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「科学の武器」 (Kagaku no Buki)
“Weapon of Science”
While I still enjoy watching Dr. STONE, I’m going to take this third episode to gently express some displeasure about a few different things in the plot.
General Impressions
As I said in the excerpt, I really enjoy watching Dr. STONE. It has a fun mix of characters that jive well off of each other and the overarching plot of trying to restore the world after it literally plunged into a second stone age is so thrilling that I wish I could fast forward time to see what happens. However, with the third episode in any new show marking the end of the litmus test, there are a few things that I have to talk about since it’d be a lie if I said I loved everything about this show.
First and foremost, can we talk about Tsukasa and how he’s literally turning into a macho version of Senku? If I remember correctly he was described as the “strongest high school student” and not the “strongest high school student with insane aptitude”. Sure his backstory gives some weight to his insane street smarts and ability to read in-between the lines, but something about him instantly realizing that Senku was trying to throw him off their scent and figuring out that they were heading to Hakone was just a little too ridiculous even for me. Like, I understand that we need to have a antagonist who can go toe-to-toe with Senku but I wish that the story could have done it in a way that didn’t bestow an insane amount of intelligence to someone but rather played on the less concrete elements that Senku might overlook with his insane intelligence missing something too obvious. As we saw in Episode One when Taiju thought of creating alcohol via smashing grapes to make wine, there are ways that Senku can get caught off guard because of his intelligence.
Second, even though I love you man, I swear Taiju at times makes me want to violently shake my monitor until it breaks. He’s such a loveable oaf that I just can’t get mad at him, but I will admit that his demeanor around Yuzuriha is slowly starting to annoy me. Luckily, his straightforward honesty still manages to keep me loving the guy and if I’m being honest I thought it was super cool how he managed to shrug off a direct kick from Tsukasa which as a byproduct managed to stave off the whole situation. So please, even if I begin to love Taiju as much as I did during Episode One, I acknowledge that he probably annoys the hell out of some people.
At the end of the day though, a good third episode that really got the ball rolling when it comes to setting the stakes. With a clear difference in opinion between our protagonist and antagonist, I love how this rat-race or sorts has finally kicked off. While it remains to be seen whether or not Tsukasa will be able to overcome Senku’s intelligence, I hope that the story will continue to reiterate on itself and create creative situations for each side to overcome.
Preview
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I’m a bit ticked off at how revealing Yuzuriha’s outfit ended up being with the open sides like that. I get that since she was a statue they had to toss the thing over her head and then sew up the sides… but instead of sewing it up with actual material we get this oddly revealing dominatrix dress looking outfit that really contrasts with the whole pure and wholesome character she has going on.
In Yuzuriha’s voice — “Wow”
Well, how you would put on her Dress without breaking her hands or Legs as a statue? So he need to close it from a side, and thats why it is “open”
https://randomc.net/image/Dr%20STONE/Dr%20STONE%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2001.jpg
You’d just sew the material together, there’s only that big gap there because there’s an absence of material between the front and back. You’d either patch up the gap or use a larger piece in the first place so they’d meet.
Haven’t seen the anime but I’m confused with this pic here. Do the clothes also turn into stone? If not, are there a bunch of naked statues? If the clothes do turn into stone but one happened to be naked would a family member or friend go to the trouble to cloth the statue?
Clothing did not turn to stone so yes, a bunch of naked statues. Everyone turned to stone at the same time so there are no friends or family members to clothe them. Only people not stone are Senku and the two people he freed from stone, Taiju and Tsukasa. In the picture the girl is wearing clothes because Taiju put clothing on her because they are just about to use the “miracle formula” to free her from the stone. I hope that answers your question if I understand what you are asking.
If you are asking, if the clothing did not turn to stone, then why are all the statues not already wearing clothing? It has been over 3700 years since everyone turned to stone. All the clothing would have decayed away during all that time.
Cloths and other stuff just degenerated over this long time of years, so only their “naked bodies” in stone survive. But other natural disasters can still break them and stuff.. Like earthquakes, roots of Trees, Wild animals and so on
While I do acknowledge your point, there is something I want tp address
Senku and Co. Are firmly in the stone age right now, not the iron age, or the industrial age, so you can’t exactly forge a needle out of metal. While yes you could make one out of bone for example, it would take a lot of effort that wouldn’t seem too worth it.
It’s not as if they don’t already have the tools and ability to sew. I mean just look at their shoes as the most obvious example.
ability, yes
Resources, no
It is perhaps a bit unrealistic that they didn’t at least sew the part below her hip more tightly, since it’s a bit revealing-looking and she ought to be a sensitive teenage girl. But well, it’s just fanservice and the writer probably wants us to assume she’s too spaced-out to notice.
Well, how many “living” peoples are out there right now? So okay, that with the Fan service is strong and perhaps the reason. But this is okay in the “climate” season right now.
Show Spoiler ▼
I don’t care about Yuzuriha’s outfit, but I do hope she has her own useful talents. Or do only guys at that school have superpowers?
Heh, just keep watching. The two main themes of this series seem to be “science and hard work wins all” and “everyone has useful talents”
I love it when hard work grabs hands with science to create answers that feel good and are backed up by facts.
Count me amongst those who find Taiju tedious. I also find Tsukasa less interesting now that he’s also a detective mind-reader (or whatever you want to call it).
But which is worse? Tsukasa’s character (superman plus) or Taiju, who can’t seem to say ‘hello’ without shouting it and doesn’t get a second superpower. If this were Animal Farm, he’d be one of the ‘others’ in a discussion about equality (at least of talent).
One of the themes of this story is that human knowledge is their greatest weapon. If Tsukasa was actually just a dumb brute, then he’d be a rather poor foe thematically.
The point of Tsukasa is that he’s incredibly well optimized for existing in a hunter-gatherer society. He’s insightful, he’s incredibly strong, and he picks up on subtle dangers before they can turn into a real threat. The problem is that the protagonists aren’t satisfied remaining as hunter-gatherers, and that puts them into conflict with him.
Well, it’s a little more than their not remaining satisfied as hunter-gatherers. Tsukasa isn’t disagreeing with them or proposing an alternative — he’s murdering people and promised to murder anyone who gets in his way, especially them. He considered the modern world to be a tyranny and so wishes to create a new sort of tyranny.
As well, it’s one thing to be a hunter-gatherer, but he is also an amoral idealist zealot.
But on the subject of his talents, you’re right about what would make a weak antagonist, but at a certain point, it gets out of hand. What’s the point in being the smartest person in the world when everything you do is immediately discerned, especially by someone who shuns scientific advancement. As someone else here mentioned, you need a certain level of ‘suspension of disbelief’ to watch this but it looks like mine was set too low. But I’ll crank it up and see how it goes.
It is a shonen people. You need to suspend your disbelief to enjoy the anime. What’s wrong with someone else who is ridiculously smart like Senku?
I don’t dislike Tsukasa, but I do wish he was able to figure things out in a different way. Like, I really like how he used his knowledge of Senku to figure out the destruction at camp was intentional and that the tracks were too messy to be real.
Now, how he figured out they were going to Hakone? That one still baffles me.
Your missing the willing suspension of disbelief. Willing is the critical bit the show is getting increasingly annoying which decreases the willingness to suspend disbelief. Sometimes shows are not enjoyable it depends on the viewer. The MC constantly talking about science ruling over fantasy in a clearly fantastical universe.
Many things might break your suspension of disbelief. Bad writing is one of them and it’s not the viewer’s fault. Oversimplifying things or providing limited reasons to characters’ actions just to move the plot forward can ruin your fun with a show.
I actually enjoy Taiju’s character. He’s a good example of that a not so intelligent character doesn’t immediately have to be a dumb one.
He’s quick to read the mood, knows when he should just listen to Senku and his questions seem to be more for clarification than actually “huh, me not get it”.
Tsukasa is going very Gary Stu. But that’s kinda type-casting seiyuu-wise.
I was surprised Yuzuriha was already revived though. I totally expected for that to take quite a while either by Tsukasa directly getting in their way or the need to have other people more. So well played Dr. Stone.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t nice enough in the post, but I too love Taiju.
I just wish he didn’t yell so often since I’m usually wearing headphones.
https://randomc.net/image/Dr%20STONE/Dr%20STONE%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Dr%20STONE/Dr%20STONE%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2011.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Dr%20STONE/Dr%20STONE%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
if you find faults in this series now already, you might be in for a bad time in the future. i liked how Science was the main gimmick Show Spoiler ▼
It’s not really finding fault in the series — just pointing out things I’ve noticed that I wouldn’t turn a blind eye to.
Do I still enjoy watching the show? Hell yeah.
I know a person like that in real life, and yes, loveable oaf is a perfect fit.
But to be honest, I’m only in it for Yuzuriha’s outfit :).
But seriously, I like how it suits her and isn’t vulgar.
And, Yuzuriha’s character is believable — she didn’t freak out
and blended in quite well considering the circumstances – not the
dumb blond type.
I agree Tsukasa’s character is plot-troubling, but what would happen
if he didn’t figure it out? And is Tsukasa redeemable? Maybe, he
just needs someone special for himself…
Anyway, not a bad series, kinda fun.
I have to ask… what is that thing on her head? What material was it made of to survive? Why hasn’t she removed it?
All I’m saying, there’s no way it being stuck there for centuries is good for her scalp…
Unless there’s a plot twist and she’s an alien or something…
Those are headphones and yes there is a reason why they are stuck in her head. It would be explained in future episodes.
Thanks for not spoiling it — I’m also curious why she still has those headphones on.
But not that curious that I want it spoiled.
Well, before she get pertifiend she already had them.. So i can guess what they could be. But thanks for not spoiling it
I totally agree about Tsukasa being unreasonably smart.
I don’t worry about Taiju because it seems like the author won’t seriously dumb down the plot just because Taiju does something stupid. Sure, it may look like that given how he quickly revealed the nitric acid’s existence, but the author clearly wanted to give Senku the chance to have a direct confrontation with Tsukasa for extra excitement/challenge.
It bothers me a little that the story didn’t explain why Tsukasa didn’t just kill everyone else as soon as he ID’d the nitric acid (besides “he didn’t need to”). There are multiple possible explanations, but I would’ve appreciated one.
Dr. Stone has an interesting plot. Can you imagine if you were a teenager and one day you find everyone is petrified in stone figures? I wouldn’t know what to do…haha
Sigh. So with only four people alive in the world the only way to resolve their disagreements is to kill someone. That’s discouraging.
Sulfur is not the main component of gunpowder. The formula for black powder is 75% potassium nitrate, 15% carbon, and 10% sulfur. The potassium nitrate they can make from bat guano and the carbon is simply charcoal.
You want to know about gunpowder? Ask “Drifters”…