English Dub Review: Dr. STONE “Where Two Million Years Have Gone”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

After Senku successfully saves Kohaku, she offers to lead him to her village so that he can accrue allies. After sleeping through the night, Kohaku also fetches a large pot of hot-spring water in an attempt to heal her sick sister back at the village. When they arrive, Senku is barred from entering by guards Kinro and Ginro (as they don’t accept outsiders) but after Senku blows a few bubbles their way, they mistake his science for sorcery. Enter Chrome — the village sorcerer who deduces how Senku made the bubbles (even though he doesn’t know the name for them.) This leads Senku to believe that this village of people descended from other people who first broke out of their stone prisons.

After a “sorcery” contest (in which Senku mops the floor with Chrome) the two bond over Chrome’s scientific wares (such as malachite, galena, and cinnabar.) Senku creates a mercury-gold gilded spear for Kinro as a peace offering.

Meanwhile, in the village, Ruri — Kohaku’s sister and the village priestess — confides in Kohaku that she doesn’t think she has much time left, and not to risk her life for her.

In Chrome’s hut, Senku explains to Chrome the truth about society millions of years ago, and how people turned to stone. Chrome is moved to tears by the idea of an advanced civilization, and Senku vows to help him create antibiotics to help Ruri.

Our Take

There’s been an entirely new, unforeseen dimension added to the show with the addition of this village. The surprise doesn’t come from the fact that Senku, Taiju, Yuzuriha, and Tsukasa weren’t the only humans — it comes from the fact that human civilization has apparently been building within the stone world for years, to the point where those people didn’t even grow up in the original world. It highlights something really eye-opening about the phrase “history is destined to repeat itself.” They have “village priestesses” and “sorcerers” — archaic labels that were once used to help explain/tackle the fear of the unknown are being used once again. Dr. Stone does a wonderful job of keeping this moral of history’s repetition refined, without it being completely spoon-fed to the viewer.

On top of that, these new characters all seem to be just that: characters. Each one has something lovable about them, although we’ve only met them this episode. All of them are funny in their own ways — Kohaku is threatening, Ginro has a silly comment for everything, Kinro is a rules stickler and Chrome’s delight in simple sciences is contagious. Every voice provided so far gives them such a life, and not one of them feels one dimensional.

It’ll be interesting to see if certain kinds of modern illnesses carried over from the past (such as cancer, AIDS, etc.) Hopefully, none of these deadly ailments are what is weakening Ruri, but it’ll be fascinating to watch Chrome and Senku invent a medicine for whatever she has. Who knows? Maybe she’s just iron deficient (and wouldn’t that be funny in a world made of stone?)