English Dub Review: Dr. STONE “To Modernity”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The episode starts with showing how Tsukasa freed Hyoga, and the pair bonds over their shared hatred of the bourgeoisie which ruined the peace and harmony of their original world. Things are looking pretty good in Tsukasa land (AKA, the Empire of Might.) Everyone agrees that people should live in harmony with nature and that the inventors were also the ones who built empires that used that power to oppress people. Their regime also includes culling innocent people trapped in stone, of course. Back in the present, Hyoga points out to Senku that their battle was merely a distraction, while other Empire of Might members set Ishigami Village aflame. Here, they meet Hygoa’s methodical, powerful co-operator: Homura.

The villagers manage to evacuate everyone, but the Empire of Might tries to abduct Suika to use it as a hostage. However, Suika leads them near a sulfuric spring/volcano. Senku scares them into thinking the poison from the mountain was something the Kingdom of Science made, and this successfully scares them while they flee. Hyoga sacrifices three henchmen to see if they would truly die to the poison (they do.)

The Kingdom of Science is fretting over what to do, and Senku decides they need to make cellphones so that they can communicate a successful strike on the Empire of Might first. Hyoga returns to Tsukasa to report Gen’s treachery, the Kingdom of Science’s advances, and that Senku is confirmed to be alive.

Our Take

Hey, Tsukasa! It’s been a while!

Genuinely, we’ve barely seen any of Tsukasa’s empire up until now. The dynamic within the Empire of Might seems…genuinely peaceful, aside from all the meatheads. Here’s the thing: the general worldview of the Empire (AKA, Tsukasa’s view) makes a good argument. Tsukasa is bringing back the hard-working, blue-collar workers who were once enslaved by the upper class — whether this was by a landlord or by a CEO — who made their wealth on the backs of these manual laborers. He has a very naturalistic worldview which implements laws of natural selection: only the ones physically fit for survival should be revived, and they need to keep the earth pure by not desecrating it with the horrors technology can bring (wars, pollution, deforestation, over-population, etc.) In the sense of keeping the world clean and un-corrupt, they have a good point. However, their mass culling of random stone people — who they wouldn’t even know would agree with their view or not — is deeply flawed, and genuinely makes Tsukasa’s true “utopian” ideas — full of bulky, strongmen — leak through.

This is why they make such good antagonists. While there are some genuinely good points in their arguments, Tsukasa’s own biases seep through just subtly enough to make an equal argument against them. That’s good writing!

Anyway, the idea of making cellphones is a huge leap for the show. It’ll be insane to watch how they do this, and how Tsukasa reacts to Senku, Gen, and their “advancements.” The newest antagonist, Homura, is a strong, calculating, silent-type, but it’ll be fascinating to see how she plays in, too.

Things are really heating up — and we got to see a glimpse of Taiju and Yuzuriha! As Senku says: “Get excited!”