English Dub Review: Dr. Stone – Science Future “The Two Scientists”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Back before the Petrification, Dr. Xeno tries learning how to begin world domination as he also mentors Senku by email.

OUR TAKE

Well, after last week revealed the connection between Senku and Xeno, my assumption was that we would continue on from there in the present to see how Senku reacts to his mentor now being his next big adversary. Apparently instead, we’re going to jump thousands of years back into the past to exactly when Senku first made contact with him, which turns out to be when he sent a concerningly complex question to a scientific institute that was going to ignore him until Xeno decided to message back. From there, he began to teach Senku about the finer points of experimentation, like finding specific materials for lab equipment and encouraging him to research things he wouldn’t have considered otherwise. He also started having some proclivities towards wanting to take over the world which were…concerning to say the least, but thankfully Senku didn’t have any interest in that or this story would have played a HELL OF A LOT DIFFERENTLY. He and Senku would eventually meet in person briefly, though it seems they just shared a knowing mutual stare into the middle distance before parting ways. And that may have been the only time they interacted within the same space of each other if not for the plot of this story!

The flashback then takes us to the night before the Petrification beam occurred. As we know, by then there were already signs of something being up, as specific types of birds had begun falling out of the sky from being petrified, something that the story has not quite explained even now. Senku observed this but was a kid in high school who couldn’t do much about it, but Xeno had connections to powerful organizations and went to them with the knowledge that staying awake during the process would preserve your consciousness, much like it went on to do with Senku. However, as they continued these discussions, the beam began passing over the earth and they were all stoned, and not in the fun way. However, the episode ends only with Xeno reviving himself at the same time as Senku, meaning that next episode will likely include how his group formed in the wake of the Stone Age and became the force they are now. So, not a whole lot of actual analysis this time but for sure plenty next week! Overall, a very interesting new perspective on events we already knew, but we’ll hopefully get the whole picture in the next episode so we can start moving forward.