Dr. Stone Episode 22

The Treasure

Dr. Stone episode 22 was extremely average. I liked that Magma got a bit more character development, but at the same time, he didn’t. Also, apparently Senku is strong and heavy enough to support Magma’s weight hanging off the edge of a cliff. I’m not saying that’s the most egregious offense in anime, but physics doesn’t work like that.

So anyway, let’s start with the pseudo-character development Magma received in this episode. We all know Magma was a minor villain earlier on in the series, but what about now? Is everything that happened between Magma, Chrome, and Senku water under the bridge?

Kind of, yeah. And the problem I have with that is that there’s no real reason for it. We’re just left to accept it.

It’s sort of implied that over time Magma has recognized the benefits of Senku’s inventions, but barely. He doesn’t really begin to respect Senku until the events of this episode. And by then, it’s already too late — his character development has seemingly already occurred.

Think of it like this, why did Magma risk his life to save Senku in the cave? Because Senku is the chieftain? Because Gen told him Senku’s birthday is coming up? From what we know of Magma, he doesn’t care about those two things.

My assumption is this: Magma is afraid of Gen because he doesn’t understand that his sorcery isn’t real. So when Gen told him to return Senku by a certain time, Magma saw this as a threat. Either he returns Senku safely and on time, or Gen will use his sorcery against him.

So is that really character development? No.

The Dungeon

However, although Magma’s character didn’t develop in that way specifically, he does get some real development over the course of the episode. Because of the actions he takes in his attempt to keep Senku safe for Gen, he learns a lot about Senku.

First, Magma sees that Senku trusts him more than he really should. For example, when Magma holds the ladder steady as Senku crosses the ravine. Senku doesn’t appear to have any hesitation, even though he knows Magma could kill him at any point.

Then we get to the part when Magma pushes Senku out of the way so he doesn’t fall into a mica pit. Despite Magma’s best efforts to hide this, Senku realizes what he did. And because of this, Senku refuses to let go of Magma despite it meaning he’s going to fall into the pit as well.

But even once the two are stuck in the pit together, Magma still isn’t sure about Senku. It’s at this point that Senku explains that he doesn’t see himself as inherently better than Magma. Instead, they both excel in different areas, and can achieve even greater feats by working together.

This is when Magma’s character development truly begins. Remember, everything helpful he did up to this point was likely caused by his fear of Gen’s sorcery.

Then, at the end of their adventure, when they find the rocks they’ve been searching for, Magma once again puts on his bad guy facade. Chrome takes this seriously and believes Magma is about to kill them, but Senku doesn’t even respond. He keeps his back to Magma because he trusts that Magma won’t hurt him. And this proves a lot about Senku’s character to Magma.

The Treasure of Friendship

Aside from all the mineral treasures which were found in the cave, Senku, Chrome, and Magma came back with another treasure: The treasure of friendship. Okay, so maybe it isn’t quite right to say that Magma is friends with the other two now, but they have a mutual respect for one another.

And this respect is actually seen all throughout Ishigami village. While the trio of spelunkers were off mining, Gen rallied the other villagers and together they built Senku an observatory for his birthday, complete with a telescope. This was the villagers’ way of thanking Senku for everything he’s done for them up to this point.

According to my calculations, which could very well be extremely wrong, January 4th is Senku’s real birthday. And I have to specify “real” birthday, because there’s an offset between his age and his birthday. He’s roughly 17.25 years old on the date of his birthday.

We know this because of the information we’re provided. He’s been “alive” for a little over 6,268 days, and he awoke from his petrification on April 1st 5738 CE. Additionally, this tells us that the petrification event occurred at some point in June.

Also, the Dr. Stone universe doesn’t appear to have leap years, meaning their version of Earth has 0.25 days less per year than ours.

And now that I’ve done that math and come up with those conclusions, just as you’re probably wondering, I too am wondering why I even bothered. Oh, and I could be off by a year on Senku’s age. I’m pretty sure this is the second winter since he awoke, so I based his age on that.

He could be 18.25 if there was another winter I forgot about, which seems very likely.

Conclusion

So what are your thoughts on Dr. Stone episode 22? Why do you think Magma seemingly had a change of heart and was helping Senku and Chrome through the first portion of the cave? Was it because he was afraid of Gen? Also, check my rough math, how old do your calculations say Senku is? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.