Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. When it comes to heroes the ones I always liked the most were the anti-heroes. The guys who walk the line between good and evil. They’re not too bad but not too good either. They’re the guys that do what needs to get done when no one else has the guts to do them. When it comes to isekai we’ve seen people choose to use their powers for good. While there’s been a few exceptions most characters use their new life for good which is a shame because I’ve always wonder what an anti-hero would be like in an isekai. Enter the Eminence in Shadow. Released in 2018 and written by Daisuke Aizawa, the Eminence in Shadow shows us what would happen if an anti-hero got reincarnated in another world. Some people have called this anime cringe and just another harem story but I assure you that couldn’t be further from the truth. In 2022, an anime based off the novel was produced by Nexus a relatively small studio who don’t make that many anime despite getting started in 2012 and this anime was probably their most successful production to date. Let’s take a walk down the middle, this is The Eminence in Shadow.
Opening and Ending Theme
So the opening for this anime is “Highest” by OxT. Well, that’s a good sign. You know the isekai will be good if they’re doing the opening. It’s another banger of a song with the lyrics matching up perfectly with our main character. In fact given his personality, I’m sure this the kind of opening the main character would love to have in his anime.
The ending is “Darling in the Night” by Seven Shadows. This ending was sung by some of the female voice actors sung in character. It’s upbeat, happy, and honestly sounds like a thank you letter to the one who gave them a new leash on life when they were pretty much left for dead.
Episodes 1-5
The anime starts off on an interesting note. Instead of starting in the other world we instead focus on the normal life of a few characters. We follow a girl named Akane, a young actor who was previously involved in a stalker incident back in middle school who kidnapped her and tried to rape her. She’s now in high school and has built a good mask for herself. She’s an honor student and popular with students and teachers (all the guys love her and all the girls want to be her). The only problem she has is her classmate Kageno who she finds annoying. Not only does he forget her name despite sitting next to her in class, he completely ignores her (he sees through you. He knows you’re a fake). After school, she walks home for the first time since the stalking incident and gets kidnapped (wow, two times). Nageno witnesses the kidnapping and rather than call the cops he instead follows them back to their hideout. Donning a ski mask, he rescues her from the kidnappers and takes his leave without her knowing it was him and she never will because a few days later, Nageno dies after being hit by a truck (Trunk-kun: Just doing my job). After the credits, we get Nageno’s backstory. As a child he longed to be a hero so he trained day and night but knew there was a limit to what he could accomplish. When he died he got reincarnated in another world with magic which is what he always wanted to attain (so I guess his death was a win). In this world rather than use his power to be a hero or villain, he decides to use it as the one who meddles in the world from the shadows.
In episode 2 Nageno gets reborn as Cid voiced by Seiichiro Yamashita, the son of a baron living out in the boonies. He comes from a long line of dark knights with his dad having high hopes for his big sister Claire who excelled in swordsmanship while Cid’s skills were average (on the surface. In truth, if he wanted to he could kill her in an instant but he’s got to play the fool in order to fool the fools. Scene here: https://youtu.be/f4HOCHpY9mc). In his spare time, Cid would sneak out at night and become that hero he always dreamed of being. Not the one who everyone knows and praises but the one who is down the middle. They’re the rouge, the anti-hero. You don’t know if they’re good or bad. All you know is that they do whatever they want and whatever benefits them the most. One night, he defeats a bunch of bandits and comes across a possessed blob that he experiments on. After many experiments, he manages to revert the blob back to its original form which is an elf girl who we’ll come to know as Alpha. Not wanting to freak her out by letting her wonder how she became a blob, Cid makes up the story that she was experimented on by the Cult of Diablo, an organization that hides in the shadows trying to resurrect the demon lord, Diablo. She offers her life to help Cid going by his codename, Shadow (he’s getting way too into this), and together they form Shadow Garden (scene here: https://youtu.be/hv0MdYXdrVY). Three years passed and Shadow Garden has expanded thanks to Alpha who recruited more members. On the day Claire is set to leave for school she gets kidnapped by the Cult of Diablo (yep, it’s a real thing. Everything he made up turned out to be true and that’s hilarious. It’s like getting an A+ on an exam you never studied for). They believe she’s a possible descendant of the legendary hero who vanquished Diablo and want to use her as a vassal. We see she got kidnapped by a count named Gease and she’s a bro-con. Despite picking on Cid any chance she gets, she cares for him more than anything in the world and will go ballistic on anyone who wishes to harm him (man, Cid can’t lose). The members of Shadow Garden find the secret base and take out all the members of the cult except for Gease who escapes. But he comes across Cid by complete accident (like I said, he can’t lose) and Cid manages to kill him. The next day, Claire returns home by herself, gets her injuries healed, and then heads off to school in the capital. In the final moments of the episode, the members of Shadow Garden tell Cid that it’s time for them to leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/10SHKwJoY24, winning streak finally comes to an end).
At the start of episode 3 we see Cid believe that the girls figured out he was lying and rather than beat him up they just made up the lie to abandon him. A few years have gone by with Cid being 15 years old and is now in the royal capital to enroll in the dark knight academy. Just like before he does his best not to stand out and stay in the background, but that all changes when he loses a bet and has to confess to the princess, Alexia, the most popular girl in school. Against all odds Cid becomes Alexia’s boyfriend (this whole anime is the definition of failing upward). Cid tries to get her to dump him, but it doesn’t work as she has a use for him. It turns out she’s already been betrothed to Zenon, an instructor at the school who she doesn’t like. She wants to use Cid to break off the engagement (I’m surprised Claire hasn’t heard about this. I’d imagined she want to know everything that goes on in Cid’s school life) and he of course wants no part in this romcom route, but gets roped into helping for money (scene here: https://youtu.be/p7Ar4HBZqfs, that’s a good boy). Despite having all eyes on them, Zenon really doesn’t take this relationship seriously and chooses to wait it out. Cid asks Alexia why she doesn’t like the guy seeing as how he’s so perfect, and that for her is the problem. He’s too perfect. Alexia judges people on their flaws which is why she’s okay with Cid. Zenon has no flaws and that means he can’t be trusted (humans are flawed and thus we seek flaws in others to validate our flaws). Two weeks pass and they get into a heated discussion on the train where Cid admits he likes her swordplay which she herself hates. This results in her dumping him (scene here: https://youtu.be/0X7hWrejiRI, there goes your bank Cid). The next day Cid gets arrested by Zenon and the other knights. Apparently, Alexia has gone missing and since he was the last one to see her, guess who’s the prime suspect?
At the start of episode 4 we see Alexia in some underground ruins being held hostage by a mad scientist who wants to use her blood to resurrect Diablo (and Alexia is so indifferent to all of this. She honestly looks bored). Meanwhile, Cid gets the shit beat out of him in his interrogation (they don’t even care if he did it. They just want to beat him up). While he could easily escape and kill the knights, he decides to remain a mob character and take the beating while Claire is pissed to hear her brother got arrested (I was wondering where she was at). Once Cid is let go they continue to watch him and once he returns to his room, Alpha is there to greet him. Alpha informs him that she and the others have been investigating the Cult of Diablo and are aware of their activities in the capital. She says they’re the ones who kidnapped Alexia and are going to stage an all-out assault to rescue her and crush the cult (scene here: https://youtu.be/5Q0Y2iQkMzw). The next night it’s time for a garden party (I see the knights brought the blood) as Shadow Garden makes their move striking multiple areas in the city and Cid gets his revenge on the knights who beat him up (scene here: https://youtu.be/XGa97dskIIQ). Back with Alexia, the mad scientist injects a homunculus with her blood which makes it stronger. The homunculus kills the mad scientist (it’s always the creator who gets killed first) and then frees Alexia as they kind of developed some bond with each other. As Alexia escapes she runs into Zenon who was the mad scientist’s financial backer (son of a gun, she was right about him). The two fight and Zenon gains the upper hand but Cid arrives ready to fight (scene here: https://youtu.be/7hhJBFBtCQ8).
Episode 5 opens up with Cid fighting against Zenon. We then cut to the city where the homunculus is going on a rampage. We see Alexia’s talented and hotter older sister Iris fight against it, but the homunculus keeps healing (if only we had a fire alchemist to keep repeatedly burning it over and over again). Alpha comes in and easily kills it with one strike before taking her leave and dropping Shadow Garden’s name (scene here: https://youtu.be/T-m_M1c_o7M). Back with Cid, he continues to fight Zenon with Alexia watching where the two can’t see that Shadow is Cid (and no, he’s not wearing a mask, he’s just wearing a hood where you can easily see his face. His face, is in the open for everyone to see and yet these two can’t figure out that Cid and Shadow are the same person. My God, does he have the same power as Superman’s hypnotic glasses or something?). Alexia seems to have become smitten by Shadow as she’s entranced by his ordinary swordplay which is similar to hers. After enough playing around, Cid finally kills Zenon in amazing fashion by unleashing an atomic blast which leaves a huge hole in the middle of the city (scene here: https://youtu.be/30sv6EX3dVI). Zenon is defeated, Cid disappears and Iris finds Alexia safe and unharmed. A few days later Alexia and Cid talk behind the school where she wants to make their relationship official but Cid says no and she almost kills him (scene here: https://youtu.be/fBQPfE1gqY4, this guy has a lot to learn about a woman’s heart). As the episode nears its end, a girl from the academy named Sherry comes across a bloody Cid and seems to fall for him (is blood fetish a thing? Because if it is I don’t want to know about it).
Episodes 6-9
In episode 6 someone is going around masquerading as Shadow Garden (that’s gimmick infringement! We’ll sue!). Meanwhile, Cid goes to a department store with his friends where he gets pulled away by one of the workers to take a survey (nooo~). He gets taken to the roof of the building where we find out this apartment store is owned by Gamma a member of Shadow Garden. Out of the original seven he recruited, Gamma was considered the smartest by him. The only downside is she has no athletic abilities and is a little clumsy (it does add to her appeal. Scene here: https://youtu.be/3onstJ1nqjo). She informs Cid about the killer masquerading as Shadow Garden. At first, Cid thinks Alexia is behind these attacks (man, you really have a low opinion of her don’t you?) but once he sees her fighting against the murderers he realizes his mistake. He saves her and goes after the murderers where he kills one and captures the other one (scene here: https://youtu.be/oWdyCngca_0, you know it’s bad when the person who got killed had it easy). The next day, Cid and his friends hand out chocolate to their crushes. Apparently, chocolate is new in this world (thanks in large part to Cid) making it very popular among women. Cid’s friends fail in their pursuit of love (they truly exemplify NPCs) while Cid gives his chocolate to Sherry who we find out is a young reclusive genius. She’s been tasked by Iris to examine an artifact left behind by Zenon. While she senses no hostility from Shadow Garden she still considers them an enemy to the kingdom and has created a small order to investigate both them and Diablo.
We start episode 7 with Sherry tasting the chocolate (in a very sexualized way. Can nobody eat normal in anime anymore?). Meanwhile, Cid finds out that the murderers were brainwashed victims of Diablo. They were members of The Third Children, a vanguard group of Diablo composed of children they kidnapped and brainwashed from orphanages. Shadow Garden couldn’t get much information out of the murderer but they do tell Cid about the First Children, another vanguard of children that maintain their consciousness and one of them is at his school. After this, Cid enters a sword tournament where his first opponent is Rose the student council president where he does a whole bunch of shenanigans and loses, but earns the respect of Rose (scene here: https://youtu.be/HUPgyJv7jKI). After the tournament, he gets approached by Sherry who he completely forgot about (good God man) but she baked him some cookies and the two become friends much to his regret as she’s the daughter of a famous scientist and this will only attract attention to him (scene here: https://youtu.be/SSOFi2xX4pQ). Case in point, Alexia. Sherry told her about their friendship and to say she’s mad would be an understatement (scene here: https://youtu.be/r4LZwMKwFW8, she really does display yandere tendencies). As the episode nears the end, The Third Children attack the school. They set up a barrier that stops others from using magic and hold the students hostage claiming to be Shadow Garden. When one of them attempts to kill Rose, Cid protects her (scene here: https://youtu.be/PLMyhYcQKLY, no doubt wanting to fulfill some side character cliché he’s always wanted to do).
At the start of episode 8 Rose cries for Cid believing he sacrificed his life because he loved her (you’re digging into this way too much lady). The students are all captured and taken as hostages to the auditorium. Once the coast is clear, Cid literally restarts his heart himself and goes out to enjoy this school terrorist event. He snipes people from afar and even saves Sherry a number of times (scene here: https://youtu.be/bvPEJi0Uogw) before escorting her to her dad’s office where she figures out the item they’re using to block everyone’s magic and even knows they plan to use it to gather up enough magic and blow up the school (if nobody was on the school ground I would consider it a win). Sherry says she can neutralize it with the artifact she’s been studying but she’ll need her tools she left in her study. Cid goes to retrieve them killing a few more people along the way (scene here: https://youtu.be/wabuygaCgrQ) and even runs into Nu who tells him that Shadow Garden is in position and ready to move on his order.
In episode 9 Sherry finishes the artifact and uses a secret passageway to make it to the auditorium where all the students are being held. Once she activates the artifact, the barrier nullifying magic vanishes and the students go on the attack (amazing how changing one thing can turn the odds). Shadow Garden also enters the fray and fights the terrorists with their leader getting away and setting the place on fire (scene here: https://youtu.be/tjGvcJSwgO4). Cid follows the leader where we find out he’s Sherry’s foster dad (kind of obvious). In the past, he was a powerful swordsman who made it to the top only to be disappointed at what he saw. He soon got diagnosed with a disease that would kill him and sought the help of Sherry’s mom who was a brilliant woman held down by those around her out of jealousy (male academia). He funded her research and found the artifact that would save his life, but she deemed it was too dangerous and wanted to turn it over to the government. This resulted in him killing Sherry’s mom and taking Sherry in to continue the research. Cid manages to kill him just as Sherry walks in not knowing a thing (scene here: https://youtu.be/agLEOXWLCFM). After this whole incident, Shadow Garden gets blamed for it and Shadow becomes public enemy number one. Not that he cares and will continue to do what needs to be done (even if that means turning the whole world against him). The academy gets shut down and the students get an early summer vacation. Sherry decides to study abroad and vows to kill Shadow one day (you could have brought her into the fold. Would have been a great ally but now she’s going to become a dangerous enemy).
And we’ll stop here for now. Tune in next for the second half of The Eminence in Shadow as well as the finale of the Reincarnation Arc. Thanks for reading and I’ll see next time on Project Nitsuj.