Dr. Stone Episode 4

Fire the Smoke Signal

Let’s get the things I hated the most about this episode out of the way early on today. First of all, Senku only said the number ten billion twice according to my counting. That’s an improvement over some of the previous episodes, but it’s still two times too many.

Secondly, what was that mecha-Senku? Why did a robot version of Senku suddenly appear in the foreground to explain something to us? Is this going to be a recurring thing? I seriously hope not because that was probably the worst part of the entire episode.

I also touched on this last week, but Senku and Tsukasa’s 300 IQ mind games really get on my nerves. You’re telling me that not only is Tsukasa the strongest and most physically fit person to ever live, but he’s also a super genius on par with Senku? I guess humanity has peaked.

Sure, Tsukasa may not have known the formula for the “revival juice,” but Senku only knew that thanks to more than a year of experimentation. Aside from that Tsukasa seems to be just as knowledgeable about literally everything as Senku.

The final thing I want to mention here I may also have brought up last week: technological jumps. I thought this series was supposed to be about our heroes starting from scratch and making their way back to modern technology. Instead, what we really seem to have is a jump from stone age technology to the invention of gunpowder.

3000 BCE is the latest date anyone could really argue is still part of the stone age, and gunpowder was invented around 1000 CE. That’s a 4,000 year gap which was just crossed in a single episode. And it’s not like those 4,000 years which were skipped were void of important technological advancements.

Yuzuriha’s Resolve

Have I mentioned yet that I don’t like Yuzuriha and that I think she’s a boring character with no real purpose? No? Well now I have. So far Yuzuriha has accomplished nothing to justify saving her before anyone else. Taiju is in love with her, and that’s basically the extent of her character.

But, I don’t want to jump to the conclusion that Yuzuriha is completely useless just yet. She may not have a purpose now, but that doesn’t have to remain the case — though I seriously doubt she’ll end up as a good character.

And the reason I think she may still have a shot at redemption is because she was involved in the classic “female character gets a haircut to symbolize her newfound determination.” Sakura cutting off her hair with a kunai during her fight against Ino from the original Naruto series is probably the most well-known instance of this.

The only real problem with Yuzuriha’s haircut to symbolize her newfound determination is that she didn’t do it by choice. Her hair was forcibly cut by Tsukasa to show that he was serious about harming her if Senku didn’t meet his demands.

And because she didn’t go through this symbolic transition by choice, it’s hard to see her newfound determination afterwards as anything but a facade. Is she really prepared to die so that Senku can revive civilization?

I could understand Taiju saying something like that, but at least his character has already been established. Having a character like Yuzuriha make this claim doesn’t have the same effect, because as far as I’m concerned she’s a background character. She’s not even up to the level of supporting character yet.

Best Girl Incoming?

Now that I’ve said my piece about the worst, and currently only, actual female character in the series so far, let’s discuss the next girl. We don’t know her name, we don’t know anything about her, and we only have a partial idea of what she looks like, but that’s not going to stop me.

Her name aside, we do actually have some vague idea about who this girl is. She’s a survivor of the stone world like the rest of our cast, obviously. She also seems to have a fair amount of survival knowledge considering she’s proficient at starting fires and seems to have been “awake” for a decent amount of time.

This last point is something I’ve inferred from the image of her posted below. She has clothes, multiple makeshift weapons, and a shield. Those aren’t things just anyone who “woke up” from being petrified would be able to acquire. They require knowledge, skill, and time.

While Senku is the brains of the current operation and Taiju is the brawn, this new girl may be our true survival specialist. And, as the title of this section says, she may be the best girl of the series.

We’ll have to wait and see what her personality is like, but so far everything about her seems promising. She doesn’t appear to be useless like Yuzuriha, she has a cool shield, and overall I have to say I like her character design. If there are two things I’m a fan of design-wise, they’re dresses and ponytails, so she checks out.

Also her hairdo is extremely similar to best Fate girl, Mordred, so she gets bonus points for that comparison.

Senku vs. Tsukasa

The final thing I want to discuss in today’s review is the battle of attrition between Senku and Tsukasa. Tsukasa catches up to our trio and takes Yuzuriha hostage because she’s the weakest link. However, the fact that he takes her hostage rather than outright killing everyone is important.

Both sides need something from the other in order for their plans to succeed. In Tsukasa’s case, he needs to get the formula for the “revival juice” from Senku. Without this, he’ll be unable to revive those who he deems young and pure, and his dream of a world free from conflict will die off with himself.

On the other hand, Senku needs time from Tsukasa. He needs Tsukasa to leave him alone long enough to create a weapon with which to defeat him. Unfortunately for Senku, because Tsukasa has Yuzuriha as a hostage, he has the upper hand.

In the end this forces Senku to give up the secret formula and accept death at the hands of Tsukasa now that he’s no longer needed. Supposedly Tsukasa then breaks Senku’s neck with his weapon, killing him. However, we all know that’s not what actually happens.

I can’t wait to see how this series explains away Senku’s survival because I’m sure it won’t really hold up under a magnifying glass.

Conclusion

But what did you think of this week’s episode of Dr. Stone? Are you still enjoying this series? Do you somehow think Yuzuriha is a good character? What do you think the new girl is going to be like? And how do you think Senku will survive Tsukasa’s attack? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.