Dr. STONE Behind Story 10
(original posts on twitter - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7)
“A parametron computer will appear in the story!”
When I heard that, “ my mental state was seriously shaken.
“What is a parametron computer?”
I had never even heard of such a thing.
The Jump editorial department sent me reference materials, but I still couldn’t understand what it was.
Thinking this was a serious problem, I asked a friend for help—he majored in electronic engineering and works as an IT specialist.
Surprisingly, even he said he had no idea what it was.
So I commissioned a proper investigation and paid 100,000 yen out of my own pocket.
What I learned was that although it had been invented overseas, it was a type of computer that was mainly developed and used in Japan.
It was more advanced than vacuum tubes and could be integrated, but after the invention of transistors, it disappeared into history.
I had taken classes in computers and electronic engineering at university, but neither my friend nor I knew about it.
Inagaki-sensei, however, did.
Through the Jump editorial department, I arranged to visit one of the remaining parametron computers in Japan for research.
The place where Tokyo University of Science is located.
We arrived a bit early and had McDonald’s for brunch.
It’s always good.
And then, I finally saw the Parametron computer.
It was incredibly cool—like a “futuristic system imagined in the 1960s.”
This kind of research is not only used for Dr. STONE, but also for valuable materials that can be used again in the future!
Although the research trip went well, unfortunately, the graduate researcher who guided us couldn’t answer all of my questions about the Parametron computer.
People often misunderstand this, but scientists and experts only know their fields of specialization.
And true experts—true scientists—will say “I don’t know” if it’s outside the scope of what they’ve studied or written about.
The researcher guiding us was a true expert, so he said,
“Sorry, I’ve never read papers on this, so I don’t know.”
Even so, he helped us greatly and shared a lot of information.
He even called his professor for us.
However, the professor also said, “It’s been a long time since I last read about it…”
That is what a real scientist and expert is like.
After conducting this research and receiving the report, I finally began drawing the computer episode.
But the real challenge started from there.
In fact, I’m not very knowledgeable about computers or electronic engineering…
Even in university, I barely studied it.
By the time I was learning my major, I was already working as a mangaka—so I spent my time drawing manga instead.
The first parametron calculator Senku created.
Even drawing this was an incredibly difficult task.
There was nothing I could simply copy, and even if there had been, drawing it exactly the same wouldn’t make it “Senku’s invention.”
It had to reflect the Stone World setting, and it also needed originality…
The photo is a reference image of parametrons I found online.
In more advanced parametron computers, the parametrons themselves were extremely small.
So I decided to draw mass-produced parametrons as small as well.
That’s what Senku would do, and making them small would also help prevent various problems when building a large-scale computer later on.
I depicted them as very small, but in the anime they seem to have been portrayed larger than this.
The size is actually important, but animation doesn’t belong to the mangaka—it belongs to the animators.
It’s up to them, and I fully support that.
Anyway, since parametrons needed to be small and mass-produced, I once again had to think, “What would Senku do?”
I imagined that Senku would create something to make production easier for the team, so I designed a device for winding coils.
It’s my own original device, something that doesn’t exist in reality.
I designed the principle of a sewing machine to create a coil-winding device.
Pressing it repeatedly would wind the coils automatically.
The question of “What would Senku do?” troubled me and my team throughout the entire serialization of Dr. STONE.
But I believe a manga artist’s role is to add depth to the characters created by the original author.
And manga artwork and style are connected to the story itself—the depth of the drawing changes the “resolution” of the depiction.
With Dr. STONE’s art style, Senku’s character also needed to be expressed with this level of detail.
If Dr. STONE had been drawn in a style like SUNDAY'S MOMONGA, inventions like this probably would not have been necessary, even if the premise was still “scientifically rigorous.”
And finally, Senku’s first computer was completed.
Since it was Senku’s computer, and since it used a parametron system, I thought it should not be a simple box-shaped machine, but something shaped like a parametron itself.
It felt like “what Senku would do.”
This form also conveys a bit of Senku’s genius—and even a touch of madness toward technology.
Structurally, it also seemed like it would have advantages for heat and energy management.
You can see structural notes in the rough sketches.
Air is drawn in through the inside of the donut-shaped structure, circulated internally for cooling, and then expelled from the rear.
Because of the donut shape, the entire back side functions as a giant cooling fan.
It rotates slowly while powerfully circulating air.
This computer was built in Corn City, and according to the story, Corn City did not yet have stainless steel or special alloys, so the machine was basically made entirely from steel.
The papers attached to it are instruction notes written by the developers in Corn City. They say things like “new product.”
There is also a homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey in Dr. STONE.
Whenever something grand and transformative happens in a story, I always feel the urge to pay tribute to that masterpiece film.
I’ve probably used that homage around a hundred times already—and I still plan to use it hundreds more in the future.^^
