Dr. Stone: The New World ‒ Episodes 1-3

I mean, E=mc² is on his collar. ©Kome Studio, Boichi -Shueisha, Dr. STONE Project A continuation of last year’s Ryusui special, the first three episodes revolved around the search for oil – which our heroes need in order to travel across the Pacific Ocean in search of what is causing all human life on Earth to petrify. But while that’s the driving force of the narrative, it’s not really what the arc is about. Instead, it’s about all the other things you discover along the way to your ultimate goal. We got mirrors, cameras, improved transmissions, radio towers and GPS – not to mention the rediscovery of agriculture. To be honest, the first three episodes are short. Almost every beat of the story screams how amazing humans are – showcasing project after project that we create, and all the other things we invent as by-products. It’s easy to see why Senku is so fanatical – and why he believes he can restore modernity within a generation, even though such a task seems insurmountable. Senku stands on the shoulders of every incoming scientist. He already has a road map – all he has to do is walk it. But science is only half the story. The other half is the human moment. The first episode forces Senku and Ryusui to face the fact that the lack of agriculture causes the local population to suffer greatly – feast or famine every season is entirely dependent on fishing. The same episode also goes deep into Tai Chi. We see that while he does have superhuman stamina, that’s not what makes him great. Of all the people we’ve met, he’s the most human — most empathetic to those around him. If Senku is the brain of the new human society, then Taiju is the heart. That’s why Senku chose him as his first companion. But, of course, the ending of the third episode completely changes the status quo and ends this particular arc. While testing a basic GPS, Senku and others received a simple Morse code message: the word “why” over and over again. Given that 3,168 years have passed , there is no chance of an operational radio tower intact in modern times. In other words, there are not only humans in Ishigami Village and Science Kingdom on the earth. It’s also important to note that whoever these people are, they all have the same or higher technology than Senku and his companions. In the end, we could only try to decipher the one-word message. Is this a question asking why petrification happened, or is it a message – an invitation to those who can detect the signal to follow it and learn the truth behind the world of stone? We just have to keep tuning to find out.

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