This was a good week for Dr.STONE. A personal favorite character of mine was introduced, science progressed and everything just came together perfectly at the end. So let’s jump in to my favorite episode of Dr.STONE yet.
Starting off, this week introduces Gen, one of if not my favorite character of the series. Unlike Senku he isn’t terribly smart, and unlike Tsukasa or Taiju he isn’t terribly physical. Simply put, the only thing he can really do is talk, but boy does he talk well. However what makes him my favorite isn’t his personality but rather his place in Dr.STONE’s story. Gen is, more than anyone else, an audience stand in for the technology. He doesn’t know how the things Senku makes works, but he does appreciate them. Gen is there to stand in awe of the technology and to be the reference point for us the viewer. Seeing these impossible things brought back in a stone world. You really only need to look at his reactions to see it. The stunned silence and watering eyes. Dr.STONE does a good job showing his sheer joy.
On that note lets talk about the discoveries of the week. Those being super magnets, an electric generator and the light-bulb! First up the magnets, I quite liked the use of the Iron. Using it and copper to create an electromagnet with lightning. It’s a bit convenient that it happened so early for Senku. But that’s hardly the worst plot convenience to occur in a Shonen story, and it isn’t like Senku wasn’t planning for it. It’s also not as if Dr.STONE hasn’t made them work for this. One of the best aspects of the series is how it shows all of the work that goes into a simple magnet or iron bar. We need only look at the generator for that. So when all of this work comes together for something as simple as a light-bulb? It feels earned and the payoff is fantastic.
It really makes you think and consider the things we take for granted day to day. How much work goes in to keeping this modern society going. For me this is one of the many reasons the science is the most interesting aspect of Dr.STONE. It makes the viewer reconsider how they look at the world. Or at least to stop and consider our world in the moment. Take the light-bulb scene for proof of this. Somehow turning on a light was more emotional and investing than most shounen fights or character confrontations. Everything from the music to the setup all came together. Such as Senku asking Chrome if he was afraid of the dark, how we had conquered the 24 hour day. It really was a fantastic scene. It didn’t need any ground breaking animated sequences or fights. Just a light-bulb and some well placed dialogue.
Getting back to Gen, I want to talk about how this light-bulb affected him and what it means. Throughout this episode, Gen has made it very clear that he is 50/50 on which side of the conflict to support. That for someone like him, there are pros and cons to both. However I think that the ending scene made it clear which side he will inevitably take. So for that, let us take a look at what he brings to the group. In case it wasn’t obvious by now, Senku is terrible at dealing with people. He is not a people’s person and his thoughts are transparent. So Gen fills an important PR role for the group, talking people into helping or at least not killing them. We saw an example of that this week with Magma, and Gen’s sleight of hand convincing him to leave.
Of course Gen’s arrival also signals another thing, the return of Tsukasa. This can’t mean anything good for our leads, but you have to ask, what will Tsukasa do? He has this whole thing about a stone world, a world of the young and strong. Gen fits one of those, buy why revive him? If Tsukasa knows who he is, why trust him? Simply put, even if Gen sides with Senku, I don’t think things are going to go so easy. Tsukasa made it clear before that he would return for the villagers. That they would be “easy” to subjugate. Granted, I thought that was farther off, as it means my memory of the series is faulty. But their confrontation is inevitable and calls into question where exactly this season will actually end. It has been moving slower than I thought it would, so all bets are off.
So all in all, how was this episode of Dr.STONE? For me, it was great, my favorite episode yet. Gen is always a fun character, the science was great and the comedy worked much better this episode. From the lacquer rash to Gen’s expressive reactions, the physical comedy was on point. Dr.STONE also did a good job with the music and sound design this week. All of it coming together in that final scene. Sure, its a rather statically animated show, without much movement. Relying on its art style and design to get by. But for me? For me it all just worked. I really enjoyed this week of Dr.STONE and I think it exemplifies everything about the series I enjoy. And I can’t wait to see some of the more emotional moments coming up adapted.
I think I will have to start to watch this show. 🙂
I think this show is pretty interesting from a cultural standpoint. Japan has always had a complicated relationship with technology and science – you could argue the death of the samurai and many Japanese ideals (individual perfection) came at the hands of science and technology. The fact that Senko wears E=MC2 on his shirt is pretty telling – many Japanese (some of my relatives included) died from that formula. There is a famous sculpture of that formula in Hiroshima – during the American occupation, even the word “nuclear” was banned, leading to the use of that formula to discuss the events.
However, Dr. Stone celebrates science as the way forward, as a way for the weak to overcome the strong. I think it shows the evolution of perceptions of technology, especially foreign.
I was unaware of the cultural connotations of it all, so thank you. I hadn’t thought of the nuclear connotation for E=MC^2, as its just a ubiquitous physics equation over here. As for the Samurai aspect, I suppose I had thought that modern Japan had moved beyond that to an extent.
Your right though, it does celebrate a lot of foreign technological advances, and a pretty “globalist” perspective as far as those kinds of things are concerned.
I appreciate the perspective.