nerd teacher [books] reviewed Dr. STONE, Vol. 1 by Riichiro Inagaki
Interesting concept.
3 stars
I love the concept: Some huge event practically (but not really) wipes humanity out for years by petrifying them. One day, thousands of years later, a handful of teens start ... de-petrifying? Effectively putting them back at 'square one' for the Modern Stone Age.
My biggest issue is that the characters feel a bit flimsy throughout the first volume. They immediately take on specific roles without growing into them. Senku's probably the most fleshed out, being given a bit more characterisation prior to the petrification of humanity. However, because they focus the most on making him a know-it-all rather than building a lot of his personality or his relationships with others? He's not really that engaging as a character. Taiju is a bit more interesting, but he also slips into just being stereotypically daft.
The same thing happens with Tsukasa who has about five seconds of being really interesting! Until …
I love the concept: Some huge event practically (but not really) wipes humanity out for years by petrifying them. One day, thousands of years later, a handful of teens start ... de-petrifying? Effectively putting them back at 'square one' for the Modern Stone Age.
My biggest issue is that the characters feel a bit flimsy throughout the first volume. They immediately take on specific roles without growing into them. Senku's probably the most fleshed out, being given a bit more characterisation prior to the petrification of humanity. However, because they focus the most on making him a know-it-all rather than building a lot of his personality or his relationships with others? He's not really that engaging as a character. Taiju is a bit more interesting, but he also slips into just being stereotypically daft.
The same thing happens with Tsukasa who has about five seconds of being really interesting! Until he then decides he wants to genocide the adults and smash all the petrified adults while de-petrifying the youth. Also, he has some of the best logic about the world! But because he then ties his frustration with the world into genocide? The reader is, as always seems to be the case, not allowed to engage the anti-capitalist ideas because they're put into the villain and used in a way to justify atrocities, meaning that the other characters and the audience won't really engage with them.
It's so shallow.