Dr. Stone: New World

Episode 17

This is one of the more action-heavy episodes of the season—it's an extended fight scene as our heroes attempt to buy time. However, there is also a rather tight theme woven throughout the episode—one about fanatics and the dangers of trying to manipulate them.

By fanatics, I'm talking about people who give themselves fully to a person or ideal—willing to live, die, and kill for their beliefs. More than a few natives on the island fall into this category—though most outside the army seem to be less true believers and more “people not wanting to be turned to stone.”

Kirisame is most certainly the former. She believes that the Great Master is a divine and wise fatherly figure. If she is told to petrify someone—to kill them as far as she knows—she does so without hesitation. Her blind spot is that she can't believe that others who are supposed to be loyal to the Great Master could or would betray him. Despite not having heard the Great Master's voice for over a decade at this point, she still follows Ibara's commands without hesitation—believing Ibara to be a faithful servant like her.

Ibara's weakness is that he has gotten too used to her fanaticism—and has come to take it for granted. He's also on the ropes. He's just seen that Senku can undo petrification—and who knows what else the strange “magic man” can do. Thus, he doubles down on his pragmatic plan—petrify them all and sort out the rest later. However, it never occurs to Ibara that this is an action so far beyond what the idealized Great Master in Kirisame's head would do that it completely shatters her belief in Ibara. Thus he has no choice but to turn her to stone—breaking the stalemate between him and Moz and leaving him far more vulnerable than ever before. Luckily for Ibara, Moz is also dealing with a failed attempt to manipulate a fanatic.

Simply put, Hyoga is a firm believer in Eugenics. He sees the petrification of the world as a way to separate the wheat from the chaff. He wants to bring back only the smartest and strongest—those he deems enrich society. His only problem with Senku is their clashing philosophies. The thing about Hyoga—what Moz doesn't realize—is that Hyoga's philosophy is not designed to be self-serving like Moz's. Hyoga isn't trying to build a harem, he's trying to save humanity. To Hyoga, the idea of discarding a strong woman like Nikki just because she's not conventionally attractive—to put aside his values just for the sake of sexual gratification—is enough to turn Hyoga solidly against Moz. While Hyoga believes humanity needs to be culled, culling them in the wrong way is worse than doing no culling at all.

And within the chaos caused by two overconfident men, Senku and the others gain the upper hand for the first time. Ibara is wounded and Moz is occupied. Our heroes have made their escape and, most importantly, they are now in possession of the petrification device.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Last episode, I wondered who would win, Magma or Nikki. Now I realize it doesn't matter. What matters is that Magma believes Nikki would win—he's lost before any battle has begun.

• Now we know how the petrification device works: it's voice-activated—and uses English, interestingly enough.

• Why in the world did Senku drag Kaseki into this fight? Surely it would have been better to let him wait on the shore. All he ended up doing was getting his cardio in by running across the deck and up and down the stairs.

• I wonder how effective revealing the master had been turned to stone was to the general population. I'm sure it added to the chaos if nothing else.

Dr. Stone: New World is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.