Once again, Dr. STONE Episode 12 firmly reminds me why I enjoy this anime so much! I’ve known that hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide are poisonous to humans, however, what I didn’t know is that you can use silver as a sensor to detect these dangerous gases. Probably obvious to some people, but was new information to me. I’m learning new things everyday watching this anime and it’s great.
The character development in Dr. STONE Episode 12 was great. One of the things we learned was the real reason why Kohaku’s being acting out from her father. As it turns out, they have this tradition in which the priestess passes on all the knowledge acquired to the next one in line. So Kohaku’s purposely done what she does to ensure that her sister uses all her willpower to keep on living until she finds a cure. Now, I didn’t get why they just don’t write it down or find someone else to take the role if the knowledge is that important, however this type of situation kinda mirrors our world.
We have cultures that values and treasures certain information which are not meant for the public, so that really begs the questions, what do Ruri know and where did she get the information? If you recall, they knew things that, based on their time period, conditions and location, shouldn’t have known about. So it could be that few people from Senku’s time woke earlier like we thought and passed information down to his kids, heck I wouldn’t be surprised if Kohaku’s tribe are his/her descendants.
Aside from that, even though I knew from the start that no one was going to die, the tense moments when the guys got near the sulphuric acid were intense. Heck, even Senku, the mad genius himself feared that the gas masks he had made might not hold up against the hydrogen sulfide, and even asked Chrome to stay back. From my point of view, that didn’t make any logical sense, and Chrome called him out on it. Why lose the only person smart enough to not only hold knowledge of an advanced civilization, but is also smart enough to recreate items from that time. That’s when I realised that Senku here has a heart. Despite it been the most illogical decision, Senku is not the type to sacrifice anyone and is willing to face fear and danger head on. Heck, even Ginro overcame his fear to end up saving Chrome’s life.
And that’s what this episode theme was likely about. Overcoming great fear to achieve something. Although, I didn’t like how the anime seems to put Chrome on the same level or insinuate that Chrome is on the same level as Senku. Unless we learn that Chrome has photographic memory, they need to chill with that. Chrome is cool, but lets not put him on a pedal-stool his not ready to stand on just yet.
Overall, this episode was dope! Also, the story that Senku told about the group that went up a mountain and the guy kneeled down and died. Was that an actual true story? To me it sounded like Senku was telling us that story when he added that “this actually happened” line.