Dr. Stone: Stone Wars

Episode 4

“In which Chrome gets to be the hero.”

On its most fundamental level, this is a Chrome episode. Hiding from a sniper within a grassfire of his own making, Chrome figures out that the sniper is trying to catch him, not kill him, and thus the best way to keep both himself and Magma alive is for him to surrender. This not only allows Magma to escape, but also gives Chrome a chance to face down the enemy planning to slaughter his people—the man he's only heard stories about.

Chrome is a man who, after a life as an outcast, has finally found his place in the world. He knows who he is, and who he was meant to be: He is both a scientist and engineer at heart and he has the ability to make life better for his people. Unfortunately, his zeal also makes him tunnel-visioned. Chrome believes that if anyone sees what science can do, they will instantly love it. The idea that Tsukasa and his followers can't or won't see the wonder and beauty of science is a foreign concept to him—after all, didn't all those in his village eventually come around to the idea?

So as Chrome faces down Tsukasa in the heart of the latter's stronghold, he announces who and what he is—completely forgetting that Tsukasa “killed” the last scientist he came across with his bare hands. Luckily, Chrome's stone world background is what saves him. When trying to promote the wonders of science, he starts with his introduction to it—colored smoke. Of course, to people from the modern era, this is the kind of thing a child would show off in a magic show. So Tsukasa gives Chrome a little bit of the old carrot-and-stick instead of killing him right off.

He dangles Chrome over a lethal drop and offers to let Chrome join the tribe if he betrays Senku and the others. He can even continue with his “science.” Tsukasa states that he isn't opposed to technology, just weapons technology—i.e., weapons that could make the weak capable of defeating the physically strong. Of course, nearly all technological advances have some sort of weaponized application, so what Tsukasa's really saying is that Chrome can continue to play with his colored smoke. The alternative, however, is a quick death.

But here's the thing, Chrome isn't afraid of death—well, not his own at least. He is a true believer in science. To live a life like the one he had before meeting Senku is unthinkable. And beyond that, he'd never betray his friends or family. From the moment he let himself be captured to save Magma's life, he was already prepared for death. And he smiles even as he takes that lethal plunge, not even letting out a sound as he falls.

However, Tsukasa has a defined moral code: While he may kill threats to his kingdom or ideals, he doesn't kill innocents if he doesn't have to. Thus, he saves Chrome. However, he does want to know why Chrome has come—or at least, where he was found. And from this comes the final big surprise of the episode: Ukyo lies to Tsukasa, saying that Chrome came alone to the cave, keeping Tsukasa's attention away from the phone and preventing him from knowing just how advanced Senku's technology has become.

It's a chilling cliffhanger that upends everything we thought we knew. Why would Ukyo save Chrome? Has he somehow been won over by Chrome's scientific ideals? Did he just want to prevent the killing of an innocent? Or is it something deeper? Perhaps Tsukasa's tribe isn't as unified as it seems? And if so, are these rebels friend or foe with regards to the people of Ishigami Village?

Unfortunately, beyond the addition of a new twist to the story and a shining character moment for Chrome, this episode foregrounds the big narrative problem that's been plaguing this second season—the slipshod handling of time and distance. To start with, Ishigami Village is located in Hakone while Tsukasa's tribe is in Tokyo. That's about 55 miles of untamed wilderness as no paths or roads connect the two areas. When you remember that normal human walking speed is about 4 mph the problem becomes clear. Under perfect conditions, that's around a 14-hour trip. More realistically, it's a two-day journey.

And then there's the time discrepancy. The first night Gen, Magma, and Chrome bury the phone before being discovered later and starting their escape. The next morning, Taiji and Yuzuriha call Senku. Meanwhile, Magma and Chrome create a distraction for Gen to escape. The morning of the third day, Gen returns to the village and tries to deceive Nikki on the phone, but Magma and Chrome are shown still fighting Ukyo in what should be a full 24 hours later. Gen even states in this week's episode (clairvoyantly) that the pair are still battling Ukyo as the phone call with Nikki comes to a close. Finally, in the few minutes that it takes for Ukyo and the captured Chrome to walk from the burning field into Tsukasa's cave, Magma makes the 55-mile trek back to Ishigami Village.

At first, I hoped that Chrome's story would be revealed as a flashback taking place during the time of that first call. But with the current arrangement of events, that doesn't seem to be the case. Nikki at the very least would know about any captured prisoners—i.e., Chrome—and Taiju and Yuzuriha would have no doubt noticed a massive fire just outside of Tsukasa's village. And then to add more fuel to the temporal confusion fire, it's visually implied that all the preparation and building of the steam engine is taking place later on that same day—at around the same time as Chrome's trial.

Logistically and temporally, the show is kind of a mess at this point—which is a shame with all the good character building and high-stakes action going on. But if the creators were hoping that the show's strong points would distract from its problems with time and place, they are sorely mistaken.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• The steam-powered car is good and all, but it's not like there are roads for it to run on. The best they can hope for is a random series of game trails. I wonder if it would just be faster to lug all that heavy stuff by hand than to clear a path for the car.

• It occurs to me that with the technology Senku has, he could easily win against Tsukasa's forces in a fight. All it would take is some gas—and only his side has gas masks.

• I love how everyone panics as Kohaku runs off to save Chrome while Senku leisurely walks to his tower and insults her via megaphone, causing her to stop and give the others the chance to catch her.

• I went into more detail above, but I love how Chrome's big mouth both gets him into and out of trouble this episode.

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.