Link Click

Disclaimer: This is my first time reviewing a donghua (Chinese animation, this is NOT an anime!), so please bear with me. Feel free to check out my other reviews here!

Synopsis:
This 11-episode show follows Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, two guys who run a photo studio called "Time Photo Studio" in the big city. Clients come to them with various requests, and the gimmick of these two guys is that they have powers to extract information from photos provided. How? Well Cheng Xiaoshi has the power to enter photos of the past, and Lu Guang acts as his guide. That's all I'll say to avoid saying too much!

Story:
First thing's first, let me say that you should not come into this series expecting it to be a BL. It's not marketed to be that way either as far as I know, so please don't come here expecting the usual BL content.

The story is not hard to follow, making it pretty easy to catch on and understand what's going on. Somebody has a request, they give these two guys a photo and they do whatever they can. As mentioned before, Cheng Xiaoshi enters the photo of the past, and Lu Guang acts as his guide in order to fulfill their clients' request. It's very engaging, and the suspense kicks in often when you realize that they're on a time limit in the past. What really gets me though, is how emotional this series gets while they're going through these requests. So many plot twists that actually contribute to the emotional impact of the episodes just make you stop and think. They really don't beat around the bush with sensitive topics either (more on that at the end), and make me care about characters who are in only one episode. God, some of these episodes had me crying, especially episode 5. ~~Not gonna spoil what happens but if you know, you know.~~

If I had to be really picky, I think there are some things that need more explaining, like how they came to know about how they had these powers because I love that kind of stuff. The focus of the show is more on the clients' stories as Cheng Xiaoshi explores their pasts. But season 2 is confirmed, so hopefully they explain the powers there! Also cliffhangers. A LOT OF THEM. But the whole series is already complete, so if you're binging you won't have a problem.

Characters:
The main characters are both great. Cheng Xiaoshi is very outgoing, earnest and typically empathetic of the clients' feelings, a complete heart of gold kind of character. Lu Guang on the other hand, is very calm, very direct and very by-the-book, giving instructions to be careful of not changing anything in the past to affect the future. Their personalities clash but also blend, which makes for a very interesting dynamic. Qiao Ling is also good, and she serves as the one who brings clients to the studios and acts as a support system for the two guys.

Music:
Both the OP and END are bops, I never skipped either of them once. The ending theme is especially good because of how the end of each episode (albeit with all those cliffhangers) allows for the beginning of the ending song to flow before transitioning to the credits. As for the background OSTs, each one compliments the necessary scenes very well, ranging from calm lofi sounding tracks for casual moments to suspenseful ones for those moments that'll have you biting your fingernails in nervousness.

Animation:
I'm not a person who's nitpicky about animation honestly. I have no background in art or animation so proper terminology eludes me whenever I write these sections, but I will say that the animation seems very clean. Everything is sharp and crisp, and it makes for a very pleasing watch, and considering this isn't really an action/fighting series, I think this is very telling.

Conclusion:
I really enjoyed watching this donghua, it's a shame that it was kinda swept under the rug due to popular anime releasing in Spring 2021 so a lot of people missed it. This was my first modern setting donghua, as the only other ones I saw were all historical setting based (Mo Dao Zu Shi, Tian Guan Ci Fu, and Scumbag System), so it was nice to see something different. With the popularity of MDZS growing, I hope that this will encourage anime watchers to branch out to other animation, and give Chinese animation a chance. If you want a mystery, a thriller and a suspenseful story that will leave you on your toes, than Link Click is for you!

NOTE:

There are trigger warnings that I think I should make note of! Please read this carrd here for any necessary triggers because they are different for each episode!