English Dub Review: Dr. Stone – Science Future “Dr. X”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As the team continue their journey for corn, Gen is captured by a technologically advanced assailant named Stanley Snider and taken to his leader, Dr. Xeno, a scientist who managed to revive himself just like Senku.

OUR TAKE

Kinda hard to believe we’re already a third of the way through this season, isn’t it? Well, at the very least, we’ve definitely gotten right smack dab in the middle of plot stuff, as our protagonists have finally run into two of what seem to be pretty important characters, if not the main antagonists of the remainder of the story. I mean, I don’t like to judge people by their looks, but these guys look pretty evil and this series is typically pretty upfront with you about who the bad guys of the moment are. Not that they always STAY bad guys, as we’ve seen with Tsukasa, Gen, and Hyoga who are all card carrying good guys now, but uh…yeah, I don’t think it takes much media literacy to tell that they’re going to have fight the guy who’s a really good fighter and the guy who’s as smart, if not smarter, than Senku. Come to think of it, while we have had many antagonists in this series that have been more than formidable in offensive capabilities, and some who were above average in cunning, we have never really had one who excelled solely in intelligence like Senku does, have we?

Now, intelligence itself, like strength and cleverness, is not inherently a good or bad thing. It is a pretty neutral quality until it is used for a specific end. Senku has used his pursuit and talent in science to save himself and the people around him, as well as look for ways to make their lives better, but we have no idea what the thought process is for Dr. Xeno. We do know he’s probably American if he’s here in California, and having an American antagonist right now is, well…understandable, given certain recent domestic events. Though also interesting is that Gen, being captured by this new group, tells them that Taiju is actually the scientific mind they’ll be wanting to talk to. Surely this is just a bid to buy Senku some time to assess their new opponents, but how this will involve Taiju and how he may or may not convince them he’s not dumb as a sack of bricks will probably be pretty fun to see. For now though, we’re well and truly hip deep in this arc and while we only have eight episodes left in this part of it, I’m gonna take a page from Senku’s book and get excited for what’s coming next.