DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA AdventureNakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]
OVA ComedyNaka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]: KNOTS OF MEMORIES

REVIEWS

• 

  RottenOrange

  73/100
  Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] doesn't add anything new to its genre, but it's still an enjoyable watch nonetheless.

  When the anime adaptation of Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] was announced, many thought it was a Danganronpa the Animation 2.0. However, they were right and wrong at the same time.

  ‏‏‎

  WARNING: SPOILERS

  –

  Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] (The Ones Within for short) tells the story of Akatsuki Iride and seven other fellow gamers who are caught by a guy (who for some reason is covers his head with an alpaca one) and are forced to play different games or else will die... figuratively, because that's the first problem of the series. Although throughout the series, Paka (and the anime in general) tries to make us feel worried about the safety of the protagonists, it fails miserably. Because, although The Ones Within is supposed to be a game of life or death, there are few moments when the characters are really in danger. I mean, they are obviously in dangerous situations in almost every game, but none of these situations feels this way for the viewer too. Being a series that tries to mix mystery and comedy at the same time, it's not surprising that one of the genres intercepts in scenes that it shouldn't, and therefore the scene doesn't manage to create the atmosphere that it wanted (mostly, comic themes in scenes that try to be serious). Although I could give examples, I wanna try to use spoilers as few as possible.
  On the other hand, another serious mistake made by the adaptation is to skip all content of the manga related to the context of the kidnapping (the goal of the game's existence, the actions of the participants' family after discovering their disappearance, Iride's past, etc.). Because of this, the anime became much simpler than the story really is, leaving in its adaptation only the games in which the characters participated and maintaining an episodic formula. Therefore, it's not surprising that the ending is unsatisfactory, leaving many loose ends for a second season that will probably never come (at the time I write this there is an OVA to be aired, but being an original story it doesn't change the anime's current state so much). However, not everything is mistakes in The Ones Within, only its structure.

  Most of the characters, however, do work for their purpose. Each of the eight gamers is a specialist in a different genre of video games, but I won't touch on this subject because it's almost never important in the anime, with small exceptions. First we have Iride, who is the main character and the worst in the octet in terms of development. Throughout the anime, a mystery unfolds about Iride's past and his person, which never comes to anything. Although I understand that even the source (the manga) isn't over, I'm sure there are better ways to deal with a mystery of this kind that simply presenting it and hoping for people to read the manga to know the answer. Thanks to this, Iride has no evolution throughout the anime unlike the other participants. On the other hand, characters such as Onigasaki, Roromori, Oshigiri and Kudou do develop throughout history, which causes one as a spectator to become fond of them to a greater or lesser extent. Finally, we have characters like Karin, Aikawa and Paka himself, who are only "there" and maintain a static personality state during the course of the series.
  With regard to the secondary characters, those with the greatest participation are Sakura, Nanami and Chihiro, three former players who hide under the facilities. The three appear quite little in the series, so we don't get to know much about them individually more than the fact that a love triangle develops between them.

  However, aside from what I have said, I must admit that the series IS indeed enjoyable. If you put aside those problems with Iride or the characters that do not advance, each episode is entertaining. In fact, although I said that the fact that we cannot feel fear for the safety of the characters is a problem, it's also a plus point. By this I mean that, since we know that the characters always end up safe and sound, the viewer can relax and enjoy the show for its comic side.

  –

  Although Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] failed to satisfy the expectations that the mystery tag entails, its charismatic cast and simple humor makes it a fun watch.

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• 

  HeartbreakRebel

  53/100
  Take what made Danganronpa interesting and make it PG-13

  My Review of "The Ones Within"!

  

  ---

  Hope? Nah. Despair? Nah. Video Games!? YEAAAAAAAAAA-

  ____Story____

  A bunch of content creators/streamers of video games were randomly kidnapped for a fun (not death) game. In order to make it out, the streamers need to play multiple games within the mastermind’s game in order to attract more viewers to a livestream broadcasting them. Once they reach 100 million viewers, they will be freed. Luckily, there’s no timer, so they have as much time as they want to gain those viewers.

  ____Characters____

  So uhhh there’s a bunch of protagonists so I’ll just describe a few of them or else this will be multiple paragraphs long. Akatsuki Iride is Makoto Nae- I mean a light-hearted person who’s great at escape games. Karin Sarayashiki is a horror-game lover who doesn’t like being in actual horror games. Kaikoku Onigasaki is a very aggressive (Mondo) fighting gamer. Yuzu Roromori is a clever and mostly friendly gamer obsessed with puzzles.

  ____The Good____

  To be honest, I really like the OP. I didn’t skip it at any point in the anime. It’s so groovy and it kinda sounded like a Persona song with the vibe it gave off. The animation is also pretty decent. There were a few scenes (Like the numbers floating) that were visually appealing. This can be seen as both good and bad, but this anime feels heavily inspired off of the concept of Danganronpa with the whole Ultimates/Game preferences thing and how some characters literally feel the same (Anya’s like Leon, Akatsuki like Makoto, etc etc.). I personally enjoyed Danganronpa so it was a bit nice to see something similar to that. I mean, it’s the closest I’ve gotten to a Danganronpa-like anime apart from the actual anime.

  ____The Bad____

  The comedy is also really bland to me. It’s obvious when the anime wants to be funny, but it just feels so forced and boring. When it’s not boring, it’s just uncomfortable or awkward. The characters are also a bit boring and basic. It’s really obvious how each person would act and respond, which does make a lot of things in the anime very predictable and somewhat generic. When they aren’t predictable, the characters make decisions that just don’t make sense. Like there will be a moment where one enemy bullies two of the MCs and they just choose to walk away like what? Killing them or at least hurting them makes sense, but leaving them unscathed as an enemy? That’s just a stupid idea and stupid writing.

  ____The Downright Ugly____

  Just like I said in the good, this anime feels like it’s trying too hard to be Danganronpa without being Danganronpa. The only things they really changed about it is that nobody’s killing each other and instead of ultimates, it’s game expertise. They even have a mastermind hidden through an animal (although this time it’s just a mask). However, the problem is that they take away what made Danganronpa interesting. There’s none of the death punishments, a lack of interesting mysteries, and a couple of bland characters that lack complex dynamics. Its simplicity ruins the quality of the anime when something with a story/concept like this requires more complexity to be interesting.

  ____Is It Worth The Watch?____

  No. Just go watch Danganronpa instead. Danganronpa does what this anime tried to do but way better. This anime is a major step down from the death game subgenre as it fails to really establish the seriousness of a regular death game anime. The bad comedy doesn’t help the anime either, so the answer is no. This anime is not worth watching.

  Thank you for taking the time to read my review. I hope this helped you with your decision on whether to watch this anime or not! If you already have watched it, I hope that you can agree with me with some of the points I made. If you enjoyed this review, I would greatly appreciate a follow too! ^^

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