Hello and welcome back to Anime Rants with 7Mononoke. I took a break for about a month and fell pretty far behind on the episode reviews for Dr. Stone and other Fall ’23 shows. But now I’m finally getting back on track. Here are some delayed episode reviews for Dr. Stone: New World.
Episode 15: Battle in Three Dimensions
Dr. Stone is a very light-hearted anime overall. Still, it definitely has some serious moments and brief discussions of ethics and human psychology. For instance, in episode 15, Senku and the science team construct a primitive hand-gun. This prompts Ukyo to say that tools and weapons are only as evil as the person wielding them. A short discussion ensues in which the group reestablishes that they won’t use the gun to kill anyone. It will be for show or for wounding the legs of an enemy. I enjoyed that scene.
Besides being a cheerful, goofy anime most of time, Dr. Stone also features a lot of educational content. There are facts about various types of science in almost every episode. In season 3 episode 15, Senku reviewed the gyroscopic effect. Essentially, this is when something spins so fast that it stays balanced without veering to the sides. The science in Dr. Stone is usually not complicated, but just a good reminder of the basics.
In this fun episode, Senku and company finally revived Kinro, the handsome, serious, and intelligent spearman. I’m glad to have him back. He will now be the leader of the cloaked forces that will fight for the Kingdom of Science. With the drone complete and many other gadgets ready, the decisive battle draws near. It’s a three-way battle, with Kinro’s group up against the forces of Ibara as well as the independent rogue, Moz. He’s strong enough to be an entire force on his own. That’s about it for episode 15.
Episode 16: Total War
Initially, I assumed Ibara wouldn’t be too serious of a threat. He looks and sounds silly rather than intimidating. But episode 16 showed us that Ibara is actually quite intelligent, cautious, and cunning. Senku and company may be geniuses and prodigies, but they are also lacking in practical life experience when compared to a sly old man. Ibara manages to stay one step ahead of Senku and Moz throughout the entire episode.
Senku’s plans were also upset by Magma’s rashness as he acted against orders. Based on his expressions in the background shots, I did strongly suspect Magma would create problems. Still, whether or not it was predictable, it’s extremely annoying. I know Senku’s group emphasizes tolerance and forgiveness. Plus, Magma is important to the “power team” in a practical sense. But they’ve all been giving him far too much leeway. In the end, he’s still a reckless, selfish bully who only wants glory. Annoying character.
As for Soyuz and his moment with the statue of his father, it was touching. I like Soyuz and his gentle personality. However, he’s also one of those characters who forces audiences to suspend their disbelief more than usual. In a science-centric anime that put emphasis on understanding reality, it’s weird to have a character with an impossible ability (absence of infantile amnesia). It always throws me off, having to accept that Soyuz has a magic memory.
There was one other interesting part of this episode to comment on. Yuzuriha stated that it’s impossible to bring back Soyuz’s father because the surfaces of the stone are too degraded. That’s the first time I remember hearing anything like this. I thought anyone could be brought back by the revival fluid if they have most of their pieces.
If some people cannot be restored, that does make things more realistic and a bit darker (in a good way). At the same time, I’m disappointed in Dr. Stone‘s narrative for not making this important point clear earlier. It’s possible that I missed it somewhere over the last three seasons. If that’s the case, I hope someone will comment and tell me where this was discussed. Anyway, that concludes my notes for episode 16.
Episode 17: Joker
Episode 17 was surprising and interesting at several points. For one thing, Hyouga is back. I will discuss his ideas about “selection,” but first, let me comment on some other characters. I really like Nikki – she’s so cute and dorky. Anyone who thinks she isn’t beautiful is out of their mind. I agree with Ryusui that all women are beautiful. I also enjoyed all of Gen’s reactions in this episode. It was funny when Hyouga said, “I respect your filthiness,” to the sly mentalist.
About Hyouga, I was most curious to learn his motivations, as I couldn’t recall them. The gifted spearman is against Senku because of his humanistic desire to save everyone. Hyouga thinks there should be a selection that would mimic natural selection to eliminate inferior genes. In other words, he believes in eugenics.
It was interesting that, on a surface level, Moz agreed with Hyouga’s dark philosophy. However, his version is much shallower and more sexist. Moz believes only women should go through selections, and that the end goal should be women who are traditionally attractive. Hyouga disagrees with that. Plus, the spearman doesn’t want to have to kill Senku and the science team because they probably have amazing genes. So at the end of the day, Hyouga took Senku’s side.
Moving on, Kirisame picked a strange time to suddenly have ethics. Surely, she must have known before this incident that Ibara was an opportunistic scumbag. It seems like pretty poor writing to have her suddenly care about the lives of her subordinates and argue with Ibara. It felt like the narrative was just trying to find a way to get rid of Kirisame because Senku’s group already had enough to deal with. Anyway, I’m sure they will bring Kirisame back eventually.
The ending of the episode showed Yo saving the day by shooting Ibara’s hand and forcing him to drop the Medusa. Yo then caught the Medusa as it was falling. This was a really triumphant moment, but I have a lot of trouble taking it seriously. There is absolutely no way a primitive gun like that would still work after being soaked in seawater. It’s yet another impossible and absurd event. I can deal with it, but only because I’m already used to not taking this show super seriously. Oh, well.
Thanks for reading~
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