Dr. Stone: New World Episode 14 Review

Remember when they introduced money to the universe of Dr Stone and I got all worried about what that would do to the social balance of the story. But I was also a little curious. It’s a pretty big task to try to illustrate and walk us through all the influences and changes the introduction of a currency-based economy can have on a society.

But then they just sort of dropped that story thread altogether and no one really talks about it anymore except for throwaway jokes.

Well, this week we got guns!

As I said, Senku made a gun in this episode. Supposedly as a way to deal with Moz down the line although I’m still not entirely sure how it’s supposed to help. As a distraction? Maybe a bluff. It’s not much of a bluff when you’re dealing with someone who doesn’t know what a gun is but I guess we’ll see.

I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea and to the show’s credit, they did address the potential ethics and problems of introducing a gun into this universe. They addressed it quite superficially but that’s ok. It’s not a question you can really go into too deeply in a 25-minute episode and it would have been out of place. But the characters did at least make it clear that guns bring up a lot of issues and are not just a fun toy that gives you an advantage. I’ll take it. It’s better than nothing.

They also sidestepped the issue by having Senky point out that it was a barely functioning weapon that could be used as a tranquilizer gun at best. And that’s good enough for now. After all this morality talk I still can’t help but say that it was a cool-looking gun. That fidget spinner barrel was a really interesting design. I don’t know enough about the history of guns to know if there was ever anything similar in real life but I certainly haven’t seen one like that before. I think some machine guns have these big plates of cartridges I guess but it’s a very different effect.

It was nice to give some new characters a bit of a chance in the spotlight. Not new characters at all but characters that haven’t had the chance to do much this season, mostly because they’ve been statues up until now.

Namely, Uei who actually did make me giggle this week. I thought oh great, another Dr. Stone character who seems like a bit of an idiot but is actually a savant in one particular aspect. It was nice to have a real idiot through and through for a change.

And then there was Kinrou. He didn’t say much which is actually pretty true to the characters. He’s always been a man of few words. But his reaction after learning what happened to Ginrou was surprisingly touching. It was an effective way to bring the emotion across without the need for any big gestures or speeches. And I wonder if they let him know that Ginrou was pretty heroic at the end there. Well, not the end but the almost end. I hope so. Kinrou would have been proud.

It seems like we’re gearing up for a big fight and it almost seems like things are nearing the climax but there are still 7 episodes in the season so I figure things won’t go as smoothly as they hope. I am pretty excited about the current turn of events. I want to see how this confrontation plays out and I’m curious about the medusa device. We might actually start to get some answers. That’s awesome!