Alright, okay. Usually Dr. Stone makes me believe in the steadfast power of science. As a disclaimer, let me say this episode was a tearjerker in most ways and set a lot of important precedent! We learned that Senku’s father was on the space station and he was with five hours. Now don’t get me wrong: 6 is about the number of people who are on the ISS at any time. This was a factual decision by the writer of Dr. Stone. But every single person in Ishigami village is apparently a descendant of the 6 on the space station and that is a horrible amount of genetic swapping in 3700 years. How did these people survive with such a limited gene pool?! Were there scant and seldom people who came to the village? They did mention at once not allowing outsiders, so perhaps that is possible? Jeez. 6 people.
A lot of this episode was a flashback telling us about the people who ran Ishigami village. We probably have another episode / episode and a half to spend with them as they haven’t even returned to earth yet, but seeing their appearances and temperaments they make perfect sense as the ancestors of the village. Most of what made this episode moving was knowing that Senku’s father will never see his son again but left behind so much of a world for him. It also means that shipping anyone in this show is really weird for me now. How….how I ship when gene pool so small? I. ..I guess I’ll just pretend I didn’t know any of this stuff?
What matters to me as a reviewer is I love Senku’s father and watching the way he and his son had a connection was endearing. He did say ‘I’ll bring you back lots of science stuff’ and granted, it seems whatever he did gave Senku people to work with and create the world anew. I’m still super sad his dad won’t ever be back and he is genuinely dead, but I’m hopeful for the future. At least now the village knows he is significant and he’ll be able to work to build the Kingdom of Science far above whatever crap Tsukasa can throw at them. Like lions. What are the chances that Tsukasa has tamed lions by now? I don’t want to think about it.
Also, you know, for once they had a really good english singing voice on an american singer who was introduced. So points there!
Oki