Dr Stone Chapter 115 Review by Emperor SprigganThere is a bit of a surprise in this chapter, with the results of the popularity poll. I genuinely thought that Gen would come second place. Senkuu being first place wasn't really a surprise, but the second and third place rankings were. Ryuusui appeared what, 20 chapters ago? Genuinely amazed he pipped Gen to second place. Also with more than 500 votes? That's....genuinely surprising. I'm also a bit surprised Kohaku didn't rank 4th place, and that Tsukasa outranked Suika.
Moving onto the chapter, Kohaku finally managed to get the treasure chest open, remembering what Ruri said about the 100 stories and Platinum being inside the chest. She gets disappointed though, since she realizes there is just sand inside the capsule. The guards at the palace pick up on the sound when the capsule caved in, and immediately go to check the source of the commotion.
Kohaku realizes that the sand in the treasure box might have some worth, after having spent so much time with Senkuu. To that effect, she manages to escape just as the guards arrive at the source of the commotion. The guards arrive and take the debris of the capsule to Jafar, who studies them keenly. Suika and Soyuz arrive with a delivery from Kohaku. She managed to get the sand to Senkuu and his group, and Senkuu quickly identifies the sand as gold sand. Brings back memories of Naruto with Gaara's father.
Senkuu explains that gold sand can have platinum mixed in with it, and he uses a magnifying glass to identify a single grain of platinum in the assortment of sand. Suika is a bit disappointed, and says she will go look for more in the river. Senkuu tells her its a hard mineral to find, so they should be grateful even for the little they have. He manages to identify more grains of platinum, and Gen is amazed at just how many decades it would have taken to collect that much platinum.
At this point, we cut to a flashback where we see Byakuya toiling through a river as he searches for platinum. He is with some kids (I'm assuming these are the kids of the other austronauts who were with him, Byakuya must have ended up outliving all of them in that case then. Byakuya tells the kids that he needs to pave the way for the future generation, by collecting as many rare metals as possible. During this task, he ends up collapsing, and the kids ask him why he's going so far. He tells them simply its because he is an astronaut. Earth's last one, that is.
We get a panel where we see Senkuu petrified, but counting down the seconds to keep his mind active and avoid falling asleep. Byakuya explains to someone (?), that once he dies, he should take the materials he has collected so far and place them in the capsule. Eventually, Byakuya collapses in the river, having grown to a ripe old age. His son is still counting down the seconds that have passed since the petrification incident. Happy that he gets to die while facing upwards, since space is reflected off the river's surface, we get a pretty awesome panel here where Senkuu is looking upwards, while his father stares downwards. Making them look as if they are facing each other.
The flashack ends here, and Gen is genuinely touched by how similar Senkuu is to his father. Senkuu says that things like that don't matter, saying that he wasn't even blood related to Byakuya. According to him, he is the son of Byakuya's best friend, but he was never really interested in those details. They don't matter anyway, but he is grateful to Byakuya for what he did for him. At this point Senkuu unveils several test tubes containing platinum in them, stating that it's the start of the infinite revival formula machine.
My thoughts on the chapter are that it was a pretty emotional chapter. The best part being Byakuya's dedication to searching for platinum, that was genuinely one of the best moments in the whole series. For some reason though, I don't think things will go as smoothly from now on. I still expect Senkuu and his gang to get captured by Jafar (A bit eery how he hasn't done anything noteworthy yet), but for now, they will manage to make enough formula to revive the people petrified on the ship (Suika will come in handy here). Also, I'm wondering if we will explore the other materials in the gold sand. It would be nice exploring an angle where all the platinum is taken by Jafar, just so we can see Senkuu getting angry/annoyed at his father's hard work being taken by someone else.
I still call dibs on the theory of Senkuu's real dad being the final boss of the series
Chapter rating: 8.5/10.To discuss and share your thoughts on the manga, you can visit our Dr. Stone section.
