Dr Stone S4 Ep25-26 Review: Finale Kicks Off Hell Of a Ride

Dr Stone has returned for its final installment titled Dr Stone: Science Future Cour 3. The show will continue to adapt the manga’s final arc, also titled the same, written by mangaka Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by the South Korean artist Boichi. The final, fourth season was split into three parts (cours), with the last one closing the series in 2026. The Manga ended in 2022 and concluded the story, wrapping up the journey from the Stone Age to space exploration.

Season 4 Cour 3 focuses on the high-stakes mission of traveling to the moon to confront Whyman. In the early episodes of this season, the story has been set up to introduce a new character, Sai. Senku and his team plan to unpetrify Sai, so he can assist with the rocket's mathematical challenges. Sai will be introduced as Ryusui's older brother, who is crucial for the lunar landing calculations.

Dr Stone: Science Future finale is about evolving humanity to space travel

After Senku’s team arrived in South America, he engaged in a survival war with Dr. Xeno’s forces while attempting to repair the petrification device. The cour did not reveal much about Whyman’s existence, but to uncover the truth about their petrification, Senku discovered the only way he can confront Whyman is by heading to the moon. For the sake of their own agendas, Senku and Dr. Xeno decide to work together.

Dr. Xeno plans to turn the new world into a dictatorship and build a super-scientific civilization ruled by his intellect. On the other hand, Senku plans to rebuild human civilization through science, intending to revive all 8 billion petrified humans without anything in return. Keeping these differences apart, both scientists decide to work together. To fulfill the lunar mission, they first have to tackle the biggest problem in building the spaceship: finding pure materials. After acquiring iron, stainless steel, and some unrefined locals, in two months, they only managed to build a smaller, singular gas turbine for the rocket.

Senku Needs A Year to close the gap between Stone Age and modern science

What they need is an engine of level 99 to be able to make their lunar journey a success. Xeno and Senku decide to split up for faster results, but they have to split up into three teams. Taiju’s team sets out to bring back humanity and build fields of corn in the US, Xeno’s team will work on the engine in the superalloy city, and Senku’s team heads across the Atlantic to gather resources and return back to Japan. On their way, they need to make a stop to pick up Sai, in India. 

Suika is not the only character that’s grown

Apart from Dr. Xeno’s change of heart, we also have Ryusui growing more into a businessman. He had already introduced capitalism in the stone world, but the greed of acquiring the world’s treasure kind of turns him more into a likeable person. In the recent season, it seems more about seeing the world than conquering it like an evil villain. Other characters that had been petrified again have somewhat remained almost the same, but watching Suika all grown up is very unusual. 

Over the last anime season, she hasn’t just grown up but surpassed Chrome’s level in the use of science and has become a resilient scientist and survival expert. Her growth fills the gap of a proactive female lead as she takes on more control of the decisions made in the season. She even gets a currency in her name that is more valuable than Chrome, only after Senku.

But, despite the growing tension and threats from Whyman, director Shuhei Matsushita has kept the silliness of the anime intact. Unpetrified people are more than happy to return closer to the civilization they remembered. While the locals from the Kingdom of Science never seem to get enough of the inventions done by Senku. Both scenarios bring in some of the best reactions to every little discovery.

Well rounded Cast and Characters keep the story fresh

Kohaku and Gen Asagiri continue to bring in comic relief every few minutes while the latter still maintains a bit of a mystery with his performance. His voice actor, Kengi Kawanishi, manages a unique will-he-won’t-he aura that isn’t easy to maintain.

The sound direction by Jin Aketagawa truly drives the emotions, as Dr Stone can get silly in the weirdest moments, but music by Tatsuya Kato, Hiroaki Tsutsumi, and Yuki Kanesaka keep it flowing with the tone of the story. It is loud and on the nose with every change in sequence and panel, but that is probably what keeps us on our toes amidst all the scientific explanations.

With the end nearing, TMS Entertainment is definitely pulling out all stops to give the finale a deserving end. The finale cour is a chance to make the wider anime fandom take notice, not just the Dr. Stone fans who stuck around. The show is currently streaming on Crunchyroll with a weekly streaming schedule.