Welcome to week 3 of Dr. STONE! If you enjoyed last weeks emotional cliffhanger then boy do I have an episode for you. This week Chrome struts his stuff, Taiju gets punched in the face and Dr. STONE hits us with another tear-jerker of a climax. Without further ado, lets dive in!
Starting off, I can’t get enough of how vibrant and colorful Dr. STONE is. The colors always pop, especially when it goes all in on the big emotional moments. Yet it never seems to lose that thick line work that I love. Obviously as we zoom out to wide shots the detail decreases. We also see some increased CGI for some of the more mechanical science bits back at the village. But when it’s important, Dr. STONE never fails to craft some stunning stills. Add on to that the improved animation we have seen and it looks as if the production is in a very healthy place. I can only hope this holds true, because every week I find myself looking forward to more Dr. STONE. It’s not the hypest or most action packed series this season, but its competing for the most heart.
Now that we’re past the spoiler break and I can talk narrative, lets talk Nikki! Last week we heard of Gen and Senku’s plan to trick one of Tsukasa’s soldiers over to their side. Enter Nikki, the one set to guard Taiju and Yuzuriha. Now some of you may know of my passion for strong women in anime, but that isn’t why I love Nikki. Or at least, its not all of it. I also enjoy her upfront an honest nature, and how straightforward she is with things. How she makes a threat and carries it through, immediately striking Taiju when he continues talking. How she respected Taiju’s earnestness and how she is open with her emotions. She’s a very… stable character in a cast of geniuses, similar to Taiju, and its great. Most of all, I love how Dr. STONE set her up for a triple bait-and-switch with her.
At first you think it will be easy, she’s a super fan, she wants to believe the lie. But that only makes her qualified to doubt, to question. Nikki is the expert on Lillian in this scenario, she won’t be easy be to fool. However it’s that same love, that same super fan nature, that ultimately wins her over. Not Gen’s tricks, not Senku’s logic, but her deep and unconditional love for Lillian and her works. It’s only after she hears the song, something she no doubt thought lost to time forever, that she comes around. And it makes sense to! If Senku dies, that song is lost forever, Tsukasa won’t allow science and even if he did only Senku could get it playing. It’s an argument from the heart, from a place of deep personal meaning that Senku could never have tricked or forced. And I love it.
Now, I can understand if some think this came from nowhere. What are the odds that they are followed by the one hardcore Lillian fan in Tsukasa’s army? How could Senku figure out Lillian’s measurements from a photo, or roughly calculate a minimum floor for her sales? Well to that I say: Who cares? Senku has done impossible things all through season one, culminating in making a cell phone in the stone age, why should this sort of math be beyond him? And as for Nikki, it makes for a touching and heartwarming story. It fits in perfectly with Dr. STONE’s themes and how it is effectively a love letter to the human condition. This may seem hypocritical, but Dr. STONE isn’t a mystery or a thriller, it doesn’t operate off of a tense plot. Instead it operates off of these smaller heart filled narratives, which the plot simply enables.
Another big part of what makes Dr. STONE work is Senku himself. As we see near the end, and which Nikki herself comments on, is Senku never lies. Not about science at least. He is the unbending core of the show, both the hope for tomorrow and the brutal truth of the present, he is science. And while his math may be exaggerated for comedic effect, while some steps may be simplified or convenient for watchers to follow along, everything he does has some basis in reality. So when asked about something that doesn’t have that basis, that is impossible, of course he would say no. Because to do otherwise would be to betray the very foundation he is built on. Combine that with just enough humanity to appreciate his accomplishments and the beauty of life, and you have a compelling character. Though maybe not a particularly deep one.
Finally, moving past me waxing poetic, lets talk about Chrome! It was nice to see Chrome continue to come into his own. Figuring out solutions to problems with what little science he has while working in his own stone-age brute force. Where Senku might have made a flashbang or some other science object, Chrome starts a battery fire. It works, its something he never could have done before. But it fits within the realm of his abilities and it shows how he is slowly growing and coming to understand this new technology. It fits into Dr. STONE’s message that science isn’t just for the modern “geniuses” like him and Gen. Rather, its for everyone. From the geniuses to the stone age savages like Chrome to the muscle bound idiots like Taiju. And though we will see more of this going forward, it’s always nice to see it appear early on.
So all in all, in case it wasn’t obvious, this was a really good episode of Dr. STONE. It was a fantastic example of the series strongest selling point: The heartfelt emotions and deep respect for what it means to be human. It of course helps that the production has been healthy and the pacing solid. The OST is still just as bang’in as it was last season and it’s all around a great continuation of the series. It looks like my concerns as to how it would adapt more action oriented content was misplaced, because its done a great job of staying focused on what matters.
tl;dr Dr. STONE good, please watch it.
