Lights Off: Shower Thoughts (LO:ST)

YOUR HONOR PEAK IS BACK!

There are very few returning shows that I actually get very excited for. At most I get mildly curious or am just happy that something familiar and enjoyable returns but Link Click is something I think has the potential to cause a major change in animation, film, and storytelling. While Link Click is technically a donghua and not an anime as it is Chinese produced, it very clearly carries enough anime inspiration that you can talk about it in that context. So I will but not a ton. The main thing that is mind blowing about Link Click is that it is an animated original series coming out of China with production from BeDream, Studio Lan, and fucking BILIBILI HELLO?!?! I jokingly say this but how the hell did they get this many people to sign onto this without it being just blackmail? Animated originals are something few and far between let alone something this highly produced. Like the budget for this show is INSANE! If you haven’t seen Link Click Season 1 I’m gonna leave a short section here trying to convince you to do so but otherwise feel free to skip ahead to my reactions.

Why You Should Watch Link Click:

When I first watched Link Click during the Spring 2021 Anime season I was absolutely blown away by the first episode. I always tell people that I thought that To Your Eternity had one of the best first episodes I had seen in a while and Link Click just absolutely decimated that. Link Click’s first episode “Emma” creates such a clearly defined identity for the show right off the bat.

While there are looming elements of mystery, action, and Sci-Fi, Link Click makes its money by having incredibly intense and powerful moments about the human condition and the tests that life and the world throws at us as people. This moment in Episode 1 of Lu Guang comforting Cheng Xiaoshi made me experience a brotherly warmth I have never experienced in my entire life and I have a brother who is a year older than me.

There was just something very special about the fact that we got to see everything that composes Emma’s life. The things she eats, the interactions she has at work and with her family, and that long dredge home as she clumsily takes off her heels. Link Click is the kind of show any true filmmaker wants to make. Such a vivid and compelling expression of human emotions through the means of every aspect of their story and filmmaking. The writing, animation, music, and voice acting. As much as I want to praise Li Haoling for conceiving and executing on this idea it is simply a production masterpiece. Everyone in the process had to be working towards the same goal in wonderful harmony and Episode 1 is just that. The themes of rural vs city life, the longing for family, and the shared human experience are so poignant that you think “wow where can it go from here???”

Oh. It can go there.

And that’s all you get to hear from me about Season 1 for now since this is a Season 2 post but don’t worry, I’ll surely be talking about Link Click for a long time.

Also SPOILERS for any and all reaction posts duh I’m not gonna warn you on these from now onc’mon folks.

SEASON 2’s NEW IDENTITY:

If there was one word I would use to describe Link Click I would be very keen to want to use “Human” and while the human aspects of Link Click are incredibly important, I feel that is too general and not truly listing all of the show’s strength. So I’ll go with a different word.

Dynamic.

Link Click so effortlessly switches from being a show detailing the struggles of Chinese families straight into some pheonmenal action scenes and then boom you are left with an insane cliff hanger as now its become a mystery show kinda similar to AI The Somnium Files the original. 

Season 2 seems to have become more centered on the mystery aspect of the show which actually had me really worried going in because I was really scared that it was going to abandon some of the powerful human moments Season 1. I am not joking when I say that the earthquake arc fucking broke me. 

But that’s where I am lacking as a filmmaker and critic clearly. Because I misread what the identity of the show is. I desperately wanted it to be about the human condition and while the show has that in spades, it is a show that is always going to be changing. And yet, the very premise of Link Click is that the memories made in photos and parts of our lives require us to go back to the beginning, to Dive Back in Time if you will.

Link Click as a show HAS to be dynamic as it is deeply exploring the purpose of temporality in storytelling and in our own lives. The order in which we experience our lives and our stories changes the meaning of them. There’s a certain uncertainty and mystery to the show which is exactly what is done with the OP so let’s jump into it WOOO. (I will most likely be writing a little bit about Link Click before each weekly reaction post so that it’s not solely a reaction post but has some substance to it, I might do a whole vid on Link Click at some point but right now life is busy)

OP/ED Analysis:

To say that Link Click 2 has a tough act to follow with their OP and ED is one of the biggest understatements I could possibly make. While the original OP/ED weren’t as emotionally impactful they were absolute bangers and stunning to look at. There isn’t anything groundbreaking about the motion captured hand tutting but it shows a degree of polish and dedication that you don’t always see with these kind of things. Li Haloing is just insanely thorough with any of his stuff.

Anyways, the Link Click 2’s OP is once again done by Bai Sha Jaws who did amazing work for Link Click 1 beyond just the opening “Dive Back In Time” but also doing one of their very emotional pieces in “Keep in Mind” which really wraps up the Emma arc (so far) really well. 

I won’t lie I was a bit underwhelmed the very first time I heard Link Click 2’s OP “Vortex.” It was just a very new tone that makes sense in retrospect but I don’t think it necessarily plays to Bai Sha Jaws’ strengths. That was until I learned about the incredible part about the intro was that after Cheng Xiaoshi claps with Lu Guang, the song begins to play in reverse. Not the instrumental, but the vocals. It has a certain eeriness that really works for the tone of the season being much darker than the first. The song was planned to have a certain sound to it going both ways so that it would make sense as the vocals build then dissipate. If this was just any other show I would be like “neat trick, cool to see them put in the effort.” BUT, this is a show that is heavily focused on temporarily and going back to the beginning as I mentioned. There is both an inevitably and importance placed on retracing one’s steps such as with the noodle episode as well as the missing child arc. 

I plan on hopefully doing a very short video about why the OP is so incredible but one of the main points I will discuss here and probably there is the Kuleshov effect. The Kuleshov effect is just the official term for a shot be sequentially juxtaposed with the next. You show a person one shot, food the next, a new meaning is formed that the person is hungry. It’s something you learn from years of media exposure and is something that is primarily exclusive to film.

Which is SO cool when you see an original show do stuff that adaptations struggle to do since most adaptations don’t like to deviate from the source material and thus often are more restricted. Am I saying that no adaptation has used the Kuleshov effect? Dear god no most films that exist do. But the way the Link Click 2 opening uses it is very unique.

While the intro at first just seems like random anime bullshit as Cheng Xiaoshi gets sucked into a vortex, it’s only in the second half of the opening that anything makes sense and begins to show it’s true colors. It’s best to think that the second half of the intro is actually being played normally while the first half was the one being played in reverse. There are so many small details in the intro I will delve into in my video but let me focus on the Kuleshov effect for now.

When you initially see Emma’s silhouette rise up, Qiao Ling look towards the camera, and the glitching character meet Cheng Xiaoshi as he rises up, the meaning seems to be not really there or at the very least tied up in the convoluted nature of the opening. But then as it’s played in reverse, these same actions have new meanings.

The glitching characters are looking down on Cheng Xiaoshi as he panics and falls showing a loss of control with a bit of a Dutch angle. Qiao Ling taps into the fear that Cheng Xiaoshi has of being left alone and that maybe he’s lost another friend. And Emma’s not actually rising up, but falling, in the same way she did at the end of season 1. A moment that will probably live with Cheng Xiaoshi forever.

The fact that these moments can be completely recontextualized by being played in reverse/resequenced is such a COOL way to use the Kuleshov effect. Basically if you pause at any point during any of these mini sequences you can say that the Kuleshov effect comes into play the frame afterwards as a new shot, aka it simply being played in reverse. AND THE FACT THAT IT NOW HAS A NEW EMOTIONAL MEANING IS SO COOL. While the first half meanings are much more obscure and ultimately just less impactful, the fact that they exist in the first place is just incredible. I love the fact that temporality is being messed with this much even in just the intro as Link Click truly commits to it’s identity.

And now, Link Click is slowly starting to define the rules of its temporarility and what the consequences are for its characters. With Season 1 you kinda just accept “oh yeah they can Dive Back in Time blah blah blah” but now it’s starting to get ready to explore the Sci-Fi aspect a bit more now. Which has me greatly worried since this is when shows usually fail but Li Haoling has all of my trust!

Speaking of Sci-Fi, something that has become much more prominent in Link Click’s style as of season 2 is the glitch aesthetic. I personally feel that the glitch aesthetic has become kinda used in cheap or unpolished products to give a certain edginess to them that seems cool but has ultimately left a bad taste in my mouth. It’s definitely become more popular and greatly changed from its original inception so it’s a much more complex topic of critique than I want to have in this post. What I will say is that the glitch aesthetic feels very at home in Link Click. It already existed in bits and pieces of Season 1 but Season 2 seems ready to fully embrace it. Again, it’s part of the process of Link Click becoming more Sci Fi at least for now so I’m glad it’s following suit. I’ll talk more about aesthetic stuff in the episode reactions but let me just quickly talk about the ED.

There really isn’t as much that I want to pull out of the ED at least not yet considering that I don’t know what this season entails. As opposed to the season 1 ED which would be faded in right before the episode ends for the extra tension and cliff hanger shit. If you haven’t experienced those cliff hangers I REALLY recommend you do so cause Link Click does tension and suspense SO WELL. Season 1’s ending mainly was supposed to serve the episode as a hardstop while Season 2’s might be a bit more focused on mellowing things out (despite the show still having some cliff hanger stuff). Again, it serves the serious tone pretty well and gives some hints about what the future of the show may be. While I personally don’t think that the place or scenes are gonna actually be in the show there could be something very similar. The character’s high fiving to show a new room and secret seems like something that could be important to the Sci Fi part of the show. Regardless I don’t want to nitpick at too many details of the ED right now until we get more episodes but just know that I really like the funeral/spy attire in an old house. “Tides” is good but nothing I want to explore too much in this post. Anyways onto the dumb part WOOO.

Episode 1 “Falling” Reaction:

I was very worried about Link Click’s 2nd season with the dramatic shift it would cause and while I don’t think I am fully at ease yet, the first couple episodes have done been pretty good and put me at ease. The first bit of recap in episode 1 is some good money saving but I’m glad that they do what I always suggest to do is to do a recap but with some edits to reframe it. The glitch aesthetic stuff that was more minor in season 1 has become much more prominent and now we also have this nice weird sketch style of art/animation that always just makes me think of Evangelion LOL.

The vertical lines present also are really cool during certain shots. It’s the equivalent of a lens flare that makes us feel like there is a camera viewing these actions. And with Link Click the whole camera theme is pretty important so good to see it being used. The fact that Season 2 starts with the quite literal direct aftermath of the stabbing is something we know but makes it all the more intense. Like Season 1’s cliffhanger was very fucked up but it takes some BALLS to just hop right back into. A less intense or confident series would have Cheng Xiaoshi locked up recalling these events during interrogation but the fact that we get to see everything unfold so vividly is great. And by everything unfold yes I am talking about action. God I LOVE Link Click’s action. There’s just something about Chinese filmmaking and just having proper choreography that gets me going in a way that most other types of film or animation don’t. Like sure Link Click doesn’t hold the absolute longest shots but the camera is dynamic, there’s punch to it all, and as mentioned IT’S ACTUALLY FUCKING COORDINATED. Not just randomly flailing or only coordinated for 15 seconds tops.

The fact that the first action scene goes on for like 3 minutes, albeit with some pauses, made my spine curl with all the tension. I love this kind of shit and it’s crazy that Siwen from Episode 5.5 is still super relevant to them LOL. We get some good info and then we already knew Cheng Xiaoshi would be arrested for this. I just love that he protects Qiao Ling I hope we get to see more interactions between them this season because I think they care about each other a lot. 

Finally time for some real development. Seeing our potential first “villain” in the series is gonna be interesting since Liu Min is kinda dead and felt more like a criminal at most. The presentation of Mr. Qian is just very fascinating. Very laid back but there is a certain intensity in his eyes. And he’s hot ofc. I don’t swing that way but just a lot of the guys in Link Click are hot. He also gives us a lot of hints and direction for the show which is good because I didn’t know where we were going at this point.

AHHH and then this scene. Cheng Xiaoshi eating food, crying, and reminsciening about his time with Lu Guang in the photo studio is so great.

I love how most of the dialogue is Lu Guang just criticizing or questioning Cheng Xiaoshi cause often the things we can remember about some people are just the most mundane of things. A powerful scene with powerful music that is ultimately short-lived.

If you were dumb enough to believe Lu Guang was dead then I’m sorry but you might just not get how production works LOL. You do not develop an asset like Lu Guang with a relationship to Cheng Xiaoshi and just kill it off before you get your money’s worth. I’m not even saying that killing Lu Guang would have been an awful narrative decision. It would have been a bit premature but could have worked out. But I honestly wasn’t faked out for a second even with the eating scene. Like there is so much more emotional work to be done as well as just like HE’S THE DEUTERAGONIST YOU DON’T JUST KILL HIM FOR WHAT. 

Hi Qiao Ling nice to see your face again 😀

It’s a funny little reaction that helps the audience regroup and just as we think we have the framing of the show all set up. And just as we think we have a grasp on the situation. Boom Bin Chen was gone. And what’s great is that it’s a mystery you actually could have figured out. I was absolutely suspicious of Bin Chen but I didn’t piece it together. Like I caught the way he was talking on the phone and the fact that he couldn’t unlock it but it didn’t really click in my head.

Episode 2 “Night Raid” Reaction:

Episode 2 doesn’t have as much going on as Episode 1 and this post is getting long so I’ll keep this one a bit shorter. I really love seeing Bin Chen’s wife completely clueless to everything going on. It grounds Bin Chen as a character and makes us feel TERRIBLE when he dies (as we should). The praying for a girl thing is also a pretty cute but also very fucked thing. The whole part where he is trying to control faith a little and then ends up dying can be read in many weird and sad ways but I won’t do that mainly cause those readings just seem incorrect lol. But Episode 2 is mostly building up the stakes of what the gang is going up against and what they have at their disposal. The going over the Bin Chen revealed to be controlled through a photo thing is necessary at this point but I hope to see them respect the audience later now that we know how this all works. I’m glad this isn’t a BS mystery you can’t guess because it has some overly bullshit sci fi shit but who knows it could still head that way.

I’m glad that the Captain Xiao and the gang and everyone feels grief for Bin Chen even if only for a moment but they understand the need to spring into action. And then Qiao Ling really jumps into action.

I don’t love the anime bruise/bump thing cause I feel like it sticks into the scene too long. Like it should be there at first but then go away when it’s serious. I do like Qiao Ling standing up for herself and allowing herself to become more of a character in this show cause so far she’s just been passive and a bit of a damsel in some cases. CHENG XIAOSHI GIVING QIAO LING AN EAR BUD TO SHARE IS SO CUTE MY HEART ALMOST BURST IN THIS MOMENT THEY BOTH DESERVE THE WORLD AND BY THE WORLD I MEAN EACH OTHER AHHHHHHHH.

Sorry, I’m usually more professional but I just can’t with them. 

Lu Guang’s ability to use the cameras and be all seeing is cool and is given some neat animation. Kinda reminds me of this animation from Haikyuu for some reason. 

Oh and then what happens next. THAT’S RIGHT MORE FUCKING SICK ACTION. And as Link Click always does they give A FULL SONG WITH LYRICS FOR CERTAIN SCENES JUST SO THAT YOU ARE GIVEN THE INTENSITY AT 250%. IT’S CRAZY THAT THIS SHOW HAS THIS KIND OF BUDGET WHAT THE HELL!

And this action scene is even better choreographed than the first, granted this doesn’t involve a weapon so you can be more creative. I love the distinct styles of fighting in a show that isn’t even about fighting cause like… that’s just how people fight. This fighting scene is simialrly long but unlike the last one there are no breaks. It is an incredible display of animation and choreography. Like the fighting is timed so well to the music. Like when there’s a pause for Cheng Xiaoshi to pick up Qiao Ling it’s just like wow we are watching something special. There’s still dialogue but it’s only ever used to keep the intensity up. And then the end is so AWE-

Wait…

OH EVEN BETTER. Qiao Ling Supremacy.

As great as all of this is, lest we forget the stakes of this season. These kids are in over their head. And I’m glad Season 2 keeps this in mind. A painful reminder of the powerlessness many young people feel in the modern world manifested onto screen.

And also.

OH GOD OH FUCK.

I’m SO excited to see the consequences of all this shit cause Episode 1 and 2 were merely the appetizers. Peak Fiction is BACK folks and I’ll be here every week and maybe even more often here to give some basic ass reactions about all of this. If I’m feeling up to it I’ll give some insight but I can’t promise much.

Writer’s Note:

Hey, Zeph here just to give some context on blog stuff going forward. So for those who don’t know I’m a recent film graduate and have been on the job search and if you put those 2 things together then you know it hasn’t been going well for me. While I was really excited to start this blog and want to continue doing it. It is very hard to write when it feels like I’m not making progress in the most important part of my life rn which is starting my career. I’ve been applying to all sorts of writing jobs and even administrative jobs (over 150 at this point!) and have only heard back from a couple and eventually would get rejected from those. That just greatly affected my mental and made it harder for me to be creative. I shit you not that I have like 5-6 posts and 3-4 video scripts that are half done or almost done but putting the finishing touches just felt like a mountain to climb. I didn’t really feel like it mattered to do so since it wasn’t helping me with my career. Another thing that made it hard was that I used to only do these reviews for a couple of my friends via discord messages in my server but now doing them on a blog makes me feel like I need to put more effort into them which means logistical stuff beyond writing. That just takes so much more effort and was why I started a blog in the first place, to avoid making videos. I wanted to do vids but blog posts are easier so I wanted to keep trying to do easier things. Anyways, I do plan on getting back to this blogging stuff and hopefully video stuff too I just needed to try and repair my mental and I’m doing that by writing about easier stuff and not stressing about the little things as much :). You might also see some other types of posts on here at some point soon too such as esports, life, or think pieces like my STEM Education one. Gonna start with slow/low effort stuff with both blog posts and videos and then eventually will hopefully go back to my higher standard of things I want to do.

I’m moving in about a month so I might be late on the episode reaction for that week but we shall see. Again I have a lot of posts sitting in my Google Docs just doing nothing rn as well as a few video scripts. Hopefully when I move and change environments I will find the motivation to do more of these creative things but we shall see. My mental state is still not the best but it’s improved for the most part and I’ve got an alternative plan for my career path now that is less stressful than just applying to every single writing job ever and hoping they take a risk on someone like me. I have absolutely no promises other than I will try :p

Anyways, be kind to yourselves cause I sure as shit haven’t been kind to myself and that DOES NOT feel good. But I hope my writing can at least make both of us feel a bit better.

– Jared/Zeph