This week, the Kingdom of Science re-invents television and video games while the conflict between “Why Man” and the Kingdom of Science escalates. So without further ado, let’s recap this episode.
The episode begins with the Kingdom of Science admiring the hydroelectric dam. We get some clarification on its creation as we find out that it was being created by the Japanese branch of the Kingdom of Science while Senku’s group was touring the world looking for materials to build the rocket ship. Senku depetrifies more people to help with the labor needed for his major engineering projects.
Ryusui declares that the public needs electronic entertainment media to help the morale. Senku just happens to invent a television set in just a couple of seconds of screentime. The problem is that there is nothing to broadcast, as there are no television stations in the Stone World. The entire audience does a face fault. It turns out that Senku has another cool invention to show off, an even more advanced computer called the SAL 9000 (probably not an intentional reference to that one episode of Recess featuring a rogue computer of the same name). This computer operates on punch cards but has a graphic interface. Sai puts in some code and creates Tetris. Video games have been re-invented. Breakout, Pac-Man and a montage of other retro video games ensue.
As established about two episodes ago, the Kingdom of Science plans to use the petrification device to put the moon team in suspended animation. Things take a twist when “Why Man” activates the Kingdom of Science’s petrification device and petrifies a few of Senku’s allies. Senku and Ryusui back away as quickly as possible. We already know the mission is to go to the moon, but Senku brings up an important point, the moon is pretty freaking big (2,159 miles wide). Going to the moon isn’t enough. The Kingdom of Science needs to pinpoint where on the moon they need to land. This problem at least gives Chrome some time to stall as he has been secretly been trying to create a rocket capable of making a return trip. Kohaku is astonished the moon is as big as it is as it doesn’t look that big from the sky.
In another mad science experiment, Senku gathers arsenic, tellurium, and selinium. Arsenic is a well known poisonous element, and tellurium and selinium are somewhat lesser known poisonous elements. Gen points out that Senku is playing with poisonous stuff. It turns out that these poisonous elements are the ingredients used to create a television camera. With a television camera, it is now possible to have security cameras for the Kingdom of Science to monitor the petrification device to see if it activates on its own. There is still no video recording technology in the Stone World yet.
With the new invention of television, the Stone World has its first baseball game telecast. News stations and scripted programming are now part of the Stone World. In Ishigami Village, a new television station is created. Senku formulates his next plan to track down the “Why Man,” The next important step is to build a satellite to track down the “Why Man.”
As usual, Dr. Stone focuses on the Kingdom of Science’s mission to bring back twenty-first century technology. The pacing is pretty breakneck in terms of creating television and video games in just a few minutes of screentime. The big plot of the mission to the moon, however, keeps getting delayed after being teased episode after episode. It is still cool and fun to see Senku bring back twenty-first century technology even if the scientific explanations for this week’s technology were very rushed. There were still some interesting edutainment facts like the fact that television cameras are made using three very poisonous elements. Dr. Stone brings a fun episode of edutainment fun, but a pretty rushed explanation of how television and video games are created.
