English Dub Review: Dr. Stone – Science Future “Those Who Know the Rules; Those Who Make Them”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Stanley engages in a dogfight with Ryusui and the still recovering Senku, while both sides plan to infiltrate the others’ base.

OUR TAKE

We’re down to the penultimate episode of this part of the season, so what better time to have begin the first big strikes on either side now that they (and we the audience) know more about each other? I honestly didn’t expect Senku to get back in the action so quickly after getting shot, but I guess that’s not a big deal? Would’ve sure made his full recovery in the next batch of episodes feel more momentous while everyone else continued to take up the reins and showed how well he had led them so far at least but okay, I guess we’re back to normal only a few episodes after making it feel like this was gonna be a big deal. Though it’s not like he’s not given a run for his money as Stanley, or at least who the audience is made to THINK is Stanley, fights him and Ryusui off in plane to plane combat. This really feels like the big action moment for this part of the arc (unless the next episode surprises us), not just because of the dogfight, but also as the real surprise, an enemy submarine, rams and infiltrates the ship, capturing some members of Senku’s team and shooting others.

And with that, we’re down to the…well, I hesitate to say “season finale” since this is only part of the big final season, but we’re also probably not coming back for the rest of the year, and I’m going to have to do a form of a season review for this so…yeah, basically the season finale next week. I haven’t read the manga, so I’m not sure what the cutoff point for this will be, but we’ve already done a lot of mostly set up in these past eleven episodes to establish this new antagonist group. What we don’t know exactly is what their plans are to conquer the world, as per Xeno’s stated goal, or what they’ll do once they learn about Why Man and more about the Petrification Devices, but I given how they’ve behaved so far, I really don’t expect their reaction will be very good for Senku’s team. Regardless, we will find out how this first part will end by this time next week, and I’m expecting something pretty big to close us out for the year. Then again, they might just be saving that for the second part.