Dr. Stone: New World. Sakamoto’s most famous roles include Shiki from the Garden of Sinners movies, Ciel Phantomhive from Black Butler, Hitomi from the Escaflowne franchise, and Aerith from various Final Fantasy productions. Recently, she had a supporting role in Demon Slayer as Tamayo the demon doctor. Beyond that, Sakamoto has appeared in hundreds of other anime series, constantly taking on new roles. It’s always amazing to hear her voice.
Characters: 8
Dr. Stone: New World delivered well as usual with the character category. The cast of Dr. Stone is unique and colorful. I have yet to encounter another shounen with such a likeable and quirky character base, except maybe Hunter x Hunter. Because the characters are so entertaining and have such fun concepts, I wanted to give the character category a very high rating.
That being said, it’s also true that the cast is only ever developed a little beyond surface level. The characters each have their quirky concept, and that’s just who they are forever. None of the characters have had any deep psychological struggles, and only a few of them have had character arcs where they change or improve. Normally, the lack of significant ongoing character development would be a major flaw. However, in a series as lighthearted as Dr. Stone, it has managed to work fairly well. I won’t take too many points off for that.
This season of Dr. Stone introduced a total of six new characters, with three of them on the “good-guys” side and three of them on the bad. These characters included Amaryllis, Soyuz, Ibara, and Kirisame. But the very best new character, in my opinion, was definitely Francois, the nonbinary butler who serves Ryuusui. I am thrilled that there is a genderqueer character. Even if the anime one day confirms Francois’ biological sex, it will still be true that gender-neutral pronouns are used for the character, and that their sex is canonically stated to be irrelevant.
Personal Enjoyment: 8
Personal enjoyment level is an important metric for me when considering what score to give to an anime. For Dr. Stone: New World, I was constantly entertained. The introduction of Francois was a significant contributer to my overall opinion of the season. The sciency elements were also contributers, even if I don’t do well with retaining the information. And let’s not forget the sci-fi elements like the petrification weapon.
Though my appreciation for this season was certainly high, there were a few things that I didn’t enjoy at all. The best examples were in episodes 8 and 9, when the characters imply that Kohaku cannot possibly be cute or valid as a woman unless she puts on a fake personality, makeup, and a dress. After all, no man would want a tomboy who can defend herself and has strong opinions. The misogyny and judgment against women here was extremely frustrating, especially in an otherwise fairly progressive anime.
Besides some instances of irritation, I really did enjoy Dr. Stone: New World overall. As usual, there were enjoyable aspects from all the other categories: visuals, audio, characters, and story.
Overall Score: 8.0/10.0
The overall score for my reviews is calculated by taking the average of the scores for the five categories. Most of my overall scores for anime series range from the low 6s to the high 8s, with a select few in the 9s range or in the 5s range. As you can see, Dr. Stone: New World did great, at least by my standards. Also note that I do tend to judge shounen series more harshly.
If you’ve seen some of Dr. Stone already, I highly recommend watching season 3. There were so many important advancements in the plot. And if you haven’t seen any of Dr. Stone, I recommend trying it out, assuming that you like science, goofy humor, and shounen anime in general.
Thank you for reading~
Anime Rants 
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