Shiguang Dailiren II

The attempt to capture the mysterious perpetrator who possesses people ends tragically: Lu Guang is rushed to the hospital in a critical state, while Cheng Xiaoshi is arrested for the alleged crime. In light of recent events, the father of Liu Min unleashes his skilled, ruthless lawyer—Qian Jin—after Police Chief Li Xiao, who is spearheading the investigation related to the photo studio owned by Qiao Ling.

It appears that no one is safe from the unpredictable and fatal attacks of the adversary who painstakingly hides their identity. As he tries to learn from his past mistakes, Cheng Xiaoshi must act swiftly and decisively to put an end to this devastating trail of death.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Cheng, Xiaoshi Main

Toyonaga, Toshiyuki Japanese

Lu, Guang Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Qiao, Ling Main

Koga, Aoi Japanese

Li, Tianxi Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Li, Tianchen Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Liu, Xiao Supporting

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Liu, Min Supporting

Xu, Shanshan Supporting

Lynn Japanese

Wang, Juan Supporting

Kimura, Kaori Japanese

Li, Xiao Supporting

Sakaguchi, Shuuhei Japanese

Li, Haoling Director, Original Creator

LAN Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, Animation Director

Tenmon Music

Tomassian, Alexis ADR Director

Reviews

Jul 30, 2024

whiteflame55

Recommended

So, before I get started, yes, this season was really good. It's Link Click, and the gripping game of cat-and-mouse being played was as good as the likes of Summer Time Rendering and other series that pull off this kind of push and pull with aplomb. I recommend watching this season, but I'm going to be spending much of this review criticizing where I think it falls short, particularly compared with S1, so I wanted to lay this all out first.

There are a few things holding this season back from something I would call truly great. Its reliance on one narrative throughline means we ... spend a great deal of time with these characters in this setting fighting this battle. In fact, we revisit the same moments over and over again from different perspectives and with different information, which does a lot to inform the scenes, but lends itself to much slower pacing as we retrace our steps and explain events. The series also doesn't have the kind of subtlety that a series like The Tatami Galaxy does when it comes to giving you hints at something it will explain later. As soon as the characters encounter something that's unexplained, it's made pretty obvious what it is and we have at least a general idea of how it's going to happen. Sometimes that's good since it makes it easier to follow the action and keep up with various moves in a complex environment. Other times, it ends up making the backtracking feel excessive and unnecessary, and especially when some of the concepts here are a little more opaque and difficult to parse, it seems like they could have spent the time elsewhere and been more effective. So there's a lot of hit and miss with the direction of the narrative.

The other factor that affects the story is the characters involved, particularly the antagonists and new side characters that are introduced. Some of them are particularly well set-up and interesting, some feel like they're just there to evoke maximum sympathy (they don't exactly leave you guessing), and some feel... inconsistent. I don't mind having a nice villainous villain, but one of the main ones in this story seemed to jump from cold, careful and calculating to over-the-top emotional and impetuous. The antagonists are clearly damaged people, and while that works pretty well for one of them, I can't say the same for the other, and since a lot of the plot of this season is driven by the latter, it's a bit underwhelming where we end up with him.

But, like I said at the start, I think this season does more than enough right to deserve a recommendation, including paving the way for events to come in the next season. It's not up to the standard of S1, where I think the emotional beats just hit harder and yield more interesting and consistent individual narratives with solid themes as connective tissue, but it still manages to dig deeper on the abilities of our protagonists and confront them with someone who is ready and willing to misuse their gifts in sharp contrast to them. It's a good direction to take the series, I just wish we got more out of the experience.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 16, 2024

C__C

Mixed Feelings

The DRAMA! The CHEEZE! It is a cheese fest! Not just the problem for 2nd season the 1st season as well. The cheesiness of the emotional scenes is not the only problem of 'Link Click' but defiantly is what occupied my mind the most.

In my opinion this is supposed to be a 9/10 angle of a show, it got great mystery, fluent story telling, memorable characters, top notch animation, refreshing art style, super awesome sound track op & ed for both seasons, and not to mention a well concluded ending (could be more in future but an conclution along is hard to come by this ... days)... but the execution of emotional scenes are kinda lackluster, they occupied too much time and they are way too cheesy.

This show tried to makes the emotional scene super extra emotional (makes the sad feel sadder) with the crying shot, slow motion, and sad music etc. (the cheesy tactic). Doing it once it will work, but this show isn't short of emotional scenes and this show does the same thing every time which in reality it backfired and ruined the mood. To draw a parallel, a quote from 'Gakkou no Kaidan/ Ghost Stories' the English dubbed version: '"it is from our mother, our dead mother! You feel sad now?" this is a sarcastic line to describe the cheesy emotional moment in many drama shows and 'Link Click' has done exactly the same but seriously and over and over and again and again....

Alternatively, to draw another parallel from other shows 'Violet Evergarden', which also use the same "cheesy tactic" but in the 'Evergarden' the emotions are the main focus of the story so it spends more time on the slow build up and settle emotional development which are what makes the cheesy tactic work in shows such as 'Violet Evergarden' but not a mystery/action driven show such as 'Link Click'. I believe if the show down plays the emotional scene a bit and make them run more settle would yield a better result than become a cheese fest.

This is still a very good show, I am just disappointed it couldn't become something even better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 28, 2024

Rayzell2

Not Recommended

The tone was really different than the first season.

After an insane clifhanger at the end of the 1st season, it seems that the goal of the writters shifted entirely.
Even the oppening of season 2 was an absolute banger
From a show that was heavily focused on the plot and the mystery, it turned into a more classic thriller. They added lots of fights (smooth ones btw), flashbacks from something we saw 10 min earlier... It's not bad in itself, just really different

Moreover, all the major decisions / ideas that the main characters have don't seem brilliant. They didn't left me speechless. When you ... use something as powerfull as time travel, it is possible to achieve greatness. They don't give to the watcher all the clues that the characters have. Hence their decisions didn't feel entirely natural or justified.

First season was a banger, surprising and new. Second season was classic. BUT if you like fist fights, a little bit of plot with grim undertones, you may like it quite a lot ! Reminded me more Fate Zero than Steins Gate

"Your dissing the show so much and yet you gave it 5/10"
The show isn't bad at all. It was just disapointing because I had high expectations. I skipped a few minutes because I was bored but nothing terrible.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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