While it was airing, Shiguang Dailiren was considered the hidden gem of Spring 2021 by many fans. 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. But is it really worth the hype?

First of all, let's state the obvious and answer this question to a certain audience. People with an interest in non sci-fi time traveling shows could easily enjoy this. Flashy and with style, the protagonists use photographs to enter a past moment of the same world's timeline, and control others' bodies and minds there for a few hours with their main objective being the solution of criminal cases. 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. How do they handle situations like these?

Well, Cheng Xiaoshi's character is heavily inspired by the mad scientist from Steins;Gate, Okabe Rintarou. In his "diving operations", he gets emotional when he faces hardships and he feels the urge to help other people. He never puts the blame in others and tries to take full responsibility, and that's what could make him a tragic character or... a hero. His partner, Lu Guang is more grounded and that makes sense because he is an observer when they use their special power. Sadly, in these 11 episodes all the other characters are shallow and forgettable, so in the end, only Cheng matters.
The dialogue and character interactions are a big minus in this show. There's sometimes fan service, while at times there are just tragic events happening and people acting immaturely. Of course, not everyone views this as a flaw.

The animation and art show almost no similarity to those of common anime, and that's because Shiguang Dailiren is a donghua. Their style is closer to a live webtoon than a japanese anime. 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.

In my point of view, to really answer the question I set in my prologue, Link Click is neither innovative nor brilliant. 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. It's like a failed attempt to make a crossover of Sherlock Holmes and Steins;Gate.

Thank you for reading.