Over the course of the series, Dr Stone has taken its characters on increasingly fraught adventures. Based on the manga series written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by the South Korean artist Boichi, the now-completed series has reached a fever pitch in its final season, Dr Stone Science Future.
Broken into three cours, we’ve watched as the Kingdom of Science has traveled the world, fought off new adversaries before welcoming them onto their team (as is par the course). All of which in their efforts to travel to the moon to face off against the mysterious “Why Man.”
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Led by young scientist Senku (Aaron Dismuke), his friends, allies, former enemies, and more have all followed as he’s carved a path towards a restored future. With a deliberately crude animation style that highlights the overt comedy of the series, Dr Stone Science Future has found moments of genuine emotional upheaval as Senku, Gen (Brandon McInnis), and co. have found themselves frequently out of their depth.
DR STONE Science Future remains an unlikely shonen gem.
With hints of tragedy superseded by humanity’s efforts, the series has remained, until the end, an unlikely triumph. It also, in an understated manner, remains far removed from other popular shonen series.
If you’ve watched anime long enough, you’ve more than likely heard Aaron Dismuke before, whose work includes playing Alphonse Elric in the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist, Tamaki Amajiki in My Hero Academia, Miyuki Shirogane in Love is War, and many, many more. His career has spanned more than two decades.
Meanwhile, Brandon McInnis was relatively new to the scene when he first began on Dr Stone. He’s since gone on to voice English-dub roles in Given, Sasaki to Miyano, Demon Slayer, Sabikui Bisco, and more.
We spoke to both Dismuke and McInnis about the ending of Dr Stone Science Future and how their performances have changed since the start of the series.
But Why Tho: As a longtime fan of the series, how is it for you two to be saying goodbye to the series?
Brandon McInnis: We’re so excited to see the culmination of this story in this season. That’s very exciting for us. But also, we’ve been with these characters for a long time, so it’s quite bittersweet to see the end coming.
Aaron Dismuke: The stakes have been steadily rising, and the scope of the story has been increasing. The Kingdom of Science has been growing, and we’ve been bringing more and more friends and relatives and former enemies into the fold, so I can’t imagine it going any other way.
I think that the pacing feels right. As a fan, I’m so glad that they’re doing it this way, and as an actor, I’m devastated at the impending loss of this character I’ve gotten to spend so much time with and grow with.
But Why Tho: One of the best part of the series is when you stop and go, ‘I can’t believe they have the internet, they have a car now, and a ship.’ When you first started, could you have predicted just how far this journey would go?
Aaron Dismuke: With hindsight, I can say it makes sense. Senku is following Byakuya’s footsteps as an astronaut. There were all big shots of the moon during the lightbulb scene where I [Senku] talk about humanity conquering darkness. I think there was a big moon shot there. And now we’re going to the moon. But none of that clicked with me at the time. I was just like “Oh, pretty moon.”
But Why Tho: Has anything changed in your approach to voicing these characters as the story has progressed? Is there a natural evolution?
Brandon McInnis: When I started, I was earlier on in my career so I wanted to do a good job and checking all the boxes on what makes a good performance when I was getting in the booth.
But over time, I feel like I’ve relaxed a lot more through the process of voicing Gen. I go in now to record, and I feel like I’m just meeting up with an old friend every time I step into the booth. It’s a nice feeling to have, it’s much more relaxed.
Aaron Dismuke: I feel like before Senku, I felt a little pigeonholed into awkward young guys who were like me [laughs.] And I saw Senku, and he was cool, with a little bit of a deeper voice and a lot of confidence.
Crystalizing a performance through being in the moment is key.
And I really wanted to sound cool. I slowly realized what makes him cool, and it’s his unabashed enthusiasm for solving problems, creating things, and understanding the world around him.
It’s an infectious energy, so I slowly became more focused on trying to feel what he feels about what he’s talking about.
The emotional energy that you have when you’re doing a performance gets crystallized in amber. You can’t always brute force hard work your way into a performance if a performance is meant to be happy and lighthearted.
But Why Tho: Do you have a favorite part, storyline, or arc for your character?
Aaron Dismuke: I love putting my friends, and especially Gen, to work. [laughs.] It’s always so funny, they’re like, “No, you want us to what?”
Brandon McInnis: I love how he reacts to that request, too.
Aaron Dismuke: Working the bellows at the iron foundry or the smelter, whatever it was, that was a great one.
Brandon McInnis: And anytime it’s screaming, crying, throwing up rainbows [laughs].
Aaron Dismuke: It’s glorious.
But Why Tho: I’ve always said that, sneakily, Dr STONE is actually a huge tragedy if you think about it too long. But the fact that it has this levity, joy, and curiosity about discovery makes it fun to watch. So I wonder if that’s fun to play with, because obviously there’s a lot of humor, but there are also pockets of sincerity that anchor it.
Brandon McInnis: You touch on a great aspect of the show, and that, fundamentally, there is hardship. Right? We have lost civilization in this world, but we do have a group of people—we have camaraderie, we have unity, and community that we’re using to overcome all of these things and putting our heads together.
There’s still a great deal of happiness that can be found through that. I think these characters find the best of that, and it gives a lot of hope to fans and to me as an actor who gets to work on it.
Aaron Dismuke: Yeah, there’s this pervasive sense of mutual self-interest. When we defeat our enemies, we bring them in… it goes very quickly from “You’re under arrest” to “You’re hired, here’s a pickax.”
“That sense that humanity is in it together is what I think stops it from being a sad story.”
And it’s because Senku and Gen are so good at finding the needs of their enemies and of other people, and of finding the common need and being like, “Hey, we all want this, right?” “None of us want to get turned to stone forever this time, right?”
That hopefulness and that sense of mutual interest even goes backward in time. Senku is always referencing the great scientists who came before him and invented the things he’s reinventing. I think Byakuya is another example of that, with him painstakingly picking pieces of platinum out of the sand so that Senku will have this ultra-rare resource, and it takes him decades to do it.
That I think of as representative of everyone who came before us, trying to get us where we are right now as a civilization. They were hoping we would have better lives than them even though they never met us. That sense that humanity is in it together is what I think stops it from being a sad story despite the hardship.
But Why Tho: It’s also one of the shows where you stop and go, “How long could I last?’ It really drives a point home.
Brandon McInnis: No air conditioning! Oh my god.
But Why Tho: Do you have a favorite part of your character, and has that changed since you started?
Aaron Dismuke: It’s Senku’s devious glee, and that glee comes from a belief that every problem in his life is a puzzle to be solved, and the more life-threatening and more arduous the problem, the more exciting the puzzle.
Brandon McInnis: It’s changed! When I started recording on the show, my favorite part about Gen was how fun and morally gray he is. That’s very fun to portray because it gives you a lot to work with as an actor. As time has gone on, my favorite part about Gen is that he’s using his manipulation for good.
I feel that he manipulates people into believing in themselves when they don’t, and I think that’s very noble.
Dr STONE Science Future is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
