Taichirō Arima, alias Ichi, is a reclusive teenager severed from reality by his family’s collapse and self-destructive solitude. His gaunt frame, tangled black hair, and bloodshot eyes mirror years of neglect, his existence confined to a garbage-strewn bedroom where he has languished since his sister Aya’s death.

Within the virtual realm of PLANET, he transforms into Ichi—a merciless combatant feared for brutal, unrelenting raids. Leading the Akabane Family’s battles, he unknowingly fights alongside his estranged father, brother, and mother, their true identities masked by avatars. The fabricated kinship with these digital stand-ins contrasts sharply with his shattered real-life bonds.

Taichirō’s bitterness festers toward his high-achieving brother Asuma and father Kojirō, a PLANET developer whose past abuse and indifference fuel his rage. His mother Sayaka’s absence remains a void partially filled by her in-game avatar May, who offers inadvertent maternal comfort he craves yet rejects.

The Akabane Family’s clash over the Black Bird of Happiness—a digital entity inflicting real-world carnage—ruptures Taichirō’s detachment. When Asuma nears death from the Bird’s corruption, Taichirō begrudgingly allies with his family, their virtual aliases unraveling to expose fragile blood ties.

PLANET’s labyrinthine layers—sentient AI, nested simulations—distort Taichirō’s grasp of existence. Encounters with Pico, an AI posing as a player, fracture his reality further, pushing him to confront emotional paralysis. Crude and defiant, he nonetheless shields his online family, inching toward acknowledging their real-world echoes.

Forced by crisis, Taichirō tentatively interacts with his family beyond the game, though resentment lingers. Traces of raw vulnerability pierce his defensive shell, hinting at fractured pathways out of isolation—a journey unfinished, haunted by trauma, yet faintly edged with reluctant hope.