The Spring 2021 season gifted as a lot of great shows that were generally well-liked. We had great romances such as “Koikimo” and “Higehiro,” we had outstanding Sci-fi shows like “86 EIGHTY-SIX” and “Vivy -Flourite Eye’s Song-“. We also got to watch “Tokyo Revengers“, “To Your Eternity“, “Nomad: Megalo Box 2,” and much much more. But what if I told you that you probably missed the best show that came out back in Spring? No, I’m not talking about “Fruits Basket: The Final” or “Odd Taxi,” I’m talking about “Shiguang Dailiren” (“Link Click”), and here’s why you should watch it.
For the rest of the article, I will use the English title of the show, “Link Click”.
“Link Click” tells the story of Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi. Cheng can enter photos (he takes control of the body of a person who took the photo) for 12 hours from the moment the photo was taken on. Lu Guang has the ability to see what happened in the 12 hours after the photo was taken. They combine their powers to go back into the past and fulfill the clientele’s requests without changing the course of action.
“Link Click” is a Chinese, 11 episode long animation produced by bilibili and licensed by Funimation. A second season of “Link Click” is also in the works. Moreover, the studio in charge is Studio LAN, a studio known for shows such as “To Be Hero” or “Tu Bian Ying Xiong Leaf”. Don’t worry if you don’t know any of the shows they worked on, once you watch the first episode of “Link Click” it won’t matter.
Although theme songs aren’t the selling point of the show, I just have to mention them. The opening sequence had me in awe with its direction and an amazing song that fitted “Link Click” perfectly. The animation and choreography are very unique and extremely fun to watch. Even though I was binging the show, I never skipped both the opening and the ending.
The ending theme, on the other hand, wasn’t as visually stunning as the opening was. The song was way superior in my opinion though. What made it even better, was the fact that every episode perfectly shifted into the ending song, keeping your emotions and urge to watch the next episode at its highest.
I won’t lie, time-traveling isn’t anything new so I wasn’t too hyped when I turned on the first episode of “Link Click”. After my first 20 minutes with the show, however, I got completely hooked. Go into the picture, do what you were asked to, come back, take the payment. Even though the premise doesn’t sound exciting at all, the way every dilemma is presented makes the show engaging. Our characters have to relieve tragedies and create new ones unintentionally while knowing they cannot fix anything in the past. They can’t save anyone, they can’t help anyone in a way that would change the past in a meaningful way.
The constant struggle of wanting to help people while knowing you can cause even bigger tragedies with your actions makes you feel for the characters. Not only does the drama feel real, but it also hits hard. Not confessing your love, arguing with your loved ones before a tragedy strikes, getting mixed up in something you didn’t do. All of these things happen in real life really often, that’s why the stories I got to follow resonated with me even harder.
The soundtrack didn’t consist of many tracks. If anything, I could count all of the songs I remembered on the fingers of my one hand. Apart from occasional insert songs sung in Chinese, there were maybe three or four memorable background tracks. Normally it’s a bad thing, but in “Link Click” those few songs were incredibly fitting and were so good that you didn’t mind the lack of variation. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather have 5 good tracks that I remember than 30 tracks from which only one stands out.
The animation, however, wasn’t perfect all the time and I appreciate that as well. I feel about it almost the same way I feel about the soundtrack. I prefer having some outstanding animation sequences with the rest of the show being on a decent level than having the entire runtime being animated just “good”. That’s when the direction comes in. The way some of the scenes were directed, allowed for some sloppy animation or just less overall movement. Who cares about sakuga in a dialogue scene? The plot keeps you so interested you just stop paying attention to 2 or 3 frames that weren’t perfect. But again, maybe that’s just me.
In my opinion, “Link Click” is a masterpiece that went under the radar for a lot of people. Not only was the show Chinese, but it also had to “fight” with a lot of anticipated anime shows. To sum up, “Link Click” has an amazing score, amazing story, and its direction is superb. To top it off, it keeps you on the edge of your sit and wraps everything nicely, masterfully bringing the plot together. So yeah, that’s why, in my opinion, you should watch “Link Click”. Oh, and one more thing. Prepare for cliffhangers, a lot of cliffhangers.
The show is available on Funimation.