It's like a failed attempt to make a crossover of Sherlock Holmes and Steins Gate. Its selling points are either easy to use or already popular in fiction: simple time travel with no sci-fi approach, a compassionate main character, simple life lessons and morals that say no to greed, attractive looking characters and shallow drama that stems from bad life choices. In my point of view, to really answer the question I set in my prologue, Link Click is neither innovative nor brilliant. As for the soundtrack, it's a good reason to watch the show the beautiful and romantic opening song, the dynamic and mysterious ending song that makes you want to watch more, but most of the insert songs too all of them are praiseworthy. Their style is closer to a live webtoon than a japanese anime. The animation and art show almost no similarity to those of common anime, and that's because Shiguang Dailiren is a donghua. Of course, not everyone views this as a flaw. There's sometimes fan service, while at times there are just tragic events happening and people acting immaturely.
The dialogue and character interactions are a big minus in this show. Sadly, in these 11 episodes all the other characters are shallow and forgettable, so in the end, only Cheng matters. His partner, Lu Guang is more grounded and that makes sense because he is an observer when they use their special power.
He never puts the blame in others and tries to take full responsibility, and that's what could make him a tragic character or. In his "diving operations", he gets emotional when he faces hardships and he feels the urge to help other people. Well, Cheng Xiaoshi's character is heavily inspired by the mad scientist from Steins Gate, Okabe Rintarou. How do they handle situations like these? Using that power, they must be careful not to change the flow of events because the butterfly effect may lead the world to a completely different future. Flashy and with style, the protagonists use photographs to enter a past moment of the same world's timeline, andĬontrol others' bodies and minds there for a few hours with their main objective being the solution of criminal cases. People with an interest in non sci-fi time traveling shows could easily enjoy this. But is it really worth the hype?įirst of all, let's state the obvious and answer this question to a certain audience. Now, with its strong finale and its pass to a second season, its insane rise in score and its entry to MAL's top 25 anime will make more people watch it and discuss it. While it was airing, Shiguang Dailiren was considered the hidden gem of Spring 2021 by many fans. So basically (TLDR): if you like a suspenseful, exciting, brilliantly planned donghua, you'll like LINK CLICK. The only upsetting thing I can find in this donghua is their excessive use of cliffhangers that keep me on the edge. This has one of the few OP/EDs that I actually don't skip (unless I'm urgent due to cliffhangers) they have a unique opening and the endings are always somewhat chilly as it ends on the iconic ED beats. The Promised Neverland) with crafty plans then this is a good add to your watches. It gives me a new sense of originality that’s important in these animes and donghuas, in both story and art.įor smart characters (ex. It’s refreshing unique art style I can’t find anywhere else. Well, to start off, it’s the first thing you notice about this donghua: the art. It's a donghua capable of tears too, and isn't emotionally lacking either. Its cleverly crafted mysteries don't lack anything: it keeps me curious, and always somehow end up catching me off guard. It draws me in so much just in the first episode that im just dumbfounded. There's action, there's mystery, there's this captivating concept of time travel. So when the events they are forced to live through in these pictures start to become personal, it will take the utmost strength to push their feelings aside and focus on accomplishing the task they were paid to do. One wrong move and they could alter the future of the person who took the picture.
Through the eyes of the photographer, they live through the events surrounding the picture and try to decipher how to solve their client's request.īut every time they jump into a picture, they take a great risk.
In a small shop called "Time Photo Studio," the two friends provide a special service: using their extraordinary powers that let them enter photographs, they jump into pictures brought to them by clients in order to grant their wishes. These are secrets that only Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang are able to find. In this case, it holds an infinite amount of secrets. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words.