Dr. Stone: New World Episode 18 Review

Posted on by Irina

I made wayyyy to many assumptions last week. But can you blame me? Dr. Stone can be edited in a very tricky way. I understand that sometimes the jump from manga to animation does make it a bit difficult to follow those very action packed scenes where a lot is going on and lately that’s pretty much all we’ve been getting from Dr, Stone so I’m not blaming anyone. I just thought things were going another way.

The fact that Ibara got the Medusa device right back is fine but I’m not a big fan of shows that do that. And by that I mean shows that have an episode end on what seems to be this huge paradigm shift that’s going to completely change everything and then walk it back instantly not eve taking a second to deal with the narrative consequences. Just don’t have Ibara lose the device in the first place. He could have fallen in the water with it and have the rest of the episode happen exactly the same.

However, I do like the fact that Ibara got it back. I enjoyed his follow up retaliation. It was mustache-twirlingly evil. Dr. Stone is a show that can handle characters being essentially caricatures. And he makes for a decent antagonist. If a bit short sighted. He’s just assuming he’ll find the reviving liquid? That there’s tons? That’s it’s even possible to make more. Then again, since he never got petrified, I guess he’s willing to take the chance.

Last week I had this whole paragraph about Hyouga and how he was getting his behind handed to him. From the scene on the deck last time, I assumed Moz had knocked him out cold with ne blow. That’s really what it looked like to me. But it seems I was very wrong. He was holding his own this time and when he got his weapon of choice back he was downright dominating. You could tell Moz was done for the minute he said that line about reeking of effort. Dr. Stone has always been a show that celebrates putting the time in, practicing, trial and error. It glorifies effort and that’s part of the reason I like it. At that time, Moz was failing to recognizing something very important. Genius only goes so far, the real impressive stuff only comes with tons of hard work. Cute moral for a shonen fight scene.

So I was wrong about the science team getting the Medusa weapon, I was wrong about Hyouga and I was very happy to be wrong about the disappearance of the little science explanations. Mecha Senku was back to teach us about lubricants. That was a very weird sentence to type! I don’t know if I should sound too excited about that but I love the science vignettes. I missed them so much!

As for the episode itself, it was a lot of fun and went by in the blink of an eye. It was one of these things were tons happened but it also feels like not much happened since we’re more or less in the same place we were last week. Oh, do you guys think that Moz and Hyouga will be left as statues? I mean the science tea, owe Hyouga one now so I think there’s a chance he’ll be revived.

I have to say, I will be mad if they don’t explain how Senku avoided getting petrified. I understand that Chrome calculated the rate of expansion but so what? I am probably missing something very obvious and I’m going to be embarrassed next week. That’s fine because in the meantime, I’m just really really curious. Hoe did Senku escape? How can the Medusa device tell a voice from a telephone apart from a real one if it’s clear enough to fool a human? Even if they have enough fluid, are they going to be able to find, reassemble and revive everyone. Those are all good qestions and I hope we get good answers!

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2 thoughts on “Dr. Stone: New World Episode 18 Review”

  1. Wow. That was intense.

    I’d need to actually tick off a checklist, but nearly everyone has contributed something along the way in this arc.

    … except François, who (… last I checked) remains petrified, her most recent accomplishment being serving Ryusui a goat milk latte. ☕️✨

    Random Notes:

    – More new soundtrack music, I think? Appropriately dire, especially during the ‘Island Petrification’ sequence.

    – Ibara is that most monstrous blend of ruthlessness, ambition and cunning. Even figured out how to prime the Medusa while submerged.

    – The Petrification Effect was vast enough to be glimpsed from space (… though orders of magnitude less than the initial global event.) How huge must the device responsible for that initial Petrification have been?

    – A Hyouga flashback? Who’d have thought.

    – Speaking of Hyouga, even he ended up having faith in Senku.

    – The usual power escalation in enemies was subverted, once Hyouga got his hands on a “Proper” weapon.

    – That final, respectful exchange between Hyouga and Moz was oddly touching somehow.

    – As mentioned, pretty much everyone’s skill sets have proven invaluable at some point along the way, Magma, Ukyo & Chrome’s time to shine today.

    – Even petrified, Soyuz seemed to be glaring at Ibara.

    – Whoa! Hadn’t expected an explanation for Soyuz’s phenomenal memory.

    – Ouch! Poor Oarashi!

    – Maybe it’s just me, but I got a kick out of Kaseki swooping into a forward lane as everyone was chasing after Oarashi.

    – Adapts Manga Chapters #132-134

    … and so, now less than 100 Manga Chapters remaining to adapt.

    Oh, by the way, there looks to be at least one spoiler in the opening credits which we haven’t gotten to yet (… it’s pretty much entirely spoilers anyway, if you look closely.)

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