The 12th and final episode of Dr. Stone Season 4 Cour 1 came out on 27 March, 2025.
Dr. STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE, the fourth and final season of the popular anime series began on 9 January, 2025. The first cour of the series had 12 episodes, with the final one airing on 27 March. It has since been announced that cour 2 of the season will premiere in July 2025. The first cour mainly laid the groundwork for the upcoming finale, which will take place in South America. Senku and his Kingdom of Science ventured into the USA on their newly built ship, but came across a group of enemies that they were not prepared for.
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the anime!
Dr. STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE Cour 1 synopsis
The season begins with Senku and his crew preparing to leave for the USA. Their goal is to get corn, which they can use to make corn-based alcohol and in turn, revival fluid to unpetrify even more people. Senku and Ryusui argue about which path to take and leave the decision to a poker game which the genius scientist won. However, once they reach America after taking quite a dangerous path, they are suddenly attacked by a fighter plane that rains bullets on their ship. After Senku takes it down with another chemical concoction, we learn that the new enemies are led by Dr. Xeno, another genius scientist.
The rest of the series focuses on the high-intensity battle of intellectualism between Senku and Dr. Xeno. Although they both claim to be Kingdoms of Science, the two couldn’t be any more different. While Senku’s group has strong, resilient, yet kind and bright-eyed members, Dr. Xeno’s right hand man is Stanley, a cold-blooded soldier who doesn’t hesitate to kill. Xeno’s main aim, unlike Senku, is to rule the new Stone Age as a dictator, and to achieve this, he decides to kill Senku. And they almost succeed, as Stanley’s bullet does hit the genius protagonist.
Thankfully, Senku doesn’t die. And thanks to his and his crew’s brilliant planning, they are able to keep up with Xeno’s nefarious plans. It is also revealed that Dr. Xeno is a NASA scientist that worked with Senku’s father, and even mentored the young scientist through email when he was only 10 years old and Xeno was 20. After getting to know this, the two scientists were even more motivated to win. After a few episodes of ambush, underhanded tricks, and all-out combat later, Senku’s crew finally captured Xeno. However, Stanley is now hunting them down. Thankfully, the Japanese and American groups have decided to join hands for the time being to make revival fluid while their leaders are away.
Dr. STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE was an exhilirating journey
As someone who has been a fan of the anime for a long time, I had high expectations of the final season. I’m glad to say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. TMS Entertainment did a good job on the animation, while the series followed Riichiro Inagaki’s manga pretty well. The music for the series was great, giving the high-intensity scenes more dimension. The voice cast was also incredible and I liked the addition of the new characters, both good and evil. Other than Xeno and Stanley, Luna was one of the most notable characters. Although she entered Senku’s ship as a spy of the opponent, Luna fell in love with Senku’’s brilliance and courage.
My favourite episode of the whole cour was the seventh episode, titled ‘The Two Scientists’. It focused on Senku and Xeno’s past. After Senku learns that Xeno or Dr. X is the enemy leader, he thinks back to when he was 10 years old. His memories take us on a journey on which we learn how a bright-eyed genius Senku was helped by Dr. X in his mission to build a missile. Even back then, Dr. X wanted to take over the world one day, but Senku had no interest in this. His only aim is to learn every secret of the universe while also saving the world. The beautiful contrast between the two intellectuals showed why science could both be a blessing and a curse. While Senku created the elixir to bring people back to life, Xeno focused on building weapons of mass destruction. In the end, Senku was able to trump Xeno without harming a single person in their group.
What to expect from Dr. STONE: SCIENCE FUTURE Cour 2
The final episode of this cour left me with two big takeaways, first one being the deal between the Japanese and American groups, who promised to help each other make more revival fluid and save one million and build a city. The second one is Senku, Ryusui, Chrome, Taiju, Hyoga, Ukyo, Suika, and Kohaku leaving for South America with Xeno as their hostage. Their reason for travelling there is to find the source of the green beam that petrified humanity thousands of years ago. However, with Stanley steadily hunting them down, they might not be able to make that journey easily. It’s likely that the next cour will have more intense and cold battles on the water. When Senku’s crew finally reaches the epicenter of the disaster, they’ll likely find more enemies that they’re not prepared for.
Overall, this season of Dr. Stone was an incredible watch. It was able to retain its brilliance through not only the plot but also the amazing characters. Seeing characters like Chrome, Taiju, Hyoga, Tsukasa, and Ryusui take charge when Senku was indisposed made me realise what an amazing crew the teenage genius has created from scratch. I’m excited to see how they dodge Stanley and deal with whatever’s waiting for them at the epicenter of the petrifying beam. But what I’m most looking forward to is Senku finally reaching his dream of going to the moon with everyone’s help. The show is elegant, and I'm 10 billion percent sure we will have an incredible final season, if this first cour is anything to go by.