English Dub Review: Dr Stone – Science Future “Whole New World”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Senku and Suika bring back everyone from petrification, including Xeno, but uncover a new disturbing secret about the Medusas.

OUR TAKE

With that, we have completed the second third of the final season of Dr. Stone, leaving only a dozen or so episodes before the end. And while this isn’t a huge cliffhanger leading into the final part that can hit the ground running, it’s a good way of re-centering all of the characters for the final stretch. The biggest moments have already happened for this arc with everyone almost dying (and in one specific case, ACTUALLY dying), and giving Suika some time to herself showed just how far not just she but EVERYONE has come in this journey. But now, the last goal lies ahead of them: finding the mysterious Why-man and learning the remaining secrets of petrification and the Medusa, and to do that, they’re going to SPACE! Though before that, they still need to revive everyone else, and in doing so, they’ve learned something new: Hyoga died in the battle with Stanley’s forces, but was revived by being petrified, meaning that petrification is not just a means of pausing or healing someone, but literally reviving them from the dead. While that’s great news for Hyoga, who would be a considerable loss as a character and muscle, it’s only unlocked bigger fears about the future they may be allowing to happen.

Tsukasa has always been the most cynical about mankind, even if he has warmed up to being optimistic thanks to Senku’s efforts, but he definitely has a point that the reality of immortality will have major implications moving forward. If people are allowed to live forever AND use the Medusa to control who is an active living person in society, it will drastically change how resources are managed, the way people are punished, and indeed the value of life itself. All this time, Senku and the Kingdom of Science have pushed for mankind to be able to make their own choices as society is rebuilt, but this may be too much for mankind as a whole to handle. For the moment, Xeno seems to be willing to help get things back on track, but who knows just how long he’ll play ball before inserting his own schemes. And even then, there is still the enigmatic Why-man whose motives are still unknown. All of this hangs in the air, and we’ll have to wait a little while longer to find out how it all concludes, in the final part of the final season of Dr. Stone, which has been announced for release next year. That could be in three months, like this second part had a three month break between it and the first, or it could wait until April, but hopefully we won’t have to petrify ourselves for thousands of years to find out. I mean, it would probably go against the lessons of this series if we did, right? Right, exactly, glad you agree!