Dr. Stone 12 Minute Preview | The Cameo That Didn’t Make It

Yesterday, I was super excited to learn that Dr. Stone was being previewed on YouTube! Not just a quick clip but half of the first episode! I had many thoughts about this preview and I thought I would share them here and also talk about a big cameo from the manga that was left out of the adaption. I would suggest that you all go check out the preview but it’s not subbed at the moment so unless you know some Japanese, some family friend or loved one that can translate, you’re going to have to wait until July 5, when episode 1 airs.

I started reading Dr. Stone almost a year ago and knew that this series had promise. The two mangaka behind it have an overwhelming amount of talent and a large podium to display those talents: Shonen Jump. With their wealth of experience, together they have been able to present such a great world, memorable characters and many micro bits of mental food. Knowing everything I know now, I can’t help but see this series as an Anime of the Year contender due to the people behind its source material and what we’ve seen of the adaption itself.

With this preview, we are introduced to the dynamic duo, Taiju and Senku. Senku being the mischievous, intellectual and Taiju being the musclebound man with a heart of gold. These two characters complement each other really well and this preview was able to capture that in this small introduction. One thing I loved even when I read the manga was the moment that Senku gave Taiju the “love potion” so that Taiju’s romantic interest, Yuzuriha would definitely accept his confession. Taiju poured it out knowing that it would be wrong to gain this fast result but instead do it his way and put his heart on the line. Little did he know that Senku’s potion was just gasoline but the amount of heart this character has shown in the little screen time he has is pretty great, I would say. This one interaction shows more than one would like to believe since it’s given a door to who these two characters are to each other.

I do love the way that they animated the stone effect hitting the world. It was as epic as it should be for something that had such a grand scale effect on humanity. Little attention to detail is doing great work to bring the source material to life. Much of the new Shonen Series have been animated by different studios. The Promised Neverland with A1, Demon Slayer with ufotable and now Dr. Stone with TMS. It’s refreshing to see these different studios working outside of the comfort zone of their usual work and knocking it out of the park. Dr. Stone will be a great anime for anime only and manga only audiences to share first time experiences. Yes, manga only will be in the know but you will see a different spin on the animation and presentation that you never expected.

Now, let’s talk about this cameo… Dr. Stone has a cameo featuring Donald Trump in the manga but in the anime, they have decided to leave that part out. To be honest, it’s really nothing important and there is really no statement being made during this cameo. The few panels that he is featured in just shows him turning to stone and questioning if this is a terrorist attack.

So, to be honest, I could go either way with it. I don’t see a problem with including or excluding it. They likely saved themselves a headache by keeping that cameo out. The only time that I do remember seeing Donald Trump in anime was Inuyashiki which was worse. The manga depiction was really bad and the anime lightened up a bit but didn’t remove the cameo completely like Dr. Stone.

Overall, this preview is awesome and a great way to gauge whether this series will be for you. I personally love the manga and I’m extremely excited that I will have a new way to experience the story. I also hope that we have more Shonen Jump properties getting animated by studios that aren’t Studio Pierrot. We need more attention to detail and new ways to improve these adaptions that only enhance the experience of the source material. Not just add ridiculous filler content that doesn’t better the manga’s original depiction.