Y Universe (2023)

unnecessarily slow/too many flashbacks

Overall: all of these stories could have been told in half (or less) of their time and they needed to air two episodes per week instead of spreading the series out over 6 months. Some episodes had way too many flashbacks as well. Aired on iQIYI and re-aired on YouTube.

You Are My Soul Mate eps 7 & 8, 8
A standard Thai BL. Had some stupid poor communication but decent kissing.

Lucky Love eps 9 & 10, 7.5
Standard enemies to lovers. Wanted the new partner to be less aggressive with someone who just got out of an abusive relationship. Content warnings: intimate partner violence, sexual assault, punches/fight, vomiting

Fake Love eps 15 & 16, 7.5
Start at 38:30 in episode 15 and then watch all of episode 16. Standard aggressive pursuer/reluctant pursuee with some nonsense plot things. Content warnings: blackmail, stalking, vomiting, manhandling, non con touching, fight off screen, blood

Marry Go Round eps 3 & 4, 7.5
Nice to have an established couple but we needed more of them and less of the invasive fujoshi character. This is a crack comedy that didn't make me laugh. Note there is an ending scene after the initial credits. Content warnings: homophobia

The Camp Fire eps 11 & 12, 7.5
Slow pacing with some jump scares throughout (you could start at 30 minutes in episode 11 and miss basically nothing). I'm not sure how to feel about the end. Same actors as Love Stage (Thai version). Content warnings: brief scary images/jump scares, death off screen/death/blood (it's complicated)

Right Time, Right Love eps 5 & 6, 7
Bad that his friend asked him to talk it out with his abuser. They really needed a time skip to give some healing time between starting a new relationship. Content warnings: past intimate partner violence, manhandling, mental health struggles

Pisces of Me eps 17 & 18, 7
The incorrect subtitles made this more confusing than it needed to be (ie should have been "our mom" instead of "my mom"). The two guys are fraternal twins, I didn't get incest from the plot. Start ep 17 at 47 minutes and then start ep 18 at 35 minutes. Content warnings: non con kissing, blackmail, fight, a little blood/small injury

1626 eps 19 & 20, 6.5
Way too many flashbacks/forwards. Not a BL unless they were saying "I love you" in morse code.

I Wish You Love eps 23 & 24, 6.5
A guy gets a magical mirror and tracks down the guy who he sees in it, start ep 23 at 25 minutes. No idea why 2 people can't contact each other for years (social media, common friends, going to old addresses, etc) but I set that aside. Confusing way to start the second part. Wish they had made the ending more clear but I can guess what happened. Content warnings: illness, death (implied)

Refund Love eps 21 & 22, 6.5
Flashbacks made up 75% of the plot. Skip all of ep 21 and just watch ep 22. Did like that there was some GL but needed to have more sweet moments/relationship development and less constant flashbacks.

Casanova Begins eps 1 & 2, 6.5
Very confused with who was who and their relationships. Good attempt to try something different but the exposition dump and some nonsense things didn't hook me. Content warnings: death, attempted suicide, manhandling

Friends Forever eps 13 & 14, 6
This is not a romance story but a morality tale. I would have rated this higher if they had tightened the story up and removed the never-ending flashbacks. For the good, a character got actual consequences for his terrible actions. Content warnings: murder, intimate partner violence, coach/university student, drugging, manhandling

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It's a wide universe..

First off, with the sheer amount of stories, they probably should have aired two episodes a week. It is an anthology, but several characters appear in multiple stories and there is a sense of continuation to them all. They are set in the same universe after all.

While there wasn't anything extraordinary about these stories, some of them were mildly interesting, others were plain boring, and some seemed borderline criminal (before they changed the synopsis), but something they all had in common was the fact that the premises were kind of interesting. This seemed like a set of pilot episodes to determine which one would garner the most attention and love, that would then be developed into a full length series, like an En of Love type of deal. Fair, but considering they had neither the airtime to fully develop most stories, nor the fact that they didn't realise if they weren't going to fully develop it, there wasn't a need to extend it for as long as they did just to fill the runtime was a huge misstep on their part.

That isn't to say that the anthology didn't have it's moments. I enjoyed several stories that had the hints of a good plot, solid acting and most importantly, potential to be done better, in case they do. While the rest didn't lack in potential, they failed to capture my attention because of repetitive and boring scenes, weak acting and poor execution.

I would definitely watch stories like Marry Go Round (although that's mostly for the leads), You Are My So(ul) Mate, Lucky Love and The Camp Fire if they were developed into full length series', as is. As for the rest, even though I'm interested in seeing if they would be remade, it'll take a great executional overhaul for me to give them a try.

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