Dr. STONE: Stone Wars (ドクターストーン STONE WARS) is a 2021 television anime series based on Riichiro Inagaki’s manga series of the same name. The series was produced by studio TMS Entertainment, and the staff credits include director Shinya Iino, screenplay writer Yuichiro Kido and music composers Tatsuya Kato, Hiroaki Tsutsumi, and Yuki Kanesaka. The series was first broadcast in Japan on January 2021.
Background:
“Armed with the power of science and a genius intellect, Senku is determined to save humanity. However, Tsukasa’s empire goes on the offensive to halt the progress of science. Bolder choices are made as these two start a war that rocks the Stone World.”
Plot Synopsis via Funimation, March 2022.
With Shonen Jump anime mostly moving to a seasonal trend, sometimes a series may not get a continuation, but fortunately Dr. STONE got a second season not long after its first season had finished airing. Released a few years later, the second season is known as Dr. STONE: Stone Wars, which adapts the Stone Wars storyline and it’s only 11 episodes long which is a surprise, but for pacing it does the job pretty well without forcing themselves to make more episodes for the sake of it.
The good news is that a third season has been confirmed as well as an anime special that will arrive first I believe, however the manga just recently wrapped up so it’ll be interesting to see whether TMS Entertainment will continue to adapt the whole series or not.
Crunchyroll picked up the streaming and home video rights for Dr. STONE: Stone Wars, which makes sense as they did the same with its first season. In addition, Funimation distributed the series for home video and dubbed the season on their behalf, though going forward Sony will be using the Crunchyroll brand over Funimation (the staff will basically be around, but working under Crunchyroll instead). In the UK, Funimation UK (originally Manga Entertainment and will eventually rebrand as Crunchyroll UK) are also releasing the series on Blu-ray but only in regular editions.
Limited Edition Contents:
While Funimation’s limited edition releases are pretty consistent on the design layout, when it comes to consistency for franchises they can be very hit or miss. In the past decade, we have seen a series start off with a limited edition but then shift to a regular release for the later seasons. It is fortunate that Dr. STONE: Stone Wars did well enough or was big enough to keep the limited edition trend going and to match the show’s first season.
While I own the UK versions for the first season, Funimation UK decided not to bring the limited edition release over for the second season, so I decided to import instead for consistency and will also mean I will get it a bit faster than before due to the gaps between the US and UK release dates.
This package offers a rigid box that houses the series in an Amaray Blu-ray case with a slipcover alongside a 40-page art book. There’s also an outer cardboard box that houses the physical items which are an Acrylic Senku Phone Charm, 2 Campaign Can Badges and a foldable Periodic Table.
The artwork is free of any information and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Funimation limited edition releases have done over the years. Unit count wasn’t specified for this release, while the SRP was $84.98. A standard edition Blu-ray & DVD was also available on the same day as the limited edition release. Since I imported the set from United Publications, the price was £63 plus postage.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging with slipcase
- Info sheet for specification
- 40-page Booklet
- Acrylic Senku Phone Charm
- 2 Campaign Can Badges
- Foldable Periodic Table
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Funimation
Released: 15th March 2022
The limited edition release for Dr. STONE: Stone Wars contains all 11 episodes across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, with the encode & authoring done by Funimation. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.
The white subtitles are locked during Blu-ray playback, and the regions are accessible to Blu-ray players set to A & B and DVD players set to 1, 2 & 4.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 (1 BD-50, 1 BD-25) |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | 1 2 4 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Dr. STONE: Ramen, Take One
- Dr. STONE: Ramen, Take wo
- Web Previews
- Commercials
- Promo Videos
- Textless Opening Song “Rakuen”
- Textless Closing Song “Koe?”
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
The limited edition release for Dr. STONE: Stone Wars is available to order on Amazon UK via AmazonGlobal, Rightstuf and United Publications. A cheaper UK standard edition Blu-ray is available to order on Amazon UK.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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