Last week had been a little though for me so I didn’t have time to make gifs for these posts but I’m back in fill form and you get a creepily smiling Senku out of it. Not sure if anyone wins here…
What I thought Would Happen
last week pretty much told us exactly what would happen this episode. Namely that Senku and his newfound primitive friends would embark on a quest for penicillin. Honestly I didn’t think too much beyond that. There’s no real reason to pull a bait and switch at this point in the story.
I did however think we might get a least a little peak at what’s happening with Taiju and Tsukasa but for the moment they are keeping us completely focused on Senku. So far, that’s not a bad thing.
What Did Happen
ooops. I sort of forgot my own format and explained it in the previous section. I guess I can add a few details. They’ve decided to go the mineral formula route to create antibiotics but it’s a painstaking and gruelling process. While collecting iron dust they meet with little Suika (seemingly a small kid with a melon rind on it’s head) who helps out. Unfortunately, the gang soon realizes they are going to need more help and Senku puts the penicillin plans temporarily on hold while trying to figure out how to get the rest of the village to help out.
Turns out it’s by “inventing” and feeding them ramen which would very much work on me so I’m completely sold on the realism of this episode.
What About the Characters
I’ve been wracking my brains to figure out why Suika didn’t get on my nerves. The character is essentially a collection of tropes that usually annoy me and yet, I thought it was cute. Maybe I’m in a really good mood?
We spent the entire episode with Senku, Kohaku and Chrome (and of course little Suika) but I can’t say there was much development. So far, Dr. Stone characters are very straightforward. The story is very plot driven (and I can’t blame it with such a great plot) so the characters have been fairly utilitarian.
Now this isn’t a bad thing and I believe it’s the best way to go with this particular story. Even Senku himself who is the most developed and complex character so far has stayed completely true to his episode 1 self then entire time, which means that we already know how he’s going to react in most instances. The downside is, it makes it difficult to flesh out this part of my post…
What I Liked
I like the entire concept of making the creation of penicillin an action adventure. It’s a great goal and they’ve set up the stakes perfectly. I understand exactly why everyone is involved and I want them to succeed. Moreover the science behind it is easy to understand for a general audience so they don’t have to invent much.
The early scene of Senku completely drained after trying to teach basic science to the other two really resonated with me. Teaching is hard.
I continue thinking that Chrome and Kohaku make better foils for Senku’s character. Chrome’s nerdy dopiness is more fun than Tasiju’s plain one while Kohaku may have a soft spot for Senku, she no pushover and finally someone is poking some fun at him.
This episode featured the most fanservice we’ve gotten from the series so far (it was still mostly innocent) and it was completely equal opportunity. That’s cool! I hope it’s a trend that sticks around!
There was a few clues dropped that a deeper story line is about to get weaved in. Namely, both Kohaku and Chrome know about Momotaro and gorillas, both thinks they should have no concept of. It seems they heard them both from Ruri. The Momotaro tale is odd, like deformed through generation of word of mouth or possibly retold and half invented by someone who never paid much attention to it in the first place. Either way, splinters of the old world have made their way into this village and that will surely lead to more.
What I Liked Less
There was a heck of a lot of convenient breaks this episode. Oh my, Chrome has a magnet and there are in fact tons lying around. Great! Hey Suika is playing with something, of it’s millet Senku can use to make ramen and just as he was trying to figure out an interesting food to lure people with. I understand that without a few lucky breaks we’re still going to be attempting to make penicillin in episode 264 but they felt a little too obvious this week.
At one point the subtitles had Senku saying that he was “low-key interested” in Ruri. For some reason this really bugged me. I never realized it before but I don’t like the expression “low-key” it seems. I have no clue whether it actually exists in Japanese but even if it does, it seems obnoxious for Senku to be using it.
Closing Thoughts
The past two episodes have been very enjoyable. I really can’t complain. Moreover, the Momotaro mystery is one of the more interesting set ups we’ve had so far. I’m curious to see how the two groups of characters will reunite.
Mood: lulled into a false sense of security
Thanks for your thoughts on the episode. 🙂 Interesting as usual. I think adding the phrase low-key in place of “a little” was just one of those stupid decisions by the Crunchyroll subbers that happens every so often. Based on what little I know, it sounded more to me like Senku said, “Suddenly this Ruri woman is interesting to me.” There is one word in there I don’t know that sounds like waiteki but other than that it was a simple sentence. Maybe it is a difficult-to-translate phrase.
It sounded like a bunch of network execs trying to appeal to the youths – you may be onto something there!