Link Click Season 3 Lands August 14: The Catch-Up Order That Actually Works

Link Click is the show people recommend by grabbing your shoulders. It is also the show whose watch order confuses everyone, because it has a special episode numbered 5.5, a six-part side arc that aired as standalone specials over a month, and a fandom that cannot agree on whether that side arc is required viewing.

Season 3 Part 1 premieres August 14 on Bilibili. It got moved up from an October window, which is the opposite of what usually happens and gives you about two weeks. Here is what to watch and in what order.

The short version

Season 1, then Season 2, then the Bridon Arc, then Season 3. Do not skip Bridon.

That is the whole answer. If you want to know why the Bridon question is contested and what Season 3 is actually building toward, keep reading.

Season 1: twelve episodes plus one

Released on Bilibili from April 30 to July 9, 2021. Twelve episodes including the special numbered 5.5, which airs between 5 and 6 and is not filler despite the numbering suggesting otherwise. Watch it in position.

The premise is deceptively small. Cheng Xiaoshi can enter a photograph and inhabit the body of whoever took it. Lu Guang can see the future of that photo's timeline and guides him through the earpiece. Together they run a photo studio that takes on clients with unfinished business, and the rule is absolute: do not change the past.

The first half plays as a case-of-the-week, and it is very good at that. The second half is where the show reveals what it has been doing, and the last three episodes of Season 1 are the reason this thing has the reputation it has. The tonal handoff is severe enough that people who bounced off episode 2 as a light procedural genuinely do not know what show they skipped.

Season 2: twelve more, much darker

Streamed July 14 to September 22, 2023. Same length, entirely different weight.

Season 2 stops pretending the rule about not changing the past is a professional guideline and starts treating it as the story's central wound. Qiao Ling becomes considerably more important than she looked in Season 1. The Bahati fire case gets introduced, and if you take one thing into Season 3, take that name.

Li Haoling directed and wrote both seasons at Haoliners. The consistency shows: Season 2 is not a tonal detour, it is the plan.

Bridon Arc: the six episodes people skip

Six specials released between December 27, 2024 and January 31, 2025.

This is where the guides diverge. Some list Bridon as optional side content because it aired as specials rather than a numbered season and follows characters who are not the studio trio. That framing was defensible in 2025. It is not defensible now.

Season 3's own promotional material positions it as best experienced after the Bridon Arc, and the material Bridon covers feeds directly into where Season 3 opens. Six episodes is a single evening. Watch them.

What Season 3 is doing

Twenty-four episodes total, split across two parts. Part 1 is twelve episodes starting August 14. Part 2 is tentatively 2027, which for a Bilibili production of this profile is a soft target rather than a promise.

The setup, from official materials: Vein returns, Qiao Ling's abilities are developing, and Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang are working toward the secrets behind the Bahati fire case. That is a sequel to Season 2's ending rather than a reset, which is worth noting because donghua of this length often use a season break to soft-restart the premise.

Li Haoling discussed the season at Anime Expo 2026 in July, so the creative continuity looks intact. LAN Studio is on animation for the new season.

The streaming problem

Part 1 starts August 14 at 11:00 China time on Bilibili. No international platform or date has been detailed.

Previous seasons reached international audiences through Bilibili's own global service and Crunchyroll picked up dubs later, but nothing has been announced for Season 3 specifically. Expect the usual gap and the usual scramble, and expect spoilers to travel faster than the release does.

If you are starting from zero

Thirty episodes plus the specials, roughly twenty minutes each. That is about eleven hours of runtime to be current, which is two weekends at a comfortable pace or one weekend if you commit.

The honest pitch: Season 1's first four episodes are the weakest stretch of the entire series and they are still good. If the photo-diving mechanic clicks for you at all, the show earns everything it does later. If it does not click by episode 5.5, it is not going to.

Two weeks is enough. Start tonight.