I do not know why in the world this episode features ramen saving the day, but that is exactly what Doctor Stone episode 8 is about. Listen, it’s completely founded within science: people have been waging war over food and spices since the dawn of time. It sounds crazy to us because we have so many at our beck and call, but it makes sense. In order to make an antibiotic and cure Ruri, they need many components. This episode they find a magnet and use it to gather iron dust. But making iron is a daunting task and requires many people in order to generate a heat hotter than fire created from wood naturally creates. But with a small team of people who can’t work as long as necessary: he knows what he needs to do.

So he makes a subpar ramen in order to get people on his side. Okay, it’s more complicated than that. He makes friends with a little girl who wears a melon head named Suika, and together the four of them work during the episode in order to gather iron sand and create various things. The key part of their ramen ends up being foxtail wheat, something they don’t know about or understand, and watching it made me super hungry. I don’t think Senku understands how relevant the actual meat he used was comparative to the ramen noodles, but I digress. I would be seduced even by subpar ramen in the stone age.

Recruiting the villagers into his nation of science is a daunting task for Senku so far and it seems it will stay that way for awhile. But if ramen can’t seduce the people in the village, at least the two he was aiming for, then the world has failed me anyway. What kind of world is this where ramen can’t win the day? Not my animu world, for sure. Introducing Suika, who is an undercover nine year old with a melon on her head and a giant inferiority complex, was a dynamic I am fond of. It does seem that Taiju and Yuzuriha are quietly absent until the plot with Tsukasa returns, and I think that’s for the best. I am able to form a more important connection to Kohaku’s village because of this.

Next time, is ramen a suitable replacement for actual trust between humans in the stone age? Probably!

Oki