Welcome all, to another week of Dr. STONE! This week our girls go on an infiltration mission while our boys play with magnets. I promise that isn’t a joke, it’s actually what happens. Don’t believe me? Then lets dive into the episode!
Overall this was a pretty standard week for Dr. STONE. Some comedy with Kohaku, a serious moment with Ginro and a fair amount of science with Senku. It seems that Dr. STONE has found a pattern it really likes, and it’s one I think works well. What really makes it work though I think is how Dr. STONE is constantly switching up its groups. Splitting them off and merging them back together, giving each member moments to play off of others in new combinations. Stuff like Gen and Kohaku’s back and forth, or Kohaku and Amaryllis manipulating their way through the Palace. These are different from say… Senku’s relationship with Gen, or Senku and Kohaku. Different pairs lead to different jokes and banter. Overall, I like it.
Speaking of Kohaku and comedy, she had a couple of good jokes this week. The dialogue with Gen was fun, yeah. But I also find the way she’s playing up her feminine side pretty amusing. For all her tomboy nature, Kohaku isn’t presented as the boorish, oafish, ugly woman just because of her attitude and strength. Rather Dr. STONE is able to explore this side of her without destroying or undermining her tomboy nature. Yeah, she can look pretty hot in a dress, and Jesus Christ is she jacked. But that doesn’t mean she’s comfortable in it. It’s just not what she likes to wear. The point being, just because someone doesn’t fall within the traditional realm of Masculine/Feminine doesn’t mean they can’t make it work or still be a guy/girl. I don’t want to get to off topic here, but I thought it nice.
Amaryllis is in a very similar situation. She plays up the weak and beautiful woman angle, really going out of her way to see her as nothing more than an object. But she uses that to her advantage, making it clear that she’s actually a femme fatale and that none of this is the real her. She’s directly playing off of that alpha-male mentality so many guys have, causing them to underestimate her. And of course I really like how clear Dr. STONE makes it that she isn’t a ditz, she’s actually one of the most cunning characters in the group. Pair her up with Kohaku like they have this episode and you get 2 different examples of that core trope of the ditzy beautiful girl getting turned on its head. Suffice to say, I think it’s pretty obvious that Dr. STONE is rather respectful of its female cast.
Shifting over to the science group, this is perhaps the most ridiculous part of the episode. I mean, making a drone to snatch the petrification beam object out of midair? With ancient technology? Dr. STONE has done a lot of silly things, but this is starting to get up there. Of course Senku goes through a lot of trouble explaining and setting it up, working us towards it. Magnetic motors, little RC cars, forgoing stabilizers and all that jazz. It really tries to convince us that this would be possible. And of course, as a fun-loving audience, we go along with it. It’s your typical shounen power scaling just with science! But make no mistake, drones are way harder to build then they make it out to be.
Part of what makes it work however is the reaction of the islanders. These are people who’s most impressive technology is probably the engineering that went into those tree-bridges. They don’t even have blacksmithing and metal working! So it makes complete sense they wouldn’t really understand what an RC car is. Even if it wasn’t dressed up as a rat they would probably suspect it was one. It just allows the science team to be a lot more blatant with their inventions. To do things that they couldn’t against Tsukasa because no one will recognize or figure them out. But because we live in modern times, we understand it perfectly. I think it leads to some fun sequences where the audience is more in the know then the villains despite the villains being the ones with all the power in the situation.
Finally we need to talk about the platinum. Kohaku found it! Our goal is in sight! This whole thing with her figuring out where it was and communicating it via the letter was pretty fun. I liked Gen slowly piecing together what her message meant. Just another demonstration that Senku’s intelligence isn’t the end-all-be-all. More then that though, what this whole thing did was give me an idea of where the season would end. It’s pretty obvious at this point that the season isn’t going to complete the entire arc. They aren’t getting the platinum, saving their friends, defeating Ibara and escaping the island in… 2 episodes. Rather I suspect the season will end with them retrieving the platinum, escaping the palace and lining them up for a good fight in the next season. Sadly this means we will probably get a cliffhanger. Hopefully not a bad one though.
So yeah, all in all it was a pretty nice episode of Dr. STONE. I enjoy the characters, I enjoy the arc, the conflict is far more interesting then the Tsukasa one was since it’s not centered around fighting. I think Dr. STONE has hit it’s stride and knows exactly what it needs/wants to be from this point onward. Makes me really look forward to future seasons. With the manga complete I’m hopeful we can get an actual finished anime adaptation, something few series ever really achieve as they disappear after their 1st or 2nd season. This 3rd one though makes me think they are dedicated to finishing it, or at least I hope they are. Only time will tell I suppose.
