The similarity between these scenes is really only half the emotion. Parallel scenes live half on the sameness and half on the differences. They're both such quiet moments of them connecting, understanding each other, and generally being on the same wavelength and silently acknowledging each other's presence and companionship. It's very affectionate.
Major points of comparison:
The Saturn V rocket is not one that either Xeno or Senku made. It is a historical rocket that likely inspired them both. Xeno has slightly closer ties to it as a NASA engineer, but I feel like that largely reflects that Xeno at that point is a full-fledged rocket engineer and Senku is still learning from him. By the time they meet again in the Stone World, they’re really equals, but they aren’t quite, here, even though Xeno already has immense respect for him and his work.
The Saturn V rocket got us to the moon, baby! And so will that current Xeno-Senku engine.
Saturn V also had a number of test failures and its first missions were uncrewed, although it never powered a satellite launch.
Saturn V was also used in the ISS launches, or, the launches of parts piecemeal to be assembled in space.
The rocket in the new scene is, of course, their own work, entirely by themselves. They have moved from the past into the future. They've grown (And, yes, okay, Xeno's job was to make rockets; he's done this before. Still). It's also very distant, plunging into space instead of settled on Earth, touchable. This rocket is in working condition and it is, quite frankly, working (finally). Started at the bottom and now we're here or whatever.
In the first scene, Xeno is seen both approaching and leaving and Senku has a moment of alone time staring at the rocket before Xeno joins him. In the latter scene, they are side-by-side when the scene cuts to them. I mean...Senku was alone for quite a while even after he decided they needed to go the moon, before Xeno finally joined his side.
Xeno is also seen leaving. In the first scene, this is because Byakuya interrupts them and their silent camaraderie. In the second, there’s no clear reason why he’s walking away, but given that (spoiler until the end of the bullet), Xeno later gives Senku a moment of aloneness to remember and mourn Byakuya, it seems likely Xeno was also thinking of that moment.
In the first scene, Senku eventually turns to look at Xeno as he’s leaving. In the latter, Xeno looks at Senku before leaving. In both cases, only one of them looks toward the other. They have switched places in looking toward each other and their goals and skills and accomplishments and presence.
Physical touch??? From them???:
Senku has historically had moments of other people reaching out to him, and he either rejects or accepts it. Taiju tries to hug him: no. Kohaku and Suika: hugs okay. Byakuya: for all that fanon likes to portray him as squirming out of Byakuya’s hold, he’s generally okay when his dad reaches out to him physically and it’s not actually that common. Xeno reaching out to rest his hand on Senku’s shoulder: okay.
Senku actually does offer physical touch of his own, mostly as high-fives and fist bumps (which he doles out like points and candy). The high-fives generally come as a baton-passing moment. The fist-bumps are celebratory. This was neither. When it's in motion, you can see how gently and weightlessly he touches Senku; it's not a firm grip. And it's very brief. This reads like comfort and acknowledgement. It's so soft. Byakuya is not there this time.
They are much closer in the second scene than the first, even before Xeno reaches out to him. I don’t think I need to analyze that one; that’s a pretty clear-cut reason.
The wind is quite strong when they first meet, but only for a moment. It doesn’t start until Xeno settles next to Senku, and it stops before Byakuya even breaks their moment together, right before it pans to showing them at a different angle. It blows toward Xeno.
The wind in the second scene is much gentler—gentler enough that it’s difficult to tell what direction it’s blowing in specifically. I want to say Senku, but their clothes don’t move, only their hair, so it’s difficult to say for sure.
It feels notable that Xeno arrives in stillness and then causes a massive stir at first, which then completely dies. But when they’re side-by-side again, a much gentler force is stirring both of them the entire time, and it leans toward Xeno being pulled toward Senku (a little. Again, difficult to say). And if neither is being drawn toward the other, that also really does underlie their peer-ness now.
The music is so different. I don’t know lots about music so I can’t analyze it too well.
There’s two distinct motifs (?) in the first scene. There’s a lot of strings-being-plucked thing going on before Byakuya shows up, and then when Xeno leaves it’s mostly woodwinds.
The second one has a much bigger mix of instruments (seems heavy on percussion I think) and has that chorus wordless vocal thing, and it’s also pretty tied to the music on either side of that scene (the second is a lot shorter).
I don’t know what this means but it feels like it means something.
