The world of Shonen anime is a place of action and courage, where the tough hero (usually a young man) faces impossible odds but prevails through sheer courage, grit, and often, the power of friendship and belief in oneself. Many classic Shonen titles are action-oriented, but others get more inventive while staying true to the Shonen formula.
If a story features a guy facing tough odds to achieve his dream, and there's conflict, then it's probably a Shonen story, and that includes Dr. Stone. In this anime, Senku Ishigami is a genius high schooler using the power of science to restore humanity in the new stone age, and he has plenty of hurdles to face. Season 1 is complete, and season 2 should be here before long. Why are we dying to watch season 2 of Dr. Stone? And how might the second season let us down a bit?
10 Looking Forward To: More Inventions
This is the core of Dr. Stone: the cool inventions and gadgets! The Ishigami villagers get by with enamel shields and spears and huts, and life there is reasonably comfortable. But Senku is like a college science department on legs, and he has more than a few blueprints bouncing around in his brain.
Already, he has forged some items once thought impossible to bring back, from glass beakers to ramen stands to wheels and pulleys and even electric generators. And he's planning on making walkie talkies, too! We can't wait to see what comes off the Senku-brand assembly line next.
9 Not Looking Forward To: Cheap Villains
In all fairness, the things we don't want to see in Dr. Stone's second season are just minor issues, and for the most part, we can't wait for season 2. And we could be wrong about the things we're not looking forward to.
But still, while season 1 brought us a neat conflict between Senku and the cautious and tradition-minded villagers, Tsukasa and his thugs aren't compelling baddies at all. They're just thugs who don't like Senku's ways, and the action scenes are only interesting because we see Senku's inventions at work. We need more than stock bullies at this point to keep the battles interesting.
8 Looking Forward To: Exploring New Lands
For the most part, Dr. Stone took place within the same general area, such as the Ishigami village and Senku's base of operations on the other side of that rope bridge. We also saw the cave network where Tsukasa's Empire of Might has set up shop.
We're not certain about this, but we're willing to bet that once peace is restored to the land (let's hope), Senku will spearhead exploration efforts to find more people to revive, and new lands with new bounties and places to set up future colonies. The whole world beckons, after all, and it's time for a new age of discovery.
7 Not Looking Forward To: Stale Characters
The characters of Dr. Stone are a lot of fun to watch, and everyone has a role to play, from the nimble fighter Kohaku to Chrome the junior scientist to Senku as the chief of science. We've seen some character development, but it's been slow so far.
We hope we're wrong about this, but at this rate, most of the characters in Dr. Stone are already, well, set in stone. Most of them are defined by their role in the village or their hobby, and many anime shows are content to leave things at that level of development. Let's hope Dr. Stone puts in some extra effort.
6 Looking Forward To: More Revived People
The people of Ishigami village were never in stone, and thus don't have those telltale marks on their skin. They are descended from the ISS crew who arrived on Earth, while Senku, Tsukasa, and the others are from 3,700 years in the past.
That leaves, well, a lot left to go, and today, Japan's population alone clocks in at about 120 million people, give or take. We can't wait for Senku to get his hands on more people and free them from their stone prison, and allow a larger and more diverse group to bolster Ishigami village's ranks. It's time for some new blood around here.
5 Not Looking Forward To: Crude Humor
We don't mean to be a stick in the mud, but really, some humor is a little much for us. Some viewers may like it, and that's fine. But sometimes, really crude humor can throw you off, or disrupt the tone of the story and make everything feel a bit cheap.
We could stand for a few things to be left off-screen or implied, and hardly any of the humor is lost. Some things really enter "TMI" territory if they're actually shown, and our screenshot here is a fine example of what we mean.
4 Looking Forward To: Science Education
We love Senku's science experiments and inventions for all kinds of reasons. Not only do his gadgets and potions make life easier for people, but Senku takes the time to explain the science of everything that he's doing along the way.
And it doesn't even feel like Senku is talking down to us, either. He's genuinely sharing his passion and helping other people understand, so he can promote a love of science. And that way, the other villagers can help him out, since they better understand how these inventions work. A Senku lecture is always welcome.
3 Not Looking Forward To: An Early End
Things have been going well for Dr. Stone so far, haven't they? Senku awoke from the stone, got a bearing on the situation, and launched his campaign to revive everyone and rebuild all of humanity's wonderful inventions. He's up to any challenge.
But not even Senku can defeat a premature end for the anime, if that's the route the animators end up taking. Short anime series that are based on manga volumes often pull the plug early and thus create their own endings, and we dearly hope that Dr. Stone's second season becomes its last season, too. Let's hope we get at least three.
2 Looking Forward To: Hope For The Future
Overall, Dr. Stone is a very optimistic series that sees the best in humanity. Nothing about it is cynical or defeatist, even though all of humanity has been frozen in stone and all of mankind's inventions have rotted away.
Instead, the narrative presents this as a fun challenge to overcome, and Senku rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. In fact, he inspires everyone else to join him, and they accomplish so much as a group. The other characters don't have Senku's genius, but they have plenty to contribute. We bet that season 2 will give us some serious payoff for this optimism.
1 Not Looking Forward To: Surprise Villains
Tsukasa is a fairly simple antagonist, but at least we know where he came from, and why he's trying to do what he's trying to do. All stories are based on conflict, whether it's man vs man, man vs nature, or man vs himself, as high school English classes taught us.
In Dr. Stone, though, we don't necessarily need a lot of villainous people to drive the narrative; instead, the logistical challenges facing Senku are quite enough, and they're more compelling than any stone age thug anyway. We sincerely hope that the story doesn't come up with some new bad guy after Tsukasa just for the sake of it.