The Ones Within


The Ones Within is a Japanese manga series by Osora, serialized online via pixiv Comic website since 2014. It has been collected in ten tankōbon volumes by Media Factory. An anime television series adaptation produced by Silver Link aired from July 7 to September 22, 2019.

Synopsis

A series of strange disappearances have been occurring throughout Japan, and despite the police's efforts, no leads have been found apart from the fact that all of the victims were youths. Akatsuki Iride, a friendly and amicable teenage boy, is a popular uploader of "Let's Play" videos, one of his latest uploads consisting of an F2P game called "The Ones Within - Genome". Although online rumors claim that the game causes anyone who clears it to disappear, Akatsuki is wholly unaware until the rumors prove true. He is summoned to a completely different world, and meets other teenagers like him: Karin Sarayashiki, Kaikoku Onigasaki, Himiko Inaba, Anya Kudou, Yuzu Roromori, Zakuro Oshigiri and Makino Aikawa. The eight teenagers are welcomed into what is known as the 13th Avenue, headed over by a strange man with an alpaca mask calling himself "Paca", and are informed of their task: to work together in clearing stages of the game and retrieving the "chromosome", a keycard-like token of completion, to subsequently reach 100 million viewers in this livestream where death and injury can all occur. Resistance is not tolerated; those who do are imprisoned in what is known as the "White Room" to wait alone for the rest in the Avenue to complete the game. Henceforth begins their trials in clearing this game, but what lies in wait for them is not only dangerous obstacles, with each member having a hidden past and dark secrets of their own.

Characters

13th Avenue

;Akatsuki Iride
;Karin Sarayashiki
;Kaikoku Onigasaki
;Anya Kudō
;Zakuro Oshigiri
;Himiko Inaba
;Yuzu Roromori
;Makino Aikawa
;Paka

Other characters

;Kenya Kudō

Media

Anime

An anime adaptation was announced via the manga's official Twitter account on May 23, 2018, later revealed to be a television series on September 13, 2018. The series is directed by Shin Oonuma and animated by Silver Link, with Kento Shimoyama written the scripts, Mizuki Takahashi designed the characters, and Junichi Satou of Fhána composed the music at Lantis. It aired from July 7 to September 22, 2019, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, KBS, SUN, BS11, and TVA. Anya's Japanese voice actor, Tasuku Hatanaka, performed the series' opening theme song "not GAME", while Fhána performed the series' ending theme song "Boku wo Mitsukete". Funimation has licensed the series out Asia for a simuldub, while Muse Communication holds the rights to the series in Southeast Asia. The series ran for 12 episodes. An original video animation was announced and bundled with the manga's 10th volume which was released on February 27, 2020.
TitleOriginal air date

Reception

The anime adaptation's first episode garnered poor reviews from Anime News Network's staff during the Summer 2019 season previews. James Beckett felt the gimmicky premise lacked meaningful content and only carried "by-the-numbers" storytelling and "purely functional" animation, saying it lacks the "charm, inventiveness, and fun" of the Danganronpa franchise; Rebecca Silverman was critical of the show not accentuating the strengths of its premise and being undecided of its genre but was optimistic of its improved growth based on the familiar plot; Theron Martin criticized the premise for having no "entertainment value" and not giving an explanation of its overall world filled with uninteresting characters. The fourth reviewer, Nick Creamer, praised Shin Oonuma's direction for adding "visual diversity" to the episode but criticized the overall bland artwork and unsalvageable story for carrying "archetypal" characters that deliver "simplistic and obnoxious" comedy. Fellow ANN editor Caitlin Moore reviewed the complete anime series in 2020. She commended the show's "visual panache" for delivering atmospheric horror in its episodes but felt it wasn't enough for this "poorly-written Danganronpa imitator" to distract viewers from its "subpar script" having "poor pacing", tonal inconsistencies and unmemorable characters to engage with throughout a story that gives a "non-ending" for its conclusion, concluding that "t never tries to stand on its own merits, which are few and far between. It is, in a word, bad."