Dr. Stone: New World

Episode 22

This, the final episode of the season, is all about setting up things to come. There are no real fights or action to speak of (unless you count that single freeze frame of Tsukasa beating Matsukaze), and our heroes' time on the Treasure Island is barely even alluded to. The point of this episode is "visualizing the goal," as Ryusui puts it. And so we, along with the members of the Science Kingdom, are shown exactly how big the upcoming project is.

Until now, everything we've seen has been accomplished by a core group of people—a few dozen to a few hundred, all working as one using the limited resources remaining in Japan. However, the new space race project will need far more people and resources. Our heroes will need literally cities of people all around the globe working together to prepare everything that is needed—from raw materials to computers.

Of course, this brings up the looming issue that Senku will quickly lose absolute control of the situation he has enjoyed once Dunbar's Number is surpassed. While Tsukasa implies that he can deal with anyone who gets out of line, that's only really true in the initial stages. Once Senku and the others move off to establish the next city and the threat of Tsukasa is gone—well, Senku and the others better hope they depetrified the right people.

That said, this episode's real heart is largely unrelated to the upcoming journey. The revival of Tsukasa has been on the back burner for the entire season—so it's nice to see it get the screen time it deserves. It also explains why our heroes don't just solve every medical emergency going forward with petrification: the petrification device is out of energy.

But interestingly, the real star of this part of the episode isn't Tsukasa; it's Gen. While Gen is a born manipulator, since joining Senku, he has used his abilities to help with social cohesion—to keep everyone happy and focused on their immediate goals. The issue Gen is facing in this episode is that their society, at this point, has two outsiders: Senku and Tsukasa.

For Senku, it's the fact that, among all of the elites of their society, he alone retains his petrification markings. While Senku himself doesn't care, the fact remains that every time any of the others look at him, they will be reminded that they have been healed while the person most deserving has not. As for Tsukasa, he sees himself as unworthy to stand at Senku's side. After all, it was Tsukasa who broke his word to protect Senku while Senku kept his own, protecting both Mirai and bringing Tsukasa himself back from death. He's seeking punishment for his sins—and self-exile seems to be the easiest way to go.

However, Gen solves both of these issues in a single motion. He turns Senku's markings into a symbol. He implants the idea in everyone's head that until the "Why-Man" is defeated and humanity is safe, they are at war—and their petrification markings are their warpaint. Thus, their markings symbolize unification—that they are a single tribe with a single goal. It doesn't matter that some have to draw their marks and others have them permanently. And then, as the coup de grâce, Gen cajoles Tsukasa into drawing his markings back on as well—publicly showing that Tsukasa is one of them too, regardless of their rocky past. And so, once again united and with a clear, immediate goal in mind, our heroes set sail once again on their journey to the New World.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• It was nice to see Minami progressing this time—she should be super helpful in picking the right people to depetrify.

• It's funny, but if you think about it, Ibara lost the moment he petrified the whole island. Even if he won against Senku and managed to bring everyone back, without the power to petrify people (and with Moz and Kirisame being too dangerous to depetrify), it would only be a matter of time until he lost control.

• I feel like I'm missing something. Senku was petrified for about a second, and his facial markings stayed. But Tsukasa, who was petrified for a similar amount of time, lost his.

• Strictly speaking, our heroes are already beyond Dunbar's Number if you include the population of Treasure Island. However, this trick is that society is a devout theocracy—and their leader is loyal to Senku.

• Thanks for reading. See you again for the "final season" (though I am sure that, much like Attack on Titan, said "season" will be split into several parts across multiple years).

Dr. Stone: New World is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.