Dr. STONE tells the story of teenage scientific genius Senku Ishigami and his efforts to rebuild civilization thousands of years after a mysterious beam of light petrified all of humanity. Its blend of science, comedy, and action resulted in success when it aired in 2019. A second season, Dr. STONE: Stone Wars, is set to premiere in January 2021. At the 2020 Virtual Crunchyroll Expo, we learned more about Stone Wars from animation producer Sushuke Katagiri.
The Dr. STONE Experiment
The panel kicked off with host Tim Lyu providing a summary of the series, followed by the airing of the official trailer for Stone Wars. He then introduced animation producer Sushuke Katagiri, who answered questions about the upcoming season and about creating the Dr. STONE anime in general.
When asked about what fans can expect, Katagiri said that Senku’s crafting is powered up. We saw Senku create the cell phone at the end of season one, and we’ll see some amazing crafts going forward. He’s personally excited to see Chrome because he’s his favorite character. Seeing him grow as a science user is enjoyable.
From there, they talked more about the production process itself. As animation producer, Mr. Katagiri is responsible for choosing the right core staff, and managing the script, schedule, and budget. When he first started working on the series, he figured it would be hard, since he’s not well versed in science. Fortunately, they have advisors to assist. As seen in the live-action next episode previews and eyecatches, they perform all the experiments in real life. They even made cola the way it was shown in the series, which turned out okay. Of course, getting them to work can take multiple attempts. Still, he finds that the hardest part is expressing the science through animation. Moving on to the global pandemic, it did delay the start of voice recording, but aside from that, not much was affected. They are taking the necessary protective measures in the workplace.
Official Season 2 Trailer
Bonus Experiments
Afterward, the panel treated viewers to a few surprises. First, they revealed a teaser visual poster by Crunchyroll, which Katagiri thought was “pretty badass.” Then, they showed a sped-up video of a live drawing of Senku by chief animation director Mari Tominaga.
Finally, they played a prerecorded video message from director Shinya Iino. In addition to emphasizing how hard they’re working on the new season, he said he hopes to make more seasons, since the source material is still on-going. He’s also glad to hear that the series is popular overseas and hopes to travel to in order to see fans and experience the enthusiasm in person.
The panel ended with some final thoughts by Sushuke Katagiri. He hoped that the anime would brighten the lives of fans in these dark times, but by being like Senku and working hard, we can overcome the trials.
He’s ten billion percent correct on that point.
