Blair Loveday
Dr. Stone has been an anime series I have enjoyed since the start.
The weird premise, the strange character quirks, and interesting story has made it an essential watch in my house. Well now Season 3, titled New World, has dropped it’s first half on Bluray, and with one obvious omission, it’s started off strong.
If you haven’t checked out Dr. Stone yet. It’s an interesting show. An event happened which turned everyone into stone. Senku is a boy genius that manages to keep his mind by constantly thinking, and then one day he breaks free. The kicker is that well over 3000 years have passed. He discovers that nitric acid can free people from their stoned ways and kicks off building a little society.
Over the seasons he discovers that he isn’t the only one that was freed, but he is consistently the smartest one. After a pretty epic Stone Wars for Season 2, we come to Season 3… Well kind of.
There is a 1 hour OVA that takes place between season 2 and 3. Generally OVA’s are side stories so there is no panic if you haven’t seen one. In the case of Dr. Stone: Ryusui, it is essential watching as it leads directly into the events of Season 3.
That’s cool though, you can just check it out on disc… Damn it wasn’t included in the Bluray.
In short, this 1 hour special involved the science kingdom getting ready to head off overseas to get to the source of the stoning. They are building a fancy pants new ship and released a sailor Ryusu from stone. Ryusu was from a rich background, so quickly built commerce amongst the kingdom to make himself rich in the process. In the process of making new threads for a hot air balloon, clothing gets a nice boost too. The special ends with them looking for an ability to redraw a map to find an old oil field via their hot air balloon. So now you are kind of caught up.
Anyway, kicking into Season 3 the team is landing back in their hot air balloon.
The plan is coming together for their ship to be successfully built. One thing they realise is that they will need a whole lot of preserved food to survive a sea journey so far. This kicks off with an interesting short side story as they finish their ship and get underway.
This happens surprisingly fast in the season, and we get some new activity as things don’t go exactly how they want on the ship and encounter some other people. I don’t want to spoil it more than that but it is a pretty damn solid start to the Season and has me itching to see how Season 3 Part 2 goes.
We get some decent character development, but they still have their quirks. Senku saying 10 billion percent still annoys me. Fortunately Ryusu is an interesting new bit of flavour to the team that certainly belongs in the show with his strange way of acting, but is something different. The voice acting and animation is exceptional as always.
On the whole, Dr. Stone – Season 3 Part 1 is a cracking start to what looks like an exciting season. The OVA missing is a minor annoyance, but hopefully it is included in Part 2 or is released as a separate Bluray. Either way it is well worth checking out if you enjoyed Season 1 and 2.
