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What They Say:
Episode #5: “Stone World The Beginning”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Unexpected emotional hit at the beginning of this episode where there is a what-if flashback where Tsukasa is shown interacting with the group in the past. His mercy killing of Senku is so unnecessary, and yet I wonder why Tsukasa admitted to wanting to kill all of the adults straight away. He could have kept his thoughts to himself, built up his knowledge, then struck. Maybe it really is just a cry of help.
Except the ones doing the crying are Yuzu and Taiju. In their shock and sorrow, they create a dangerous distraction and ignite the gunpowder to take Senku’s corpse and their belongs as far away from Tsukasa as they can. As they desperately try to revive their friend they realize that Senku would never sacrifice anyone for the sake of another, even himself. He didn’t believe in those “one over the other” solutions, so they conclude he must have had a plan to survive. They find it in a spot on the back of his neck that was never unpetrified and putting the pieces together, pour some acid on him.
Yes, this is the sort of leap in logic that was foreshadowed well, but ultimately still weird pseudoscience. Making things stranger, the show then cuts to a flashback to show us how Senku survived those first few months alone.
I really didn’t have any questions about how he could have built the tools and shelter he had when Taiju was thawed out. My questions revolved around his escape from stone, and the show doesn’t explain that! They make it look like Senku broke out using willpower alone, which is the kind of shonen bullshit I expect of other series.
The only good thing about the flashback is it shows Senku’s many failures as he relearns out to make fire from friction and stone tools. Knapping stone is a craftsman’s skill, and Senku’s real gift isn’t just his memory, but his perseverance. This boy wants to get to space so badly he is still determined to do so even when brought back to technology level zero.
In Summary:
This series has an odd way of storytelling. I’m not sure we really needed to go back and see how Senku spent those first months awake and alone. Sure, it does a bit more to humanize the genius, showing his struggles to make fire and hunt, but the emotions seem to be swirling around him and not within him. It just prolongs the inevitable present, where the two friends show that they can be strong and smart as well, picking up on minute clues to saving their friend. Goddamn it, show! I want to see what the deal is with the other humans wandering around!
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll, Funimation