Feb 1, 2023
Ok I might over exaggerate when I rated this a 10/10 anime but let me tell you why I think it's a funny, well paced and interesting anime despite all the non-sense that is going on in it.
The first episode was a bit rough to say the least. It was a non-sensical tease to introduce the character, his motivation and how he generally works. It's hella unrealistic but that's not the point of the episode from what I've seen. It sets the general tone of the show.
With the MC introduced we slowly progress further into the story where the isekai part sets in.
As soon
...
as our MC gets reborn we don't get an in depth explanation of the other world. We only spectate the tomfoolery of Cid Kagenou and learn about the new world passively. I would go as far as to say that everything up to episode 7/8 is just a stretched introduction to the main cast of the season. But that's already the first interesting thing that the show does: it doesn't treat it like a normal introduction, the introductory elements shape around Cid's daily life where we get a bunch of funny moments, general exposure of what's going on and a sense of mystery since the other characters seem to know much more than we get to witness from Cid's perspective. Despite the relatively shallow main plot it works really well in this format.
Slowly we begin to see what this is all about. So what does the show do to keep it fun and interesting? It shares the screen time with many different characters, gives us not only comedy but treats the "side characters" like MCs while our actual MC tries his best to be as "background character"-like as possible without reusing the same joke too many times and having generally enjoyable and short running gags. It just progresses smoothly and has great pacing without wasting time. I've seen myself often check how much time was left cause I expected some kind of cliff hanger after a bigger event happened in an episode just to happily be reminded that only half of it was over. I don't know how it manages to satisfy my need for comedy and story in such a small time period without using big cliff hangers at the end of EACH episode [I'm looking at you Boku no Hero Academia >:( ] but it gets it done.
Why will I keep watching "The Eminence in Shadow" and so should you?
Well I enjoy this formular a lot. The animation peaks many times, it has great highlights and I like the cast of characters + I'm just a bit hyped to see how the second season would treat its story. It has great potential and to see character growth from that perspective of a shadowy organization mixing it with that sense of mystery without making it the main plot point and comedic writing makes the show as a whole a joy to watch.
It has that vibe that Konosuba has and still manages to make me hyped at times in a different way than Konosuba did.
I hope that you can enjoy this show like I did and thank you if you read all of this.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
