The hit shonen anime Dr. Stone is a memorable blend of genres and storytelling styles, including the spirit of adventure, meticulous science, wacky comedy, and hard-hitting action. As for this anime’s overall genre, Dr. Stone is more edutainment than isekai, but that being said, Dr. Stone has more than a few isekai-style elements to it. Senku Ishigami didn’t get killed by Truck-kun or teleported into a video game world, but he does have a few things in common with most isekai leads.

The basic premise of Dr. Stone has enough isekai vibes to appeal to isekai lovers and provide the same sense of escapism, while having enough differences to distance itself from the saturated isekai market. Above all, Dr. Stone is about the use of hard science for humanitarian needs, but it doesn’t hurt to dabble in isekai’s territory along the way to keep fans engaged.

10

Senku, The Protagonist, Awakens in Another World (Kinda)

Senku Found Himself in a New Stone Age

The entire concept of isekai revolves around the main character ending up in a world that is not their own, usually a video game setting or a pre-industrial fantasy land. That happened in Dr. Stone as well, except Senku found himself in a new world not because of teleportation or reincarnation, but through the passage of 3,700 years while he was trapped in the stone.

Human civilization came to an end when every last human being ended up petrified, and as the centuries passed, buildings crumbled until only the natural world remained. Senku may still be on Earth, but he will never see Tokyo again, nor can he return to the early 21st century life he once had. It’s a partial isekai scenario rooted less in magic and more in the hard sciences.

9

Dr. Stone Provides Detailed Flashbacks of the Original World

Senku is More Nostalgic Than He’ll Admit

Plenty of anime series use flashback sequences, though isekai anime use flashbacks in a slightly different way. Often, flashbacks are used to peek at the world the heroes left behind, providing glimpses of what they did before ending up in the fantasy world. Those snippets also provide some variety and brief relief from the chaos and action of the new world.

Such flashbacks can also help keep the isekai protagonist grounded, remembering their ordinary Earth selves before they gained magic or got reborn as a non-human. Dr. Stone sometimes did that with flashbacks of Senku’s childhood and school years, allowing Senku’s high school days to feel nostalgic rather than routine and familiar. The high school setting is heavily saturated in anime, but in Dr. Stone, it’s a charming callback to Senku’s original life.

8

Senku Starts Off With a Special Skill Unique To Him, Like Many Isekai Anime MCs

Senku is Wholly Devoted to the Hard Sciences

While a few isekai leads remain totally helpless in their new lives, most will have a particular skill, ability, or fighting style to give them a chance of success. That may become the hero’s defining trait, and in Dr. Stone‘s case, Senku’s special skill is his vast knowledge of science. He has memorized vast amounts of data about the periodic table, chemistry, geology, machinery, mathematics, and much more.

All that made Senku practically unique in Dr. Stone‘s story, at least until Dr. Xeno showed up as a scientist rival in North America. Senku even marked that fact on his coat with Albert Einstein’s famous equation, which also served as a morale boost. No one else in the Kingdom of Science could take over Senku’s role, even if they had working knowledge of science.

7

The New World Senku Finds in Dr. Stone Can Be Seen as a Form of Escapism

Senku is Free of Civilization and Rules

One of the biggest appeals of the isekai formula is the sheer escapism, with an overworked student or office worker leaving all the paperwork and rules behind so they can wander freely in a colorful new world. It’s like a vacation the hero can never leave, and Senku had a similar experience when he broke free of the stone.

While Senku didn’t mind living in 21st century Japan, his adventures still served as a form of escapism as he explored a post-civilization world where anything was possible. Senku planned to revive civilization, but his unfriendly rival Tsukasa Shishio had other ideas, scheming to take advantage of this escapism world and create a new society of youths with no greedy adults to exploit them.

6

Senku Meets, and Somehow Instantly Connects With, Many of the Locals

Ishigami Village Was Byakuya’s Legacy

In nearly every isekai anime series, the protagonist will arrive in a world that’s already inhabited, by anything from humans and elves to goblins, dwarves, dragons, and much more. Such fantasy monsters didn’t ever appear in Dr. Stone, but their role was still fulfilled when Senku met the people of Ishigami Village, the Stone Age natives.

The Ishigami villagers were the descendants of the six astronauts who returned to Earth after the petrification wave arrived, including Byakuya Ishigami, Senku’s foster father. The locals had a unique aesthetic with their rustic outfits, including white rope belts and tall stone shoes, while the people of Treasure Island had their own unique look as well. Fortunately, some of the natives proved friendly to Senku, including Kohaku, Chrome, Kaseki, and Amaryllis.

5

The World of Dr. Stone is Explored One Region at a Time, Isekai Style

Senku Started in Japan, Then Visited the Americas

Typical isekai anime series feature a vast world to explore, which may be an overwhelming prospect at first. To make things easier, isekai anime tend to divide their settings into realms, such as formal nations, regions, or even a few interconnected worlds. Dr. Stone did that with Earth’s pre-existing divides: the seven continents. Each of them was a unique realm with equally unique resources to offer.

Japan served as Senku’s starter region, and now, in the anime’s fourth season, Senku is ready to explore. While traditional isekai leads might visit elf or dwarf kingdoms, Senku will visit North and South America in the anime’s future episodes, all so he can build new colonies with new resources. One of the most essential new resources is sweet corn, followed by the rubber found in South America.

4

There is a Demon Lord That Looms Over the Entire Dr. Stone Story

Why-Man Waited as the Final Boss

Even if some anime are now in a post-demon lord phase, such as Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, the concept of a demon king is still popular in isekai, and Dr. Stone used it, too. Such villains are mentioned early on and loom over the whole story like a dark shadow, an inevitable boss battle whose very existence creates tension in the story.

Dr. Stone‘s own demon lord was the enigmatic Why-Man, a new party that made itself known to Senku with the intercepted “Why?” transmissions. For some time, Why-Man hung over Senku’s head as a frightening mystery, until Senku acted like every isekai protagonist and ended up in the demon lord’s lair at last. There, on the lunar surface, Senku beheld the strange truth of Why-Man, a unique entity from behind the stars.

3

As Expected Of An Isekai (Similar) Protagonist, Senku Eventually Becomes Overpowered

Senku Can Invent Anything With the Right Materials

Not only will plenty of isekai protagonists have a unique skill or fighting style to set them apart, those heroes may end up totally overpowered. If handled well, that can make an isekai protagonist compelling and exciting rather than ridiculous, and the Dr. Stone anime gradually but surely put Senku in that position, too.

Senku was always skilled and smart with the power of science, and his technological assets grew at an accelerating pace as one device or resource led to another. By the story’s end, Senku was miles ahead of everyone else, practically cheating as he united his colonies to build a functional space rocket, complete with a lunar lander and a surface rover inspired by NASA’s own. In the manga’s final chapter, meanwhile, Senku threatened to become outrageously overpowered by aiming to build a fully functional time machine.

2

Senku Assembles a Diverse Team of Allies, Which Would Function as his Isekai Anime Party

Senku Knows How to Delegate Tasks

Even overpowered isekai protagonists rely on the power of friendship and teamwork to succeed in the new world, and Senku was much the same in Dr. Stone. While Rimuru Tempest built a nation of monsters in the Jura Forest and Ainz Ooal Gown had monster minions like Albedo to call upon, Senku gathered skilled allies to handle the jobs he couldn’t do himself.

Not even Senku was omnipotent, and he was humble enough to delegate tasks to his friends. Taiju, Yuzuriha, and Kaseki often did manual labor or built items, while Kohaku served as a scout with sharp eyesight and Ryusui Nanami stepped up as the skilled captain of the Perseus. Senku even welcomed former enemies as allies, including Tsukasa and Kirisame.

1

The Female Characters in Dr. Stone All Fall Under Cute Girl Tropes

Senku Is Able To Avoid Distraction, But It’s Still Very Similar To Isekai Anime

One of the more gratuitous parts of isekai is the existence of harems, usually a group of attractive female characters who surround a male lead who may or may not revel in the attention. For the most part, Dr. Stone avoided that isekai trope, but in the Treasure Island story arc, the villains had their own harem, and that gave Senku an opening.

Minister Ibara was holding tryouts for new members of the master’s harem, and Kohaku took her chance to join the harem and thus operate behind enemy lines. Amusingly, Ginro did something similar, disguising himself as a girl before he stumbled upon the truth of the petrified master. All that led to an exciting sequence in the Treasure Island story arc that actually made a harem a plot point rather than an excuse for fan service.