I am back with episode 4 of Dr. Stone: New World and we are searching for Why Man!
For those of you who may not have known, I took a couple of weeks off and went to see the Rockies. Even though they are in the same country, it’s a really big country so it was a 5-and-a-half-hour flight to get there and a couple of timezones. And boy was it stunning!
But I did get back to my home turf just in time to pick up episode 4 of Dr. Stone. Boy, you look away for a week and a ton of stuff happens. The plot sure is thickening.
But before we get to that, a big thank you to Cow for picking up the slack while I was gone. I really appreciate it. How was your week off? Is it fun writing for me? I doubt it but thanks again. Please let me know what I’ve missed!
Hi! Glad to help, but I’m sure our readers missed you as much as I did! Also, it’s just plain fun to talk about the episode in collaboration!
The short version of what you missed: Senku and friends were testing their “GPS” when they received Morse code saying “WHY.” they’ve concluded the signal was from either the mastermind behind pertification or someone closely involved. Dramatic stuff!
Like I said I was away, so I ended up watching episodes 3 and 4 in a row. If I get some of the plot points from episode 3 mixed in here, please forgive me. They just form a fluid line for me.
So last week we finally got a hint of what could be our antagonist of the season. In fact of the entire show. Someone that is only called Why Man for now. And I have to say, this is one of the most intriguing introductions I have seen. Really good job.
I really liked how both Senku and Ryusui took it as a challenge – a challenged they relished. Very cool stuff!
But that doesn’t deter our heroes from the task at hand. Finding oil and building a ship that’s going to allow them to travel beyond Japan and find both new resources and maybe new allies in this strange new old world!
That’s actually coming along pretty well. Extraordinarily well in fact. As Senku puts it later in the episode, once you got oil, things really speed up.
There were a number of pretty impressive technological leaps this episode. And it started with a display. And old fashion cathode one. What did you think Crow? Was this a bit too much of a leap or are you buying it? This you could make one?
If I had Senku’s brain and Kaseki’s skill, it’d be easy! Which is to say, no, I could not make one. But I enjoyed how they described the process, step by step. I remember using CRTs, and watching this episode, it struck me. My daughter hasn’t. She’s grown up with flat screens and Apple Retina Displays. I still remember going from eye-aching green text to fuzzy color letters on an IBM 5153 color display connected to an IBM PC AT Model 339 with a CGA card.
And no, it’s just a rumor that I had to fight off dinosaurs to use it! They were away down south.
Obviously (thankfully) they aren’t making TVs yet. To be fair, there would be nothing on! But what Senky did end up creating is a way to visually display waves. You know like sound waves. The Kingdom of Science has managed to acquire radar/sonar technology and if it turns out they are not alone, this may prove very useful.
Considering that food shortage was a real concern a few episodes back since the number of people to feed has grown exponentially, it’s also nice to have a way to quickly find schools of fish and such.
Were you impressed by how good a fisherman Ryuusui is, Crow? I figured the rich boy would never have stooped so low as to catch his own fish but he seems very adept at it!
Ryusui’s impressing me more and more. Yeah, he’s a rich boy, but he’s a hands-on rich boy. In the positive sense. Even knowing that, though, it was a pleasant surprise to see him grab the net and fling it. No hesitation, no expectation that he’d just give orders and watch others do the work. He’s been an interesting addition to the cast.
All this new technology comes with new challenges. It’s all well and good to build these small if impressive personal devices but once you get into the big stuff, like a ship large enough to carry a whole crew and sturdy enough to cross an ocean, you need a lot more manufacturing power. And that means not only the tools and materials to make it but the actual factory.
I wonder how they will go about it this time.
They’re moving at quite the clip, aren’t they? Might be stretching things a bit – like building a road. Asphalt is, if I understand it, the least of their worries. They have to level the ground, remove rocks and other obstacles, and in general exert a lot of force. They kind of glossed over that.
But truth be told, I’m not sure it’d be interesting to watch them to all that! As it was, it was fun watching the Power Team flatten the asphalt.
While the main team is busing themselves with preparations, Chrome has a little time on his own. For him, this new technology is like magic. He can’t liken it to something he’s known before so he is experimenting with all this for the first time.
I really like when they let Chrome figure out things for himself. It’s one thing to have Senku just explain everything. It’s interesting and can be quite fun. But seeing Chrome go at it through trial and error and come up with imperfect solutions and partial truth, well that feels a lot more like actual science to me, if you know what I mean.
So seeing how Chrome was figuring out that he could pick up on magnetic currents with this new Braun Tube and having him put that realization into application was just perfect. What did you think about it, Crow?
I think it’s a blast to watch him think things through, then start experimenting. Seeing his pure joy when it works out fills me with hope. We call that science, but watching Chrome in this episode, it occurred to me it’s really just being human. Being curious, figuring things out.
I also liked it when Chrome reacted to Kohaku saying he acted smug after finding the iron ore. “Relax. I’m not being smug,” he said (16:12). “It’s just that when you have some idea of how things work, and the science turns out to be dead-on… Crap, it’s too fun!”
So the pieces are really falling into place. They have oil, some roads are starting to be paved, they have the makings of travel by sea and they even have the start of a railway (By the way, my trip was on a train through the mountains so it’s very topical for me). With an iron mine at their disposal, it seems like they are in a really good spot.
But we still have no clue who this Why Man is and what they want.
Also, part of me can’t help but think that both mining and oil extraction are actually pretty devastating for the environment. I wonder how this new world will adapt to that. Or will they skip over that part?
What did you think of the episode Crow? Anything left out?
I think you covered the highlights! To your point about the impact to land that’s sustaining them, I noticed Senku opted for a mine below ground and not a strip mine. Of course, there’s no indication what they did with all the material they removed (and they removed a ton!).
I think they’re more or less ducked the question for now. Too bad! Senku’s bright. I’d like to see what solutions he would come up with!
Oh nice, hope you had fun. Hiked & camped in Waterton some years back, lovely experience. And of course Banff is magical. Furthest West I’ve ever been!
Vancouver was pretty nice in a general big city way. Friendly Toronto…