English Dub Review: Dr. STONE “Master of Flame”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

With Kinro fully able to fight Magma thanks to Suika’s melon glasses, Magma feigns his defeat, asking Kinro to ask the referee if his melon “sorcery” was allowed. While Kinro speaks to the ref, Magma sneaks up from behind and beats him, winning the match.

Next up on the roster is Chrome VS Mantle. They have a childish slap fight with their batons, but as soon as Magma sees Kohaku on her way back to the arena, he commands Mantle to lose the fight so that he won’t have to go up against her. He does, and Chrome wins. Kohaku does not make it back in time.

Ginro — hyped up on natural caffeine ingredients that Senku had curated — manages to defeat the villager Argo in battle. Then, it’s Chrome VS Magma. Magma immediately starts beating Chrome to a pulp. However, Chrome’s tenacity and love for Ruri allows him to formulate a plan on the brink of fainting. He uses the leftover lenses from Suika’s helmet on the battlefield, and drips in his sweat and tears, making a convex lens out of it. With this, he holds it to Magma, attempting to start a fire on him.

Gen then shows up and puts a fake movement-based death curse on Magma, making him afraid to move. Using the minute he was given, he holds the lens steady over Magma and successfully lights him aflame. He pushes him into the ocean and wins the match.

Our Take

First of all — sick new opening, and adorably sad ending. The new sequences tell a bit about the characters we know, and ones we don’t. The new ending, in particular, seems to highlight Senku’s family and tells a bit about his experiences with loss. In a way, this is sort of the first time we see Senku emotionally naked.

Anyway, onto the tournament. There was a lot to like about seeing all the Kingdom of Science characters come together — even Gen, whose neat “mentalist” trick on Magma executed a different sort of “educational” charm that the show loves to showcase. The wonderful thing about Dr. STONE is that the audience never stops learning — this time, we didn’t just get science lessons: we got psychology lessons, too!

The matches were entertaining — the Grand Bout rules really seem to have no real boundaries, though, seeing as how tricking, outside items, and outside help are allowed. However, the real head-scratcher was Chrome and Magma’s match. Obviously, “anime time” passes differently, because it shows the inner monologues of everyone involved, but even before Gen showed up, enough time had passed for Magma to realistically decked him — or for the ref to say, “Hey, Chrome, if you don’t fight, you’re disqualified.” One could use the excuse that Magma was just taking it as an excuse to be lazy for a moment (like Gen had mentioned) but how does a guy that jacked get winded so easily? He only fought two people.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall, maybe?