Anime 49413 Shiguang Dailiren Ii Reviews Filter Check 2

The first season of link click has a certain type of charm. Its overarching conflict was that two guys with an extraordinarily capable power are helpless witnesses to tragedies they cannot intervene by principle. It weaves around the localized instances of quiet, normal life that feels all too real and depressing. That makes for a lot of emotionally impactful scenes that occur because a dilemma is present.
That charm has eroded in its sequel. By all means, it is well-written and logically sound continuation of the first season with great characters and suspense, but I can't help but feel that it misses the mark in regards ... to what drew me in to the story in the first place. It feels generic. One villain mastermind who manipulates everything behind the scenes, which the dear protagonists must eventually outsmart and defeat. Too formulaic. All the time travel stuff is swapped out for fight scenes whose ~~outcome~~ presence hardly matter to the story. Most frustratingly of all, the plot is an indefinite streak of enforced villain victory because the good guys can never communicate effectively, nor do the protagonists ever try to use their ability for any substantial advantage.
It feels chaotic. Perhaps it's meant to be, but picture this: If cliffhangers were annoying, imagine the show jumping forward and backwards, location to location, with gaps in continuity, deciding on a whim which events to replay with slightly more detail, but only on the next episode!
I couldn't make this season any better except that I wish the arc was shorter. Transposing to a full-on action anime was driving the show into a corner in hindsight.

Let me preface this by saying that season 1 of Link Click was one of the most enjoyable original "anime" (I know it's a donghua but it's my first and so far only one besides Scissor's Seven) that I'd seen in a long time. It instantly made it to the top five of my personal favorite time travel stories, just behind the legendary Steins;Gate. I loved the framing device of using photos to jump into the past, I loved that the main characters weren't the main focus for the majority of the show but still likable and intriguing enough to care about, and that the ... episodic stories told were all equally compelling and heart-felt, and I loved loved loved how all the plot threads came together in the end to culminate in a truly intense final arc that brought us even closer to the main characters personally, rounding out with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger while leaving so many questions open for another season to answer.
I ain't gonna lie, my expectations for this second season have just been building and building in the two-year wait (helped along by all the promotional material released, and promises of what to expect from the creators), until they reached admittedly unfairly high levels.

So it's with a heavy heart that I have to call this second season, in a word, a DISAPPOINTMENT. It wasn't terrible, but it definitely did not live up to the hype built by the first season (and the show's promotional team) at all.

With the way the first season ended, it was clear season 2 could not continue in the same episodic format. I expected this and in fact anticipated it, as I was eager to learn more about the main leads, Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang themselves. Unfortunately, far from just being different to the first season (and not in the right ways), this second season doesn't even feel like the same show. There are glimpses of what it used to be in the first few episodes, when the titular time agents actually do some time travelling, but the majority of the rest of the show is taken up with the things happening in the present time, which isn't a whole lot. I'm sure anyone who enjoyed season 1 didn't like it for being an action crime drama (because it wasn't!), and yet this season seemed to be trying so hard to transform itself into that... and ultimately failing. Look, the fight animations were cool, but they're essentially just filler scenes and they took up WAY too much screen time in some episodes. What's fun about watching police officers beat up a bunch of goons for FOUR AND A HALF MINUTES when the actual main characters are in danger somewhere else?

It wasn't only fights that ate up a lot of time that could've been dedicated to actual character exploration and plot development; from episode 6 onward, SO much of this show is just backtracking and redoing scenes over and over again for the sake of "revealing" things they could've shown the first time around. I swear the plot took a complete standstill for THREE WHOLE EPISODES while we backtracked and flashbacked our way through plot points we'd already seen or inferred. It really gave off this vibe of the show's writers wanting to stall as much as possible before moving forward with anything really TANGIBLE in terms of plot progression, because they didn't actually know where it was they wanted to go with this story. And it IS just one story here, unlike the first season. While that would have been fine, the fact is, this just wasn't a very INTERESTING story. The antagonist from the end of season 1 turns out to be pretty lame and too cartoonishly over-the-top in his mannerisms (complete with maniacal laughter that also goes on for way longer than it should...) to take seriously, and the other characters introduced aren't much better. I couldn't give a flip about Qian Jin because his motivation and backstory is so uncompelling and unsympathetic - the dude is just a douchebag and I only wanted him taken out.

And I haven't even talked about the over-abundance of fake outs and cliffhangers. This is a problem that rears its ugly head right from the first episode. Given that anyone who might be watching this season now won't have to wait for it, I don't feel any qualms about spoiling something that happens in that first episode. Do you remember how the first season ended? That big cliffhanger that left those of us who had to wait two years for this season on the edge of our seats, while each teaser and trailer that came out in the meantime made us believe that a certain character was going to die? Boy did that create a lot of expectations for what this season would be about. Well, halfway through the first episode of season 2, they reveal that... that character is totally fine. Not dead, not even in danger of dying. They play it off like a joke and move on.

That first episode basically represents how the show handles all its cliffhangers (and there's one for each episode!) for its entire run. They make you think something is going to happen, then bail on it immediately. Oh no, a character who's hiding is about to get caught? Next episode: Sike! No he doesn't! Oh no, a character is about to change something in the past that wasn't supposed to happen? Next episode: Nah, he doesn't. Oh no, some characters just got blown up! Did they survive?? Next episode: Yeah they're fine, they didn't even get a scratch. Literally every ending for every episode was done in a way just to string its viewers along to make sure they tune in next week, without actually doing anything major in the story. Maybe this will be less annoying to people who binge-watch this season all the way through, but for us weekly watchers, it was really aggravating waiting a whole week to see what consequences would occur, only to be shown that there weren't any.

Honestly, about the only things I can credit this season with that make it enjoyable are the FEW moments we get between the three main leads (and I think I can count those moments on one hand), the opening theme which is even better than the first season's and almost seems to tell a better version of this season's story, and the very last scene of the last episode which finally reveals something actually worth caring about.

And of course, sucker that I am, I am still looking forward to another season because of that reveal.

Because overall, this season was really just a transitional part of the story, the bridge that will (hopefully) lead to all the answers we originally wanted. And it really shows; it was clunky and not very well paced or prepared, and the plot never really goes anywhere, but I never missed an episode and it was fun to laugh at even as I was frustrated by it at times. And by the time season 3 rolls around, if the writers actually do it right this time, it won't have harmed the story much in the long run. (The only thing that could do THAT for me is if they actually make the two male leads a couple - please don't.)

The good:
- Nice art and impressive animation.
- Great music. That OP is just wow.
- I like the way they change things up with the story structure. Instead of self-contained episodes, this season is one lengthy, continuous plot with new and quite interesting characters.

The bad:
All the magic from season 1 gradually faded away. It has become something entirely different but not in a good way.

Season 1 was fantastic that I watched four times already. Season 2, on the other hand, dragged on for too long with endless cliffhangers and zero explanation, all for the sake of season 3. Even in the final episode, nothing was resolved ... and nothing felt satisfactory. They kept teasing plot twists after plot twists but they never bothered showing what's what. A shame really, since it’s such a intriguing subject matter. Even the most mysterious mystery has to come to a conclusion eventually.

You are better off waiting for season 3 before watching this season or you're gonna stuck scratching your head like me.

Season two is pretty good but a far cry from the perfection of season one. Since season one ended on a cliff - hanger, of course one wants to go straight to season two, which is different in structure, tone, and style than season one. Was I disappointed? Yeah, because I know the greatness this creator is capable of. It does not live up to the genius of season one. Worse, however, though both seasons are heart-rending, season two is heavy - handed about it. It less touches your heart than rips it out of your chest, and not in a good way like season ... one. Also, though season one wasn't afraid to delve into some very dark topics and it had a body count, season two is straight up brutal, the body count mounting among characters you really love, and for no good reason.

The story structure is frustrating, inasmuch as it's continually telling and retelling the same events from different perspectives, adding a little information each time. I was willing to give the creator the benefit of the doubt and see if this experimental storytelling approach amounted to anything in the end, and it ... didn't. Maybe the genius of season one didn't get the kind of reception the creator expected so he got discouraged and/or thought he had to resort to such brutality, but in the end, he does tell an interesting (but kinda predictable, given the premise of the show) story with great voice actors and fantastic animation and an incredible opening credits sequence, and really, nothing more. All the retelling of events, by the end of the season, just seems like a waste of time.

On the plus side, more is revealed about how exactly their powers work. We also learn more about other people with powers. Still, there is a huge, unmined vein to do with the two main characters' past, how they came together, and what they might owe each other that may never be revealed if the creator doesn't get on it, since I don't think this comes from a manga or anything; I think its only story is told here, so if it's not renewed, we're out of luck. ... And that's the main problem with season two: it just kind of feels like a place - holder, like it's mostly filler. Really disappointing, given all the promise of season one, but on its own merits, not bad.

So we’ve officially entered the Liu Cixin era of Chinese science fiction, huh?

Link Click S2 is interesting because its biggest flaw was the end of the previous season. Ending on a cliffhanger, the main idea for why the cliffhanger worked was to set into play more mystery. There’s emotional implications too, but it feels overshadowed.

And that’s exactly how I would describe season two. While attempts are made to keep the emotional core of the story, the number of twists and turns make it feel insignificant. Link click as of now feels like an anime stuck between two worlds, with incredible mystery thriller twists, but with ... character writing that just isn’t perfected for the type of story they try to tell.

I’ve seen people say that link click always ended on cliffhangers and how that excited them so much and I agree, but as we move into season three, I feel like the dedication to cliffhangers, twists, and mystery while juggling emotional topics like trauma, depression, and abuse has run its course.

When the thriller is at its finest, link click is a gripping tale of 400 IQ plays and mystery. And while for a regular angsty character focused show, the writing would be very good, in the context of such massive implications it doesn’t hit the mark.

Coincidentally the last review I wrote was about Link Click. As I anticipated in the release of the new season for 2 years, I don’t think I can give it a 9 this time around.

If you look for traces of season 1 in this season, you won’t find it. It’s migrated, or at least try to, into the “mystery” and “crime” category.

Plot:
The whole season is one case they are trying to crack. It’s not even cracked at the end? It’s full of pacing issues and bugs. I don’t even know where to begin because I stop caring halfway through. The “villain” Qian Jin is motivated ... by some stupid reason, it’s not even satisfying seeing him commit crimes. The police on the other hand are also unbelievable, there’s been murders and discovery of !!superpowers!! and they are doing nothing about it? Throughout the whole case there’s 1(one) person on it, wouldn’t you have gotten the SWAT team out to protect these people who have superpowers and in risk of dying?? And people started dying for sob factors, I was desensitized by the end like oh cool another person just got shot, thank you, next.
TLDR: we still don’t find out what Lu Guang’s real power is, they hinted it at the last 20 seconds which I presume will be the highlight of season 3.

Characters:
In my last review I said, “People might accuse Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi to be queer baiting, which I digress.” I take it back. I’m not a big fan of participating in fandom drama, but for the last 2 years, shits have gone down on the Chinese side, and the director is basically pushing them towards this route under the table. They will never be canon because it’s just a gimmick to sell merch. (Trust me on this, them straight men do not care about real queer people if there’s no monetary gains)
Qiao Ling is the token girl in the group to show that in this economy we care about women #equality. Wouldn’t you have guessed; this formula has been used to death in anime. Including the hot airing JJK use the same formula!! I should’ve seen it coming!!!! HOWEVER, I do think they heard the people’s voice and gave Qiao Ling a little more screen time and possibly a superpower as well.

Art and sound:
I can’t even be bothered to talk about this because art and sound can’t make up for the lack of logical story. These elements act as the icing on the cake but it’s not the cake itself.

Extras:
They’ve been such a sellout by doing so many ad collabs and selling merch at high prices, which is fine whatever you need money to make the show, yet the quality of the story and money don’t seem to match up. Not to mention for selling the right to make a live action, and we all know how live actions usually ends.