Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!

Have you ever heard of Poe’s Law? Here’s a little definition if you haven’t, Poe’s Law is that without a clear indication of the author’s intent the parody of something extreme can be mistaken for the real thing and if a real thing sounds extreme enough it can be mistaken for a parody. Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute falls exactly into this, if I wasn’t told like a dozen times by multiple people in social media groups that talk only about Light Novels and other places then I would fail to know that this thing is supposed to be a parody, after all, it plays ... every single cliché on it so completely straight that I don’t know what is supposed to be the parody in here.

This anime is claimed to be some sort of parody and even more bafflingly a deconstruction of isekai that makes fun of all OP MC tropes, but the idea of a parody is to take certain aspects of a work and imitate it in an exaggerated or comedic fashion, the thing with this anime is that it takes itself extremely seriously, from the liters of blood being spilled every time a battle happens to the multiple episodes where there isn’t a single joke in them, and the tropes presented across the anime are, as I said before, played completely straight. It’s no different than watching every other isekai that comes out every season because it looks and feels exactly like them. And I don’t get where the idea of it being a deconstruction is from, this anime has every single trope used in isekai out there, with no change in the normal execution unlike what an actual deconstruction would do. But what’s worse when it actually tries to make a token effort to be irony poisoned by pointing out almost every time an isekai trope is being used and played straight, but let me tell you something, just because you are saying that a certain trope is happening doesn’t stop it from being the same thing as always. So this anime is just the same isekai you see every other season, just knowing that it is using the same tropes as every other isekai, but without doing anything clever with that knowledge, since it won’t go out of its way to not play it straight. If you want to see a series that is actually a parody and a deconstruction of the isekai genre at the same time, then go and watch Konosuba, even if I’m sure a lot of people who are here already watched that one, yet even a rewatch of that anime is more worth your time than watching this one.

The humor is bad, like so bad that I can’t believe they are supposed to be jokes, and even when they are executed well enough, the sheer repetitiveness of them will wear them off extremely quickly. One of the worst offenders of this was in episode 7, do you remember that scene in the fence tournament where Cid “fights” against Rose? Well, that scene has this joke that when Rose attacks Cid, he is thrown in the most ridiculous ways he can, to me that scene wasn’t particularly funny, but wasn’t bad enough, the bad part came after that, the joke was repeated again and again and again and again to the point that it was just a pain to watch. I don’t think that even if you laughed at it the first time you would have enjoyed it by about the 5th time it got repeated in the very same scene. Besides this is also weird with Cid’s character, he doesn’t want to stand out and to be a mob character, but then he goes and stands out again and again making this big clown show that obviously makes him stand out no matter if it is as the idiot that got beaten like a pulp. This is even more jarring to me because I later checked the manga, and while I still have a lot of issues with it, its tone and presentation was a lot better than here in the anime, making me wonder why the hell is the anime trying to be so serious when the source material embraced being absurd, as this adaptation is honestly so somber the times they do attempt a joke, it just sticks out like a sore thumb.

Shadow Garden are a bunch of non-characters, it’s like they don’t exist, they aren’t people, they are plot devices that help Cid do whatever, from gathering information from who knows where to being stupidly strong for the sake of being strong. Like I cannot even remember who most of them are, I can remember Alpha since she had screen time alone and we learned some stuff about her, then like 10 episodes later I could recognize who was Beta since she got an actual character across those episodes, even if ironically Alpha lost her time in the limelight at the same time. But my problem with these girls is not remembering their names, Greek letters aren’t something difficult to remember and I’m guessing that’s why the author didn’t bother to give them actual names, it’s these girls are complete non-characters, sometimes when they appear again I wouldn’t know who they are if they weren’t wearing those outfits everyone in Shadow Garden wear, after all, they aren’t characters I can recognize because they aren’t written to be recognizable, I couldn’t even tell which hair color each of them has or a single personality trait, there’s nothing memorable at all about them because they are never used as anything but a plot device galore.

An anime with a better execution at making an organization with only-girls for who knows what reason (actually, the reason is pretty clear, just look at the ending song video) and that turns out they are very strong too is, and I can’t believe I’m saying this given how the writing in that series is, Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha. That series was written by the clown known as Tsukiyo Rui, the same man behind Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi, and it had the process to recruit them all, seeing their training and gave them an actual character even if it just a generic waifu characterization that you would find in other isekais. What happened with Shadow Garden? Well, they just started to exist in episode 2, it was only Alpha and then suddenly there was a bunch of girls that came out from who knows where, they seem able to do literally anything, they one-shot the enemies they face and are able to investigate every single minimal thing they are asked to. I can understand Alpha being strong since it was explained she is descendant from a hero, but the others? They are strong because of the slime suits that they somehow are super mega experts at using even if it this is said to be a super advanced thing just about no one else can do. If Tsukiyo Rui of all people managed to write the same thing as you but in a more competent fashion, then you are definitely doing something wrong.

The opening isn’t special, actually, the vocals seem like they were sung when the singer didn’t want to get heard by other people so he recorded it in the background of a room, and the video is simply weird, specially because it isn’t about anything in the series, as it mainly features the girls of Shadow Garden in modern Japan. I had to ask what the opening had to do with the series in some LN group and I was told by people who read the novel that even they didn’t know, the opening is actually very random aside from the parts where Cid is featured. The ending song is nicer and it is sung by a different member of Shadow Garden while featuring a pic of the girl in question, the pic is fanservicey, nothing wrong with that, but when I see the video I have to ask to myself “who is this girl again?”. The animation is fine, it knows how to make the flashy light look good even if fight scenes are lame because the MC is super OP and can’t be defeated or even get to put any effort in the battle.

I was wondering if the series would ever address again what happened in episode 1 as that one actually had an interesting set up and a girl with an actual character alongside Cid, sadly the anime just decided to ignore everything that happened there, which was the thing that finally made me drop the series to a 1 rating, because the only interesting part of the series wasn’t addressed at all, and even now I think that Nishino is more memorable than every single member of Shadow Garden combined.

PD: The best joke in the series is that the first 3 episodes are so haphazardly put together, you can start the series with any of them, and all are equally able to serve as an episode 1.

Thank you for reading.

People argue about whether this is a parody, a deconstruction, or just bad. Here's the basic premise from the first few episodes.

A kid with a very specific delusion about being an unkillable overpowered anime character, secretly ruling the world from the shadows trains in martial arts and larps in front of people. Then he gets isekai'd when he gets hit by a truck. He gets reincarnated into a world with magic, becomes powerful, and hides it while doing things in the background just like his fantasy. He's really doing this, and the world is played straight too, meaning the people interacting with him.

The early part ... was so absurd I thought it was the isekai part, but then you go into a more generic magical world. Then he starts as a baby, but they skip pretty much everything and just tell you he's really powerful because martial arts and magic bla bla bla.

Then his shadow organization is just kind of made by someone he meets and gets to join him. They don't show the creation, you're just told it happened in the background. Even the character getting found and joining him is rushed, they don't really do much with it. It could be entertaining to see him larping his way into creating an organization and getting members, but it just kinda works itself out.

On top of that he's nearly the same age, and he has the same mentality, so he may as well have just been born here. The only thing they do with the isekai aspect is say he learned a bunch of martial arts and that they're somehow helpful with magic and swordsmanship here, it's just a half-assed excuse for why he's so powerful so early on. They skip over everything, so the premise is pointless and it just seems like a generic fantasy isekai with an overpowered protagonist.

The only twist is that the cult he made up is real, and the other members really are looking into things. He's so unaware he thinks they're just growing out of roleplay and using their investigation as an excuse to stop roleplaying with him. He's also so overpowered, and kind of stupid, that he doesn't know when he's fighting followers of the demon cult, he thinks they're just stronger bandits. The idea is there, but they don't really do much with it.

He also hides his ability, because part of his fantasy is to seem like a generic side character, but to secretly be the powerful bla bla bla. Ultimately it's the same as so many other generic isekai, and they don't really do much with it. I know I'm repeating myself, but that's pretty much everything in the show.

He just wants this specific thing because that's what he wants. He'll put up with any abuse, he'll humiliate himself, he'll sabotage his own standing and future for the sake of being like a shitty character, while he's secretly not. Which just makes him seem like he's not a character, he's just some meta idea that never really goes anywhere. Nothing clever is ever really done with it.

He's also never in danger, no matter what happens to him, just because. Nothing really matters, no characters are characters, and nothing's really entertaining.

The only things involving the isekai elements are done off screen by a character you don't really know at all. Even then the main character somehow doesn't understand that a building is a building instead of a set. He doesn't understand any of this is real despite knowing magic is real and using it. Despite seeing transformations. He somehow thinks it's still roleplay despite also knowing it's not.

The plot doesn't develop naturally, he either walks past things by chance or he's given information by the background characters in his group who do everything off screen. The characters in his group barely have any speaking lines or interaction with the main character, or even much time on screen. So there's really nothing to it. This show is like the cliff notes of an idea someone had for the draft of a light novel that never really went anywhere.

There's nothing clever about it, there's no joke, but it's also not a real show with any world or characters that matter. It's just poorly done in about every way possible. At first I was gonna make myself watch the whole thing, but after 9 episodes, and realizing how long this show was gonna be, I had to quit.

It's not so bad it made me angry, it's just nothing, it's mind-numbing. It makes me think the positive reviews are parodies.

Trap anime of 2022.

There are entries that just don't worth the time and effort to write a review on. Despite that Eminence in the Shadow is particularly belongs to this garner. I’ve made an exception with it and shed some light over this gloomed garden.

Visually it looks good, I would give it an upper (7) or (8) to the animation. I don’t know however why the animation quality suddenly dropped to (4) after EP 18.

Sounds, pretty average. There were no one ost that stick into my ear. And yes, average means (5).

Characters, there are so many characters.

... Stories,

So it starts off with a guy who likes to live a peaceful and ordinary life. He goes to school like an ordinary student, but he also acts as a super hero in the nights, to save his classmates from the bad guys. (Actually, he just likes to play God in the nights and to act as the best NPC at daylight). One time he met an elf who was soo weak and flat he had to gave his powers to her so she became OP and round. This Elf then made an army and the army members made their army and left the boy alone and in peace. After this he, (the boy) found himself in a nice garden full of girls. He was so fast that he immediately made a love confession to a random girl. (Prettiest girl in school). Then this girl was not nice, but still looks nice to this day. So after this relationship, HE had a name also. Acid-kun (I believe). So Acid kun met a super cute glassed girl who was super kawaii and she was actually super important in that school because of her dimensions. But also she helped Acid-kun to be somewhat smart in one situation that wasn't that major, then she left. Part of the story was when we met a rabbit that jumped out from a bus, (out of nowhere) really. In the spur of the moment we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of an inconsequential discussion between two fundamental characters. A piece of the argument was where the Royal Degrees status led - that the testament from Church principles delegation issued possibilities regarding of an undercover agents representatives on “Great grandson of Count III Emperor” mislaid pacifier tube. In the meantime, Acid-kun hang out with his buddies then he walked into a sealed box. Also Acid-kun also famous for one thing and that's not the one thing I will mention, but he also can act pretty quick, like light fast reaction he has. Possess in his right eye or, (yes). So around in the middle of the third part of the begging of the ninth story end, then we found ourselves into a fight, which was completely one sided, but that didn't stopped Acid-kun to say the word he is most famous for, which is not All-range and still not orange either, but he made a hole into our souls so deep soo ..much (only 0.5km radius) ultra mega rabbit hole. It was extremely dangerous because it basically demolished everything (except the cute girls). A few days after this, our main... Wait! No! So Acid-kun was desperate to be an NPC character that he made so much effort to transform himself into a dead zombie, so he can participate in a fight competition and “secretly” win it. In the middle of the ocean there was a pinguin that has nothing to do with the story - Do you want this hamburger? So we were in this plane that has so many NPC’s on it like 200 hundred NPC’s (all flat) and Acid-kun hates to be the most noticable character. He just can't stand to be in the middle of the attention, he had to say the word he is most famous for, he had to, he had no choice left but to say it...I AM


.. AN UGLY PIECE OF SHIT.

As I mentioned,

"Not worth the candle

TLDR: Eminence in the shadow has done just about everything in such a disordered and utterly subpar extent, that it holds a class of its own. It represents the kind of creations that are genuinely don’t deserves just to get the 1/10 rating, as it would be too generous according to their credit. They are generally a huge ZERO, that you neither see its curves nor its shape, just the middle of the ZERO. This state is;

- Unfathomably (Button-down-criminally-trash).

I haven’t seen an anime that has came down as of presenting this topsy-turvy story, extraordinarily hideous dialogues beside its cringey framework in such a manner than this thing right here just carried, and still receive applause. As it perhaps, because it beyond and furthermore overextended the definition of (BAD), some gifted people can actually enjoy and visualise that zero next to the 1. - I don’t.

My final score: -Z

I recommend to pass this stupid sandwich.

Thank you for reading!

It's not often that I review anime that I drop. Typically, I wait until I finish a series to review it. However, this is a frustrating series that I feel I need to review but I also have zero desire to actually suffer through 10 more episodes. A friend of mine recommended this series after the Youtuber Mother's Basement hyped it up as a subversive dark comedy and brilliant parody of shitty, isekai power fantasies. Eminence in Shadow or "ES" as I'll refer to it from now on uses a lot of tired tropes and cliches. It's fully aware that it's doing so and intends ... to poke fun at poorly written isekai, but it doesn't actually do enough to distinguish itself as a parody. It ends up just looking like it's aping trashy isekai and becomes the very thing it set out to make fun of. The series tries to let us in on the fact it's a dark comedy and a parody because the main character is a "chuuni" sociopath with delusions of grandeur and megalomania. He's willing to slaughter dozens of people simply to role play as his favorite anti-heroes. Haha! the joke is that he's not actually a good guy like Kirito! This is ignoring the fact that Overlord exists, Shield Hero exists, and Mushoku exists. Nothing the main character does goes over the top enough to let the audience know that the writer actually looks down on these type of power fantasies and is just having a laugh at them while holding them in disdain. Redo of Healer actually accomplishes what ES wanted to accomplish far more effectively, even though Redo likely did it on accident and was probably just written by a complete degenerate.

The first episode actually starts out with some potential. Our sociopathic main character tries to blend in as a background NPC while secretly mastering dozens of martial arts and training intensely to become a crime fighting vigilante by night. He goes around beating yakuza and motorcycle thugs to death by dual wielding crowbars. So, at first it looks like it's going to be a darkly comic deconstruction of the concept of the Superhero and what would actually happen if a mentally ill person decided to go vigilante while LARPing as a hero. This concept has actually been done to death in the West with movies like James Gunn's Super and Mark Millar's Kick-Ass. However, I've not seen an anime take on this concept. Sadly, ES abandons this concept and has the hero intentionally throw himself into a truck in the hopes that he'll be Isekaid and reborn as an overpowered badass. HAHA! They referenced Truck-Kun! They're aware of the meme! Seriously, Konosuba did that joke over 10 years ago and did it better!

Our hero gets his exact wish and is born as a noble with great talent for magic and physical combat. By 12 years old, he is using his OP skills to slaughter bandits and keep their loot to himself so he can eventually build a Bat Cave. One day after killing some bandits, he finds a girl who has been mutated by a curse and takes her home to perform experiments on. He ends up accidentally curing her and when she can't remember what happened, he creates a bullshit backstory for her and tells her that he's fighting a secret, evil organization. The girl happens to be a master assassin and recruits an entire harem of sexy female assassins offscreen to create an army for the MC. The MC btw has changed his name to Cid because Final Fantasy exists. Cid believes that he's just killing bandits and guards while pretending a fight a secret society, but since this world seems to grant his every wish, there actually is a secret society exactly like the one he made up.

This is all in the first 3 episodes. By episode 10, I just feel like I'm watching Overlord again and wasting my time. It's not the worst anime ever, but it's not really doing anything for me. The animation is fine, but not stunning. The character designs are kind of bland. The music is kind of bland. Watch this series if you want a trash isekai that's aware it's a trash isekai but doesn't really accomplish anything with that knowledge.

0 Points, dropped it. (Unless there is something huge I'm missing that actually makes this show good, please DM me and let me know because I gave it a 3 ep test and went further ahead to 5eps on 2x speed but it was still horrifyingly bad)
You can keep scrolling, or if you are curious go ahead and read my thoughts below:

I watched up to end of episode 5. My experience is similar to most of the other reviewers in the early eps,
It starts Pre Isekai, we are introduced to the characters including the MC. Get some development, pairing up to be interesting I ... guess.
Episode 2 subverts it by starting the Isekai late. I consider myself good at inferring so I can sort of get what this anime is going for, the guy has an ideal of a superhero he wants to be and strived his life to be. Gets isekai'd and naturally pursues that goal.

That's where my praise ends.

Whenever I rate an anime, I judge it by: Artistic + Entertainment Merit, Is it worth recommending, Emotional Highs, Does it cater to my biases and most importantly NARRATIVE CONSISTENCY.
Meaning, at any point can you reliably ask the question "What's going on" or "What's the point of this" or "How did we get here" and if the Narrative Consistency is top notch then you will have a very easy answer. No complex BS needed. Its, "MC is out to get this thing so he can save this person" or "MC aims to do this for which this is necessary hence why we are here" or "This guy wants the Mcguffin cuz he wants to be rich, this guy wants it for Honor and Glory, this guy wants this to harness its power and Rule the World, and this guy wants it cuz he originally owns it"

This anime is a Masterclass in showcasing "How to not do narrative consistency"
In any of the episodes between 1 and 5, I kept asking the questions above. Nothing makes sense, how did we get from A to B, why is this person like this, if they were why was there no previous build up, why was this person relevant.
This anime is also a great example of "Don't Show, Tell" which is opposite of sound advice: "Show don't tell"
The exposition dumps are insane.

The only thing that remains consistent is our MCs downright religious obsession of being a background character so he can fancy himself being the "Eminence in the Shadow" which is fine, in fact thats the ONLY thing I can tolerate (even though its cringe but hey I don't mind that if thats what the anime is going for)
The humor falls flat, The MC being all knowing to his subordinates but actually knows nothing is reminiscent of SASUGA AINZ SAMA from Overlord. It worked there because Ainz legit didn't know what was happening and didn't pretend to be all knowing, in fact he would subtly try to get his followers to explain what they are doing also cuz Ainz cares about his subordinates and isn't Sadistic or sees them as mere tools.

So yea proper format wise

Artistic and Entertaining: 0/2
If you had fun watching this, I don't intend to rain on your parade. Go have your fun, but objectively I found nothing artistic here to appreciate aside from the brief Pre Isekai which in the grand scheme of things seems pointless. I would normally award the entertaining point but I can't since I decided to drop this anime despite watching it on 2x Speed.

Recommend: 0/2
I do not recommend anyone to watch this trash, your time is better spend watching actually good shows. If you want good Isekai: Mushoku Tensei and Re Zero are your buddies. Want more? That time I got reincarnated as a slime, Overlord, Saga of Tanya the Evil. Heck even Konosuba works here, the comedy at least hits.
In fact I'd say go watch Chainsaw Man if you haven't already. Don't waste time on this.

Narrative Consistency: 0/2
No sense of flow in the plot, things happen willy niily with often no prior build up. The amount of suspension of disbelief required may as well make you an Anti Vax, Moon Landing Denier, Tinfoil Hat Flat Earther. There is no pay off for anything because nothing ever builds up to anything. Nothing ever sticks or lands, if this was some sick deconstruction then I'm afraid there was no meticulous deconstruction like Fate Stay Night would attempt regarding the Idea of being a Hero of Justice, instead its just plain broken.

Emotional Highs: 0/2
No build up means no pay off, meaning no chance of ever getting Emotional Highs. You might get a chuckle or two here and there, but you can more reactions out of scrolling memes instead of watching this.

Bias: 0/2
Magic System: The Magic System is ridiculous. Absolutely nothing is explained, everything is assumed to be known by the user already, no limitations exist and no complications ever weigh down our MC meaning to no sense of stake either.

Idealogue: There is absolutely nothing deep in this anime. Despite having situations handed to it on a plate where we could explore themes like the Darker Side of Fame, the idea of living a double life, the philosophy of being a super hero and even the Main characters insatiable drive to be the Eminence in the Shadow. Nope, nothing it is what it is and you are expected to accept it and roll with it

History: A world exists, but all of it sounds like complete Isekai garbage. Absolutely nothing is ever built up, there is no world building. Things just are and are ham-fisted to us through the MC's exposition dump. This world seems completely dead as we have knowledge of it outside whatever is convenient for the MC to pull his stunts for. An example of how to not do World building right here too. Take everything or granted, explain and establish nothing.

Conclusion: 0/10
Considering how much it costs for anime to be produced, and the pinnacle of the medium crafted by the likes of Studio MAPPA
Seeing absolute trash like this being produced saddens me to no end.
All the time and effort went into making this could have been spent on maybe making an amazing Berserk Adaption, or maybe even an illusive Vagabond Adaption or maybe a cool anime original like Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Or even I daresay, more Chainsaw Man. But no, time, people, money, sweat, tears and effort is wasted producing garbage like this.

When I found this anime I saw lots of people saying it was a guilty pleasure type of anime so I didn't really think too much about it and just left it but what brought me to this anime was the "I am atomic" scene and I thought it looked pretty good so I decided to pick it up however I quickly found out why people thought it was a "guilty pleasure" anime.

1- Story
Its story isn't bad though it isn't all that amazing as we have the protagonist who made up a story that turned out to be true and from that lie came his ... loyal subordinates who went on to create shadow garden. Problem with the story for me is that shadow garden plays way too much of a role in it and there is little to know development and explanation on said group for example in episode 20 (the final episode of the season) We are told the protagonist Cid kagenou fought a mist dragon and after defeating it, it pretty much gave him its land that it watched over and this is where shadow garden decided to make their base. Then there are times like when cid fought in the sewers with the I am atomic scene destroyed a great chunk of the area and then by the next episode the hole that was in the middle of the city is never shown again and it just never feels like the world is ever changed or anything happens when cid or the others fight other people. The last thing I want to speak about here are its first few episodes the pacing on them were just ridiculous we went from being in the normal world for the entire episode then the next episode cid is a baby mid episode he is like 9 and we are introduced to the first girl he recruits then by the end of the episode we have all of the girls appear deal with the bad guys then say they are leaving cid and we dont see them again until episode 5 or 6

2-Fights
The fights are completely boring for me whenever it comes to cid fighting someone its clear that he is going to win and there is never any close struggle between him and his opponent and at that point i just want the fight to finish so the episode can continue

3-Characters
Now this is a very weird topic when it comes to this anime because all of the main characters that being the major players of shadow garden(Cid, alpha, beta etc) are just very poorly fleshed out characters as you know next to nothing about them whereas the side characters like the princess, alexia and her sister have pretty well fleshed out characters that i personally like but it all just doesnt feel right since it is only really like 3 or so characters that I can actually enjoy seeing on screen. Now the last character I want to talk about is Sherry, This character I think is just completely bad even though they are fleshed out pretty well I cant for the life of me believe that they are so unfathomably bad at at seeing her surroundings like i get it is a gag but it just seem so dumb to me like for example their mother gets killed and probably not even a good 7ft away is the killer standing with the murder weapon she comes out of the closet she was in after her mother gets killed and yes this is just about at the exact time her mother gets stabbed and sliced up she WALKS OUT of the closest( I have no clue what the point of hiding in the closest was for anymore) then just looks at her mother i shock i mean she doesnt even look around to try and get anyone she doesnt scream she doesnt do anything other than look at the body in complete shock.

4- Animation-
Its animation is nothing special it is your typical anime animation, Stiff/still shots every so often with the audio playing with fights that aren't are just your run of the mill fights

5- Power system
It has nothing special about it, its pretty much just use magic to boost your stats there are very few occurrences where it is used differently for example to walk on water but these never really take place more than 3 times and happens outside of fights or dont have much impact on said fight

Overall It is basically a show where you are just watching for your next overpowered mc who has a few screws loose

(Edit: My beliefs did 180 at the end and actually liked it but won't change my prelim review. But I didn't like it as much to write a fresh review. Stop pinging me)
Maybe I am too boomer to understand what this show is supposed to accomplish in the post-Isekai Ojisan era.

Is it really a satire to isekai? No doubt it is not a run of the mill isekai but where is it poking fun at isekai though.

MC has delusions of grandeur, okay. He peddles a lie about a malicious illuminati to his harem, okay. But the illumaniti exists, okay.
Here have this girl who got assaulted ... once, getting assaulted again just for the viewers. Why have one, have two or three similar characters! Le epic satire guise.

Is it supposed to be a slice of life of the daily adventures of an isekai'd OP MC, with mid delusions, girls with serious messed up histories casually joining his harem just because. Am I not supposed to take all the excess sexual assault stuff seriously and consider it as light hearted humor device? If I had to watch for misunderstandings and sUbTlE humor, Isekai Ojisan is how one would tackle it, not adding serious assault stories into the mix.

I don't write reviews without descriptive critiques but I literally have no place to start for this show. So have this showerthought of a review instead. Maybe I am wrong, but its 5 episodes already and I have no idea what this show is about.
Or perhaps it is exactly what it is about, experiencing nothing when normal isekais would have some climactic revelation. Maybe that is the parody.

Visuals, Sound are nice like 6.5/10 mid. Everything else I don't have 9000iq to comprehend whether the show is being big-brained or the reverse. NA/10

My first exposure to The Eminence in Shadow was my friend on Discord singing praises for the anime. He told me it was a parody show that took all these tired isekai cliches and turned them on their head, much like Overlord. And he was right; The Eminence in Shadow is much like Overlord in that they both use the illusion of satire to deliver the same regurgitated stories and character archetypes as the genre they claim to parody, played completely straight with only the slightest modicum of irony to keep the veil from dropping. At first glance, you wouldn’t even be able to tell ... this is a parody. I struggled to sit through 4 episodes, and dropped it when I realized it was exactly as I’d feared; mediocre isekai nonsense putting on the pretense of being something greater to sell merchandise of the cast of nondescript archetypal anime girls. Only months later, after copious debates with my Discord friends and after several drinks was I able to finish the proceeding 16 episodes, all the while baffled by what I thought at the time was the sheer incompetence of the directing and adaptation of mediocre genre fare. But upon looking into the manga and LNs, I can confidently proclaim that Eminence in Shadow (the anime) is one of the most subversive, avant-garde comedy anime of all time. It’s so dedicated to making every single joke, every mildly humorous moment from the original works so profoundly atrocious and lacking in impact that it circles back around and reaches its intention: being the world’s greatest anti-comedy.

I’m going to get this out of the way quickly and say that, despite my earlier claim, the original manga and LNs (or whichever comes first) for this series aren’t masterpieces. The writing and dialogue are stiff and awkward, the story hinges on contrivance, half the cast is sorely lacking anything to distinguish one another, and there’s copious amounts of “ironic edge” that would make an r/nihilism user blush. But I’ll give it exemplary praise in that it’s actually genuinely funny at times, something so rare for the majority of media like this that I was caught off guard at first. Cid Kagenou is truly hilarious whenever he goes into one of his absurd Machiavellian rants in his head as he details his complex blueprints for putting on the front a boring, cringey man. He seems like the natural conclusion of Lelouch from Code Geass (or Light from Death Note if you’d prefer I cited an actually good character), taken to an illogical extreme. He’s the kinda guy who would nail himself to a cross to get stronger (he actually does this in one of the novels!). He truck’d himself for the specific purpose of being isekai’d. Scenes like where he asks a girl out in the most humiliating way possible are just so expertly compounded by him narrating every single action and decision in his head, such as calculating the perfect trajectory to bow down like a pathetic spastic. Here, every chuuni delusion is spelled out, making him look simultaneously awe-inspiring yet totally corny. He takes everything in stride; playing a pussywhipped slave is all part of his self-proclaimed master plan to rule the world in secrecy. Even when he’s surprised at how accurate his random guesses are, he just rolls with it. As much of a copout as it is, I think it’s a really great bit that keeps the story moving without getting too predictable. We even get to see inside the heads of other characters as they try to process the shitstorm of absurdity unfolding in front of them.

Now try to imagine an adaptation that completely cuts out the vast majority of Cid and the rests’ monologues, shoots down the jokes in midair so they just fall flat, and throws the tone of the series into disarray, killing any and all nuance the source material had going for it. Even disregarding the lack of first-person mental POVs for the most part, the comedic timing and execution is awful. The anime can’t seem to decide how it wants to portray Cid, choosing to take him 100% seriously the vast majority of the time. This distortion of the manga’s comedic nature to justify going all-in on the embarrassing power fantasies seems almost purposeful, and I’m not cynical enough to consider it a case of full-on directorial incompetence, nor a case of misplaced hubris like MAPPA’s Chainsaw Man adaptation; despite this being his first true directing gig, Kazuya Nakanishi has a good 20 years of experience working mostly assistant director and animation director positions on a number of well-received titles. I’m not sure how likely it was that everyone involved with production completely misunderstood the nature of the series, so I’m guessing they decided to change it to appeal to more casual viewers. It’s like the inverse of the manga, where there was some self-awareness around how much of an admirable dweeb Cid actually was behind all the posturing; the exaggerated art hammered the point home and made it so the tone was never too self-serious. He’s supposed to be cool because his ridiculous larp always ends in success, not because his ridiculous larp looks cool in-universe. The anime just asks you to take everything at face value, or at least seems to because the way they handle comedy in the anime is frustrating.

Everything in the anime is taken dead serious, failing to preserve the ever-present irony of the source material. It’s a dreary, obtuse mess where every scene plays out about as lifelessly as a bad Shakespeare adaptation; try to count the number of times there’s an expository scene that’s just shot reverse shot of characters talking with uninterested faces as nothing else happens for 3 to 4 minutes. Sometimes it happens multiple times per episode. Even worse, every time they try and go ahead with landing a punchline it derails the tone of the scene. Even a modicum of comedy feels out of place in an adaptation this dull. It’s like Fullmetal Alchemist 03 took SSRIs. But for all that show’s failings, it had competent directors, writers and production staff to turn it into something worthwhile, all of which Eminence in Shadow does not. Whoever was planning the anime out has no idea what makes the original material funny or engaging. Instead of embracing the inherent silliness, the anime only retains the worst of Eminence’s “humor”; repetitive gags that wouldn’t impress a middle schooler. You can almost spot the gaps in dialogue where they could’ve added canned laugh tracks after every joke. A character’s name being “Perverted Asshat” and it being thrown around ad nauseum is one of the least terrible examples might give you insight into how dire the material you’re dealing with can get.

And that’s not even getting into the problems I have with the source material itself. Firstly, Cid’s character makes no sense when you look into his motivations; his goal is to become both a background character AND the man behind everything, yet every action he takes as a civilian is contradictory. He’s always interacting with the most important people around him, getting into fights he easily wins with his superior magical powers, and finding himself involved in every conspiracy. Most of the time he isn’t even pretending to be Shadow while doing all this. Am I missing something? It feels like the writer just wanted an excuse for Cid to dick around in at magic highschool and somehow couldn’t find enough of a reason to have him do his supervillain shtick while he was actually in-character. What’s the point in immediately render your main character’s goal meaningless? It’s not like they wanted to dedicate any time to developing other characters, because as many as there are, they’re shallow as a puddle.

As much as Eminence can satirize edgy self-insert MCs, the series hardly has any faith in its characters and reduces them to boring, derivative models taken from every other low-effort power fantasy that came before it. Every female character has the same face. I can’t even remember half their names outside of Delta, who looks like Blake from RWBY, which is somehow a more watchable show than this. At least I can name most of RWBY’s cast and describe their personalities. Seriously every new female character in Eminence feels like they were produced in a factory that makes anime girls who are so hard-tailored to be appealing to lonely, bitter people like me it actually feels patronizing. The worst part is that they all look so similar that they blend together after the first 5 episodes. I started getting confused as to who was talking to who in some scenes because even their voices have very little differentiation. I don’t have any problem with conventional characters insofar as they possess interesting attributes; I couldn’t even begin to describe what makes any of these copy-paste bitches so special. That won’t stop people from spending thousands a month trying to summon them in all their fanservice uniforms on the shitty Eminence gacha game Crunchyroll was promoting (even though they don’t own the streaming rights to the anime???). The other side characters are equally dismal. If you skipped all the scenes of Cid’s classmates at the dumb Light Novel magic school talking about inane plot developments or fucking about you’d be skipping more filler than the average Shippuden arc. I know most of these season isekai shows spend an exorbitant amount of screentime on side characters jabbering on about dumb bullshit but it feels particularly egregious here, in a show where none of them serve any purpose aside from that. I’d be really impressed if you could find somebody who genuinely cares about these losers.

Eminence isn’t all contrivances and pretensions. As boring as the direction is in conversational scenes, it’s got enough flashy fight sakuga to distance itself from the dozens of far worse isekai that came out around the sam. Episodes 5 and 20 are the standout, where the direction and animation quality actually take a massive step up for a few minutes during said episodes’ central fights (I AM ATOMIC is way too cool a moment for this series). Kenichiro Suehiro (the RE:Zero guy)’s soundtrack is the hypest shit you’ll ever hear. As much as I want to scrutinize every aspect of this series out of spite, there’s some genuine passion put into it. I can be a sore loser and say “I wish Hoshi no Samidare got that same treatment!” but that wouldn’t solve anything. As a whole The Eminence in Shadow is just so sincerely unimpressive that it makes me wonder what anyone sees in it; of course I already know what they see in it, cool fights, self-insert protagonists and women who show affection, but it makes me wonder why nobody wants anything else. The isekai/”literally me!” genre dissolved into a homogenous mess of repetition somewhere around 2016 or 2017 and the anime community hardly seems to care. But the amount of fans acting like Eminence is really that much of a breath of fresh air just goes to show that deep down, people are growing weary of the formula and any surface-level deviation from the norm is cause for consideration. I can see it. I understand. It’s still bad, but I’d be lying if I said it’s less more inviting than “I Got Reincarnated as Chad and Girls Pay Attention to Me Now” or Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 9 out of 20.

[no spoilers]

I have no idea how the ratings are so high on this. I don't rate things unless I watch them to completion and boy, do I regret it. There is nothing even remotely funny in here to make it satire. The story is disjointed and all over the place. The character development is exceedingly poor. The storyline is... what? Maybe if you are a manga fan and want to watch it come to life, then good on you. For me, this anime was my first experience. Beyond the first episode, or two, it was at least ... holding my interest, and then it went in a weird and awful direction.

The redeeming qualities are that the art and voice acting are good, but everything else about it is pure, unadulterated trash. Do yourself a favor and find something better to watch. I plead with you. Do not waste your time on this. There is so much else out there that deserves the rating they have been given. And there are much better examples of satire in the isekai genre (Konosuba).

There must have been an army of bots to boost this rating because it was truly awful. And no. It's not that "I don't get it." It's just that it's absolutely terrible.

So I've read some of the other reviews that say the manga was supposed to be satirical, but the show comes off more like a chuuni incel fantasy. The first thing I thought of the MC in the first episode was the quiet kid in the back of the classroom and then the show immediately proved me right as the MC goes full vigilante just to make himself feel cool. Then he gets himself isekaid by throwing a tantrum because he finally realized he's no one special.

Move on to the fantasy world and he continues to "act average" or in reality just look down on ... people because he has an undeserved sense of superiority. He makes a gang of generic harem girls and then does the fantasy academy trope, all while looking down on other people because he wants to be the main character and through luck he got to be.

The only good part of the show is the fight scenes. I think they're animated fairly well and I do enjoy overpowered characters fighting. The turn off is really just how insufferable the MC is and how he comes off more like a school shooter than an anti-hero.

TLDR: This show is essentially a chuuni incel fantasy.

This is just your typical power & isekai fantasy that you can insert yourself into, at least it feels that way. I do not understand these newer power & isekai fantasy animes where you start out fully "developed" at god-tier literally, have 5+ hot girls around you and solve everything without breaking a sweat because you're a cool edgelord. Teenager me would have loved this anime so I guess these animes are made for people around that age mentally.

The story is very predictable, art style is very generic/whatever.
There is no character development whatsoever because it is not needed when you're at god-tier already and to ... cool to care about it.

Perfectly terrible isekai:

Lack of originality: The anime follows a well-worn trope of a character who is transported to a fantasy world and gains incredible powers. While this can be entertaining, "Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!" fails to bring any new or exciting elements to the genre.

Poor pacing: The anime suffers from pacing issues, with some episodes feeling rushed and others dragging on for too long. This can make it difficult for viewers to stay engaged with the story and characters.

Shallow characters: The characters in "Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!" lack depth and development, making it challenging to connect with them on ... an emotional level. This can make it challenging for viewers to become invested in the story and care about what happens to the characters.

Inconsistent animation: The animation quality in "Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!" can be inconsistent, with some scenes looking polished and others appearing rushed and sloppy. This can be distracting and take viewers out of the story.

Poor world-building: The anime fails to establish a fully-realized world, leaving viewers with many unanswered questions about the setting and the characters that inhabit it. This can make it difficult to understand the motivations of the characters and their actions.

Overall, while "Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!" may have some entertaining moments, its lack of originality, poor pacing, shallow characters, inconsistent animation, and poor world-building make it a disappointing viewing experience for all viewers.

The Eminence in Shadow anime presents a satisfactory fantasy world with a satisfactory premise, with little to no character depth, and middling payoff. A couple side characters actually go through somewhat meaningful character development but most characters are largely depicted as constants with no display of their source of motivation or personality. The anime doesn't even display the main character's growth as a character in terms of strength or character. The plot's overarching conflict is presented as a joke but then also serious, the fights are cool but largely have no tension or stakes in terms of story nor character, and the characters still remain ... largely a mystery despite the anime being 20 episodes long. Is this anime supposed to be parody? Slice of life? A drama? I don't know what the overarching theme of this series is supposed to be. If you're looking for a monotone fantasy/isekai anime series with some cool action scenes, this is right up your alley.

In my opinion, this anime was a major letdown. Despite being a fan of overpowered main characters in isekai anime, this one failed to meet even my low expectations. The show's characters are introduced abruptly and without any real purpose, making it hard to connect with them or care about their fates.

The storyline also suffers from uneven pacing, with events unfolding at a breakneck speed without any real explanation or reason. This disjointed and rushed approach makes it difficult to follow the train of thought of the characters, leaving the viewer feeling disoriented and disconnected. To put it bluntly, I've seen fever dreams that were ... more coherent than this anime.

They literally took a manga which was a parody of all the worst cliches, power fantasies, and haremology. And turned it into an unironic anime with all the worst cliches, power fantasies, and haremology. Where they fuxxing high? If you value your sanity don't watch this.

Admittedly the type of humor is inherently subtle, and it makes sense that it would be hard to pull off. But i get the sense that the makers of the anime didnt understand at all what made the manga so appealing. perhaps They are cringe lords who embrace all the same tropes that make many anime frankly embarassing ... to watch with its lack of self awareness.

I was really hoping this could be the next konosuba, a parody which does it right. But instead we have cringe made manifest.

I don't know if the director has severe myopia or something, because he completely missed the whole point of the manga

The original series is a satire, a hilarious comedy about an edgelord that was isekaid, and a story that makes fun of all the classical edgy isekai OP MC tropes. It's essentially a gag series, in the same sense that One Punch Man makes fun of all the fighting shows - it's so exaggerated and stupid that it leaves you with tons of memorable fun moments. The manga is so incredibly fun, which ended up setting the bar too high
The anime basically just seems like ... an edgefest- legit the first episode was a perfect indicator that it was going to be a trashy sh*tshow. They didn't go hard enough on the satire, and tried too hard to make the MC look edgy cool (when he's supposed to look completely edgy goofy/aloof). Essentially they screwed up the charm, the comedy, the joke timings and the original goofiness of the story that made it so enjoyable
It's as if they ended missing the entire goal of the show and actually turned this satire into another generic harem isekai edgy MC story

I don't want to be that guy, but please go read the mnaga. It's so so so so much better and this anime has done it a huge disservice. Fck, I haven't felt this disappointed since Tokyo Ghoul Root A

I don't understand why the rating for this anime is so high. Plot is messy, characters are boring and story is unclear.

The show could've been better if the main character had a more interesting personality instead of being cringe. It's hard for me to root for this character when he throws on a front to look cool and I don't understand his personality. The female characters also just pops out of nowhere without any former introduction and looks like characters from other animes. In addition to that, I don't think it's neccessary to write an entire cast of female characters just for one guy. ... It just isn't.

It's such a waste because the concept seems interesting but not the way it was written out.

First at all for me, this anime can be good of the story Pace not that slow but this anime give a slow pace,bad comedy,the the isekai logic US too bad. If you want to see a good anime with MC have many followers i Will not recommended this anime because this anime too cringe for me. If want too see a good anime with many followers better then this anime you can see overlord or tensura. Taht two anime is more enjoyable then this anime
This anime is too many dan service also the plot is not that good for me too enjoy it. ... If you want good isekai you can watch overlord,tensura,or youjo senki. If you like a good comedy isekai you cant watch konosuba or gate jihetai. If you watch this anime to see the dan service battr for you to watch high school DxD

No idea how can anyone enjoy this anime. It literally introduces 40 characters in each episode and does not develop any of them. The worldbuilding is pathetic, the comedy is completely regular, the protagonist is pathetic 90% of the time, and this harém is one of the most forced haréns in anime, for no reason, there are hundreds of girls completely loyal and devoted to the protagonist. What a shame, I was really hoping this would be a great anime. But the first episode is a good episode, I would recommend anyone interested in this anime to watch the first episode and then drop it. ... If you keep watching you probably are going to regret it.

I could not force myself to sit here and keep watching this train wreck. If it's supposed to be a parody, it is by no means a good one. It screams 13 year old OPMC I'm the best you can't beat me and not in a cringe funny way. In a cringe I could sincerely see losers sitting here wishing they were like this and admire the character way.

Story
If nonsensical was what they were going for to make fun of the genre, they nailed it. But in the most worst way possible. It was initially entertaining to see a bunch of weird events ... pop up and watch him over come them, but it got old fast and quickly descended into what is actually going on territory.

There's all this build up around his plans to defeat strong enemies, but none of it matters because he can one tap everything. I love OPMC, however, they typically have other things going on to keep the story interesting. The minor side plots we do get are extremely unfunny, and they tossed in a weird romcom element then quickly dropped it.

They also try to force a weird bplot to make the harem seem like it has relevancy as if they're not just there for booba.

Characters
Harem. Brick walls. MC's mini side ting was sort of interesting but she quickly dropped to the background. He's surrounded by girl geniuses who somehow haven't picked up he's just a strong idiot. Was hoping for Mob Psycho moment where they're like yea we knew you had no idea what was going on but you were cool. Nope! They just blindly worship him! Even if this is a parody, it just makes it even more boring.

As someone who adores shows that make fun of the genres they're in, this was the biggest flop of them all.
*This is my first review srry ty