This week on Dr. Stone, the Kingdom of Science re-invents the Internet and undergoes astronaut training in order to prepare for the final battle. So without further ado, let’s recap this episode.
The episode begins with Senku declaring his intention to re-invent the Internet in order to communicate with the world. His peers question how he plans to do this and he explains that tea leaves are the key. His peers find his words crazy as they question how tea leaves can create the Internet. He explains that the tea leaves are resistant to water and electricity. Naturally, that means that these tea leaves are useful to create underwater cables that can be used to connect the world. The Perseus helps lay the cables and Ryusui decides to go to North America to connect the cables, taking a stop on Hawaii for vacation as Hawaii was the one stop they forgot to go on the world tour arc. The show gives little indication of how much time is passing to create this wired network.
After the cable network is created, Senku hosts the Stone World’s first ever Internet teleconference. He also creates essentially a Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) system for engineers to work on their drawings. This invention seemed to just be spontaneously created. Senku brings up that the rocket will not have to rely on having as extensive life support systems as twentieth and twenty-first century rockets as they have a magic petrification system (the obvious deviation from real science that this show has). The Kingdom of Science needs three people to man the mission, a scientist, a pilot, and a fighter. Ryusui volunteers for pilot bragging about being the best pilot there is. Dr. Xeno points out that he is needed at mission control, and it’s obviously going to be Senku as he’s the main character. As for the fighter, that role is still left in the air.
Before going into space, the candidates all have to train for their space mission. Senku has to train his body for space and it turns out that although he is an absolute genius, he is a pretty bad athlete. We see him comedically struggle to swim. Fortunately, mental tests are what he excels at as he zips through some of the hardest mazes out there.
We cut to a nighttime scene and suddenly Tsukasa attacks Kohaku and they have a blade fight. It is an evenly matched fight. Tsukasa explains that he wanted to have that blade fight to show Kohaku how much she has grown as a fighter. He declares her his equal. Because of how great a fighter she is, she gets the role of the fighter. Interesting to note that she is the token shonen lady, yet she is also the only member of said team with any fighting skills, which is an interesting subversion of the typical dynamic.
Ryusui aces a flight simulator video game. The video game also includes shooting and Senku points out that they may have to engage in space combat. The engineers in the kingdom of science have created special weapons to help them against “Why Man.” One device is a special watch that can release revival fluid on a timer if the team gets petrified. The other device is a net gun. Both devices are more James Bond type science than the real grounded science the show usually goes for.
The final scene features Ryusui going to a super secret area to revive a pilot who is ever better than he is. The name he mentioned was not one of any major character I remember so it looks like we are going to get another late addition cast member like Sai.
The astronaut camp scenes were fun, but the “real science” (ie the Internet) was rushed like a lot of this season and lots of not so real science like the magic petrification beam dominates this episode. The title of the next episode is “Countdown” implying that the Kingdom of Science is finally going to space after many episodes of teasing. I think the show is going to shift from being a “science show” to “action shonen” as this series constantly shifts gears between one and the other. The blending of the two genres is a big part of the series appeal and finally getting a big action scene for this season would be cool as it’s always fun to see how Senku uses science in a battle shonen scenario.
