Anti Reset (2024)

hmmm....

To be honest, there was never a point of this show where I was sure if I liked it or not. But there was something about it that kept me from dropping it all the way until the end! I think there's an interesting premise here, but I'm not quite sure it was executed well. An over-reliance on montage and rushed/choppy story made it hard to buy into the romance. Honestly, sometimes it felt more like a cautionary tale about unethical experimentation than a love story, but I was kind of into the vague horror of that! I don't think it was bad, but I don't think it was what I expected or wanted either. In honor of this indecision: 5 stars, dead middle.

-The Full Review-

STORY:
I found the story to be simultaneously the strongest and weakest point of this show. For it's strengths, it definitely had a message that it believed in strongly. The conversation around history and humanity was quite interesting, and I liked the way artificial intelligence complicated Chu Yiping's perspectives. There was a very compelling quality to the way he rationalized Ever 9's humanity, and a satisfying conflict with his Uncle.
For it's weaknesses, however, the love story was... odd? I don't want to say it wasn't clear or believable--I actually really enjoyed the unique ways these two people connected. But we aren't given enough time with them to truly feel that relationship or the strength of it. Too much is left in the montage, so a lot of the most emotional scenes feel fairly unearned. I would have liked to see some better pacing here.

ACTING:
Ah. I guess the problem here lies with the lack of progress. I think both actors were good at the more robotic side of the character--the early days when they were stiff, awkward, and uncomfortable. But I would have liked to see these characters pushed a lot farther as the relationship progresses. We never really get a proper sense of this astronomical change in Chu Yiping that the other characters talk about. And we only ever get glimpses of a natural humanity that could have sold the relationship. It was alright.

PRODUCTION:
The production quality was so hit and miss during this show, but I think my biggest issue was that it missed on things that should be easy. It's fine and understandable if a low budget production has some less-than-impressive special effects! It doesn't really upset my enjoyment of the series. But when there's sloppy make up? You can't afford to take two minutes to fix his foundation? I think it made some of the scenes feel more amateur than they actually were and distracted from the story.

In all, I can't really say I would recommend this show. But I don't think I would discourage someone who was interested in this concept from checking it out. I would say, it stays pretty constant--so if you aren't feeling the first episode or two, you might want to drop!

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A Robot Falls For A Human, But The Robot Is A Human

I was really excited for what this could have been. Robot + Human falling in love, delving into the progression of feelings for the Robot especially before (according to the summary) disaster strikes. Instead, I got two humans in close quarters liking each other really, really fast.

We're originally shown that CYP isn't fond of people, has a harsh demeanor, and prefers to keep to himself. An assistant robot is literally forced upon him by his uncle, so it makes sense to assume he would be particularly displeased, but he is immediately docile upon meeting Ever 9. I could suspend the resulting belief from that if Ever 9 was in anyway robotic as it'd make sense that CYP was more confortable around something obviously inhuman. But Ever 9 is a person, period. Nothing about him is robotic at all. Maybe a naive person, but even still, barely. He speaks like a person, emotes like a person, feels like a person, has likes, dislikes, wants, and expresses displeasure at things he doesn't want to do. I feel robbed of the premise I was promised, because without the robot plot, literally nothing changes about the story so far.

Of course, all of this is explained away by calling Ever 9 super high tech and top secret, but it sincerely feels like the author/director/screenwriter is just constantly shushing me and telling me to "just go with it." I suppose, as of episode 4, this is more a compendium of "wouldnt this be cute" moments than the series promised by the summary. If you go in not expecting much or even just expecting that, it'll be a decent watch.

Edit: after watching episode five the first thing I said was, "this makes me want to eat carrots to go into anaphylactic shock." I am allergic to carrots, to be clear. Im dropping this for all the reasons stated above (plus a couple extra now), but in bold and underlined.

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Wasted Potential So Dropped

BLs are becoming increasingly juvenile. I really have higher expectations from Taiwanese BLs than I do of Korean and Thai BLs. Maybe it’s because I had watched the HIStory anthology before Covid that I have this mindset.

Not only have the HIStory series declined in quality swith with HIStory 4&5 but with each Taiwanese BL that came out in the last 2 years. The scripts have become juvenile and the acting has downgraded.

I cannot believe that a grown man who is a professor at a university is so childish. This is suppose to be an intellectual man but he is rendered into an idiot when he is around a robot. Even if he has emotional stunted trauma, there is no way he can be do idiotic in acting like a regressive teenager.

I am checking out of this so I do not rot my brain with this drivel. I am so disappointed with taiwanese BLs being brainless fodder that’s only digestible for schoolgirls and childish adults who have lost their sense of reality in favor of this kind of unicorns and sunshine nonsense.

This is definitely another fine example of BLs going down the crapper. I am sure there will be plenty of schoolgirls who will keep romanticizing this kind of terrible BL as the greatest thing since slice bread. 😩

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Distastefully Cringy and Creepy

There is something distastefully creepy and cringy about this series and I frankly did not find it even a bit romantic in any way. In fact, I found it rather sad and pathetic. This series says more about a disconnect from reality than about the advancement of AI. The acting in this series is flat and stilted and monotone, not just by the robot but by the human. At times, it was hard to tell who really was the robot. In a real sense, I wish I had not watched this series. It made me feel uncomfortable and apprehensive about the future.
You can read my full review of this series at BLBliss.com

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CUTE IN SOME WAYS, IT MEETS SOME ELEMENTS OF BL SERIES, BORING OVERALL.

I would not say it's not watchable but in terms of story telling and plot, I think this BL lacks in appeal and couldn't pull you in its story for some reason. It has all the elements for a BL series but I couldn't put myself to like it as much as "YOU ARE MINE" and "STAY BY MY SIDE".
OK I will be honest, it's BORING! same goes to the last VBL they released (VIP ONLY). I mean what's happening with you VBL??? The past series you released was fun and adorable, this last 2 are snooze fest. If it weren't for STAN I wouldn't watch the VIP ONLY because STAN is the only VIP I saw in that series the rest is just an accessories for puppet show. And now this ANTI RESET???? I mean come on!! Can you hire a better writer to do the script?? I don't have anything against the actors, I mean if they are new to this industry then it's understandable but still they are cute and handsome. There is something about this series that I couldn't place that is lacking.
I hope the next one will be better, because the last 2 was a disaster. I haven't heard if they will be making another one but I hope it will be good.

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An Impossible Romance Between A Robot & A Historian

“Anti Reset” is the story of Chu Yi Ping (Wu Ping Chen), is an aloof and unsociable history professor who gets into an accident at his college and injures his arm. To take care of him, his uncle, the head of a scientific company which is secretly experimenting with artificially intelligent human-like robots, sends him their latest model, Ever 9 (Huang Li Feng). The two spend time together as Ever 9 helps nurse Yi Ping back to health, and feelings develop.

Despite the scientific premise, if you go into “Anti Reset” expecting it to answer deep philosophical questions about the power dynamics of a romance between a human and an artificially intelligent robot who is designed to serve him, whether artificial intelligence can truly gain the sentience to become fully human, what being ‘human’ even means, you might be disappointed. The show brushes off the scientific explanations as being top secret, and presents Ever 9 as already close to completely sentient. He feels both positive and negative emotions, including jealousy of a robot vacuum and fear of being replaced by another model. At this point, the show would have been virtually the same had Yi Ping’s uncle sent him a human caretaker instead of an AI.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/02/16/anti-reset-first-impressions-ep-1-to-3/

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I need to reset the story

A romance between Artificial intelligence and a human is indeed a challenging take for me to get adopted. I watched several shows with similar concepts but only a few entertained me. Anti-Reset is no exception since I badly wanted to rewrite their storyline. They have the budget but the sequence of scenes could have been more exciting. The only time that I got giggles was during that particular moment when the robot was creating an account for the human and he was asked to verify if he was not a robot and that was hilarious.

The acting was mediocre too; the robot ain’t seem like a robot and the professor carries an average acting performance. They almost have the right chemistry but fail to be consistent in delivering the decent vibes of romance needed per dialogue. In the end, the robot is a robot and recontinues with the romance with the human as if nothing happened.

I would like to be happy and satisfied with the ending but I knew deep down in my heart that they could showcase more than this one. At some point, I feel like they wasted the potential of the production value and the role of the artists. Nevertheless, it wasn’t the worst Sci-Fi series out there, yet it wasn’t also close to being matched in a standard level of this genre.

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