Dr. Stone is a popular "edutainment" anime series starring the brilliant teen scientist Ishigami Senku, who has awoken from the stone after 3,700 years in stasis after that fateful day. This means Dr. Stone is almost like a time-based isekai anime series, and its main character will have to recruit the natives to his cause -- or die trying.
One of Senku's earliest allies was the "sorcerer" Chrome, a native of the local Ishigami village. Chrome has a fairly compelling story arc in his own right, and even his comic relief moments hint at just how brilliant he is. He keeps accidentally inventing things humanity had in previous centuries, and that's flattering to Chrome. He's thinking like a true innovator.
Chrome, Thinking Centuries Ahead Of His Time
Chrome was introduced as a goofy but oddly brilliant amateur scientist in a world that had no concept of the scientific method, and that's what drew them to each other early in the story of Dr. Stone. Chrome never had the benefit of attending a 21st century school or reading a textbook -- in fact, he was illiterate and had to simply memorize everything Senku told him about science and technology. Despite that, Chrome had the mind of a true scientist, and even if he was a goofball character who couldn't keep up with Senku, his best running joke revealed just how ahead of his time Chrome really was. Relative to his native world, he might even have Senku beat.
Chrome's best running joke involves him, sometimes with the craftsman Kaseki's help, inventing something interesting, only for Senku to already know what it is. Each time, Chrome thinks he just invented something humanity had never seen before, and he falls over in dismay when Senku casually reveals the name for that already-invented item.
Chrome struggles to surprise Senku with his inventions since Senku has already researched or built just about every machine there is, but to Chrome's credit, Chrome had zero references for any of this. He's like a stone-age Leonardo da Vinci, inventing unusually advanced contraptions with primitive materials and thinking centuries ahead of his time -- and only a true visionary could do that. It's not embarrassing that Chrome's inventions had already been built before -- just the fact that he can conceive of them is astounding, and Senku is often amazed that Chrome can keep reviving the past without having any blueprints or research to work with. Chrome is no ordinary stone age boy.
How Chrome Might Have Become The New Senku
With Senku in the picture to lead the way, it will never become clear just how far Chrome could have gotten on his own as a self-taught scientist/sorcerer. With Senku on the scene, it's Chrome's job to merely keep up and help Senku obtain local resources, meaning he is a Stone Age lab assistant and little more. However, as the battle against Tsukasa's Empire of Might proved, Chrome is capable of sudden leaps of innovation on his own, and if he has a craftsman such as Kaseki around, anything is possible. At times, Chrome didn't need Senku at all, and in an alternate timeline, he could have been a shonen protagonist in his own right.
Chrome's ability to invent devices centuries ahead of his time suggests enormous potential on his part, and he has the benefit of Kaseki's expertise and knowledge of where to find resources such as sulfuric acid and various minerals. Even if Chrome was primitive and ignorant when Senku met him, Chrome may have been on the verge of a turning point in his career, and he might have started inventing incredible things all on his own. Science often progresses in sudden bursts of insight and design, and given the chance, Chrome could have become his era's own Ishigami Senku, ready to invent a future no one else could have dreamed of.
Chrome may feel foolish when Senku recognizes his supposedly new designs, but he should take pride in his unusual creativity and put it to even better use in future story arcs of Dr. Stone. Not even Senku can invent everything on his own -- he needs the Stone Age Leonardo da Vinci to fill in the gaps and create a truly invincible Kingdom of Science.
