Dr. Stone: New World Episode 7 aired on Thursday giving us, yet again, another phenomenal episode from top to bottom. But a few things stood out in episode 7 way more than the previous episodes. In its undeserved absence from our top-10 poll the past few weeks, Dr. Stone: New World taught us all a valuable lesson this week—Senku could be one of the most dangerous villains in anime if he wanted to.
I can’t remember the last time I was this amazed by an anime character whose entire development is wrapped around their own intelligence. I’d say Ranpo from Bungo Stray Dogs is probably the most recent one off of the top of my head, but Senku far surpassed him in this episode for me.
We have to seriously step back and realize what Senku just accomplished in this episode. First off, he literally detected the precise amount of time that had passed when a bunch of seashells were dropped by a person (Amaryllis) in the location Kohaku found them thanks to a measly fly in the air. Not only this, he found out the gender of Amaryllis and estimated her height and weight to almost an exact measurement after looking at two fingerprints.
And how did Senku see the fingerprints in the first place? Oh, you know, just melting an adhesive in a pot over a fire, using its steam and a damn blacklist he made. A blacklight, people…In the new stone world. Senku turned Dr. Stone into an episode of CSI and became a forensics expert in the new stone world on-site without any hesitation and not a single flaw. He tracked down Amaryllis and it all started with some seashells and a fly. Senku is not only the greatest scientific mind in the animeverse. but he just became one of its greatest detective minds too. But it doesn’t stop there at the Senku forensics!
Senku not only detected fingerprints, guessed Amaryllis’ gender and estimated height and weight off of those fingerprints, and could tell how much time has passed thanks to a fly, but he found out which part of Treasure Island Amaryllis is from thanks to looking at lily pollen under a microscope. This is one of the greatest displays of genius in recent anime and it’s absolutely mind-boggling to me. Shoutout to Gen for being the Watson to Senku’s Holmes. Let’s never forget that Kohaku admitted that there isn’t a single person in the world who could hide from them no matter how hard they may try.
From the moment Senku learned everyone on the ship had been petrified, he went into full alert. Despite some of the humor that occurred after that moment up until the end, Senku was different—it was just subtle, which is perfect because it wouldn’t have been “Senku” if it wasn’t. He got things done at a much quicker rate than usual, didn’t mince words with Amaryllis, Kohaku, or Gen, and when he had to take out an angry mob of physically more capable men than himself, he didn’t need Kohaku to take them out. He simply rendered them useless with tear gas. Yes, tear gas because, of course, Senku.
What impressed me about this is Senku’s care for Kohaku and the rest of the Kingdom of Science at this moment (as well as Gen). He calculated everything in a split second to stop an angry group of guys way more physically gifted than him. What most viewers may not notice about this is he learned from his fights with Tsukasa and Hyoga and became much more adaptive at de-escalating physical confrontations. In his first fight against Tsukasa, he was terrified. In his fight with Hyogya, he had a trump card. In episode 7, he stopped any violence before anything even happened while simultaneously defending the Kingdom of Science’s best interest.
Of course, I’m not going to skip out on the biggest threat facing everyone in the episode—almost everyone on the Treasure Island voyage is petrified and it’s up to three of the four best characters in the series, and Soyuz, to get everyone back to normal. But before the big event occurred is what I really loved about the episode as well, mainly Ryusui.
I said when the Ryusui special was released that he’s one of my favorite characters in the series and for good reason. Ryusui is always known for his never-ending greed. Yet, one thing he doesn’t gamble on is the lives of kids. Scolding Suika like an older brother almost had me emotional for some reason. Seeing the man who wants everything not wanting to see Suika on this voyage due to its potential danger was something that was really overlooked in this episode, especially since he saved her from being petrified as well.
Ryusui may be the most vocal, but next to Senku and Francois, he’s actually a genius himself. He was the first one to notice the beam coming before anyone else on the ship, which explains how he was able to save Suika. And without him, they never would’ve reached the island in the first place. But it wasn’t just Ryusui, it was also the soundtrack that backed him up.
Surprisingly enough in this episode, the first parts of it had a rather impactful orchestra playing to Senku and Ryusui’s motivational words. Dr. Stone already has a fantastic soundtrack, But hearing that orchestra build up when they were approaching Treasure Island gave me chills from head to toe. You couldn’t ask for a better way to start an episode about a crew sailing the seas about to embark on a place literally called Treasure Island. It made me feel like I was also part of the adventure with everyone. The moment Gen told Kohaku and Senku what happened, I felt that same sense of panic and worry Kohaku did as well.
If I dissected all of the characters from this episode, we’d be here for a while. The unsung hero of this episode was undoubtedly Gen. Even with Senku thanking him for his help and Kohaku praising him as well, Gen was a major player in this episode and showed off just how important he really is to the Kingdom of Science yet again.
He stopped Kohaku from possibly being petrified. He also stopped her from acting on her warrior instincts. And he helped Senku find Amaryllis. Overall, this episode was another “W” for the Kingdom of Science. It was spectacular in shock value, humor, story, character development, art, and music.
Episode 7 rating: 10/10
If you enjoyed episode 7 of Dr. Stone: New World, then make sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! Episode 8 of Dr. Stone: New World titled “The Trump Card Aboard The Science Vessel” will air on May 25 on Crunchyroll.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©Richiro Inagaki, Boichi/Shueisha, Dr. STONE Production Committee