English Dub Review: Dr. STONE “The Treasure”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Senku, Chrome, and Magma head into the mines to find tungsten. Chrome is worried about Senku bringing Magma along because he is suspicious that Magma will try to kill them and make it look like an accident. Senku brings up the fact that Magma is the only one who is strong enough to mine the tungsten, so Chrome deals. However, when they approach a mica pit, Magma punches Senku — appearing to Chrome that he was planning to assassinate him. Magma winds up dangling off the edge instead, with Senku holding onto him. They both fall in, though, and Senku needs to figure out a way to get them out. Chrome comes up with the idea to fill the hole with nearby cave water to swim up in, so Senku tells him to invent a siphon and pour it in. He does so, and they make it back up — Magma promises to only kill Senku if he stops making “awesome” things.

Once they find the tungsten, they mine more minerals, and Senku reveals that he knew Magma was actually trying to save him when he punched him — trying to stop Senku from falling into the pit. Once they finish mining, they go back to the village where Senku is seemingly ambushed by everyone. Senku thinks there’s a chance they might have all turned on him. However, they surprise him with a telescope instead, since Gen figured out it was his birthday.

Our Take

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the episode, there’s one reoccurring quirk about Senku’s lines and voice acting that has become very predictable — almost to the point where it’s laughable. Pretty much before Senku says anything, he’ll give the patented smug anime laugh before explaining his schemes. It’s definitely laugh-worthy, but it’s unclear if they really meant to use it that much.

Anyway, onto the episode. This may seem like filler, but it’s important to see where a guy like Magma really stands when it comes to him and the Kingdom of Science. Anyone can see that the Empire of Might aligns more closely with his morals, but here we see that Magma has a bit more character to him than what’s been seen. He may suffer from stereotypically toxic masculinity, but at the same time, his behavior may just be due to the Pygmalion effect — where others’ expectations of his character confirm how he will act. Instead of contesting Chrome and saying that he was saving Senku from falling in the pit, he goes, “Yup! Chrome’s right! I was planning to kill you all along!” Senku clearly saw through this, though, and in the end, the real treasure was the friends they made along the way!

Gen seems like he’s become particularly close to Senku in a way — they aren’t outright buddy-buddy with each other, but the fact that Gen took the time to figure out his birthday, and got everyone in the village involved — even Magma — says a lot. Hopefully, Gen isn’t a double, triple agent, because this was a very heartfelt episode.