Playfully Malicious
Nakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] Episode 4
We move into another dark game, this time set up like an RPG and involving all of the characters. However, unlike previous episodes of The One’s Within, this episode doesn’t wrap up the current challenge by the end leaving us hanging and waiting for next week to see how they overcome this monster of a challenge.
The story is pretty straight forward; protect the village girls from ogres. Yet, as with everything else in this anime, there’s a twist coming. The fact that you see it coming a mile away doesn’t really undermine the general feeling of playful maliciousness going on in the plot here. I honestly think this anime must have been written by a committee of cats with how it likes to play with its ideas and characters.
But what really caught my attention this week were the visuals. All the way through, The One’s Within has used fairy rough looking visuals with distinct enough character designs but plenty of reaction shots and images that are nearly static with only one or two parts actually animated. Episode two’s panda girl gave us a unique character design but hardly one that was detailed or looking to be realistic.
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This week we have so many different styles going on all packed together. It was almost as though they were trying to make up for the fairly lacklustre animation by overwhelming us visually. And it isn’t as though it is terrible to watch. More that with so many images competing for your attention it becomes difficult for any of them to truly stand out. Also, with the various styles visual cohesion isn’t really happening with this series though given the disjointed nature of the story as we jump from challenge to challenge I doubt that’s really a problem.
I don’t dislike The One’s Within. It is quirky for the sake of being quirky, the characters are walking tropes, and there’s very little truly unique or original, yet it doesn’t feel pandering or lazy. While certainly each element has been seen elsewhere and possibly done better, the combination of all the different elements works here and makes for a satisfying enough viewing experience even if it isn’t a must watch.
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Karandi James
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Images from: Nakanohito Genome [Jikkyouchuu]. Dir. S Oonuma. Silver Link. 2019.
That is is a whole lot of styles already in the screengrabs.
The concept of this show really grabs me , but I do feel this sort of show needs characters to care for. Again one to pick up post season most likely, but have to go now, my cat has a discord meeting with Japan, saying something about some wonderfully dreadful ideas.
There’s definitely something interesting here but it hasn’t quite managed to get itself together. And yeah, the characters aren’t great. They aren’t horrible either but they certainly aren’t carrying the show.