Dr. Stone: S01 E01 | Stone World (recap)

I’ve never heard of Dr. Stone before it’s release this month, but if every human turned to stone and centuries passed before my stone cast broke away and I was intact, I’d want a friend like Senku awake too.

There was not a lot of character development in this first episode, but we at least know that if you stayed conscious during your petrified stone state, eventually you would crack open fully aware of what happened.

Season 1, Episode 1 – Stone World

We meet two important characters right away, including Senku (a scientific genius well above his high school years) and Taiju (a standard high school boy with a mega crush on Yuzuriha – a girl he plans to express his feelings to outside of school).

Unfortunately, before Taiju can express his feelings a bright green light spreads through the land and petrifies every human alive. Doesn’t matter if they are inside a building or outside, they turn to stone.

“The date is October 5, 5738” – Senku

We follow Taiju through the seasons and years that pass after the green light flooded the earth. The animals take back territory and nature reclaims the structures that were built during the human-dominated era.

Taiju managed to stay conscious during the centuries that he was petrified due to his obsession with confessing his love for Yuzuriha. Eventually, his stone cracks away and he is miraculously okay.

He has drifted quite a ways away from the schoolyard where he planned to confess his love, but he manages to make his way back to the school’s previous location. Luckily he finds Yuzuriha still there in her petrified state. He also sees a messaged etched into the tree behind her.

“Follow the river idiot” – Senku

Senku leaves a message scratched into the tree behind Yuzuriha’s head. The message prompts Taiju to meet up with Senku who has been awake for 6 months and managed to stay awake by counting the days to prevent himself from going unconscious.

First of all, can we just take a moment to appreciate the trust that Senku had in his friend Taiju?

He expected his friend to be alive. We see that he has those high expectations at the beginning of the episode as well. Senku offers Taiju a love potion to win Yuzuriha’s heart, but Taiju says no.

Turns out the potion was actually gasoline, but Senku had no doubts that Taiju was going to say no. We’ll probably see that same expectation through out the entire series until something drastic happens and trust is broken.

Maybe.

Turns out Senku, being the scientific genius we know him as, has figured out a way to de-petrify humans from their stone state. Senku and Taiju create the formula and test it out on birds until they get the combination correct!

Finally, the bird is freed of the stone!