Dr. Stone: New World Episode 16 Review

Posted on by Irina

You know what they say: The best defense is a good offense…

I’m not quite sure who says that. Seems like a very aggressive stance. I mean you sort of have to be on the offense at all times to really make it work and that seems exhausting to me. I would be a very ineffective dictator.

You might remember that I actually liked the last episode quite a bit. It seems like the story is really moving forward. Actually, this second half of New World has been really action-packed. I mean Dr. Stone has always been an action shonen but in the past few episodes, everything else has taken a bit of a back seat to the action in question. I’m all for it, it was time to get a more dynamic arc. But I do hope we get back to the science babble once the Medusa weapon is secured.

Ryuusui has “sailor spidey sense” and I’m just going to have to accept that. It’s fine. I was a bit skeptical when the scene first played out but they had Senku explain it to us and actually, it made a lot of sense. A character with notoriously good aim since to be either not considering that aim or purposefully throwing it off. That’s something that should give you pause. Especially when the aim being off has such important consequences for the other side. Let’s not forget that Senku’s team does have one very important, even crucial piece of information that is still completely unknown by any of the islanders. The fact that the petrification can be reversed.

What this means is that as far as Kirisame is concerned, accidentally getting anyone from her own side caught in the petrification sphere would mean death for them. And even if we argue that she wouldn’t care about that. We actually don’t know much about Kirisame. She could be an extremely callous person. Still, it would mean losing a number of trained soldiers for no particular reason. And in a time of war, that’s always a bad move. So I get why Senku would think it’s some type of trap. And I really like the explanation. And I’m willing to accept that years of calculating trajectories on the high seas and navigating by the stars have given Ryuusui a sort of instinctual feel for distances. So far so good!

All of this means a sudden change of plan for the science team. One that’s additionally forced by Magma being Magma. So the backup plan is to reveal that the master has been a statue all along and Ibara is actually manipulating them all. On the surface, I understand but like…why would that work? do people even know what the master is supposed to look like? He’s only a silhouette, it could be just a random statue. And even if they do know, would they care.

Hear me out. It’s pretty much established that the people of the iland think of the Master as a tyrant at this point. Everyone except his army and entourage (that is to say Ibara’s) dislike and fear him. He is only obeyed because the power of the petrification ray keeps everyone in check. Otherwise, they would not agree to everything they are being put through. The fact that this horrible tyrant is stone wouldn’t make them turn against whoever did this to him, they would more likely celebrate that. And the fact that it was Ibara all along and he lied to them might be a bit annoying to some but at the end of the day, they would feel compelled to obey him for the same reasons as before. The only actual good it could do is if it turns Kirisame against Ibara since she holds the weapon and I have to figure Ibara has taken precautions against that. The show specifically spells out that he’s a very good strategist. He wouldn’t leave such a huge and obvious weakness exposed like that.

So I’m not sure where they are going with all this. One thing I do know is that Senku just straight-up told us what to expect. It’s time for a bug ol fun fight! So I should probably stop thinking too hard about this!

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2 thoughts on “Dr. Stone: New World Episode 16 Review”

  1. Is it just me, or was there entirely new background music during the first half of the episode? 🤔✨

    Quick notes:

    – Wow, did that episode not go as expected. 😱✨

    – Good memory, Soyuz. 🤗✨

    – Adapts Manga Chapters #126-129

    Reply
  2. Pingback: Dr. STONE NEW WORLD Part 2 Episode 16: Favorites - Crow's World of Anime

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