Dr. Stone is one of the most popular and well-known "edutainment" anime series out there, and many edutainment titles such as Cells at Work! and Laid-Back Camp tend to focus more on the lesson than the characters, which may appeal to some viewers. However, Dr. Stone never forgot its shonen roots, and it shows.
Dr. Stone is even more technical than Cells at Work!, but the characters aren't just vehicles for cool science lessons. Ishigami Senku is a brilliant scientist with a mission, and time and again in the Dr. Stone anime and manga, Senku and his allies have lived up to the classic "power of friendship" to get the job done. That's the only way humanity will ever be freed from the stone.
The Power Of Senku's Friends, From Chrome To Ryusui & Dr. Xeno
Ishigami Senku is known for his pride and confidence as the scientist who will restore humanity, and at times, he almost acts like an aloof anti-hero who ignores the people around him to focus on his work. However, deep down, Senku is a true shonen protagonist. He understands that science is a team effort, and no scientist can know everything or perform every experiment. For the sake of the mission, Senku gladly accepts help from all the people around him in Dr. Stone's story, and he has built the entire Kingdom of Science in that manner. His "power of friendship" may not be as warm and cuddly as Natsu Dragneel's or Uzumaki Naruto's, but it comes close, and Senku has learned to respect what his allies can do.
Early on, Senku recruited the Ishigami village "sorcerer" Chrome and accepted him as his apprentice, and generously taught Chrome everything he knew about science and engineering. In return, Chrome lent Senku his expertise on the local terrain, knowing where to find all kinds of minerals and rocks, and Senku was grateful for the help. He also recruited Kohaku, Ginro and Kinro for defense, and hired Kaseki the artisan as a glassblower and general craftsman as well.
Later, after the fall of Tsukasa's Empire of Might, Senku also made good use of Ukyo's sharp hearing, proving that even former enemies may be forgiven if they have something to contribute. Senku wouldn't admit it, being a kuudere character, but he greatly values his friends and recognizes their contributions to making his dream a reality. On the inside, Senku is much more sentimental than Chrome and Kohaku realize.
Senku, The Power Of Friendship & The Cosmic Endgame With Why-Man
Senku's sentimental shonen side is fairly well hidden in the current Dr. Stone anime, but the original manga, which is ongoing, reveals the full extent of Senku's shonen spirit. When he and his allies visited the North American continent, they ran afoul of Dr. Xeno, an old ally of Senku's, and they did battle. Senku soon won and recruited Dr. Xeno as an unconditional ally, even if Stanley Snyder objected. Senku was risking his entire life and the mission for the power of friendship as a true shonen hero, and more importantly, it paid off. Without Dr. Xeno's former experience at NASA, Senku never would have built a fully-functional space rocket to visit the moon and confront Why-Man.
Recent Dr. Stone manga chapters helped reaffirm all this as Senku and Dr. Xeno reached the final battle with Why-Man, with Senku reflecting on how far he has come since he first broke free of the stone many months ago. As a true shonen hero, Senku had to patiently build his way to his ultimate weapon, the rocket, similar to how a combat-oriented shonen hero trains hard and fights many battles before reaching the apex of their strength.
In many ways, Senku's character arc is just like Naruto's, Luffy's or Ichigo's, and like those shonen heroes, Senku has the power of friendship to thank, and he reflects on that once again when he actually makes it into space, where his foster father Byakuya had once lived and worked. 3,700 years ago, Byakuya returned to Earth to lay the groundwork for Senku's future success, and now, they have come full circle, trusting one another across the millennia to get the job done.
Similarly, in the latest chapter, Ryusui saved the day when he loyally followed Senku into space, using his unique navigation skills to combine two modules of Senku's rocket when no one else could. It's clear that if Senku had been alone, making it into space and reaching the moon would truly have been a pipe dream.
