Welcome all, to another week of Dr. STONE. This is a a pretty straightforward week, so let’s make it quick and jump right in, shall we?
The big topic of this episode is Soyuz. Not the ship, the person. Don’t remember them? Well don’t worry, they are new, just introduced this week. Now is that so bad? No, it’s perfectly fine for Dr. STONE to introduce new characters, it did it with Ryusui and I’ve come to like him. The only weird thing about it with Soyuz is how he is introduced as having always been here, living in the village with everyone after being found on the beach while young. It’s a bit strange for none of our main cast to have asked why he doesn’t have a name before now, you know? That aside, he got a fair bit of focus for his introductory episode and I think he works. Only time will tell if he becomes likable or not.
One thing I did quite like about Soyuz though was that, despite no one really knowing him, Dr. STONE absolutely nailed that feeling of belonging. The way it described his desire to find the island. Always sailing into the store, always being pushed back, always looking for a way through only to eventually find it as their tools progressed. It worked as one big metaphor for the human curiosity. How integral it is to us, and how that desire to know is what truly marks a member of the Science Kingdom more than anything else. It was surprisingly emotional for such a small, almost inconsequential scene. The sort of thing Dr. STONE has always done really well. More then anything else, it’s this scene that gives me hope that Soyuz will become a relevant and likable character moving forward.
Speaking of forward, lets talk about the island. The setup is all fine and cool to me. The storm, the explanation of how people got from there to Ishigami village, the treasure box as a source of names and minerals. All good stuff. The main draw to me though is the question of what’s waiting there for them. Of course we know it’s people, half the episode was hinting at that. But what will their reactions to them be? Will this be a simple and easy “Show up and get the box” sort of arc? Or will it be an extended conflict? As someone who has read the manga, I can’t give you an answer to this without spoiling anything. But I’m curious what your thoughts about it are, assuming any of you haven’t read it.
So yeah, all in all a solid but unexciting episode of Dr. STONE. The emotional beats were there, the science metaphors were still cool, it was everything you’ve come to want and expect from the series. And while that’s good, I love me some solid Dr. STONE, it hasn’t really broken any new ground since Season 1. Is that a big issue? No, not really. I’d rather have more of the same solid stuff then it just fall to garbage. This is more of a hope that, as we arrive at the island, the series will start to experiment a bit more. Of course as a manga reader I know what it does, and I’m kind of looking forward to it. So it’s really more of a question of if we will get to it this season or have to wait until the next. Only time will tell.
