The rocket building world tour finally ends in Japan, coming full circle. The Kingdom of Science goes on a brief excursion into Indonesia first to get some rice. So without further ado, let’s recap this episode.
The episode begins with Suika and Chrome begging Sai to teach them math. Sai says that he is good at math, but inexperienced with teaching, but he is glad to help out. Meanwhile in Australia, the Kingdom of Science is busy working on gathering red rocks to extract aluminum. Senku says that to extract aluminum, they need to generate millions of dollars of electrical power, just as NASA did, and that creating a hydroelectric dam is necessary. Senku announces that the final destination for the journey is going to be Japan, where the rocket will be built.
Before the Kingdom of Science finishes their journey, they make one final pit stop in Indonesia. The plan is to create a rice plantation there as Indonesia has lots of rice. Senku explains that cooking delicious meals for the newly depetrified people is a good way to get their new allies energized. Senku refers to these dishes he keeps serving as “soul food, ” apparently using the term in a very nonstandard way from the normal definition of a specific type of African American cuisine. Rice balls are generally not considered soul food by the standard definition of the term.
The Kingdom of Science goes back to “Treasure Island,” that island in season three where they fought the skeezy villain dude. There they depetrify some allies and finally go back to Japan. Everyone is really excited to see Mount Fuji. Meanwhile, Suika and Chrome are learning the Pythagorean Theorem. More allies get depetrified, including Kohaku’s sister Ruri. Kohaku has to give her sister a big hug as she is the team cuddle bug despite being a tough fighter. Chrome chickens out from announcing that he likes Ruri. Kohaku narrates that this journey has been a ten-year long journey. This is despite the fact that the characters don’t look that different from their teenage selves. It makes sense that travelling around the world using newly developed technology would take a while, but this is the first confirmation of how much time has passed in the world tour arc. They celebrate by Francois making suchi, which Senku calls “soul food” again.
Suika then notices that her animal friends, who were immune from petrification, are still alive and have been building a wall to protect the petrified humans. Okay, this is a little silly compared to the usual grounded realism from the series. Okay, as much realism as can be expected from a show with a magic petrification ray. The hydroelectric dam is built offscreen as the series has to rush to its conclusion. Sensui says that it is time to go to “the Final Frontier” (yay, Star Trek reference).
So the world tour arc finally ends. It is a little shocking to learn that so much time has passed during this arc as previous episodes did not hint as how much time was occurring in-universe. We got to see some interesting places like Spain, India, Australia, and Indonesia, albeit without the manmade landmarks. This episode had some silly weirdness like Senku’s weird use of the term “soul food” and animals that could build elaborate structures, but this is a silly, albeit smart and educational cartoon, that has a right to be silly. After weeks and weeks of teasing, next episode they finally go to The Final Frontier and explore the “Known Unknown” (the title of the next episode). We are getting closer and closer to finding out why the “Why Man” turned humanity to stone in the twenty-first century.
