Arms race.
What They Say:
Episode #3: “Weapons of Science”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Senku, for all his science swagger, does not have the world’s greatest poker face. Tsukasa tells him his plan to restart the world with only children and teens, and Senku immediately realizes that they’ve made a terrible mistake. He spends the first half of this episode desperately keeping information away from Tsukasa only to have Taiju ruin his game.
And once Taiju learns what Tsukasa is thinking the situation becomes tense. Especially since they’re able to free Yuzuriha, who Taiju was considerate enough to dress before they thaw her out.
Tsukasa is impossibly astute. He has brawn and brains, and it’s utterly unbelievable that he figures out what he does so quickly. He determines the chemical they used to free people with a taste, he realizes the panicked fleeing is a front. He is a superman in the literal sense of the word. Senku and Taiju don’t really stand a chance against him. Senku realizes the only way they can protect themselves from him is to overpower him. To that end, they need firepower.
So it’s time to relocate.
I appreciate that in the middle of all this madness Yuzuriha momentarily breaks down when they find a statue of Buddha in Kamakura. It’s the first recognizable landmark that they recognize, a bronze statue that survived time. Taiju sees it as an act of god, Senku sees it as science. Yuzu simply remembers her family visiting it and cries. It’s the first real human moment in this series.
I do like the smatterings of science facts in this episode. It’s remarked upon at one point that the hybrid cherry trees that were once common would have all died off, leaving only the natural cultivars. An attempt is made to explain something about the petrification process…. but it’s still crazy fantasy science.
The trio reaches the hot springs that Senku was searching for while using a sextant to navigate the journey. Why hot springs? Why, the sulfur of course! It’s time to start accumulating some germs, guns, and steel. They have a crazed superman to protect their new world from.
In Summary:
Boy, that escalated quickly. Senku’s suspicions about Tsukasa turned out to be correct. His attempt to hide information from Tsukasa turns out to be futile with Taiju opening his big mouth at every turn. Yuzuriha joins the boys to begin repopulating the earth, and so far she’s not useless and shows perhaps the only reasonable human response to her new reality. Plus, more science. This show is silly as hell, but it’s still enjoyable.
Episode Grade: B
Streamed by: Crunchyroll, Funimation
