Link Click

So...yeah, I have some explaining to do. While most peoples' knowledge of animation is limited to North America, Canada, and Japan due to those countries being the ones putting it out the most, saying animation only comes from those countries is doing it a disservice. While not to the level of the countries I mentioned, other countries such as France, England, Russia, China, and so on have their own history and outputs in regards to the medium of cartoons. Hell, the very first documented cartoon was made in France, and the very first feature length animated (Not cel-animated) film originated from Germany. The subject of today's review, a web series called Link Click, is a donghua, or cartoon made in China. Admittedly, my knowledge of Chinese animation is very limited, and I've only seen this, The Legend of Hei, and Big Fish and Begonia. Plus, it didn't really help that years before, I had seen some news articles about some Chinese cartoons that had made headlines for blatantly plagiarizing and even outright stealing assets from other foreign properties. Not the best way to get exposed to Chinese animation, I know. But recently, it seems like Chinese animation has really stepped up (Do correct me if I'm wrong, though), and I'm glad for it. Though the only reason I even heard of Link Click was because a voice actor I follow on Twitter announced that they were cast as one of the leads in the English dub and was hyping it up the wazoo. I wound up checking it out and...man, am I glad I did so. Thanks, Zeno Robinson!

The story centers on two young men, Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi (pronounced chung shao-shuh), who run Time Photo Studio, which on the surface looks to be a place where people can develop photographs. But Lu and Xiaoshi actually have special powers, which they use to help clients. Xiaoshi can jump into photographs, traveling back in time to the moment the picture was taken, assuming the identity of the photographer, absorbing their memories and emotions in the process, whereas Lu can see the events that happened after a photo has been taken, and his job is to guide Xiaoshi through the events that happen. But they have to be careful, because they only have 12 hours and one chance to travel back in time and find what their clients want, and they also have to leave past events unchanged, or else the timeline will be thrown out of whack. One small action can have a ripple effect and the consequences could be perilous. Before I talk more about Link Click, can I just say how happy I am that 90% of the characters in this are adults who graduated from college rather than the usual whiny teenagers you see in anime? I mean, Xiaoshi acts more like a teenager than the rest of the cast, but even nowadays, its fairly rare for post-college adults to star in many Eastern animated properties, and because of this, the series has a more mature and grounded perspective in terms of how it handles everything.

This is also due to the fact that while Link Click starts off as an episodic character-of-the-week formula, it slowly evolves into a mystery and thriller by the end. Link Click is a show that absolutely knows what it is, what story it wants to tell, knew what cards to play, and then managed to make everything come together for an amazing yet heartbreaking finale that still leaves you wanting more in the best way. Things that seem inconspicuous early on are used to great effect later, and instead of relying on unnecessary twists, it lets things play out naturally based on how the characters interact with one another and the world around them, creating a more natural tension that leaves you sitting at the edge of your seat in anticipation. Granted, Lu and Xiaoshi's dynamic does lean into the "smart stoic guy and impulsive dudebro" tropes that are pretty common in buddy pictures, but the show takes care to have their actions and personalities make sense in the narrative's context. All the characters in the anime are pretty nicely written, even if some don't get a whole lot of screen time. One character near the end has me raising my eyebrows a bit, but since season two is on the horizon, for all we know, he might get more development there.

It helps that the animation and soundtrack are both pretty good, too. Again, I'm not entirely familiar with donghua nor have I seen a lot of it, so I can only compare it to not just Legend of Hei and Big Fish and Begonia, but other anime as well. Whereas Hei was a mix of both Ghibli and CalArts and Begonia's art style was more reminiscent of early Avatar: The Last Airbender, Link Click's character designs are a bit more typically...anime, but the characters' faces are pretty angular, with pointed chins and small eyes that manage to toe the line between being cartoony and realistic. The series also has a very slightly faded color palette, but that's not to say the series is poorly made. The backgrounds clearly have a lot of love put into them, with every scene looking like a painting, and while the actual character motion isn't as smooth as other series I've seen (I'm watching Kamichu right now, and its animation is more kinetic IMHO), it still gets the job done. Also, can I just say how utterly amazing the animation in the opening sequence is? From what I found out, the entire opening sequence was rotoscoped, made by ONE PERSON over a period of three months. That is amazing. The soundtrack itself is also pretty nice, and uses a lot of surprisingly competent English lyrics for some songs. But like with donghua in general, my knowledge of Chinese music is fairly limited, so I can't really say much about it other than that I like it. I wish I could be more eloquent about this stuff!

There is one recurring theme in the show that does make me raise my eyebrows: What is it with people in this show being opposed to their kids moving to the city and wanting to make something of themselves? There are several instances in the show where some minor characters act like their kids moving to the city is tantamount to doing hard drugs or committing grand larceny. Hell, one character even threatens to disown her daughter just because she contemplated moving to the city for college and to find good jobs. The hell? I know China has this weird thing about filial piety and all, but...I don't know, I found those instances to be really needlessly melodramatic and forced, especially since the reason some characters even want to move to the city is to either go to college and get good job opportunities that they can't find in the boonies, which many people would consider to be great! Or this might just be a weird cultural thing that I'm not familiar with. Still, threatening to disown your kid just because she wants something better for herself seems a little much, don't you think?

Furthermore, Link Click doesn't really explain how Lu and Xiaoshi even got their powers at all, much less how they came to even get the job of jumping into photos in the first place. For all I know, season two might elaborate on this, but who knows at this point. So if you're looking for a show that gives you all the answers up front, you're probably not going to like Link Click. But I personally really like this show and really want to know more about it. I'm glad I got to sit down and watch Link Click, as its criminally underrated and deserves more love than its getting right now. Whether I'll rewatch it in its original Chinese, I'm not sure. It'll depend on how motivated I feel. And yes, you can bet your ass I'm watching season 2 as soon as that either comes out or gets dubbed into English.