If you’re looking for a unique and meaningful dissection over the possible implications of AI caretaking and romance, Anti-Reset is not the show for you. Instead of contemplating the power dynamics, or the possible personhood of robots, or even the possible overdependence towards AI, the show just mostly plays out like a typical romance between a househelp and their employer, except with a creepy uncle that is much too invested in his nephew’s sex life. And for a show about futuristic technology, it just feels really retroactive to have the gay couple play out in traditional gender roles, with the AI slave created to do traditionally female assigned duties. Really, the only point of Anti-Reset that succeeds is seeing two handsome guys kiss in pretty lighting.
Synopsis
When Chu Yi Ping, an emotionless man, dislocates his hand in an accident at school, his uncle gives him Ever 9 as a caretaker, an experimental intelligent robot that his company is secretly testing. Although Yi Ping is reluctant at the beginning, he finds that Ever 9 complements his deficiencies and makes him feel the companionship. Yi Ping asks Ever 9 to make a wish and complete the wish list together, but before the list completed, Ever 9 breaks down. The repair only takes a week, Ever 9 is about to be reset. After the reset, Ever 9 rushes to complete the wish list and posing as if he is bored with Yi Ping and actively asking for a return. Yi Ping doesn’t know what’s wrong with Ever 9, because he has learned from it how to be human and experience love. Can’t he learn how to be together for life? Is the promise of not leaving each other null and void?
Storyline
After dislocating his hand, emotionally distant Chu Yi Ping is gifted with an experimental AI caretaker named Ever 9, that surprisingly helps him feel more human.
TLDR
There was a unique story to be told here, but no, let’s just use AI as a topping to make up for the generic and bland story.
What stands out
You know how in romantic dramas, there are moments between the couple that play out in slow motion, with softly blended lighting that emphasizes the actors’ looks, and scores that play to signal that these are the most attractive people ever? Anti-Reset has these moments between Chu Yi Ping and Ever 9 in domestic duties, like grocery shopping, cooking, and gardening. This isn’t all bad, as romanticizing these actions can makes these chores feel better to do in real life– but it does make Chu Yi Ping seem at best, immature for wanting to off-source his caretaking for free, like a child, and at worst, only attracted to individuals that would cater to his every whim, and unable to reciprocate care to anyone at all.
