Dr. Stone: New World episode 17 aired on Thursday giving fans plenty of wild action: the return of the series’ most feared villain, the petrification of one of the newest characters, the (almost) revival of a crucial side character, and even a critical bullet wound. What more could you want from this episode after so much build-up?
The return of the series’ most feared villain to date was bound to make the episode exciting. Even in the dialogue-driven manner in which his revival came about, Hyugo’s return just adds that extra layer of entertainment to an arc that continues to pile it on. It was a “Hyugo Return” to a T. Knowing he’s a threat to everyone in the room, analyzing the situation before making a decision, and holding true to the values he had during Stone Wars (Season 2), it honestly felt good to have Hyugo back in a way.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” became a giant theme within this episode and it also added a fun dynamic to see where the story would head. But I must say, that even as a manga reader, seeing Hyugo go down against Moz as quickly as he did was still a surprise. Even though he didn’t have his own personal spear, Hyugo rivaled Tsukasa in battle. So losing to Moz only proves that Senku and company have another giant problem on their hands—their wild card didn’t work.
However, Hyugo’s monologue was wonderfully done and even the humor thrown in there because of Gen is always something to take note of. Remember, Magma almost killed Gen at one point thinking he was Senku. So for Gen to be even more terrified of Hyugo than he was of Magma in this season goes to prove how much of force Hyugo was and still is.
The weight of the room while waiting for Hyugo to choose which side to take may have been heavier for me had I only been an anime-only fan. So I hope those that are who watched this had some sort of uneasy feeling that I felt while reading the manga. That being said (again), the excitement was undoubtedly there.
As I rewatched everything around the beginning of the episode, I couldn’t sit still because I couldn’t help but think about a couple of things. The first, after Kinro gets beat down within seconds, they start dragging his body into the ship. So while they’re doing that, Nikki gets sent back in one swing and she goes into the ship along with Kinro. Does anyone else feel weird about this scene?
They’re doing all of this very slowly while Moz is just standing there. At any point, he could’ve just charged all of them right on the spot. Then they “run” down the stairs and he’s just walking behind them. The full sequence was really weird. Then Senku says it was his plan all along to bring him down there. But then again, he was within a few steps of all of them on the boat in the first place. Moz could’ve easily just taken them all down after sending Nikki flying.
Second, even before that, everyone charges onto the boat. Magma is going crazy with the gun until Nikki beats him over the head. Then everything comes to a very weird standstill. It felt like it was a big comedic “now what?” moment for the island warriors and everyone in Senku’s crew before Senku took action (very slowly, by the way).
The pacing of everything at the beginning felt extremely off from the rest of the episode. Then you had a few shots like the one below during the fight between Kinro and Moz that didn’t look all that great. This is also weird because the episode also had moments at the beginning, like with Gen and the flare, that looked extremely well done.
The fighting animation between Hyugo and Moz, while short-lived, was great to see. The impact of their moves was felt perfectly and just as I pictured it would be. The sound design from Jin Aketagawa is always stellar and it’s no wonder he’s considered one of the industry’s best. Some of the shots while reviving Soyuz’s dad looked beautiful and not a single trace of detail was looked over.
Not only do we get the excitement of Hyugo’s revival and seeing just how strong Moz is, (apparently strong enough to kick in a steel door with some stone heels) but we also have Ibara’s betrayal of Kirisame and petrifying her, leading to what could be yet another islander turning against Ibara. The writing for the situation just adds to that excitement I talked about earlier in this article. This arc has a nasty tendency to just stack layers upon layers of arising conflicts that have the opportunity to lead down a bunch of different roads.
It’s a way to properly establish the climax of such a big arc too. And now with Ibara really seeing firsthand how primitive he is after receiving a hole in his hand the size of a quarter, clinging to the Medusa as his last hope was a great way of showing his back against the wall. And now without it, the episode leaves us wondering what drastic measures he’s going to take to regain control of the entire battle.
Episode 17 of Dr. Stone: New World is definitely one of the better ones from this arc. After patiently waiting, the violence in the arc has finally hit full sail and it’s going to be nonstop from here on out. With story developments on top of more story developments, Dr. Stone: New World continues to prove to be one of the most exciting anime of the season.
Episode 17 rating: 8.5/10
If you enjoyed episode 17 of Dr. Stone: New World, then make sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! Episode 18 of Dr. Stone: New World will air on Thursday, November 23. Crunchyroll is steaming Dr. Stone: New World with English subtitles.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©Richiro Inagaki, Boichi/Shueisha, Dr. STONE Production Committee