Dr. Stone: Ryuusui

I always expect Dr. Stone to give us great science tidbits that tie tot he plot and make you feel like you learned something without it getting too expository. What I wasn't expecting was for them to turn their magic towards economics -- and not only that, show a rarely positive depiction of capitalism and market economics in the process! In it we see Ryuusui get reborn in order to pilot a sailboat to the other side of the world, as well as help discover oil that would power the world in the days ahead. He might be money-hungry, but in doing so, he created thisworld's first currency -- the drago, which is backed by the promise of discovering oil that will be bought from him once he acquires the rights to it as part of the deal. See, the currency might have just been him stamping a design on a piece of paper, which makes viewer go "how does that have any value at all?" But the key is that it has value because it's backed by the soon-to-be-discovered oil, which the people of Ishigami Village trust will be discovered because of their collective determination and Senku's genius. And that's what currency is -- a medium of exchange backed by something people find valuable. IRL it was gold, today it's the full faith and credit of the issuing government, but here it's oil -- the king of energies. And this money soon becomes even more valuable as a means of exchange because the pursuit of acquiring it to buy goods drives people to work harder for it. They gain dragos by making hemp thread, selling food to fellow workers, or buying clothes made by Yuzuhira from the leftover hemp that wasn't good enough for the hot-air balloon that would take them to see the oil fields eventually. It does not take an economics major to see just how influential this rudimentary capitalistic setup is at driving not just harder work, but more *valuable* work -- and the scientific and human achievements that were created as a result. We tend to take it for granted in modern society, but we wouldn't have a lot of the luxuries, comforts, and discoveries we have now we're it not for capitalism, free markets, and as importantly, the introduction of money that we all trust as a method of exchange. The science parts are also all fantastic, but it's Dr. Stone, of course they're going to be. And Gen using the power of money to swindle Ryuusui was pretty genius as well. Summarizing the story as a stage play in the beginning because it was for Tsukasa's men to get them to build the great pirate ship for Season 3 was a unique spin on the typical "previously on..." that we expect from a shonen series. All in all, a great hour of television and i'm more than ready for Season 3!

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