Shonen, like many of the most popular genres in manga and anime, is one that can seem overstuffed with copycats.Dragon Ball Z's winning formula for longevity has a lot to answer for: over-powered, wide-eyed heroes who fight for the fun of it; tournament arcs; pointless power levels; reincarnations and a lot of shouting out the names of super-powered martial arts moves. Those that adore all this will put up with the repetition, largely for the sake of comfort viewing, and will argue that any perceived staleness is endemic to most popular genres of any entertainment.

But the sheer dominance of shonen means that its cookie-cutter nature is far more pronounced than others, as the industry behind it prioritizes safe, sure-fire hits than riskier creative ventures. Luckily, one of this year's biggest new anime releases,Dr. Stone, has been immune to this.

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In a year whereBlack Clover,Fire ForceandThe Rising of The Sheild Herofail to add anything particularly new or noteworthy to the medium,Dr. Stoneis in better company amongst more exciting titles, like the historical epic,Vinland Saga and Mob Psycho 100 II, the creator ofOne-Punch Man's arguably superior twist on superheroes. Not to be forgotten in this breath is the second half of the third season ofAttack on Titan, which brought seismic revelations to Hajime Isayama's darkly political fantasy world in 2019. WhileDr. Stonehasn't achieved the breakout success ofAttack on Titan, the two are surprisingly comparable in their fresh feel and ideas they bring to shonen.

On the surface, the standard "teenagers save the world" premise is present in both series, as it is in the YA dystopian niche of storytelling that they could both technically be categorized within. To that point, both hook you in right away with a post-apocalyptic mystery at their core; mysteries that changed the course of human history. InAttack on Titan, that mystery is how humanity came to be trapped within a walled city surrounded by strange, man-eating giants.

InDr. Stone, the mystery is how humanity became trapped within stone husks, unable to reawaken for thousands of years. Their worlds are both futuristic and period-set at once, with antiquated technology and barbaric, kill-or-be-killed societies -- encasing a sci-fi engine within a setting typical of most fantasies. While both of their leading men strive towards great things, as any typical shonen hero does, their aims aren't as simple as just being the "best."

The goal in each is survival in the harshest environments.Attack on Titan's heroes are forced to do battle against the monsters that wander their limited world beyond the walls or defend the world within against the odd breach in their defenses; monsters that won't just kill them, but ingest them whole. Older generations are content to exist in a cramped but comfortable cage -- particularly those higher up in the societal order -- but the younger ones feel stifled by it, so much so that their thirst to explore and push their enemies back becomes an all-consuming one.

For Dr. Stone's newly-awakened characters, the change from 21st-century life to that of a brand new Stone Age is, to put it mildly, as much a shock to the system as seeing a colossal, humanoid head appearing over a hundred-foot wall is. Luckily, Senku, the story's central protagonist, is a scientific prodigy with an insatiable love of learning, making it his mission to bring the world back up to speed with the two million years of human advancement that were lost. This begins with things as rudimentary as clothing for warmth and flint for weapons to hunt for food, and gradually turns into glass-blowing and electricity generation. His quarrel with his rival, Tsukasa, is also a moral rather than a physical one: one wants to resurrect all of humanity indiscriminately while the other favors selecting only the youngest and strongest to rebuild a "better" world.Attack on Titanis riddled with its own tangled racial politics, but the less said about those the better before we head into both ethically and spoilery waters.

This is whereDr. Stonehas the edge onAttack on Titanin terms of the masterful way it localizes its stakes without losing any of their impact -- and why it's such a breath of fresh air in shonen. Fictional global catastrophes often fall flat when it comes to generating tension from audiences because they're simply too unimaginable for us to relate to. InAvengers: Infinity War, the loss of half of all life in the universe at the snap of Thanos' fingers was only relatable through the visible loss of characters we'd come to care about.Attack on Titanemploys a similar tactic to ground its sweeping scope with a gruesomely trigger-happy attitude towards key characters that would make G.R.R. Martin want to take notes.

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Dr. Stonecan create a similar level of tension by simply having Senku and his friends fetch a single, dangerous ingredient for one of his inventions. Though there are human enemies, the first season revolves mainly around the ultimate battle: man vs. nature, particularly, to make anotherGame of Thrones reference, with winter coming. In a way,Dr. Stonecould actually be better classified as a slice of life anime disguising itself as a sci-fi/shonen adventure: the challenges Senku faces are rooted in the everyday, elevated in difficulty by the constraints of his environment.

Though slightly less the case withAttack on Titan, both series' also prize intelligence and curiosity over action to make their storytelling truly scintillating rather than a visceral but throwaway affair. This is particularly true of the earlier parts of Isayama'sAttack on Titanmanga where even he would admit his art was still a bit rough around the edges. (The action sequences in the anime, however, are far from it.) What truly makes themactualsci-fi stories rather than sci-fi-adjacent stories -- as, say,Star Warsis -- is that they're concept-driven, while their world-building is both expansive yet meticulous. This world-building is also adjustably scalable within different phases of the two series' stories: claustrophobically small or tantalizingly big when it needs to be.

Dr. Stoneshould also be separately distinguished for slipping real science into the ears of those who thought they were tuning into a shonen spin onTarzan. LikeCells At WorkandFood Wars!,Dr. Stoneis just the latest in a line of secretly educational programming in anime. And above all else, it's just damn good fun to watch. How many stories set in the aftermath of a worldwide human disaster can you say that about?

New episodes of Dr. Stone air every Saturday night as part of Adult Swim's Toonami block. Season 1 is available to watch on Crunchyroll and Funimation.Attack on Titanwill return for a fourth season in fall 2020, though the show's exact release date is unknown at this time. It remains to be seen whether Season 4 will be split into two halves.

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