Dr.STONE – 13 [Masked Warrior]

This is a difficult week for Dr.STONE, with what it has to follow up. Everything from production to the story just couldn’t seem to meet the same highs. As we start the Grand Bout, progress the cure-all and Kinro learns a thing or two about science. Let’s dive in!

Starting off, I hate to do it, but the production this week was… not great. Dr.STONE made it very clear this week that it wasn’t an action series. Oh the jokes and such were fine, there was plenty of well done comedy. I actually forgot about some of the memes like Salt Bae that were originally incorporated into the manga. However beyond that, the combat wasn’t great and sort of abandoned what made Dr.STONE fun. The detailed style just doesn’t fit the fast pacing required for this style of combat. Instead relying on a bunch of still frames, or simple repeated motions. It’s a shame, because we saw that Dr.STONE can get good fight animation. Gen’s assault looked pretty good for the short moment it was. But similar to Tsukasa’s scenes, these just don’t fit well with the shows style. Working better as still frames in a manga.

Simply put, the science basically took a back see this week to the drama and the action. I have said it multiple times before leading up to this point, but the science is the best part of the series. This exploration of human achievements and just how much work our society has put in to get to this point. The commentary on how little can be accomplished working alone vs working with a group, etc etc. Sure parts of that are still here. Such as Kinro using the helmet and learning the power of science and stuff. But by and large this Grand Bout arc just doesn’t have any of the best parts of the series. Not yet at least. There are some nice moments of science moving forward, but this introduction leaves much to be desired.

Speaking of Kinro and the helmet, this was actually some good goofy fun. It lacked the dramatise of something like the lightbulb, but it was humorous. The image of Kinro with the helmet really straddled the line between ridiculous and serious well. And did a decent job of highlighting how science can help. Of course you can nitpick, such as the odds Suika and Kinro’s prescriptions are the same. Or the ridiculousness of Suika’s movement/speed and such. There are plenty of small things to nitpick. However I feel that they are minor things in the face of a series like Dr.STONE. If we can forgive the slight scientific inaccuracies/specifics when constructing a lightbulb or glasses, I think we can forgive it things like this as well.

Moving on, I want to touch a moment on the comedy, since I have pointed it out multiple times. I thought Dr.STONE did a fine job with that this week. With some of the Cure-All drug ingredients such as ammonia to the ever increasingly dangerous acids being hilariously presented. Or Senku and Ginro’s sleazy nature, doing everything they can to rig the grand bout. From signing up just to plan to forfeit, to bringing dozens of science objects just to cheat. It both fits their characters and adds some levity to the whole thing. Of course, Senku had to find a way to get involved in the grand bout anyways. He is the MC and I am sure everyone knows what is going to happen now that he is in it. No doubt he will somehow win to marry Ruri. The question only becomes, how?

Well with Magma defeated in the first round, the entire grand bout has basically become a crapshoot. Kohaku probably won’t make it back in time, forfeiting her match and moving Senku another round. Meanwhile Chrome and Magma has been building up for awhile, so somehow some way Chrome will defeat Mantle. And Ginro is up against a random nobody, so we know the results there to. The question then becomes, how will Chrome beat Magma? Or will he at all, leaving him to fight Senku in the inevitable finals, since he is our MC? It’s hard to write about this a bit since I know what happens from the manga, so instead I want to turn it over to you. What do you think will happen? Who will go how far? Will Chrome get the girl in the end? Let me know down below!

So all in all, how was this week of Dr.STONE? Personally, I found it a bit underwhelming. As it left all the best parts of the series behind as it established this current arc. Yes, that can change moving forward now that everything is in place. But I just don’t find combat to be the centerpiece of the series. So having it take away from the science is always disheartening. Of course there are other aspects of the episode I glossed over well, such as Ruri’s knowledge of Senku’s name and the concept of last names. However there is so little information for that presented here, we really can’t do much with it just yet. So for now, let me take this episode to get your take. Where do you think Dr.STONE will go from here? With the tournament, Ruri’s village and anything else? Let me know below!