Welcome back to Anime Rants. It’s time to start catching up to the Dr. Stone episodes I missed from January. What lies in store for Senku and company as they reach the shores of North America? I’ll go over some notes, but they may not be as detailed as usual due to my limited mental energy lately. Let’s get started.
Episode 2: Science Journey
Episode Rating: 9/10
This episode showed us some of what happened on the Perseus during the 40-day journey to North America. About half the installment, however, was focused on the celebration early in the voyage, right after Senku and Ryusui had their epic poker match. It was fun to see everyone drinking and partying. Those who wanted it were served cool beer, while those who wanted to stay sober were served specialty non-alcoholic drinks made by Francois. The recipes for these soft cocktails were included, and I might try to make one, since I recently quit drinking alcohol in real life.
Since they seem to be nonbinary, Francois is one of my favorite characters in Dr. Stone. I’m delighted whenever they get screen-time. Francois’ lines in this episode prove that they are highly insightful about the personalities and feelings of others. Each cocktail they made had a special meaning for each crew member. Speaking of the cocktails, the one Francois made for Senku looked a bit like the Aromantic Pride Flag. Senku has long been claimed by queer viewers and insightful allies as an asexual/aromantic individual. Even if the coloring and pattern were coincidental, it’s very fitting.
Matsukaze’s past with his “master” was tragic and learning about it me sad, even if I don’t completely understand the whole “warrior servant” thing that anime tends to glorify. Also, as he lay in critical condition, Matsukaze’s master made some interesting observations about how “the heavens” wanted the people to kill each other and thus gave them the petrification weapons. It does seem like whoever distributed the devices wanted humanity to keep its population down. Anyway, big hugs for Matsukaze.
Also speaking of Matsukaze, he wanted to become stronger, so Tsukasa agreed to train him. However, he also wanted Hyouga to help with the training. Senku agreed and Hyouga was released. He will train the others in battle in exchange for the right to revive two people: Moz the spearman and Homura Momiji the acrobat. Senku granted the deal. Both of the revived people are basically Hyouga’s allies, so I don’t trust them. For the time being, however, it seems the “bad guys” did not make any significant moves.
The rest of the episode showed us a few glimpses of the long voyage. The warrior team trained hard and all the crew members worked their asses off, including Ukyo, who encoded incoming messages from Ishigami Village. The Perseus also sailed close by an iceberg at one point. When the ship ran into stormy weather, Chrome had the idea to use calcite as a guiding “sun stone” to help with navigation.
How it works is quite clever. Since calcite is a natural prism, the two images of broken light within it will align when held in front of the sun. Thanks to this, the crew could determine the rough position of the sun through the thick clouds. Finally, at the end of the episode, Homura spotted land. The Perseus has made it to North America!
Episode 3: Light Trap in the Darkness
Episode Rating: 9/10
Senku and company have arrived in North America. The crew is sad to see many statues of petrified people lining the shores. As Gen observed, despite knowing it would be like this, everyone had still hoped that there would be people and civilization waiting across the ocean. Everyone is a little sobered by the reality of the USA being completely gone, including its most famous landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Golden Gate Bridge. The eternal optimist, Taiju, reminded everyone that they are here to restore humanity, so everyone tries to cheer up.
While heading inland, looking for corn, the group of explorers appreciated the unique wildlife. There was a condor, some sequoia trees, and a bunch of alligators. The latter could have posed a serious threat to Senku if he didn’t have such powerful – and hungry – allies. Tsukasa, Kohaku, and the other fighters in the group quickly turned the tables and slaughtered enough alligators for everyone to eat their fill of meat. Francois prepared hamburgers with the available ingredients, and everyone enjoyed the delicous food. (While at sea, they didn’t get to eat much meat.)
Before long, the group discovered evidence that corn does indeed still grow in these parts. The weird thing, however, was that there grains of corn just floating down the river. That struck Senku as quite odd. That night, when they made camp on the riverbank, Senku set up a light trap to attract moths. Among the insects were corn borers, which are moths that thrive on corn. To make things weirder, though, there were also many moths that lived off fabrics. These should have declined with the disappearance of humanity four thousand years ago, and yet somehow, they remained.
Senku continues to feel like something is wrong, while at the same time, Tsukasa senses a bloodthirsty presence watching the camp. Hyouga observes that they had probably all been caught in a metaphorical light trap. Someone lured them here with corn. Chaos abruptly broke out as the mysterious enemy opened fire on Senku’s group – with a machine gun! Thanks to Tsukasa and Hyouga’s warnings, nobody was shot, and they all escaped into the armored vehicle.
Things are getting interesting indeed. I would normally try to formulate guesses and predictions about what the hell is happening, but since I have zero mental energy for that right now, I’ll just enjoy the new plot developments as they are revealed. That’s all for today. Sayonara until next time.
~Thanks for reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
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