It’s the final countdown! After weeks of buildup, the Kingdom of Science finally goes to space, but before the big mission, Senku tries to cram in reinventing as many technologies from the modern era as possible. Ryusui gets replaced by Dr. Xeno’s villainous ace pilot Stanley, an uneasy alliance that will complicate the mission to defeat the “Why Man.” So without further ado, let’s recap this episode.
The episode begins with Ryusui trying to explain his situation to Senku using the metaphor of a knight falling in love with a princess yet believing that a rival suiter would be better for the princess. Senku does not get the metaphor. Ryusui spells it out more clearly while talking with Dr. Xeno and Senku. It turns out that the character Ryusui was thinking of replacing him was of Dr. Xeno’s henchman from season three part two, the ace pilot Stanley. The Kingdom of Science agrees to the idea even though Stanley is a villain. Well, the Kingdom of Science is already teaming up with Dr. Xeno himself so it’s not too shocking that they would also team up with an elite henchman. It is a major twist that a henchman from a previous arc is going to participate in the final battle rather than Ryusui from the main protagonist team.
Ryusui is obviously in a great deal of emotional distress and bursts into tears that he will not achieve his dream of going to space as he believes Stanley is the superior option. Ryusui does some firearms marksmanship practice but Stanley shows off his amazing marksmanship skills, showing how big a skill gap there is.
In the next scene, the Kingdom of Science members from the twenty-first century make requests on what technologies they would like Senku to reinvent. Senku manages to meet these requests within minutes of screentime. He reinvents the microwave oven, eight millimeter film, and the washing machine in probably two minutes of screentime with a super rushed explanation of how said technologies work. He also kinda reinvents the smartphone, only the one he creates weighs forty kilograms (that’s about eighty-eight pounds, yaoza!). He gives a quick explanation of how liquid crystal displays and touch screens work, a little less rushed than the previous inventions, but still super rushed.
After these inventions were created, the three members of the Kingdom of Science get their spacesuits fitted. They all reach the rocket ready to begin their mission. Tsukasa is there to threaten Stanley in case he betrays Senku and Kohaku before they begin their mission. This is ironic as Tsukasa himself is a former enemy of Senku’s. We are seeing the shonen trope of former enemies becoming allies popping up fairly often in this episode. A television reporter announces the upcoming voyage to the moon and reminds the audience that previous test rockets crashed and this could be death for the trio. Senku points out that there is only a one in twenty chance that he will die. When you point it out like that, those odds do sound pretty dangerous even if there is a 95% chance that he will live. The trio get petrified and launch out into space. Senku remembers his last experience getting petrified and counting all those seconds. This time, he counts down instead of up as he knows that he will be going off to outer space. Next episode is titled, “Giant Leap,” another astronaut themed title.
Thus ends the “create the rocketship” arc and thus begins the climactic battle arc. It’s been a while since we’ve had a big action scene, with the battle against Dr. Xeno and his henchmen being the last major battle. This arc really rushed the science and edutainment, and Senku made so many inventions this episode that it was comical. This was a fun, but flawed and rushed arc. Here’s to hoping that the final battle and the reveal of who the “Why Man” is and what he wants turns out satisfying. This next arc is the big climax to the entire series and many shonen series struggle to stick the landing during the climactic arc.
