Dr. Stone Chapter 98 Review by Belserion
Chapter Title: Ryusui
Summary:After last week’s discovery of the mine, the villagers set about paving the roads from the mine into the river in order to make it easier to transport their heavy cargo. Ukyo states that the world is becoming more modernized now with the discovery of oil, which is true. It’s starting to look like civilization. After a brief explanation on how to make the asphalt, Senkuu cautions them that it’s not the whole village area that’s going to be paved, only the road leading from the mine to the river, where they would then take the cargo to the village via speedboat.
Ginrou tells them to leave the transporting of the cargo to the Water Tribe, which annoys Kinrou who asks when the last time Ginrou even rowed a boat was. Ryusui is excited because he recalls that the Nanami Corporation got their start in the Edo Period with cargo vessels. While the villagers praise Kaseki’s boat building skills that have been instrumental in helping them navigate the river for years, Kaseki calls Senkuu and admits that he’s having problems building the ship. He puts it down to lack of advanced specialized techniques. Yo suggests reviving a shipwright but they don’t know where they would even find one in modern day Japan. Senkuu said if they had more time they could have gone through a series of trial and error, but now that there’s the “Why-man” to contend with they have to move quickly. Senkuu decides they have to change plans from a big ship to a smaller sailboat and limited crew. The group doesn’t like to hear this because they were all looking forward to going on the ship. Kaseki laments on the fact that he has to give up on his darling ship but Ryusui goes into denial.
We now get a flashback of someone, presumably Ryusui’s uncle, telling a young Ryusui that he needs to learn when to give up on things. We also see Francoise telling young Ryusui about his allowance cut with the maids in the background wondering how old Francoise is because she looks exactly as she does right now. Ryusui laughs and states that he will never give up, he doesn’t know the meaning of those words. Until he gets his hands on what he wants he’s going to keep at it. We see Ryusui pushing himself to make money, to make his body stronger, all at elementary school level. This continued as he grew up. Whenever he wanted something and it was denied him, he found another way to achieve it on a bigger, better scale. While he was doing all this, the members of his family and the Company’s Board of Directors wrote him off as a debauched playboy that was bringing shame on their good name. Francoise was asked what she thought of Ryusui, and after a moment of hesitation where her boss encouraged her to speak her mind, Francoise speaks in defense of Ryusui saying that instead of giving up, he proclaims loudly what he wants and perseveres until he achieves it, much to the shame of everyone listening. I guess they thought that as a servant she would blindly agree with them despite being urged to speak freely.
Francoise has been with Ryusui from the start, encouraging him and learning not only about him but about his desires which he proclaims have no end goal, reminding her that he’s the greediest man in the world. The flashback ends with Ryusui stating that he’s built a model A 1:48 motorized sailing vessel and that one day he would find someone to help him make the real thing, someone he can trust and who’s worthy of teaming up with him. He tells the villagers that he will make a model of the ship they will build and with Kaseki’s skill they could modify what’s already been started, telling Senkuu they can pull it off. Senkuu says as long as they have an obsessed model ship maker like Ryusui who can create the model with ten billion percent accuracy then he agrees. Ryusui promises to whip up a dream ship and then some. While Gen wonders how much it will cost them, Ryusui assures him that it’s free as long as they don’t give up.
The chapter ends with Suika feeling confident that with Senkuu and Ryusui working together anything is possible, because Desire is Noble.
This chapter felt like a character profile so I’m not going to rate it. We learn that Ryusui has always been ambitious and works hard to get what he wants even though to the world he might come off as a debauched playboy. We also learn that Francoise has had his back from the beginning and has not wavered in her loyalty. So now it seems like they’re really going to put everything into building the ship, since there’s now an urgency to find the “Why-man” and solve the mystery of the petrification. A nice chapter overall.
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