Wage non-killing war
Creative Staff:
Story: Riichiro Inagaki
Art: Boichi
Translation: Caleb Cook
Touch-Up Artt & Lettering: Stephen Dutro
Design: Julian [JR] Robinson
Editor: John Bae
Science Consultant: Kurare
What They Say:
In order to win the coming battle without shedding any blood, Senku and friends decide to infiltrate the Tsukasa Empire and install a secret hotline! But who will answer the first crucial phone call?! Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Science is hard aat work on a steam engine for their motor vehiucle! It’s time to bring the industrial revolution to the stone world!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Senku is a kind of character I can get behind. He’s a guy who’s only after the science of things, and he is vehemently opposed to violence. When he’s forced to wage a war against Tsukasa, he wants to do so in the most non-violent way possible, and definitely without killing. When Kohaku asks whether she should just kill Tsukasa’s scout, Homura, he asks whether she’s even willing to do so. It never has to resort to killing, and Senku knows that.
Tsukasa and Senku, then, are on the same side. Neither wants to see the rampant killings of modern times, but one sees a different way to go about that. Senku sees science as his tool to achieve a rebirth of human society. Tsukasa sees the absence of science as a way to forever rid the world of the tools of killing, and birth humanity anew. And here’s where the story sits, against these two sides with one side clearly holding an advantage in brains and the other in braun.
It’s in the enthusiasm toward science, and the quick building thereof, that I really enjoy the series. It delves just enough into it that someone with a humanities background like me can enjoy the depth that it achieves. But it isn’t so deep that I’m very often lost in the science. Someone of the sciences might take umbrage with the portrayal in the series—or may be the convenient way in which they get all their materials—but that’s all in service of just speeding things up.
I can’t believe they really made a functioning vehicle, but the methods and materials they used (and use in everything) are time appropriate. And everything is building upon what they’ve already done. They build the water wheel, which allows the precision needed to build car parts. It’s cool!
In Summary:
In this war between Senku and Tsukasa, it seems that Senku has the upper hand at the moment. But the thing about the narrative thus far is that we haven’t spent any time with Tsukasa. It’s assumed that, you know, a car that’s going to be used as a ramming vehicle will give them something insurmountable, but the folks from Tsukasa’s side have been their own forms of ridiculous. Homura is extremely fast and flexible. Ukyo has seemingly inhuman hearing. And there’s Tsukasa. It’s the thrill of will the dude with a car win, or will the dude with sticks and rocks win. And I have no idea.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: November 5, 2019
MSRP: $9.99
