Everyone, this week is a big week for Dr.STONE. A lot of important things happen. We meet Suika, Senku creates Ramen and most important of all, Dr.STONE gives us our first major roadmap. Let’s jump in!
Starting off, let’s talk about the ever so important roadmap. We will be getting a few of these as we go through the series, and they act as arcs of sorts. Detailing our end goal and what Senku has to accomplish to get there. I have always enjoyed these roadmaps myself. Showing a bunch of the little details involved, yet never really downplaying how difficult these steps will be. While I can’t speak for the validity/exactness of the science, the general idea behind it seems sound enough as well. It would be very interesting to get an actual scientists interpretation of it all. Overall though I think it’s a novel idea on how to structure an arc. Not around a villain, but a goal with a clear end and pathway. The only question being how the characters will accomplish each goal.
What really makes the whole thing work though is that Dr.STONE never downplays how difficult it will be. Properly showing the sheer amount of work and manpower that would go into something we take for granted now, like Iron. What this effectively means is that Dr.STONE is not afraid to let the characters fail in the short term. To have them work for an entire episode towards a goal and not meet it. Requiring them to think of a new way to accomplish that goal, or to make it easier. In this episode we see that in how 4 people cannot make Iron alone. Without Taiju, Senku’s most valuable resource now is simply manpower, forcing him to actually work to win over the villagers. Without this, Senku would have no need to really interact with them, forging ahead on his own.
Another aspect of Dr.STONE’s detail comes in the form of the stars. The author has clearly thought out his premise to a fair degree. Having the stars move in the sky as time has passed, throwing off Senku’s knowledge. Showing that there are things even he wouldn’t know. This was also even foreshadowed with, as the series shows, Senku’s GPS being off. He was trying to navigate by the stars, but failed to account for the fact that they had moved. It makes perfect sense as well, as the sheer scale of stars moving over time is beyond human comprehension. It’s just a scale we are not naturally going to consider, the stars location in the sky being a constant for our entire lives. With this, Dr.STONE sets the stage to change a lot of things we consider absolute. As who knows what natural disasters occured over 4,000 years.
Another aspect of this Dr.STONE introduced was that of Momotaro. These ancient cultural aspects of modern Japan that have somehow lived through the ages as stories. Teaching them about dangerous animals, and no doubt other aspects of the world. It continues the mystery of who these people are and how they got here. How they have these stories in the first place. Is Rui someone from the stone? Or perhaps her ancestors awoke first, or somehow avoided the petrification entirely. Dr.STONE introduces these questions, building up the mystery of the world slowly, without losing sight of whatever the current arc is. Making them small details over time. It’s the sort of thing you see in a slow burn, not a Shounen series, and it’s very interesting. Of course some of these I already know the answer to. But I am looking forward to hearing new viewers thoughts.
On the topic of the villagers, Dr.STONE did a really good job with them this week. Making a clear point that while they are primitive, they are not inferior to Senku. They have the same drive, the same intelligence, but not the same resources he had growing up. Chrome is very intuitive and curious. Kohaku very perceptive and quick witted, etc etc. They challenge his perceptions of what the world should be based on how he grew up and give him new perspectives to apply to his science. The villagers are also much more aware and knowledgeable about their surrounding environment. Knowing where to find Foxtail, Iron Sand or any number of useful things. Senku may know how to make use of the materials, but he himself is not a Miner or Explorer. And we will only see this cast of roles expand as we meet more villagers.
The last topic I want to talk about though is difference in quality. Dr.STONE introduced this interesting facet of Senku’s relationship with the villagers this week through Ramen. That something he takes for granted, even of the lowest quality, is above and beyond anything they have ever had. Senku can consider something a total failure, and yet it will still be leaps and bounds better than what they have. Completely recontextualizing anything they end up making. It’s the sort of thing that makes you, the viewer, think about how far we have come as a species. The sorts of things we take for granted today, that just 100 years ago would be magic. Sure, Dr.STONE isn’t waxing philosophical about the human condition. It isn’t some grand art house series. But for those interested, who want to look deeper, the options are there.
So all in all, how was Dr.STONE this week? Once again, I quite enjoyed it. I have said it before, but we are finally in to the best part of the series. Where we play with science, and the show effectively becomes a game of Civilization. Working our way through the tech trees and running into roadblocks along the way. No great evil or antagonist, just how difficult it is to heat up iron and how terrible ancient food is. How limited their resources and methods are being the real roadblock, rather than some nefarious force working against them. Sure, Tsukasa is still in the background, and he will start to make his influence known. But it will never be the focus of the series again. Instead being the backdrop for crazier and funner scientific inventions. And I cannot wait.
“It continues the mystery of who these people are and how they got here. How they have these stories in the first place. Is Rui someone from the stone? Or perhaps her ancestors awoke first, or somehow avoided the petrification entirely.”
About that last bit. Perhaps they are the descendants of miners or deep sea explorers who were too far away from the surface? It was clearly shown that people in high-altitude aircraft were affected, but what about people deep underground or in submarines? Well, now that I think about it, the big commercial jets like the one shown crashing fly at 35,000 feet, and the Marianas trench is ~35,800 feet, so submariners and miners were probably affected too if the ray was able to penetrate the crust/water that far.
Another possibility is one I see the blogsphere forgetting about. If the petrification affected everyone on Earth, what about the people who aren’t living on Earth? The ISS has a crew of 6 people living in space, and the station has 2 Soyuz spacecraft docked at any given time in case of an evacuation. Each Soyuz can carry 3 people, so if the astronauts/cosmonauts were not affected then perhaps the village was founded by them? If China or India was sending up manned spacecraft independent from Russians sending manned missions to the ISS, those people could have also survived.
Easy to forget that humanity does in fact have a semi-permanent habitat in space.
As a manga reader, I don’t want to confirm or deny either of your theories here and do my best not to spoil them for people either. That said, I like where your head is at, and I think you are going to enjoy where that particular mystery of the series ends up.