Ah today is a good day. The day where Dr.STONE reinforces what I loved about it when I first read it. You see this week Science takes center stage, we meet the ancient sorcerer Chrome, and the legendary Kinro gets his fabled weapon. Enough with the preamble though, welcome to this weeks Dr.STONE and lets get into it.
Starting off, I want to talk about the fun presentation of the episode. From the OST to the sound effects, Dr.STONE did a good job of accentuating the animation. Take for instance the segment of Senku dropping mathematics on Chrome. With the sound of everything and the kitchen sink falling with it. Or the music during Senku and Chrome’s final conversation. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I am pretty sure I heard bagpipes in there. The last anime I remember using bagpipes was Fairy Tail, and even then the OST was never Fairy Tail’s issue. In Dr.STONE though it expertly brings out this sort of terrifying whimsy. Getting across the scale and destruction of what has happened, while still having the whimsy of Senku and his science. To put it simply, I could listen to those bagpipes all day. Love the instrument.
For the actual episode itself, it was everything I wanted it to be. I was worried through the first arc a bit, though admittedly I tried to hold off and hide it. I was worried that I misremembered why I enjoyed the original manga. As 5 episodes feels so much longer than 20 chapters of manga. Yet then episode 6 came along and I started to get some hope. And finally Dr.STONE has delivered this, the true Dr.STONE. Where the political and ideological drama, as much as I like Tsukasa’s archetype, is put to the wayside. 2 minutes in afterall and we get a simple cart barreling through the tree’s. Fun with static electricity, colored fire and mathematics somehow. The beginnings of technological progress and the astounding of the natives with shiny metals. Whats not to like?
This week we also meet the rest of Kohaku’s village, such as Rui, Chrome, Kinro and Ginro. They are going to make up the bulk of our cast for the next few months, so get used to them. I will get to Chrome in a moment, as he has a larger part to play, so let’s focus on the rest of the village. During the cuts showing us the day to day life, we saw a number of characters, most of which will end up getting named. The big one out of them all though is Rui, the topic of our first Village sub-arc. That being, as Senku put it, antibiotics. A pretty big ask if you think about the work that goes into them. Yet Dr.STONE is going to have fun the whole way through and it gives us a nice clear goal to work towards.
Of course assisting Senku is going to be our new Ancient Sorcerer Chrome. This boy right here is a Dr.STONE fan favorite, because of how enthusiastic he is about everything. He’s a goofball naturally, but one just as in love with science as Senku, thousands of years between their birth’s. Chrome and Senku’s relationship is actually one of my favorite’s because of this mutual love. You can see the exact moment Senku realizes this. That Chrome shares his love for science across the ages, that it’s human nature to be curious. How Tsukasa might be able to delay it, but he can never eliminate science. This sort of question on human nature is going to be explored through a number of characters in the series moving forward. But Chrome is perhaps the purest example of it, just being a less sophisticated version of Senku. I can’t wait to get more.
Finally back to the village itself, there are 2 other members of it we missed. Dr.STONE started their introduction as seemingly standard goons. Refusing to let Senku across the bridge, into the village. But it didn’t take long for cracks in this facade to form, and for Dr.STONE’s inherent fun to open them up. Kinro, as shown by the bit with the golden spear, is not as stereotypically stoic as we would initially believe. He was also willing to tag along with Chrome’s antics in the science duel, showing he is more the comedic straight man than a stoic goon. Ginro on the other hand did a much bigger flip, starting as this menacing goon and becoming a complete goofball. Whole heartedly taking part in Senku’s science, terrified of bubbles and not afraid to show it. In a way he is like Zenitsu from Yaiba, except a slightly less cowardly.
So all in all, how was Dr.STONE this week? Well I think it was pretty straight forward all things considered. We are finally getting to what was said on the tin. No greater political drama or ideological conflict (for now). No dealing with basic necessities of life like a roof or anything like that. Now we just get to focus purely on the science, with set goals at hand forcing newer and newer innovations. First we got a cart, next some antibiotics, with everything that entails having to come first. Dr.STONE has also given us the colorful cast of manpower we will need to actually *create* these scientific marvels. And if the presentation of Chrome’s science duel is anything to go by, the series is going to have a lot of fun with it. To yeah, I enjoyed this week. It was the good fun I remember the manga being.
Two episodes from two different series releasing on the same day, both showing “fire color magic” by adding copper and other elements… hmmm… they are “sharing” ideas.
You mean Fire Force and Dr.Stone? Hmm, I can see the connection, but it feels like an inevitable consequence of their premise to me. And both used them in different ways. Though if we are going down that route, Dr.STONE’s manga started 2 years after Fire Force.