From left to right: Makino Aikawa, Yuzu Roromori, Kaikoku Onigasaki, Himiko Inaba, Akatsuki Iride, Karin Sarayashiki, Anya Kudō, Zakuro Oshigiri.
"I urge you to stream as if your life depends on it."
— Paca
Spreading throughout Japan is a series of mysterious disappearances, targeting only youths. The only similarity is that each victim was a well-known LPer, all on the verge of completing the closed beta of a free-to-play game, The Ones Within - Genome.
A group of such victims find themselves in an unknown location, where they're told that they'll be doing a livestream of The Ones Within - Genome—except this is no video game, but instead reality. To earn their freedom, they must achieve 100 million total views, starring:
Akatsuki Iride — specializing in escape games.
Karin Sarayashiki — specializing in horror games.
Kaikoku Onigasaki — specializing in Japanese-style games.
Himiko Inaba — specializing in nurturing simulation games.
Anya Kudō — specializing in fighting games.
Yuzu Roromori — specializing in puzzle and maze games.
Zakuro Oshigiri — specializing in stealth games.
Makino Aikawa — specializing in dating simulation games.
However, when conspiracies lurk around the corner and rebellion pays a price, it only gets more complicated from there.
Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] (The Ones Within - Genome [On the Spot Coverage]) is an on-going manga by Osora, which began serialization in pixiv Comic
in 2014. It received an anime adaptation by SILVER LINK. that began airing in July 2019. The initial PV can be found here.
Naka no Hito Genome [Jikkyouchuu] provides examples of:
- 13 Is Unlucky: This game's round takes place in the 13th Avenue.
- Affably Evil: Paca is friendly as long as you don't respond with violence and/or rule-breaking, a Fanboy of Inaba's livestreams, and gets along great with Iride. Still the host keeping them captive and unremorsefully inflicting punishments on them, though.
- Affectionate Nickname: Roromori's given these to everyone. Akki for Akatsuki, Karirin for Karin, Anbou for Anya, Hiimin for Himiko, Makimaki for Makino, Zakkun for Zakuro, and Kai for Kaikoku.
- All-Loving Hero: In the 1st stage, in which the players were meant to fight the creatures, Iride befriends the panda instead. As for humans? Iride makes it clear he loves all his teammates and will happily befriend any of them, from the Tsundere Sarayashiki to the Hot-Blooded Kudo. Also, befriending a possibly malicious spirit who'd just tried to burn him to death.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Oshigiri refuses to do it, but when deciding on a guy to dress up as a female sacrifice, Roromori comments that Oshigiri could absolutely pull it off. The few images we see of him without his mask on confirm that yes, he looks almost identical to his female twin.
- Big Brother Instinct: Oshigiri, who actually wanted to be kidnapped so he could search for his missing twin sister. Also, while Onigasaki is likely older than he is, Oshigiri is rather protective of him as well, due to Onigasaki's tendency to get into trouble. Onigasaki, on his part, doesn't appreciate it.
- Birds of a Feather: As Sarayashiki observes, Iride and Roromori (who has a blatant crush on him) are cut from the same cloth, as easily excitable dorks who don't let anything bring them down.
- Cannot Talk to Women: Oshigiri isn't too good around women (funnily enough, he has a twin sister who notes in an omake that he's always been like that).
- Chekhov's Gunman: Sarayashiki's brother is first mentioned as part of her Dark and Troubled Past but plays a role later in the story. However, he actually debuted in the very first chapter: he's the detective investigating the disappearances.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Both Iride and Aikawa are odd, to say the least. In Iride's case, he's just a major airhead, but Aikawa veers right into implied disorder territory.
- Commonality Connection: Oshigiri immediately takes to Onigasaki, who's the only participant who isn't just going along with the game but is instead digging deeper. Onigasaki turns down the offer of a partnership, though, as he and Oshigiri are too different otherwise.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: As punishment for Kudo's constant violence, he... gets all of his meals covered in bell peppers. Iride bribes him into participating in a game by offering to eat them for him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: All of the main characters, as invoked by the host. For the 13th avenue, they wanted participants who'd be more inclined to actually play along, so they kidnapped people who, for whatever reason, don't particularly want to return home (if they even have one).
- Deadly Game: The titular The Ones Within - Genome—the real-life version, that is. While most of the individual rounds aren't that dangerous themselves (except for when certain people break the rules, prompting special rounds as punishment), it's made clear that if they don't achieve enough views, they will literally play until they die, and that's not even getting into the White Room...
- Emotionless Boy: Aikawa reacts to virtually nothing. While it's usually meant for gags, it's also implied that he's depressed.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The grandfather-granddaughter ogre duo of the 5th stage love each other dearly (as they cooperate to abduct maidens).
- Even the Guys Want Him: Stare into Aikawa's eyes for five seconds and you'll fall in love with him. No exceptions.
- Exhausted Eyebags: Kudo has these, due to his sleeping disorder.
- First-Name Basis: Kudo prefers to be on this with others, finding it gross to be so formal.
- The Fool: In the 7th stage, in what's essentially hide-and-seek, almost the entire group tries to play the game smart (hiding, switching rooms, etc.), even though it's mostly up to chance... and yet the only person who avoids getting caught even once is Aikawa, who spent the entire round up to that point sleeping in his room.
- The Gadfly: Roromori loves to poke fun at people, with Sarayashiki being her favourite target—e.g. flirting with her to get their views to go up, telling her that she's actually a guy (... while they're both naked in the open bath, mind you), etc.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Invoked by Roromori, who flirts with Sarayashiki knowing that it'll attract viewers.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Kudo flies off the handle at the slightest provocation. Then again, if you were constantly exhausted thanks to a sleeping disorder, you'd be grumpy all the time too. (Oshigiri thinks it's just part of his nature, though.)
- Headbutting Heroes: Kudo and Oshigiri have clashed since Day 1 (though it's worth noting that when the Mimicry Man-eater grabbed Oshigiri, Kudo was also the first to come to his rescue).
- Idiot Hair: Iride has one. He's apparently rather attached to it, as he's visibly saddened when it gets flattened.
- I Have No Son!: Onigasaki was disowned by his family. It's still a sore spot for him.
- Insistent Terminology: Paca, who is a paca. Definitely not an alpaca.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kudo's constantly cranky and prone to throwing punches, but most of the time he's yelling about the absurdity of the situation or to cover up his own issues, rather than out of any malice. (Unless your name is Oshigiri, anyway.)
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Fitting for a stealth expert, Oshigiri believes that if you can't win the fight, then you should run—in contrast to Onigasaki, who think it'd shame his family name to flee. In response, Oshigiri straight-up tells him to cast away that name if it'll get in the way.
- Mellow Fellow: Not much seems to get to Onigasaki, with the others noting that he goes at his own pace. Of course, if you do piss him off, you're probably about to die.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: As far as Onigasaki's concerned, everything can be solved by cutting it down with his sword. Lampshaded by Oshigiri, who asks why violence is always his first resort (it's because he hates waiting).
- The Nicknamer: Roromori, as evident by all the Affectionate Nicknames above.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Subverted. Sarayashiki's the horror specialist... but she's the worst at dealing with any round that's even remotely scary. As she puts it, liking horror games doesn't mean she actually wants to be in a horror game herself!
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: During the 6th state, Kudo finds Inaba's tendency to loom over him absolutely terrifying.
- Odd Friendship: Kudo and Iride become fast friends thanks to Iride offering to eat Kudo's bell peppers.
- Only Sane Man: Kudo in the 3rd stage, between Inaba, Iride, and Aikawa.
- The Quiet One: Aikawa's a man of few words, even in his livestreams (with Kudo pointing out that he barely even qualifies as an LPer, in that case...).
- Rebellious Spirit: Oshigiri at least apologizes for breaking the rules and landing the entire group in trouble. Onigasaki? Unsurprisingly, he ends up getting thrown into the White Room down the line.Onigasaki: Rules are meant to be broken. Screw that.Kudo: What's with you? You in your rebellious age or what?
- Serious Business: Inaba takes nurturing simulations very seriously. Very. Also, anything that has to do with nurturing, period.
- Shrinking Violet: Inaba's very soft-spoken. With that said, Beware the Nice Ones is absolutely in play here: the girl carries flash grenades and she's not afraid to use them!
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Roromori's the only one of the bunch with glasses, and as the puzzle expert, she's the best at problem-solving, as well as a budding chemist, apparently.
- Stalker with a Crush: Roromori towards Iride, complete with a Stalker Shrine in her room.
- Super Gullible: Oshigiri, who believes it when Roromori says that girls carry poison for self-defence nowadays. He combines this with Curious as a Monkey in an omake, where he finds himself plagued by Kudo's insults towards him (straight-laced mushroomnote , V-necknote ), wondering if they have some kind of deeper meaning (they don't).
- Team Mom: Both Inaba and Oshigiri serve this role, with their tendency to fuss over their teammates.
- Team Pet: Punitsuki, the slime version of Iride's head. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Tragic Keepsake: Kudo's helmet belonged to his dead oldest brother. Similarly, his other brother, Shinya, inherited the earrings.
- True Companions: Almost. The group certainly gives off this impression when Onigasaki is imprisoned in the White Room and the others boycott the game in response, even if it means meeting the same fate. Ironically, while only Oshigiri is aware, Onigasaki is essentially the divide in the group, as he doesn't trust Iride and Roromori, and encourages Oshigiri to likewise be suspicious.
- Tsundere:
- Sarayashiki is a textbook example, and was apparently voted as the number one female LPer fans want to be stepped on by. When Kudo and Iride see (a fake version of) her smiling, they're understandably creeped out.
- As a male example, Kudo would rather die than admit he's fond of Iride.
- Wham Line: In Ch. 18.Paca: Good morning, Onigasaki-sama. Welcome to the White Room.
- You Remind Me of X: As Oshigiri states, Onigasaki acts a lot like how Oshigiri would expect his sister to act in this situation, which is why he follows him around: he hopes that by doing so, he'll find a lead as to his sister's whereabouts.
