Dr. Stone Episode 7

Dr. Stone Episode 7

Where Two Million Years Have Gone

After watching this week’s episode of Dr. Stone I thought that there wasn’t going to be much for me to write about. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this episode actually has a lot of content to discuss. I hope your ready, because today’s review is all about anthropology.

Let’s start with the title of the episode, “Where Two Million Years Have Gone.” This could be referring to two different events which took place roughly 2 million years ago. Either it’s the rise of Homo as a genus or it’s the so-called Dawn of Technology.

Honestly, they both could work, and although 2 million years ago isn’t the best approximation of either event, it’s close enough. The Dawn of Technology was more like 2.6 million years ago, and the rise of Homo as a genus is anywhere from like 1.8 – 2.4 million years ago. I tend to go with 1.8, but whatever.

Senku and Kohaku riding on a cart from the anime series Dr. Stone
Senku and Kohaku riding on a cart

Regardless of which of these events the title is referring to, it has the same general point: the technological advancements of humanity (or Homo) have been lost. I mentioned last week how strange it would be if humanity really lost all the knowledge from before the petrification event, but we’re given more evidence for it this week.

For example, Kohaku doesn’t appear to know what wheels are. Wheels (and axles) are one of the six “simple machines” along with pulleys, which we saw last week, according to Renaissance scientists. Pulleys I can understand the stone people not knowing about, but wheels is hard to believe.

I can believe that nobody in “generation 0” (the generation which first awoke from being petrified) built a pulley system. But what I can’t believe is that none of them would have made a wheel. Surely someone in generation 0 built some sort of wheeled cart and someone from generation 1 saw it.

Stone Village

Alright, so the stone people don’t have wheels or pulleys. Do you know what they do have? A suspension bridge. That’s a far more advanced piece of technology than an axle with wheels. Though, to be fair, the inventors of the suspension bridge did not use wheels.

Still, I think it’s fair to assume that the bridge which connects the stone people’s island village to the mainland was originally constructed by generation 0, not someone from a later generation. So again, why didn’t they “invent” a wheel too? It would certainly have made their lives easier.

Moving on from the wheel, the bridge connecting the village to the mainland is actually extremely important. For starters, it means the stone people can live on the island, which should be relatively safe from wild animals, like the lions that still shouldn’t be roaming Japan.

It also means there’s only one entrance and exit to and from the village. This is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it means they can easily defend against wild animals, or people, because they only have one avenue into the village. On the other, someone like Tsukasa could burn it down and starve out the villagers.

Maybe Senku will introduce them to the drawbridge and they’ll build one on either side of the island.

As far as weaponry goes, knives, swords, spears, and shields seem to be the extent. We haven’t seen anyone with a bow or javelin, so it’s likely that the stone people posses no long-range weaponry. This is something that would make defending their island much easier.

At leas they seem to have sufficient shelter and sources of food. We can assume they haven’t begun farming, but scavenging, hunting, and possibly fishing considering they live on the water give them plenty of options.

Stone Villagers

Kohaku tells us that aside from the elderly and children, there are 40 stone villagers. And from those who we’ve seen, we can assume that Kohaku is at least a 3rd generation stone-worlder. We know she’s young, we can assume her parents aren’t too old, and we’ve seen some who look like they could be her grandparents.

I’m also assuming that none of the elderly are from generation 0 because then some of the customs of this civilization would really make no sense. After all, they seem to worship natural deities and refer to fairly basic science as sorcery. Anyone from generation 0 would know better.

So let’s take a look at some of the villagers of the stone village. Obviously we have Kohaku, so I’ll be skipping over her. But, Kohaku does have an older sister, Ruri, who’s a pretty important person. She’s the village priestess, and potentially the chieftain. However, Ruri is sickly, though we don’t yet know exactly what her ailment is.

Ruri’s personal guards are Jasper and Turquoise. You may notice that everyone in the stone village aside from Kohaku and Ruri are named after either metals or precious stones. We don’t yet know much else about these two.

The village guards are Kinro and Ginro, named after gold and silver respectively. Kinro is a stickler for the rules and is vehemently against allowing outsiders like Senku into the village. Ginro on the other hand, while not passive, is far more wary of things he doesn’t understand.

Also, this rule against outsiders is important. The stone villagers believe that there are no other humans in the outside world who aren’t somehow related to their village. Any outsiders are assumed to be the descendants of criminals who were once banished from their village. This means they don’t know people can become unpetrified.

Chrome the Sorcerer

The final stone villager, Chrome, gets his own section. He’s a self-proclaimed sorcerer, but what that really means is that he’s a scientist. While other villagers are doing things like foraging for food or honing their combat skills, Chrome is spending his time performing experiments with the various minerals and plants he finds.

The other villagers don’t seem to like this about him, and probably see him as a slacker, but someone has to be inventing new technology. Also, potentially related to the fact that the other villagers don’t trust him is the fact that his workshop is outside the village on the mainland.

Chrome the sorcerer from the anime series Dr. Stone
Chrome the sorcerer

After Senku defeats him in a “sorcerer battle,” Chrome reveals that there are two reasons he partakes in science. The first is because this is just what he feels is natural for him to do. He likes to collect things, mash them together, and see what happens.

However, the second reason is that he wants to develop a cure for Ruri’s illness. Like I said earlier, we don’t know what Ruri’s illness is, so coming up with a cure could be difficult. However, Senku decides that an antibiotic will probably do the trick, and he’s probably right considering how many things that helps with.

Now that Taiju is gone, it seems like Chrome is going to be Senku’s new right-hand man. And I have to admit that Chrome and Kohaku are already better supporting characters than Taiju and Yuzuriha ever were. They don’t just blindly follow Senku, and they seem like they’ll end up being more than one-dimensional characters.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts on this week’s episode of Dr. Stone? Are you interested in learning more about the stone village, it’s inhabitants, and their way of life? Or are you just looking forward to the eventual fight against Tsukasa? Also, if you were a stone villager, what metal or stone would you be named after? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. For those who want to discuss and watch anime with other community members, join our Discord server.

Finally I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog and the benefits you’ll receive for doing so, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Leave a Comment