For those in my timezone, it is now Christmas morning, so if you celebrate it in any fashion, MERRY CHISTMAS!! While I don’t celebrate Christmas as a Christian holiday, I do enjoy the more pagan-based festivies of decoration, good food, and alcohol. The chance to see family is also good for me since I don’t get out much during most of the year.
Most of my holiday celebrations were a few days ago, so today, I’m probably going to play Minecraft, and of course, watch anime. With that in mind, please enjoy my responses to the last two episodes of a very fun anime – Dr. Stone: New World.
Episode 21: Treasure Island
Compared to the last few exciting and high-suspense episodes, this installment was slightly boring. The main event in the first part of the episode is Senku’s announcement that the kingdom of science needs to become official allies with the islanders and ask for their help in the upcoming project. Soyuz is the man for the task. As the son of the previous Master of the island, he wants to lead and take care of the islanders. Kirisame and most of the soldiers recognize him as the lost son of the Master, so they welcome him as the new leader.
To help impress the islanders, Senku’s group shows them the use of the phone after setting up a wave reception tower. They will now be able to call the island from long distance. They also put on a fireworks show. I really enjoyed the fireworks and all the characters’ responses to seeing the beautiful display. I especially liked the flashback of young Senku at a festival with Byakuya, watching the fireworks together. As Soyuz greives his father, Senku sadly but fondly remembers Byakuya.
Speaking of Soyuz, I finally have a better understanding of why his petrified father can’t be revived. Yuzuriha said something about the surfaces being too withered, but that didn’t make sense. Why would a new statue have degraded surfaces when people from 4000 years ago could still be revived? But when you look at the reconstructed statue of the Master, the unfortunate truth is obvious. He’s missing an entire chunk of flesh on one side of his face. I assume Ibara crumbled it to dust somehow.
If Senku were to revive him in that state, the old Master would be in agony and probably promptly die. It makes sense why bringing back someone who’s missing part of their head is not realistic. But strictly speaking, I still don’t think it’s impossible. Senku is planning to petrify Tsukasa and then un-petrify him so he is revived fully healed. The same thing could be done to Soyuz’ father, but it would be more complicated. You’d have to un-petrify him, petrify him, and then un-petrify him again, hoping his mind would survive the trauma of waking up in the middle without half his face.
To restate, it shouldn’t be impossible to bring back Soyuz’s father. However, given how traumatic it could be for both the man himself and his son, I understand why it’s better to let him go. As for Tsukasa, I hope he can be successfully revived. He may have been an enemy, but he was always a cool and sympathetic antagonist. It’s interesting that Senku wants to revive him as soon as possible. Despite resisting emotional displays and “sappy stuff,” I think he cares about Tsukasa and wants to see him alive and well.
Episode 22: Beyond the New World
In the final episode of Dr. Stone: New World, Senku announces an interesting discovery. The petrification device – AKA the medusa – is “running out of battery.” Since the medusa is technology and not sorcery, it can’t create energy out of nothing. It must have a power source that’s currently unknown. Senku knows the device is weakening because when he petrified Ibara, the green light didn’t even reach half the distant he specified. The medusa’s energy got worn down extremely fast because Ibara used it over such a wide area all at once.
Despite its low energy, the petrification device was still able to do the minimum distance of one meter, which was enough to petrify Tsukasa. Immediately after, Senku poured on the revival fluid, and Tsukasa woke up fully healed. His younger sister was so happy and relieved she cried like a baby. Different characters had different reactions to Tsukasa’s return, but the important thing is that everyone accepted him as part of the “kingdom of science.” He is no longer an enemy.
Before Senku and company can begin to construct a rocket, they need a lot of different materials and help from all over the world. They need to set up functional cities at several key locations – cities that are economically and governmentally stable. They’ must un-petrify thousands to millions of people. In order to do this, they need a ton of alcohol for the revival fluid. The best way to pump out alcohol is to ferment corn. Thus, the first step in the new plan is to go to North America and start a colony growing corn.
The last note I’ll make on this episode is that I loved the scene where Minami talked with Ryusui. It was a great conversation for several reasons, including the humor of Ryusui’s declaration of loving all women – and men, too. But I was most interested in the potential personality clash of Ryusui and Tsukasa. One is a fierce capitalist who grew up with everything, and the other denounced the upper class as corrupt to its core. Minami was also concerned about this clash, and she disliked Ryusui on principle.
Ryusui’s response to the potential problem was good. Firstly, he wants to get along Tsukasa because, as he’s said many times, he wants everyone on his side. That means he won’t purposely make any trouble for Tsukasa. And as far as ideology is concerned, I’m sure Ryusui would also admit that there were many corrupt capitalists and that having a ruling economic class was not the best way. The reason he loves and uses money is that it’s effective at bringing people together for common goals.
As Ryusui put it, “Money is just a useful tool that we humans invented. Money does not exist to control people. It exists to bring desires together. It allows us to pool our strengths. That’s why humanity is so powerful. Am I wrong?”
Tsukasa, who overhears this from below, smiles. It seems he will be able to get along with Ryusui because they both believe in human cooperation. I also agree, for the record. That’s all my thoughts on this episode. I really appreciate whoever stopped by my blog today. Anime Rants would be much less fun if not for you, my followers.
Thanks for reading~
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