A trust-building exercise.
What They Say:
Episode #22: “The Treasure”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Senku, Magma, and Chrome depart on their spelunking journey deep into the center of the earth. Or at least, deep into a rather large cave inside a mountain. From the very start, there is a level of tension in the group, because of their history with Magma and the danger of traveling into a potentially dangerous situation with him.
That distrust is supposed to be heightened by the fact that Gen very sneakily whispers something to Magma before cackling afterword. The problem is that by now we know Gen is trustworthy, so I assumed whatever he whispered to Magma was a threat to keep him in line. (That turns out to not be the case in either way, but I’ll get to that later.)
What follows is a typical playing out of events. Magma puts on a good show of being a team player, and then loudly proclaims that he still wants to kill them. The caves prove to be unstable, with plenty of pitfalls requiring tenacity, science, and strength to overcome. Did Magma’s shoving of Senku mean to save him or end him? Chrome is thoroughly convinced Magma is plotting their demise while Senku trusts Magma not to jeopardize their mission.
Why does Senku determine Magma is all talk? Maybe it’s because despite all of his posturing and threats Magma hasn’t actually acted on any of them. He had ample opportunity to kill Senku many times over the last few months but did not. Yes, they intended to kill Gen but Gen was a sketchy outsider. In a world where strength was everything machismo was valued over all else. He wanted glory and status, but you can’t rule over a village where nobody would trust you.
Ultimately Magma is proven to be trustworthy enough on this mission. Senku assures him of his place, and that a ‘twig’ like himself needs those with brute strength and vice versa. Society requires folks of all skills. So Magma is assured of his important role in their society and the perfect source of tungsten is found within a skarn formation inside the cave. Once again, Senku is lucky that Japan of 3,000 years in the future is so full of useful geological formations.
So, what did Gen whisper to Magma? He made Magma promise to get Senku and Chrome back in three days. Why? I guess as soon as they grabbed him and blindfolded him as to what Gen and the villagers might have been plotting. Even Senku was starting to think the villagers might have weighed their options and decided to save themselves with diplomacy, which is crazy after all they went through. Yet what Senku is presented with is a gift that is both practical, heartfelt, and somewhat amazing.
In Summary:
Sometimes you need to give a little to get a little. Trust is something easily broken and hard to build in a tense situation. Yet when under fire a group can find that trust comes as easily as simply reaching out a hand. This show can be surprisingly touching and self-aware at the same time. Magma may have been the hardest sell out of anyone in the village, but ultimately he’s not a complete idiot. Senku has done a lot for the village which bears his family name, and they decide to repay him for the wonders he’s shown. Gen proves to be one of the best allies Senku could hope to have, but the rest of his town isn’t shabby either.
Episode Grade: B +
Streamed by: Crunchyroll, Funimation, Toonami
