Forum - View topicThe Ones Within (TV).
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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The Ones Within (TV). Genres: Game, Drama Plot Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Funimation has the first episode out now. (both dub and subbed) |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 1
Those monsters have done it! An abomination of few words. They combined the survival game genre with Let's Players! While that concept alone can seem like a huge red flag, combining as something overly edgy of youths in a survival game with something so youth focused of Let's Players, just feels like something that will be uninspired. But I kind of also check out Let's Play on occasion, so I am not actually totally against some of the concept. I am pretty sure most older (than a teenager) people see the genre of Let's Plays as people screaming into a camera for attention, and making super cringe jokes with a totally fake persona. Indeed many people are exactly that, starting that craze that any stupid kid with a camera and microphone can do it. But you can find people who can actually be pretty skilled at the craft, and indeed it is a craft that can require skills of entertaining your audience, being able to communicate things, while they are also focusing on the game at hand to not be totally awful, which is something that takes skill and training to do well. And I do have some favourites that can make the experience fun, and not a bunch of fake screams. The above alone is where I put some disappointment from the first episode. While they are all young, and I am not incredibly familiar with all the types of personalities in Let's Plays, especially Japanese, there just doesn't feel like anything in the first episode that ties their personalities to their genre of Let's Plays and why it is important in the first place. The main character's thing is apparently that he does Escape Room Let's Play's, but is that even a thing? I have seen the Game Grumps who played a game like a Survival Room, but I can't think they are a big thing. And you would think the skills he would have on hand would be good environmental awareness and putting clues together, which I suppose was supposed to be him getting things about the panda, but his stick seems to be empathy, which is weird. A horror Let's Player does not necessarily need to be the not get startled type, of which the girl tried to put aside as reality not like games (although I know of one who was tough to scare), most of the best I have seen can live by their reactions, able to convey empathy to the audience to feel scared for them, and most I think often focus on the piecing together lore thing. None of that seemed relevant to her character from what I guess was supposed to be her time to shine, by I guess conveying to the audience how she is feeling, and saying what she thinks the story of the ghost scenario they were in. Looking at skills the others should have to their genre. A speed runner would be someone who experiments to find exploits as to make a mockery of what the rules should be. Someone who does soft Let's Plays of happy things is going to be all about making audience feel relaxed while enjoying whatever simple task is being done. A fighting game Let's Player is probably going to be good at executing button combos while understanding a meta and staying mostly cool. A Let's Player of stealth games is going to be the exact opposite of quiet, because who is going to want to watch a Let's Play of the character being very quiet and avoiding obstacles, to not comment on what is happening around them and what they are doing. And I probably am especially not familiar with dating sim Let's Play's, but the ones I do watch are the people who act out what is happening in the game, and have fun with the audience. I am probably not even familiar with Sengoku games, so who can tell what I should expect, the closest I guess is that I recently played Sekiro, but perhaps knowledgeable in history. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4084 |
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This series would seem to be created by someone with as little knowledge of Let's Plays as they have of video games... or else Japanese streaming entertainment is far more pedestrian "just watch me play!" streams than a Western example.
I am a fan of Let's Plays and I'm also a lot older than a teenager. Let's see if I can explain my appreciation of them, one series I watched was based on the Friday the 13th movies with one player as the killer Jason and the rest either had to escape or die trying. Another channel I'm a fan of just plays Microsoft Flight Simulator. The gimmick is that he plays it with 100% proper realism as Air Traffic Controller while everyone else is everyone else. It's just a sensation you can't get any other way, not even by playing the game. It's live improv with an audience of one. This series though, I don't get it... a horror Let's Player would get viewers based on screaming reactions so having a tsundere horror player is wrong. I think she'd make a great Jason though, I would love to have seen that. "I'm going to knock your head off now and you're going to stand there and like it." |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Yeah, that is why it is feeling at this point like a bit of wasted potential, because a Let's Go is a performance piece, where just playing the game is maybe half of the work, and keeping the audience engaged is the other half. Whether it is role playing or giving the experience of talking to someone about things that feel real and relatable. Your mention of the flight sim roleplay sounds interesting, I might have to look into something like that. I had lately just fallen into a fad of Reddit story readings. Thinking about it there was a Let's Player I was really into the videos of, but I have not really watched much since a controversy that made him into the enemy of the internet. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 4
It still isn't really good, but at this point I do have to admit that it kind of has a charm that I am finding enjoyable. I would even say that it kind of clever at times, such as in this episode where it had a dramatic moment of Akatsuki saying something meaningful as he left the barn or whatever into the rain, and then asking if he come back in because it started raining harder than he expected. Not really be surprising funny gags, but it kind of feels like it is kind of sincere in doing the story it is, and lets itself be weird. Such as in the previous episode it had the cute high school girl they made, which happened to also be a panda with an afro. I am kind of appreciating that younger audiences might find this more interesting, a sort of thing where they don't want gruesome Danganronpa deaths, but feel mature with the creepy yandere. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4084 |
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I keep reading how this is like Danganronpa but I don't see it myself. For one thing, I like this show. I suppose there are bits in the character designs but I feel the actual plot here is more about the characters saving each other; Dark things will come out but they can't just leave some of them behind as they were told what fate lies for those left behind. "Told" is bit of a red flag as it shouldn't be that hard for Pacca to trot out an example or two but the absolute truth of their situation the most obvious plot thread.
What this show most reminds me of is Baka and Test up to the point where the dark character traits once played for laughs become serious. That's one thing I like about this show, everything's played for a laugh until it's not and it's left up to the audience to decide what is "too much". I can go further and say that this show works best when it switches the comedy off and back on again, something Danganronpa could not do once the murders started. Episode 3 and 4 because I forgot about episode 3 due to vacation. The seemingly ruleless plant body stealing invasion was alright as it ended on an excellent Yuzu moment but that was still an absurd amount of poison. Episode four was just as funny with no serious moments so I expect part five to start introducing the fate of those left behind... convenient one of them would seem to be related to this new crew. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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A bunch of teenagers don't know how they got there, and are forced into a game with their lives on the line to an authority figure has a bit of a cute design but also creepy. A perfectly honest take is that I am not a big fan of survival games where you can expect a bunch of kids to be maimed, my stomach is a bit weak for that sort of things. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 12 (finale)
Towards the end of this episode seemed to show a bunch of things that are meant to mean something, but otherwise the last episode felt like one big filler plot, it being some sort of “bonus level”. I guess that it wanted a more fun end, while also hinting at other things in the story, but really just feels like it ended on an inconclusive note. Maybe the deal was about them all coming together to save Iride, the emotional core of the group, but meh. The previous episode was about them maybe touching on the emotional core of the emotionless team member, sort of cute with the child versions, but doesn’t feel like they even understood anything more about him, or if he personally was affected. I won’t say all bad, but certainly nothing that feels really well written. I say that the show was no good, but I will also say that I liked some of its charm. Part of it feels like a bunch of different plots that could have been put into a more cohesive story, and felt like it tried way too hard to push its mascot, Paka, like the lame version of Monobear. It is hard not to see the influences of Danganronpa on this show, only without the teeth, although maybe getting closer in the hide and seek game with the sisters, which kind of felt like someone has some good ideas in the mix. In general it is easy to see it on the sweeter side rather than scary, and to be completely honest I might have preference with that over a Danganronpa death parade. I do keep my complaints from the start, that a little more thought should have been put into each character’s origin as a let’s player, a little more tied up in these kids being familiar as performers, rather than happening to play some games. Could have worked better with their goal of trying to get views, which really doesn’t feel like something that any of them worked on to entertain audiences and try to cultivate attention. My favourite character would probably be the lab coat wearing Yuzu, who just felt more interesting with her quirky behaviour, deliberate action that felt like the sort of thing they may actually be wanting to do, and her affection for the others. Although her motives feel a little muddy since she is not quite the same as everyone else, and the quiet Himiko would normally be my type. And a slight complaint about tired tropes like the boys getting yelled at for the girls walking in on them in the bath, where I would have liked to have seen them get angry at the girls being fooled by Paka. Otherwise, I think that this show was made for the sort of demographic that might be transitioning from more child shows, and into the more mature teenage shows. Someone who might not be familiar with other better shows, or simply not care, and I can see the value for that sort of thing. I would even go so far as to say that it is less troubling than you might think on certain issues, nothing that felt like it boiled down female characters to a pair of boobs (although a couple jokes that I don’t think were too offensive). And I would even say things like Iride being a little feminine in girl talk and put into girls clothes, were not as troubling as I might think. Anyway, I will give a rating of Decent (6/10), because I don’t think that I lost my time watching. |
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