Reviews

Jan 3, 2024
Mixed Feelings
Are you currently under the age of 14? Well have I got the anime for you! Join formally unnamed reincarnated character, now Cid Kagenou, on his adventures to live out his life-long fantasy of being an edgelord while living his day-to-day life as a background character. In this world where side characters have inspiring names such as Po Tato, Skel Etal and Mundane Mann and the main organisation has 30 minutes of screen time; in The Eminence in Shadow or Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakure! everything can happen EXACTLY as you expect it to!

Plot – 5/10
Right, this does not set it off to a great start. Unnamed reincarnated character has gone mad in his pursuit for power to do something more than beat up low-life bandits as “Stylish Bandit Beater” and has subsequently – in true fashion – been hit by truck-kun. Now reincarnated into a noble family he choses the life of a background character and decides to run his organisation “Shadow Garden” with an alternate persona of “Shadow” fighting the supposed “Cult of Diablos” with it’s increasing member base built from saved humans, elves and rabid cat girls alike who have been gifted incredible names such as Alpha, Beta to Zeta. The truth with the Cult of Diablos is that Cid wasn’t being very serious, and he made up a few quick fabrications, but unbeknownst to him they are soon to be fact and is the main running enemy throughout the show. From there Cid heads to school and is joined by Po Tato and Skel Etal where the main antics of the show begin as he tries to live his life as a peaceful background character but is constantly being whisked into various scenarios, all while continuing to run Shadow Garden and unleashing his alternate persona when it makes him look fucking badass.

This isn’t the most inspiring plotline ever and happens to come across as a little cringy even though the show clearly tries to make all it’s typical Isekai happenings as irony. I did find it a little strange that Cid was running an organisation of 666 anime girls with no free will ready to do anything for the slightest compliment, but it’s not slavery… I guess? To put it to your face - it isn’t good, but it isn’t bad either. It’s uninspiring but I occasionally found it very entertaining to watch throughout.

Characters – 4/10
After you’ve watched the show name me one character that isn’t Cid, you’ll probably end up saying shadow. The characters are very forgettable, for god’s sake they have literally called the side characters inanimate objects and the per se “named characters” of the series are either part of Shadow Garden and get 10 minutes of screentime, a very angry female pupil who gets 2 hours of screentime or a fancy noble who is there to play the antagonist. The only character who actually matters is the ONLY main character, Cid "Minoru Kagenou, Shadow, Jimina Seinen/Mundane Mann, John Smith, Suzuki Hope" Kagenou (he plays a few characters). He also occasionally likes to speak a bit of engrish to end off his moves, “I. am. Atomic.” is the favourite, coincidently the people who rate this show highly are also probably atomic radiation mutations whose brains have been turned to sludge.

Art & Animation – 8/10
I’ll have to give them something - the animation of the fancy abilities and fight scenes is, dare I say it, quite good. The grand final fight between Shadow, Iris and Beatrix was very nice and plenty of the smaller fights finished off with the grand atomic move always have nice swordsmanship and fancy abilities. The art style just reminds you of every isekai ever and isn’t very special.

Music & Sound – 6/10
First off, the intro and outro we’re awful but this category is saved by the well done final boss-sounding music for each fancy fight and the generally alright background music. Might as well throw in that the outro was one of the worst I’ve ever seen, it is quite literally an ecchi image with a PowerPoint transition for 1 and a half minutes.

Isekai – 9/10
Slightly different category for isekais. The Eminence in Shadow delivers everything you could possibly need in an Isekai: a 90% female cast, an extremely overpowered main character, cool fucking magic with no explanation to how it works and some damn good looking fight scenes – it essentially has it all. We even go into his strange past for AN ENTIRE EPIOSDE working out why he has this lifelong desire to be a “hero”. Aside from that stupid list, the show does have a very nice running theme where due to Cid’s “Knowledge of the Shadows”, the girls in this organisation influence the world around him and suddenly we start seeing department stores with confectionaries like chocolate, advanced technology like cameras and even well-known book titles and famous pieces of music being introduced and recreated into this fantasy world. It builds this aspect quite well, however none of the other world is built especially well and its sort of just kingdoms, knights and magic for all the audience is told – docking a point for this.

Closing Thoughts
I was excited to watch this show, but I can personally say this is very overrated. 8.31 on MAL? 82% on AniList? Where did that come from? It’s a fun watch but in no way a quality watch, I’ve probably skipped over a few too many key details and things I will have wanted to say at one point, but I can happily say that if you like Isekai – it’s a dream come true. If you don’t – you might have some fun. The Eminence in Shadow is... okay.

Score – 6/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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