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Logbook Entry 212: Final Part: Stone to Space

This week’s Dr STONE did not have a title to it, since the chapter was signaling the end of one part, and the start of a new one. The last chapter that did the same was Chapter 138. Chapter 138 signaled the end of Part 3. Chapter 212, which spanned all the way from Chapter 139 till now, signaled the end of Part 4.

What does the chapter contain then? Senku’s group arrives at Japan safely and proceeds to revive the people who were on Treasure Island, as well as Ishigami Village. They were the people who the petrification beam got to last, so its fitting that they are the ones who are being revived last by Senku’s group.

Once they are revived, Suika has a heartfelt reunion with her two pets, Chalk and Sagara. Both have their own families now, so they do not stick around long. Ruri and Kohaku also share a reunion, a more energetic one than the first one we ever saw from both in the story.


Chrome and Ruri also share a moment, but like every Chrome/Ruri moment beforehand, it ends with Chrome oblivious to Ruri’s feelings for him. Or his own feelings for Ruri. A previous moment suggested that Ruri has feelings for Chrome (pictured below), but in the Japanese version of that scene it says Chrome's feelings and not Ruri. Some have suggested that Chrome himself might not actually like Ruri romantically, but it seems like that is something we will get confirmation of later in the series. It’s nice to get a moment with the two after a long while though.

Senku asks Soyuz and Ruri about the progress of the secret projects he had left them to work with, and we learn about what both factions were doing. Senku is no stranger to secret projects with other people. Back in Stone Wars, he and Yuzuriha had a plan in place where she would put together the statues of the people that Tsukasa was destroying.

The secret project from Treasure Island was a rocket launching site. Senku plans on making use of the proximity of the island to the equator, so they will deploy the rocket from there. Rockets launched at the equator have greater tangential speed, so this makes them get to orbit faster.

For Ishigami village, the secret project that they had to set up was a dam. Like we already established in Australia, processing aluminum requires a lot of electricity. The village already had a source of hydroelectric power in place, courtesy of Chrome. But clearly, the power from that would not be enough from the force of a small river. A dam can contain more water pressure, and as a result more power is produced.

With everything in place, Francois makes everyone a meal. Something to get their energy up, considering A LOT of manual labor is about to start. The meal in question is sushi. A native Japanese meal, just like rice from last chapter. Interesting enough, sushi has rice as one of its ingredients. Small pieces of raw fish are wrapped in rice and sometimes seaweed. The seaweed, called nori, is collected with submerged bamboo nets. ... The sushi chef chops off small bits of the fish and combines them with spices such as ginger root. If you've heard of sashimi, that's the slices of fish without rice.

The bamboo was also used in the construction of the dam, as rebar, so we get a callback to one of the sturdiest materials in the story. Has been a while since bamboo was used in story. The last time we saw it was when they were making the aircraft carrier, where they claimed it was a "huge advantage" over the Americans.

In principle, the way a dam works is simple. A moving body of water has a blockade placed at some point in its flow, creating a backup of water (in this case it would create a new lake near Ishigami Village). This obstacle must be strong enough to withstand water pressure, which is why a concrete wall was built. Concrete is an invention that has been made in the story before, from seashells. Reinforced concrete is concrete that has steel mixed in with it, something that Senku comments on in this chapter. The reinforcing steel—rods, bars, or mesh—absorbs the tensile, shear, and sometimes the compressive stresses in a concrete structure.In reinforced concrete, the tensile strength of steel and the compressive strength of concrete work together to allow it to sustain these stresses over a wide span like that of a large dam. Modern day buildings use this principle in their construction.


With everyone well fed, it’s time to start on construction of the rocket.

Chapter was quite entertaining. Back to Japan, which is a nice way to conclude this part. The start of the part was about them leaving Japan to get resources from all over the world. So having them get back home to where the story initially started. From the beginning of the story, we’ve noticed a gradual progression with the parts. As well as the chapters in each.

Part

Chapters

Number of Chapters

0

1-12

12

1

13-45

33

2

46-82

36

3

83-139

36

4

140-212

73

We are in the final part now, Part 5. Considering it is the conclusion of the manga, it could end up being quite lengthy. Personally, I would really like if it this manga got to 300 chapters. I am not sure if that would be a good enough number for a perfect volume ending, but I’d like it if it got that far at least.


Trivia:


-Chelsea admits to shipping Ruri/Chrome, which is in line with her saying that lovey dovey stuff is the best before.

-The two people revived at the start of the chapter are parents of some of the former Tsukasa’s empire goons, as you can tell from the hairstyle.



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