English Dub Review: Link Click “Emma”

Overview:

Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi attempt to expose a company’s fraudulent activity. They use Emma and a picture she took to do so.

Our Take:

Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi of the Time Photo Studio have an interesting business. They travel inside photographs and live through the events through the photographers’ eyes. Like with most time travel series, there are rules. They only have 12 hours, they have to stick to the script, and they can’t do anything to alter the timeline.

In this episode, they take a request to expose a company’s fraudulent activity. Cheng ends up traveling into the photo and transports inside of the photographer Emma’s body. He lives as her for 12 hours and that takes an emotional toll on him. Emma has to deal with a lot at work, but her relationship with her parents is what really sends Cheng over the top. He doesn’t have a relationship with his parents and he doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Emma.

The mission is successful, but Cheng does change one thing in the timeline. He doesn’t admit it to Lu Guang, but he soon sees the consequences of Cheng’s actions.

When it comes to time travel, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the concept. That being said, I’m open to seeing it done in new and creative ways. I like how this show has the characters transport into photographs and they actually live through that timeline as the photographer. This takes care of that problem of people who don’t exist in the timeline suddenly appearing.

Not only that, but the consequences are real and they took me by surprise. I’m used to consequences either being minor or reversed, so this is a nice change of pace. I’m still a little cautious on the time travel aspect, but this is a good start.

It was easy for me to enjoy the characters. I’m looking forward to seeing more of them and learning more about them. Right off the bat, Cheng interests me and I want to learn more about his past with his parents. I don’t know much about Lu Guang, but I’m curious about him.

I’m not too familiar with donghua, or Chinese anime, but I like the art style of this one in particular. It’s a bit different than what I’m used to seeing from traditional Japanese anime. The shading around the characters’ eyes is a little weird, but I think it’ll grown on me. Other than that, the visuals are beautiful.

Overall, I’m very impressed with this first episode. I can’t think of the last time I was hooked on a time travel plot so quickly, so I have to give Link Click props for that. Here’s hoping it manages to stay this interesting and engaging for the rest of the season.