Link Click

Link Click is an animation produced in China preferably called a "donghua". As a Chinese person who grew up in the west I dare to say to I am quite proud to see the love this donghua has been receiving so far and I would like to add my personal 2 cents as well to it. It's not the first time that China had its breakthrough series in the west but so far it mainly only gathered some smaller communities such as "Mo dao zu shi (The grandmaster of demonic cultivation)" or "Heaven's official blessing" and I personally have been following a lot of donghuas coming out always thinking "Please, one day let there be a good donghua that can prove how much potential the chinese industry has". Sometimes I thought there was a decent donghua like "King's avatar" or the two previous named ones but for "Mo dao zu shi" or "Heaven's official blessing" it just wasn't made to be watched by the mainstream audience since the original source material is a boy's love (even though it's censored in the adaptation). I still remember a few days before Link Click came out I wrote an Anilist activity saying "Man, I wish more people would pay attention to chinese animation since there are some really cool things to watch. Link Click is coming out soon let's hope it won't let us down". Let's just say I was blown away. Frankly, I didn't expect China to produce such a series. Link Click is a story where you can just tell "It's made by Asians". Hollywood would very unlikely tell such a story simply because Link Click touches upon topics that really only make a lot of sense when you know about the culture and make you have more of an emotional response. But first let's take a look at the extras and the packaging that made the show even greater than it is and then I will elaborate more on my previous statements.

The music:

The music choice for this show was phenomenal. This statement is no surprise as I am not the only one loving the opening, ending, as well as the insert songs but I wanted to elaborate upon it a bit more. The opening song was so catchy and added to the choreography you can just feel that they put a lot of effort into making this a success. I feel like China once again was playing on the "Soulmates" trope that they like to use or how I would call it "We make the two main boys so close and give so many hints that the female fans will 100% ship them and let us make more money" because that's what they always do (it does bring them money so what can I say). The lyrics of the opening are so obviously targetting at those female fans having meanings like "As soon as you gone I want to be with you again". That's one thing. Next I want to talk about the ending. Personally I did not enjoy the ending as much as everyone else because I really cannot listen to chinese rap. It's uncomfortable in my ears because I just think that chinese is an unfit language for rap but maybe I just think like that because I understand the language since all the non-chinese people loved the song so I will let them have their enjoyment. Regarding the insert songs, they were amazing honestly. They fit perfectly to the emotional plot of Link Click giving you that extra kick of sadness. China really knows how to compose bittersweet songs and it shows.

The Dub:

With the Dub I obviously mean the Chinese synchro. I can only talk from the standpoint of a native speaker but the Dub was so odd. I am not talking about how chinese sounds funny or whatever. The voices were not fitting and it took me some time to just accept the fact. Another thing was how they just changed dialects in the middle of it with some side characters. I can understand if they changed the city but it was in the same city. It makes no sense for everyone to talk in mandarin and for that one side character to talk in a dialect. It threw me off guard and confused me a lot. But that's just a minor critic point.

Asian/Chinese culture:

Saying a show tells about topics connected to their culture comes as no surprise but Link Click did it exceptionally. Donghuas are most of the time adaptations from so called "Wuxia", a chinese story genre centred around cultivation and chinese culture. This is also why they are very hard to follow for western people but Link Click made it their mission to show a part of their culture besides cultivation and mytholgy.Perfect examples are 2 episodes: The first episode and the child trafficking episode.

The first episode of Link Click has a trope in Chinese stories that is so overused but it still hits every goddamn time. And that is the trope of parental love. Link Click episode 1 really hits every Asian person damn hard especially because its telling how Emma didn't come back since a long time, probably not even for New year's eve. New year's eve is the most important event in the entire year. It's the only time when the whole family is together and it's the only event when every Chinese person thinks "I gotta make it home no matter what". Emma's parents show exactly how chinese parents act as soon as their kids don't return home on New year's eve. Exactly, they try to shove food in your face because food is love. Food is the only way a chinese parent can show their kids love, mostly because Asian culture was never lovey dovey when it came to parent-child relationships, which is why the first episode was so emotional. Watching it immediately made me realize that Link Click had something awesome for us in store.

Secondly, the child trafficking episode. I am not saying that it is a part of chinese culture but that it is an extremely relevant topic since a long time and many people choose to ignore it. Child trafficking is no joke especially in Asia. Link Click showed us just how easily a child gets taken away and how we as a society can fail when it comes to such a thing. We all know that it would have ended badly for the little boy if it weren't an anime and that thought in itself is scary enough because it is the reality of thousands of children. At the beginning of this review I said how I never expected China to produce such a story and it's especially because of this episode. China doesn't like to adress problems. They would rather turn a blind eye and shove it under the carpet. I just think Link Click is the first step into changing this ignorance. It's rare to see Chinese stories to talk about societal issues and to see it is just amazing.

Praise:

Link Click uses its interesting concept to tell extremely compelling and interesting stories showing the viewers only the best kinds of stories all the while following an overarching mystery murder that keeps the viewers hooked. They played the emotional card so well while using common tropes while also adding their own little twists that will leave you absolutely in shock. Emma is a characters that we got attached to even before we got to know the main characters and the studio knew that which is why they came full circle with Emma appearing in the first and last episode and despite the season ending in a cliffhanger it leaves you with a kind of closure. I personally was absolutely furious with how Emma ended, they used her character so well to play with the viewers emotions but in the end it answered all my questions.

My praise also goes out to episode 10 especially to the end of episode 10 because god damn it that was so cool. The red lightning, the jump, the line, the expressions and the perfect transition into the outro. It was a immaculate entry to the final fight and I loved it. Cheng xiaoshi's plan was so unpredictable that it blew my mind. I'm not saying that he is dumb but he isn't the calm and rational character like Lu guang. I didn't expect him to go for such a move despite knowing he would go through the previous pain of meeting all the deceased ones again. The finale was the perfect climax for the end of this prologue and everything that built up to it felt so satisfying. Once again this show is certainly not bad.

But-

Critic:

Alright after 1000+ words of praise it's time for the critic and why I think they failed to utilize all their characters to the fullest. First of all, frankly, I didn't give a shit about Lu guang, Cheng xiaoshi and Ling qiao which is already a major red flag for a series since you know... THEY ARE THE MAIN CHARACTERS. I said it before, Emma was introduced as a character even before we got to really know the main boys what didn't 100% had to mean that it was a bad idea but what came afterwards was so shallow and meaningless. Instead of even using one episode to focus on the main characters the studio continued to tell sob stories of random people which made it so hard to empathize and sympathize with Cheng xiaoshi. The first time we got a bit more characterization for Cheng xiaoshi was the basketball episode and the following flashback. I honestly tried to care but it just meant nothing to me. I cannot empathize with his fears, his worries and his irrationality because we were given too little characterization in the first place and the fact that he has to play another person in every episode doesn't help either. A lot of people I know found it annoying how emotional he was and how he always ruined Lu guang's plans and I can understand why they would find it annoying. We were given zero explanations why he is the way he is so we are forced to just accept that we would sometimes do exactly what he is told not to do.

I don't think we need to talk about Lu guang. He can be described with two words: Calm and rational. Nothing more and I honestly don't care about him either. Lu guang's characterization was in the fist place nothing but a failure. I am even surprised that I could remember the boy's names but that's probably only because I know the language. I'm sure most viewers didn't knew their names until the very end.

Ending thoughts:

Link Click knew how to tell emotional sob stories with characters that they had no idea how to handle. For a donghua it certainly deserves praise but compared to anime produced in Japan it is still lacking in many aspects. Still, it's an enjoyable watch and a great entrance for the world of donghua. With Link Click's success I'm sure China will start to realize in what direction they should start to go instead of sticking to their never ending "Wuxia" stories. Go watch Link CLick and see for youself how good this show is. Don't mind the Dub, we were all unfamiliar with Japanese Dub in the beginning as well and slowly got used to it. Don't let a new language be the reason to miss out on a good show.