Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE

Episode 15

It's Dr. Stone does Mad Max! A massive highlight of this episode is the extremely tense, action-packed motorcycle chase across a desertified Ecuador, where Senku and his buddies tear up the landscape in a desperate attempt to flee Stanley's heavily militarized Gears of War-style lackeys. Having cannibalized their ship's hull and engines to improbably construct six brand spanking new motorbikes, we're reminded of Senku's flair for forward planning and sneakiness. Part of the reason Senku's allies are able escape is because Senku sabotaged Stanley's plane many episodes ago by pouring sugar water into its engine tank. As he explains, this act of covert disruption would not have been immediately obvious, so it makes sense that the plane's engine seizes at the worst (best) possible time.

Without airborne supremacy, all Stanley and prominently callipygian sniper Charlotte can do is impotently fire shots into the dust cloud left by the fleeing vehicles, though both physically strongest characters Tsukasa and Hyoga sustain injuries. Senku probably shouldn't have capitulated to Xeno's request to sit facing backwards, as despite being ball-gagged, he still manages to send Stanley a message via morse code blinks. Or maybe he just had dust in his eyes. I suspect he gave Stanley the coordinates of Senku's ultimate destination, ground zero for the petrification beam, somewhere in the Amazon basin.

Although the chase sequence is the episode's big centerpiece, the preceding scenes are also entertaining in that inimitably goofy Dr. Stone way. The poor little lab car finally meets its end as a sacrifice designed to delay Senku's pursuers, as it's sent floating (unmanned) towards the former site of the Panama Canal. Of course, after many thousands of years of neglect the canal won't be passable any more, but Senku banks on Stanley believing that the fleeing scientists might consider the canal as a means of transport from Pacific to Atlantic oceans. This buys Senku enough time to harvest rubber from tree sap and offer a potted tutorial on the production of motor tires. I do love these real material science inclusions, even though they tend to lead me down hours-long Wikipedia death spirals afterwards.

Everyone in the cast has very well-defined roles, even if they are mostly comedic at this point. Ever terrifyingly-competent Kohaku becomes some kind of juggling god with rubber bouncy balls, and Chrome's pratfalls with stretchy rubber panels are dumb but funny. Cute little Suika and new character Dr. Chelsea seem to have bonded well over their shared gourd fruit fixation, which is incredibly sweet. Dr. Stone is nothing if not entertaining, and its science-based silliness works well when mashed up with Mad Max-style action. I hope it manages to maintain this loony momentum throughout the season.

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