Side Characters Steal the Show? - The Eminence In Shadow - Anime Review!

Thing is The world bends to his will in a way😂😂. Not all aspects, but still.

This show is a true waste of potential. The only saving grace is shadow garden. If id cut out all the Cid/Shadow scences it would improve it instantly. He is op for no reason, 0 character developement, bland cliché design, bad humor. Incredibly boring, since he never in any real danger.
The full show sould be about the girls of shadow garden, and the other characters from the kingdoms, church and the cult, then it would have more time to detail, develope and flesh out each character and focus on them and their relationships, actions and so on.
It dont even needs to be an isekai, just have the world mixed of fantasy and modern age, potent with magic, and shadow just be an idea, a divine figure like a dark angel of retribution, born from the mind of the collecitve minds and will of the girls of the garden, and bestowing power on Alpha, who then assumes the mantle of Shadow, in secret, and recruit the others, then if the nee arises whoever of them are the best fit for the task at hand will assume the role of Shadow. So then Shadow truly becomes immortal, as you cant kill an idea. Make them more stealthy and you can have a true shadow war with the cult and church, along with a more drak and grim tone, mixed with the fanservice shots and more detailed versions of the comedy gimmicks like Epsilon's appearace or Gamma's clumsiness.

Dropped from ep 10 too boring mc
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The way I see it, cid/shadow doesn't need development because he's there to make the other characters develop. He's basically the seasoning to an tasteless meal

It does not "just so happens" Cid is literally god. When Cid made up the story of the cult the cult literally came into being. Everything in this world was created by Cid to serve as props in his fantasy. This anime is a critique of theism and just how horrific it is to live in a world with an omnipotent god that interacts with the world he created.

I really enjoy your review though we do not agree on cid. I really enjoy CID character because he is someone who already committed to being the eminence in the shadow role play that he disregarded almost everything and sometimes get too in that role that he forget the punchline and end up standing out which is funny to me. For me, the running gag is fine as it distinguishes the girls with their unique behaviours/traits. Also, well I do not think we might see character development from cid but we get to see different side of cid with aurora who manage to “converse” with him in battle that let him show a more mellow and not so crazy side of him. For the most part, I think it is a great review and I think you did get the gag and the story but maybe it is not something you like or perhaps it could have been overuse trope but it is fine.

Edit: Apparently after rewatching the show and Nux video on cid, I realise that Cid might be a fully developed character IMO hence putting expectation character development for cid will lead to disappointment but then again, I think it works for this story considering Cid is not just an MC who is OP and Chunnibyo, it is part of him yes but there is more to him that was hinted in the show which made me read ahead and I was not disappointed in fact It made me love the show more now.

I feel that u just didnt understand what kind of character Cid was, he doesnt change, the world changes because of him. A lot of the things u said abt his character was kinda weird, because it contradicted what the story showed us, for example Cid literally told us why he kept his resolve to be batman while everyone else changed, u urself talked abt that, then the next second u complained abt how he didnt change?

Abt the jokes surrounding the shadow garden squad, while I can understand if u think the jokes got old, but I mean, it is their character traits. U dont complain why goku always fights, or why naruto talks so much, or why luffy wants to find one piece right? Their traits are played off as jokes at first, but that doesnt mean u can just get rid of their personality later because the jokes get old. Not to mention shadow garden had so little screentime that the jokes u said got old, didnt even get the time to develope. For example take konosuba, they all have distinct traits and all the jokes r centered around said traits, but that story mainly focused on the 4 main cast and them alone, while this story got a couple dozens

I AM...ATOMIC lol

i like the side characters but shadow is my favorite

Cid is of the mindset " rules of cool beats rules as written"

I don't think Cid will ever show any type Character arc or major development. He seems to be more of a Paragon and the story is how the world and other characters change in response to his influence. As far as the world knows Shadow/Cid is a multifold genius who is revolutionizing the fields of magic, martial arts, engineering, science, music, fiction, buissiness, fashion, food, and who knows what else. This "inherited-genius" affects to the world far more than the world affects him, and he's quite happy with his own level of personal growth, that i think he would be unwilling to force change in himself. His first life had far, far more effect on his personality, goals, and views than his second-degree did. Unless something changes in himself or in how he and the world interact, there won't be any change or possibility for growth.

If you dont like cid character, dont watch and review the anime then... Because the the main point in the show was cid only wanted become the eminence in shadow but you dont like it. Dislike this video sorry but your reaction and review suck so much

I agree with you that shadow garden (and Alexia) was the best part of the show. In fact the lack of information on what the girls where doing during the three year jump got me into the light novels, manga, and even the crap rpg. And in that regard I feel like the anime left a joke out that to me changed Cid completely. During the entire time the girls where gone they had been giving Cid full reports on all of their goals, duties, and everything happening in shadow garden. So if he had just paid attention in the slightest he would have known about Gamma starting the business, Beta writing her books, and Epsilon with her music.

This show is definitely worth a watch. Thanks for reviewing it hopefully more people find and like it

Cant really say I agree with a lot of your takes on the anime, particularly with regards to Cid. I think that Cid is a very refreshing and interesting character but I very much like 'twisted' characters. The anime in general is very refreshing, particularly for an Isekai. I genuinely think that The Eminence In Shadow is one of the best anime's I've ever seen.

Honestly, I'm just like you. Shadow garden was the most intriging aspect of this show for me, hands down.

To me, the single-facet nature of the cast is a lot like the weakness of the dwarven characters in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit: everyone gets one unique thing they do or look like so that the audience can tell them apart. There's just not enough time to develop them all, and certainly not enough time for Cid's harem. :)

I always appreciated your take on Cid and this anime. I don't need opinions to match my own for them to be interesting. Your opinions always seem very well thought out and informed, and I get a lot more out of an anime by watching your commentary as well. Thank you for covering it! It was fun to watch, as were your thoughts.

I won’t say that the show was great but I did have a great time watching it 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’ve made my opinion known throughout your videos covering this show, but I’ll summarize it: I didn’t really enjoy it. For me, it didn’t work as a comedy, and it’s not great action either. I’ll probably keep watching because I’m committed at this point, but I don’t have high hopes.

Cid? More like Mid.

I view Cid's character as someone like Saitama without the whole "fighting is so bothersome" aspect. I do think his character will grow at some point as the story progress, he has to for the long-term interest of the story, and the best part of his tale is the amount of ridiculousness he can brush aside while thinking the Cult members are just a bunch of Bandits.

Lol, you won’t be able to like Cid any time soon!

I’m on your side with Cid honestly, his constant “mob” act got annoying really quickly. And honestly as Shadow he started feeling bland and boring.

Form me is the onepunch man of the isekai

The reason he seems like he's contradicting what he wants, between doing things in the shadow while getting no credit and actually do a grand entrance, it's because what he wants is to pave the way for the "hero" of the story to find his purpose and save the world, while Shadow is the mastermind that made everything happen in the first place, the man behind the curtain, the puppet master, but in order to ensure that the hero finds the path, he needs to occasionally come out and perform. Unfortunately it seems that he doesn't realize that HE is supposed to be the hero of this world as far as the viewers know. Also, that is the reason he takes on a completely different persona when he wanted to make a spectacle and show the world how powerful he truly is in the tournament arc, his intention there wasn't to create a path for the hero, so he didn't want to show how powerful Shadow is, he only wanted to feel good by being recognized as strong.

I really wanna watch this show now

Did you know there's a shadow version of ending called aoi senkou

He only wants to goes unnoticed for his mob persona. In his Shadow guise, he prioritize appearing cool and dramatic more than anything else, and what's the point of being cool and dramatic if he doesn't draw the spotlight all to himself?

It's not that "Why is he doing all this stuff if he wants to remain a hero in the shadow?" . No, he never wants that. He doesn't care about saving anyone, nor ruining anyone's life, if he get to act out his chuuni fantasy in the most stylish way he could think of.
Him keeping his mob persona is also just a fantasy he loves to follow, where a mediocre school boy is secretly the mafia boss mastermind behind the scene, that's why he sometimes goes so out of his way to the point of actually attracting attention, because it's never his number one priority anyway.

Also, the jokes aren't being repeated as many times as you thought. Gamma's joke is like, 3 times, in the span of 20 episodes. The friends debt joke is suppose to be used to lift off heavy-serious melodramatic moment, like the annerose scene, and it does get repetitive, but because it always in the background, when others are monologuing, talking, or fighting, you're suppose to ignore and forget about it anyway. Delta is a muscle head is not even a joke, that's a trait she has, because of her nature of being a doggo, and she's scared of Alpha because it's her instinct to obey powerful beings above her.
Again, Eta, she only have likes, 10 seconds of screentime, and her sleepiness appearance happen like twice? Not even enough to give anybody any kind of lasting impression whatsoever, so I'm not even counting it as a joke.
Other than the Shadow Garden's members, Iris, Alexia and Rose does get fleshed out very nicely (tho I guess Rose is part of the squad now)
I do admit that the Epsilon fake boobs joke does get old pretty quickly though.

As for Shadow's character development, I don't think he needs any. Do you think Ainz needs or had character development? Do you think Saitama changed in any significant way at all? Cid is the same. He doesn't need development, but the world around him changes and evolves, largely due to his action. So the world and all of its characters, revolves around him, experiences all sort of stuff, suffering and happiness, changes and whatnot, is more interesting to watch than watching him comtemplate or anything. If anything, Cid changing his nature can only result in the show losing its identity, as he is literally a force of nature in this world, and he never cares about morals or anything. In short, he's pretty much a psychopath, which should be made plenty clear in the first episode.

Are you gonna get into the source material?

I think we can agree that we wanted more "garden" than "shadow". Make Cid a OP character it's fine but the gold is in the developing of the rest of the girls. Not as a harem, but as an organization. They needed more screen time for me. Personally I wanted more Delta hahahaha. Still, as you say, its a show worth of keep watching even with its flaws.

While I don't think the ending was as bad as takt destiny, or engage kiss. I'm not sold that this will get more content outside the game, and it it does it probably won't be satisfying. That's the problem with these anime that are basicly giant mobile game adverts they just want you to play and buy stuff in the game.

There are two type of chunnibyou. A regular Chunnibyou and high functional chunnibyou. A regular chunnibyou will only just make belief and make less effort to their delusion while the high functional chunnibyou will give alot of effort towards their dream. Cid is the High Functional Chunnibyou and most of other anime beside this anime is just a regular chunnibyou

The peak of comedy in this show was the Bathhouse towel slap scene.

Glad you enjoy the serious part of the story, it's not a mindblowing one but it's fun and well written. Even though I love this anime for Cid and comedy, it's just sad seeing some fans saying it would be just another isekai trash if it's not for Cid, even though the other characters and shadow war conflict are actually quite refreshing. I can't even choose between Alexia, Epsilon, Claire, Delta, or Aurora.

Shadow is the Heisenberg of this world. He is in empire building business

Cid or Shadow is a Chaotic Neutral Character. In order to entertain himself, he will ruin other people, the cult of diabolos bad luck is shadow saw them as an opportunity to up himself for his satisfaction.

Cid is already a background character. People keep forgetting about him if you pay attention to the dialogue. his only fault is his experimentation on mob technique keep making go to the spotlight but in the end he is still forgotten as he intended.

Cid is a hardworker, everytime he hears about people working hard on going on their life, he will listen and everytime people belittle his hardwork he will subtly get pissed (and not so subtly as shadow when Iris call Shadow a coward in front of his face)

I think the idea in this kind of story, where the MC is basically the peak of that world, is the influence he has on the characters around him. Cid isn't going to change. His character and personality are the centerpiece of the story around which everything and everyone else revolves.

Anime just has a bad direction. Manga doesn't repeat jokes, doesn't pad time, has inner monologue of Cid, doesn't focus on action and does what this story meant to be - a metaironic take on isekai power fantasy. Unfortunately anime became exactly the thing it was supposed to take piss on. Ironically...

WOW!!!! I didnt realize the show had funny jokes but I guess it when over my head because I just thought it was a mixbag at best so I gave it 5 out of 10.

I enjoyed this show a lot and was fine with Sid staying a clueless OP edge lord. It entertained me every episode.

This show is another one of those types of shows that makes me just wish for the times that these types of shows didn't exist lol just the premice i'm a loser or whatever in the real world and get transported somehow to another world i don't want to say the i word because that's what this show feels like witch i'm so tired of.

Shadow is a narcissistic sociopath who doesn't care about other people at all.

I think they make that abundantly clear in the first episode.

Definitely top tier anti-hero material; lol. <(^,..,^)>

I think that's the main point you might have missed. Everyone else in the story is capable of character development, but Shadow is mentally ill. He is incapable of change. He is as he was back on earth, exactly what he wanted to be. He tells Iris this in their final fight, that he is and has always been Shadow, all other identities, ie Cid, were just made up for convenience. Cid is the background character, why would Shadow push character development on a background character? Also, why would shadow need "development?" All that was ever going to be who shadow is was baked the moment the truck took him out.

I think the real development as you stumbled on, is reflected in how the other characters see and revere shadow. To shadow Garden, he is their cult leader who can do no wrong, a la Eins. One who's motives are shrouded in mystery, but through their own realizations of what he wants and how they interpret those wants, they see character growth in Shadow. Like how Shadow at first is the bat man working behind the scenes, standing for justice, but becomes the symbol that can take on the sins of the world after the school burns down and Cherrie's dad dies. To the leaders of the kingdom Shadow, is either an urban legend, or an overhyped street criminal having some sort of spat with a rival organization. As the series goes on, the kingdom, as reflected through iris, slowly has to realize that shadow is much more than they could ever hope to deal with. Every character who has contact with Shadow or Cid ends up being forced to have character development.

Why can't Shadow have this development? because he is mentally ill, and in his own mind, has been perfect since the day he came into existence. We like all the other characters are just along for the ride.

I know the short answers that Cid would always give to every character was a running gag that annoyed you too. And for a while it annoyed me. But I think his short answers was less a reflection of how little he cared about everyone else around him and more a sign of his dedication to playing the role of a background character. When talking to a background character in a game, they have limited short, scripted responses, and unless they have any useful information to give you, you aren't getting anything else out of them. This is Cid. Yes, he doesn't pay attention to what people are saying, and yes that always seems to confuse Shadow when events are happening and he doesn't ever seem to know why, but in truth, Cid and Shadow are different roles. If you want shadow to know something.... shadow garden..... ahem..... talk to Shadow, not Cid. It's stupid I know, but it's also in line with the fact that Shadow is mentally ill, and this way of compartmental thinking is part of that mental illness.

For me, I think the biggest flaw of this show is simply that there is so much we as an audience have to assume or figure out for the series to really make sense. This show does a wonderful job at showing and not telling, but you know, sometimes a little telling isn't such a bad thing right? Alright man enjoyed your reactions, even if not 100^ in line with my understandings, keep grinding.

Light novel much better. Things that you didn’t liked, most anime original.

I hope in season 2 they add in all the back stories that were in the Light Novels. I liked them all, especially Delta's.