➤ story
➤ characters
➤ art
➤ music - op/ed
➤ extra
➤ my rating
please keep in mind that the final rating might be solely based on my personal enjoyment!! the review itself is just me discussing all the factors mentioned above.
warning: please be aware that this is not a spoiler-free review
╰┈➤ story
wow, how do i even start to describe a plot of such a show? Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang - our main characters - both have special abilities. Lu Guang can look into photos and see events that took place 12 hours after taking it. Cheng Xiaoshi can "get" into the photos, and exist in the past as the person who took the photo. advised and guided through the photos by Lu Guang, Xiaoshi tries his best to not change too much in the past, but he could if he wanted to. and, as you know, that's what s1 focuses on. but s2 is,, different, very different even... almost the whole season centers around Jin Qian - a lawyer and a former police officer, who used to work alongside Li Xiao. Desperate to change his past, he chases the employees of the Time Photo Studio, intending to make Xiaoshi alternate the past - and that makes this season a very interesting game of cat and mouse that never really stops... like, seriously!! if one problem is solved, then another conflict arises. some stuff feels random, but everything is connected. almost every ep ends with a cliffhanger. heart-warming moments followed by a shocking plot twist, or vice versa.
Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide
yikes. there were so many deaths this season man...
when you think the situation can't get any worse - it does. there were so, so many moments that made me shed a tear or cover my face with my hands because of all the stress and excitement that this show made me feel over the last several weeks. the 1st episode was incredibly nerve-wracking, too, because we all knew damn well how brutal link click can get... they could've as well just killed off Lu Guang. and they actually made it look like this for a second!! the way this show is executed is simply brilliant. epic fights, unexpected plot twists... this season has it all, and i'm really not lying when i say that the action never stops.
am i being overly optimistic?? yeah, maybe a bit, but in my opinion it's just this good. but if there is something i'd like to complain about, then i'd most likely be the whole thing with our main duo's superpowers - Quoting anilist's description of this season, "Cheng Xiaoshi by chance meets Lu Guang, a person possessing superpowers, and awakens to his own special ability". Was that... was that ever clearly explained IN the show?? maybe it's just me being stupid, but i genuinely don't remember their powers ever being explained. they just kinda... had them since the beginning. not like it's that much of an issue, but from what i've heard it was supposed to be explained this season. welp. shit happens, ig. oh, and about the scene where the twin's dad beats up their mom (around ep 4-6),, i believe that for many people that was just too much, you really need nerves of steel to watch that part... literal chills.
╰┈➤ characters
this season clearly treats the main characters differently than it did in the previous one. the first season of link click is mostly focused on the main characters helping random people with their struggles by entering the photos (and also on how that affects someone as emotional as Xiaoshi), but this season showed us something totally different - we finally got to see the characters on the screen as "themselves", and this season did a great job showing how deep is the bond between the main cast. seeing Lu Guang get more emotional was cool as hell, too.
Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide
i lost my shit when Lu Guang saved Xiaoshi abfyhbgbs <33 they are both sooo cool?? and what for??
Speaking of the main cast - i'm so glad that Qiao Ling finally got a significant role in the show!! love that for her.
But, let's not forget that we have some new characters this season that cannot not be mentioned!! Tianxi Li was really cute, Tianchen Li was a very interesting antagonist to watch, and i loved how Jin Qian being bad for Ma Xiao totally backfired. we got more of Li Xiao, too!! and Bin Chen's death was sad, too :(
╰┈➤ art
i'm not, like, the no.1 fan of link click's artstyle, but it always seems to me as if there's something unique about it, in a positive way... other than that, the artstyle simply just fits the show. and some of the "insane" expressions in this season were genuinely creepy...
╰┈➤ music
while the ending is much worse than the one from s1 (it's not bad tho), the op is just... damn. it's the first opening ever that i can call a "work of art" and do not feel like a cringy little weeb. it's just beautiful, and if you've watched the show it's so much more than that. i love how it portrays Xiaoshi not being able to get over Emma's case. it shows just how much responsibility lies on his shoulders, too. the fall animation is one of the most impressive things i've ever seen, and i doubt anything can beat this - i was absolutely SHOCKED when i watched it for the first time. but just like i said, the ending song isn't that great, sadly. when it comes to the soundtrack of the show itself it was really good, especially during the fight in the last ep - it made that scene much more serious and epic at the same time.
╰┈➤ extra
i always try to recommend something in this section, but with link click it's kinda hard... tho, out of the stuff i watched ~~i haven't watched steins;gate yet~~, the most obvious choice would probably be banana fish. They're two different shows, but i believe that a link click fan would also enjoy banana fish.
Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide
also, here, have a funny lil comment from one of the link click s2 anilist threads:
╰┈➤ my rating
while some may not agree, for me this season was absolutely mind-blowing - i just can't express how good it was. after what happened in s1's finale, there were MANY paths link click could've taken, and the direction they decided on was just a really good choice. and the finale of this season left us with a new unsolved mystery, too... link click is the master of cliffhangers, and there's no doubt about it. i'm not the kind of person who is strict with high ratings, so it's obviously a 10/10 for me.