DELUSIONS OF THE CHUUNIBYOU - Living out the highs and the lows of “special” middle schoolers.
At heart, “The Eminence in Shadow” is a satire of the Japanese “chuunibyou” stereotype. For those who aren’t familiar with this term, it is essentially when a young child believes themselves to be extraordinarily special due to supernatural powers, blessings, fate, or some other fantasy element. It can manifest itself in a lot of ways, and with our MC, it’s the pursuit to break human limits by unlocking magic.
However, satire is, by definition, something that pokes fun at itself or the thing it is embodying. And “The Eminence in Shadow” takes this to heart by crafting a show entirely out of the ideal chuunibyou story. The anime is not afraid to use the absurdity of teenage boys’ fantasies as the foundation for the actual show. From the classic “MC OP” tropes to the subtle irrationalities of being Isakei’ed, this anime will happily utilize all of them as if it’s just a standard element of storytelling. But it does so in a way where it’s clear that craziness is king and rationality is a thing of the past. The end result of this mentality is fantastic. More frequently than not, I found myself laughing at the inane world seemingly pulled straight out of an 8th-grader’s journal.
Nonetheless, comedy is entirely subjective, and the issue of being unable to please everyone still arises. Although it fits the theme of the show, I personally found the fan service, ecchi jokes, and harem tropes to be pretty cringe at times. Of course, I know not everyone will share this opinion. But my point is that when you’re watching something that embraces the good and the bad of a cliche in anime, chances are you will find a couple of things that aren’t to your liking. Despite that, this anime does a good job of balancing the entertainment evenly among the elements of chuuni fantasy; so you can easily get through what you don’t like and have plenty of what you do like.
PUSHING PARODY TOO FAR - Ironically, the show’s greatest strength also ends up being its greatest weakness.
There is one problem that plagues every parody anime to exist, getting mileage out of your jokes. No matter how much you change the context, delivery, or timing for the punchline, repeating the same few jokes over and over again will give you less value each time. Most shows fix this in one of two ways: making fun of entirely new things or slowly veering off parody and becoming a unique interpretation of the thing you initially mocked. “The Eminence in Shadow” went for the latter… or, at least I think it was trying to…
You see, there are some moments where it seems the show is preparing to take off on an actual adventure. We see a tame character become personally motivated to hunt down the organizations pulling the strings. We discover horrifying secrets that plague the kingdom’s history. We find out that the darkness of this world goes a lot deeper than we thought. Yes, they may be more generic elements in a chuunibyou fantasy, but every time I saw them I got excited because I thought the anime was attempting to evolve into something more than just a chuuni shitpost. But each and every time I was disappointed as “The Eminence in Shadow” would immediately go back to what has been doing since the start.
Specifically, I’m trying to express my disappointment over the anime’s lack of ambition. Almost every arc seemed like the introductory set-up to pushing a large story, but this large story would then be set aside indefinitely as the anime retreats to the safety of satire. The MC never gets personally invested in the horrors he sees, Shadow Garden carry on with their plans effortlessly, and future encounters continue to happen by chance rather than Shadow actively hunting enemies down. Only the side characters are truly concerned with the state of the world, but they’re so one-dimensional and emotionally detached from the main cast that following their story becomes burdensome rather than interesting.
MAKING FIGHTS FUN AGAIN - A fight can go beyond flashy moves and high-budget animation to be good.
There is one more positive I wish to point out though, and that’s how incredibly enjoyable the fight scenes are. This point is particularly surprising since any competent viewer can predict the result of a match-up before it actually happens. Nonetheless, the weeks where I had to wait out cliffhangers before seeing the fight itself were complete agony. So why was I so excited to see something so predictable?
The answer lies not in the fight choreography, but rather, in the character dynamics. Similar to Overlord, “The Eminence in Shadow” takes the approach of having the characters themselves make the fights entertaining rather than the moves they use. Fight scenes are a rare excuse for the MC’s true persona to step out of the shadow (pun intended) and let loose. This allows the viewers to enjoy the witty banter, arrogant attitude, and charming personality of Shadow for a few minutes. It also gives us satisfaction watching villains learn the hard way that there is always a bigger fish in the sea.
Overpowered MCs may not be to everyone’s tastes, but I think every anime enjoyer can agree that having a winning personality will always be fun to watch. This is the key idea that the show’s fights are born from, and it works incredibly well when built up properly and used sparingly.
FINAL VERDICT - It doesn’t reach the same level as Isakei masterpieces, but “The Eminence in Shadow” still makes a good name for itself.
It’s hard to say what the future of this anime holds. With this show having more plotlines “on hold” than my Plan to Watch section on MAL, there could be potential for greatness or utter disaster. There is also the possibility that “The Eminence in Shadow” never becomes anything more than a satire, in which case I hope the jokes can hold until the end of its runtime. At the current moment though, it doesn’t stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Kadokawa’s titular Isakeis, but nonetheless, I had a pretty enjoyable experience watching an edgy middle-schooler live out his dreams. So I look forward to seeing just how wild a chuuni’s fantasy can get in future seasons.
