Dr. Stone Episode 15

Dr. Stone Episode 15

The Culmination of Two Million Years

I know some people won’t like me saying this, but overall I wouldn’t call this week’s episode of Dr. Stone good. Did it have some good parts? Yes. But most of the episode was made up of what I like to call “shounen gags.” You know, the little “jokes” that the 12 year old boys the series is made for probably love.

And I guess that actually means this is a great anime if it knows its target audience that well. But I still don’t like it. It’s cheap entertainment that’s used to mask the fact that this series doesn’t have much going for it otherwise.

But that’s not what I want to discuss this week. After all, there are other aspects of this series which are far more deserving of discussion. Specifically this week I want to focus on Ruri’s illness and Senku’s family name. However, we need to cover some other things quickly before we get to those.

Gen and Kaseki from the anime series Dr. Stone
Gen and Kaseki

First of all, let’s just point out that Senku did make Gen’s cola for him. Now that this has been done, we can be certain that Gen won’t rat him out to Tsukasa. After all, Gen isn’t about to give up his cola supply so easily. Now that he knows Senku can actually make it, his allegiance is sealed.

But, as I’ve mentioned previously, there’s no way Tsukasa believed Gen’s report that Senku is dead.

The other thing I want to touch on is that Senku successfully created the sulfa drug. This is one of the most important inventions he could ever make, so that’s kind of a big deal. The only problem is that it’s not exactly the easiest thing for him to mass produce at this point in time.

Village Chieftain

In order to obtain the final ingredients for the sulfa drug, someone from the Kingdom of Science had to win the Grand Bout. Luckily, the final three combatants, Senku, Chrome, and Ginro, are all on that side. However, some things happen and Senku ends up winning by default over Chrome.

That not only means Senku becomes the new village chieftain, but also means that he officially gets married to Ruri in Chrome’s place. But, Senku being Senku, he decides to immediately divorce Ruri because who needs girls when you have science?

And now that I’ve gotten that summary out of the way, why was Senku made the new chieftain? Have you thought about that?

Technically speaking he was made the new chieftain because he cured Ruri’s sickness, but the villagers were prepared to make him the new chieftain after he won the Grand Bout. The only thing is, there’s already a perfectly healthy and capable chieftain there. So why would the winner of the Grand Bout immediately take over?

You’d think that winning would put Senku next in line for that position, not immediately put him in it. But, there is a reason, and I’ve mentioned it in the past.

The stone village is actually a matriarchal society in which the priestess holds the highest position. The title of village chieftain is simply given to whichever man happens to be married to her. And since the current priestess is unmarried, the previous chieftain retained his position until a time when he could be replaced.

So although it seemed like the village was giving Ruri away for marriage, the Grand Bout was really a competition to see who’s worthy of standing by her side. The village chieftain is simply the head guard of the village.

Ruri’s Illness

We learned that Ruri’s mystery illness was actually bacterial pneumonia. All things considered, that’s one of the best possible outcomes as Senku explained because it’s treatable. But, let’s just appreciate for a moment the fact that Ruri had this infection for years.

Maybe you don’t know, but it’s not very likely for someone to survive with this condition for that long. Sure, you might be able to treat the symptoms like Ruri was thanks to Kohaku, but there are so many other ways for it to kill you.

For one, the infection could spread to other organs, causing them to shut down. There’s also the shortness of breath factor which could cause asphyxia at any time. And let’s not forget that Ruri was also coughing up blood, meaning it’s only a matter of time before she ruptures something.

Senku listening to Ruri's breathing from the anime series Dr. Stone
Senku listening to Ruri’s breathing

The longer she has the illness for, the worse her combined symptoms would become. And that’s why it’s amazing that she somehow lived for years like this. We don’t know how many years it’s been, but either way, it’s an impressive feat considering they had no medicine whatsoever.

But I’ll let the improbability of Ruri’s survival slide.

Really what I thought could have been done better about this part of the episode was the conclusion. After taking the medicine Ruri’s condition gets worse, but then Senku let’s everyone know that just means the drug is working. This was pretty anticlimactic.

Why not say that she’s having trouble breathing due to an allergic reaction to the medicine? After all, allergic reactions to sulfa antibiotics are possible and anaphylaxis is a symptom. Senku could have then scienced up a way to save Ruri from this new threat on the spot.

Ishigami Village

Ishigami Village is the name of the stone village. We finally have a name so I can stop calling it the stone village. But why does this matter in the slightest?

First of all, Ishigami is also Senku’s last name. And this is no coincidence considering Ruri already knew that fact. Remember back when I mentioned that the first priestess was someone who likely knew Senku, even perhaps one of his relatives? Well, that seems much more plausible now considering the village is named after his family.

The other important piece of information has to do with the name Ishigami itself. Now, I’ve already wrote an article about anime character names which covers this subject, but anime characters tend to have names that tell you something about them. You know, like how Izuku Midoriya’s color scheme is green and midori (緑) is the word for green.

Well, what do you think ishigami means? And no, it doesn’t describe Senku’s physical appearance — not all anime names do. An ishigami is actually a type of stone statue depicting a god. A god of stone, if you will.

But, ishi is also the word for doctor — as in doctor stone. When written as 医師 ishi translates to doctor, but when written as 石 it translates to stone. So, I guess you could say the title of this anime is Ishi Ishi. But it’s not really, because the title of the series is written in katakana, not kanji.

And there you have it — the title Dr. Stone does in fact refer to Senku, not the soap stone he called Dr. Stone earlier on in the series. His name is also a reference to the fact that he is the new god of the stone world.

Conclusion

What did you think of Dr. Stone episode 15? Do you have another reason why Senku’s family name is important? Let me know in the comments. I guess you could say that ishigami might also refer to the petrified humans as stone statues of gods, and that argument also makes sense.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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