Welcome to Anime Rants. I know it aired a while ago, but I’m working on catching up to Dr. Stone with belated episode reviews/recaps. Please enjoy!

Episode 14

In episode 14, Senku and company continue their team battle against Magma in the tournament. Magma was only able to win against Ginro by striking him when his back was turned. Next was Kinro’s match, which he was able to win due to excessive caffeine in the plants he’d consumed. After this, Chrome fought Magma’s little henchman, who surrendered quickly.

Magma was supposed to fight Kohaku, but she didn’t make it in time since she’d run off to save Suika. The referee announced Magma the victor of the round. All that’s left is Chrome vs. Magma. The stunt that he pulled off with help from Suika’s mask and Gen’s mentalist tricks is not very believable. It’s not impossible, but it’s still seems absurd. Chrome started a fire on Magma’s clothes using the sun and the lens in Suika’s melon mask. He changed it into a convex lens using his own sweat and tears. Gen helped out by acting and pretending to cast a curse on Magma to kill time. Bottom line, Chrome wins the match.

I don’t have too many thoughts on this episode, the comedy seems like it’s trying too hard, the visuals in this episode at least were boring, and no matter how much shouting the voice actors did, I couldn’t feel excited. I like Dr. Stone over all, including the characters and story concepts, but I’m starting to see flaws in it. Hopefully they’ll change things up before too long to make it more interesting.

Episode 15

Senku wins against Kinro, and planned to lose on purpose to Chrome. But Chrome was knocked out, so Senku was made village chief and husband of Ruri. Once he’d acquired alcohol, Senku declared he divorced Ruri, and left at once to begin making the sulfa drug.

After a long day of hard work and various chemistry steps that I’m too tired to care about, the drug is completed. It’s administered to Ruri in the most absurd way possible. Though Ruri has worse symptoms the next day, this only proves to Senku that what they are fighting is pneumonia. They give the priestess more of the sulfa drug, and before long the infection is completely gone. Ruri is cured.

The former village chief reaffirms Senku in his new position of leadership. Apparently in all the six months here, Senku had never heard the name of the place, which is Ishigami Village. Senku is shocked to hear this, and just then, Ruri approaches him saying she knows that his full name is Senku Ishigami. What does this all mean? We’ll see. In other news, Gen got his cola.

This episode was much more enjoyable to me than the last, and contained less of the weird, sometimes forced comedy expressions and reactions. It seems that Senku is becoming our doctor stone indeed, having corrected eyesight for Suika, and healed Ruri’s pneumonia, among other things. Kudos to this episode for appealing to the major themes and motifs in the show. Despite my problems with Dr Stone’s style, I really do still enjoy it. To see stories of science winning and working through great obstacles is always a treat for me as a philosophical naturalist.

Epidode 16

A hell of a lot happened this episode. I was pretty shocked with the direction this has started to take. Ruri begins the hundredth of the one hundred tales passed down by the priestesses. It’s actually the story of Senku’s father, Byakuya Ishigami, the astronaut. He and he and 5 others were the last remaining humans after the green light covered the Earth and petrified humanity. Hidden in the story were a few clues about that great catastrophe, but it remains mysterious overall. Episode 16 only told the first half of the tale of Byakuya. The rest is in the following episode.

This new direction and new information revived my interest in Dr. Stone. The story of the astronauts was actually strikingly well-done. It managed to pull me in and make me care about those 6 characters in only twenty minutes. Much of it was due to the great voice-acting, with seiyuu such as Keiji Fujiwara (Byakuya) and Rei Tanaka (Darya). I thought I’d be more annoyed with the fact that they got an English singer to do the songs of Lilian, but actually it worked out well. The songs were entertaining and emotional, and there wasn’t a huge difference in the range of voice between Lilian and the English singer.

I could nitpick little things that didn’t make sense to me or that might be plot holes, but really, it all came together smoothly and impressively. I’m excited to continue this anime. Thanks so much for stopping by today at Anime Rants. Domo arigatou gozaimasu!

PATREON