Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! 2nd Season

Enticed by its rumored wealth, Cid Kagenou happily tags along with his sister, Claire, on a trip to the infamous Lawless City. The region is ruled by three monarchs: Yukime, the Spirit Fox; Juggernaut, the Tyrant; and Elisabeth, a dormant progenitor vampire known as the Blood Queen. Hunting Elisabeth down serves as the perfect opportunity for Claire to prove her true mettle. On the other hand, Cid has different objectives—sneaking away from Claire's sight, collecting as much loot as possible, and making Shadow's glorious entrance at the perfect moment.

As Elisabeth's awakening draws near, her subordinate Crimson enacts a treacherous plot, sending the town into a frenzy. Searching for her now-missing brother, Claire finds an unexpected ally in Mary, a vampire hunter, and the pair hurry to the Crimson Tower—the home of the Blood Queen. Meanwhile, Beta and a small team of Shadow Garden recruits also arrive at the Lawless City. As the key players converge on the Crimson Tower, the stage is set for a grand confrontation under the crimson moon.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kagenou, Cid Main

Yamashita, Seiichirou Japanese

Delta ing

Fairouz Ai Japanese

Alpha ing

Seto, Asami Japanese

Beta ing

Minase, Inori Japanese

Kagenou, Claire ing

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Midgar, Alexia ing

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Epsilon ing

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

Gamma ing

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Aurora ing

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Zeta ing

Asai, Ayaka Japanese

Kikushima, Kazufumi Producer

Iizuka, Aya Producer

Maruyama, Hajime Producer

Mizuguchi, Takeo Producer

Reviews

Dec 20, 2023

Mattotsuo

Recommended

"We only have so much time, and so much effort. So I dedicated all of my time and effort to what mattered, and got rid of everything else."

These days for me, I tend to lose interest in a lot of shows after their first season (maybe because it was rushed or maybe it was simply that the concept was good but the progression got stale or boring). We all only have a limited amount of time, some people more than others, so should you spend your own precious time watching this? In short, yes, assuming you have watched season 1 this season builds upon the ... previous season perfectly in its own way. Usually I will give every season a chance and just stop watching it if I lose interest, however for me the Eminence in Shadow season 2 was just as fun to watch as season 1.

Does it deliver on animation?
Yes

Does it deliver on world building and story progression?
Yes

Would I watch any of it on the plane ride while the 10 is sitting diagonally behind me?
No...

Everyone's sense of humor is different, so some people will enjoy the cringy things Cid does and others might find it repulsive. However in my opinion the execution of the stereotypical events and tropes are done in a way that feels fresh and enjoyable especially when compared to many other shows in the genre. Not only that, but whenever I watch an episode, it doesn't feel like there are excessive wastes of time even during the filler episode.

One of the things I was most surprised about was that the animation remained consistently clean and story pacing remained at a good speed like in season 1. A lot of series tend to fall off because they stray from the art style or pacing from the first season (not gonna name any names... but a certain isekai to do with a shield), but this series remained very true to the source material. Barely any content was cut and some scenes were only modified slightly. In fact, one of the biggest deviations from the source material was simply that a fight was supposed to seem closer but anime-Cid beat them faster and easier. All in all, this was one of the main things that I think makes it worth watching.

Something to note however is that characters that get introduced are almost always supposed to parallel a cliche, which I think are quite funny and enjoyable to watch but maybe some people might not agree as much with me. For example, I might find the Soopah Eleeto Ay jent John Smith to be funny but another person might just find him cringy. From me and my friends' experience, it is easy to enjoy the series if you try not to take any of it too seriously.

The biggest thing I could see people not enjoying the series for would be that it often expects you to just accept that some big misunderstandings will never be resolved. If you aren't able to find a way to still enjoy it with that in mind, by all means don't continue with the series as it would just not be for you. There are many other shows out there that might appeal to you better, but, if you are able to get over it then that issue won't matter. In fact, I think being able to accept that misunderstandings are at the core of the series will allow you to enjoy the series even more.

If I were to rate each aspect of the show out of 10, I would probably give the story a 9, characters 9, art/animation 9, sound 10, and enjoyment 10 (tbh 11). To explain the rating for sound, I just think rarely do I ever think of a show and think of the background from a good scene rather than the op/ed (FYI the piece I am thinking of is called In Time of War).

Now, the time to watch Eminence in Shadow is ripe. We are out of time... The frenzy has begun.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 28, 2024

verbinflection

Mixed Feelings

'The Eminence in Shadow' is a comedy subversion of a fantasy adventure, where the joke is that the hero of the story doesn't understand what's happening and doesn't take it seriously. It's complicated without being clever, and it proves that irony and self-awareness are not substitutes for meaningful conflicts, character growth, or properly timed punch lines. By season two, any given episode was barely holding my attention long enough to deliver its payload of mildly enjoyable action-comedy fan service.

I'm told you need a very high IQ to understand 'Rick and Morty'. Whether that's true or not, you do need a remarkably high degree of media ... literacy to understand what 'The Eminence in Shadow' was trying to achieve. Cid, a Japanese teenager, is obsessed with acquiring the power of a fantasy anime protagonist. Coincidentally, Cid dies, gets reincarnated in a quasi-medieval world, and promptly acquires unlimited magical power, just like in a fantasy anime. At that point, Cid decides to devote his second life to making that world conform even more closely to fantasy tropes by re-enacting his favourite scenes from anime. For example, he wants to battle a demon cult alongside a harem of busty ninjas, so he invents a demon cult and recruits a gaggle of busty ninjas to cosplay with him. Unbeknownst to Cid, the busty ninjas fall for all of his ridiculous lies. Also unbeknownst to Cid, all of his ridiculous lies are coincidentally accurate, right down to the demon cult's made-up name. Thus, Cid alone somehow continues to misinterpret as cosplay the battle he started against the demon cult he thinks he invented, even as his over-the-top finishing moves level city blocks, killing hundreds.

It's a bafflingly complicated premise for a fairly generic fantasy story. That is, if we ignore the protagonist's internal monologue, if we adopt any other character's point of view, the events of the plot play out as one would expect in a typical fantasy world, complete with an overpowered main character. He is, in fact, the shadowy leader of a powerful faction of busty ninjas battling a demon cult, so his actions make sense on a surface level. His monologuing merely wraps them in layers of spurious irony: no one else knows that he's lying, but he doesn't know that his lies are true. It's like wearing a clown costume under your regular clothes so no one ever sees it. Actually, it's even more pointless than that: the possibility of a secret being exposed can create tension, but in this case, the secret can never be exposed, because the secret makes no sense.

For the record, this is not a parody of fantasy: it is not exaggerating genre tropes. Cid's over-the-top finishing moves would hardly look out of place in 'Sword Art Online'. It's certainly a comedy subversion of fantasy, because of course we don't expect a fantasy hero to be delusional and stupid. Unfortunately, as a fantasy adventure comedy, 'The Eminence in Shadow' is hampered precisely by its subversive premise: again, the one thing that sets it apart from conventional fantasy is that the main character doesn't understand what's happening and doesn't take it seriously. That does set up a lot of jokes, or a lot of repetitions of the same joke, but it also makes it difficult to get invested in the plot. That's forgivable in a straight comedy: the girls from 'Survival Game Club' can run over elderly Australians in a truck, and all is forgotten by the next episode. But 'The Eminence in Shadow' is not exempt from earning our investment in the plot, both because the joke relies on juxtaposing a serious story with a ridiculous hero and because the rather dry business of the plot takes up so much of the screen time.

Like 'Overlord', it suffers most from its unrelatable protagonist, who is never allowed to learn anything or grow as a person because it would spoil the joke. After two seasons, Cid remains a mentally disturbed teenager with no interest in meeting girls or making friends, narcissistic to the point of being delusional and armed with overwhelming firepower: a school shooter in a wizard hat. Also like 'Overlord', the ing cast of typical fantasy characters is far more interesting simply for being sincere, but they're given too little attention and too little respect. When a beautiful princess falls for the school shooter, she becomes the butt of the joke because he's not taking it seriously.

You can reverse-engineer a better fantasy series by leaving out a layer or two of irony. Here's one: a self-aware protagonist is trying not to be the main character, but he can't resist interfering with the plot; in the process, he inadvertently wins the heart of a beautiful princess, making him the main character after all. Fine. So why make him delusional? How does that help? If he knew what was happening and took it seriously, it would raise the stakes. Now what if we gave him a relatable motivation to interfere with the plot, instead of a weird pop culture obsession? Maybe he could even express a healthy interest in beautiful princesses. Oh, wait: I just wrote 'Trapped in a Dating Sim'.

Or how about this: a genre-savvy protagonist winds up in a typical fantasy world, where he exploits common tropes to predict the tactics of a typical fantasy villain, making him uniquely qualified to be the hero. Fine. So why make him a narcissist? It's easier to get invested when the hero actually cares about saving the world. Now what if his over-the-top finishing moves were justified by the extraordinary threat? Maybe the villain also knows how to exploit common tropes. Oh, wait: I just wrote 'Cautious Hero'.

Here it is without the villain: an excitable protagonist recruits a harem of busty ninjas to battle a non-existent threat and has to redirect them to solving mundane problems. The villagers keep getting sick? Clearly, the river is infected with demonic parasites: have the busty ninjas build a water treatment plant. Take the fight against demonic corruption straight to city hall: have a busty ninja run for public office; land a finishing move on wasteful spending. Fine, now it's a satire. I don't know if that series exists already ('KamiKatsu', perhaps), but the point is, practically any change toward greater sincerity would be an improvement. I will not wear the clown costume! Take me anywhere else, from 'The Dungeon of Black Company' to 'The Last Dungeon Boonies'.

Truthfully, if we take away its self-awareness, if we decline to be impressed by its nesting doll of irony, what is left of 'The Eminence in Shadow'? Apart from the hero, the cast comprises, firstly, the fan service: two dozen barely developed female characters whose purpose is to fawn over Cid, though again not to the point that it can be called a parody, if indeed the sexless harem trope its of parody; and, secondly, the blood bags: however many faceless male minions any given action scene requires to supply the school shooter with targets. In two seasons, I detected no meaningful conflicts. The jiggly ninjas are never in danger, so the action scenes are unexciting, even when Cid lands an extra-flashy finisher on an extra-large blood bag. Like 'Overlord', his opponents are the underdogs, making his casual brutality appear downright tacky.

The character growth is minimal. Cid is never allowed to change, and his delusional monologuing drags out many scenes, leaving too little time to develop even one dozen jiggly ninjas. On top of that, through the monologuing, the series effectively tells us not to get invested in the ing cast, by making them the butt of the joke. As for the jokes, their execution is mostly dissatisfying, Cid's intentional loss in the season one tournament being a clear example. The concept is fine: he's trying not to be the main character, so he has to lose his match, but he can't resist trying out every one of his lovingly rehearsed death animations. Unfortunately, his non-stop monologuing spoils the punch line, and it's the same animation each time, and it goes on much too long. By season two, the comedy often feels perfunctory: Cid does something stupid for a stupid reason; the harem misinterprets that as a Machiavellian scheme, making them look stupid; and it all works out anyway because of a blatant plot contrivance.

Most episodes are mildly enjoyable, delivering competent action-comedy fan service sprinkled with general anime weirdness. It's not particularly outrageous stuff; once again, if the goal was to parody either fantasy, harem romance, or anime in general, then it didn't go far enough. In a season with 'Ragna Crimson', Cid the school shooter looks downright tame. At least put the jiggly ninjas in danger! The paradox of general anime weirdness is that it always appears more outrageous in a story that takes itself more seriously. 'Future Diary' shot up several schools, and it never stopped being funny. Indeed, 'Survival Game Club', in addition to being much funnier than 'The Eminence in Shadow', also somehow takes itself more seriously and appears more outrageous for it.

'The Eminence in Shadow' does fill a need: it is the perfect fantasy series for people who are embarrassed about enjoying fantasy. (Compare 'KonoSuba', the perfect fantasy series for people who hate fantasy.) You get to watch an overpowered main character battle a demon cult alongside a harem of busty ninjas, complete with screen-rattling finishers, Japanglish one-liners, and hypnotizing jiggles — and if anyone breaks into your house and accuses you of enjoying fantasy, you can tell him no, it's bad and you hate it, but this one is bad on purpose: it's a deconstruction of the genre, a commentary on the audience. When I said "Delta is best girl," I was being ironic! Mystify your intruder with semiotics, and he may never suspect that you secretly do enjoy women's breasts.

Or you can just tell him to leave. It is possible to enjoy genre fiction without layers of ironic detachment: I'm told Gladstone enjoyed 'Treasure Island' (although he might have drawn the line at 'Future Diary'). Of course the fantasy genre has its well-documented foibles. It has been two centuries since Carlyle onished the ordinary poet, forever seeking in external circumstances, in some past, distant, conventional heroic world, the help which can be found only in himself. And how far have the critical sciences advanced in that time? What novel insights do they offer us? "OP MC! Power fantasy! Wish fulfillment!" Stop breaking into my house. None of that is notable. Heroic fiction predates written language: Achilles was overpowered. 'Don Quixote' parodied heroic fiction in 1605. Dante wrote a self-insert isekai during the actual middle ages. Two centuries ago, every title was a paragraph long. There is nothing new under the sun, including lazy criticism. You can make any story sound stupid by describing it in a stupid way; that tells us nothing about the story, although it does tell us something about the critic. In every case, it is the execution that counts, and not a plot synopsis.

In short, the fantasy genre was not a problem in need of solving. Like any other genre, it has its tropes and its conventions. Think of them as writing prompts: channels for an author's creativity, rather than limitations on it. They guide the audience, too. Tell us that a Japanese teenager has been reincarnated as the demon lord's step-sister's panties, and we understand immediately: we're settling in for the real story, about being true to your harem of busty feral wolf-girls, something we can all relate to.

The most derided tropes can serve a story well. I may be the only one who enjoyed it, but let me point out that 'Isekai Cheat Skill' has an excellent theme: a good-natured boy with low self-esteem from being kicked around all his life has to learn to let himself be happy when things take a turn for the better. That's why he doesn't have to earn his overpowered abilities: because it serves the story to make him feel like he's cheating. Now tell me: why is Cid overpowered? What narrative purpose does that serve? Or is it enough that the series has drawn our attention to the mere existence of the trope?

I do understand what 'The Eminence in Shadow' was trying to achieve; I just don't care enough about tropes to care about subverting them. I care about meaningful conflicts and character growth, but I didn't get that. I'll settle for well-crafted jokes with a side of general anime weirdness, but I didn't really get that either. In the end, what I got was an alibi for enjoying genre fiction, which is one thing I didn't need two seasons of. It's an overcomplicated, relentlessly self-indulgent fantasy series from which a patient viewer may be able to extract a kernel of mildly enjoyable action-comedy fan service.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 20, 2023

Ionliosite2

Not Recommended

The last time I complained about this series I said that if this was a parody, it was a terrible one, but after analyzing it and talking to other people I have to come to a simple conclusion, Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! is not a parody, the novel is an actual work that uses isekai tropes in a completely unhinged way, the only reason why you hear the series is a parody is because people read the manga version, which is almost like a parody of the series and get to the conclusion that this series is a parody when it isn’t. Now, does ... the series not being a parody suddenly makes it better? The answer is still a no, a bad isekai where the world bends over in favor of the MC for him to be the best ever to have ever existed is not a good series by any means.

There’s not much to say for this season that I didn’t say for previous one, I mean, did the series actually change at all? No, the jokes are still repetitive to the point that, even if you were to find one joke funny, it would be so overused that it would make you roll your eyes after the 10th time it’s used. Let’s take for an example the first couple of episodes, where half of Cid’s lines were repeating the same phrase over and over and over again, and apparently that’s what makes a joke in this series.

This season there was even an entire arc built on fake drama, I can’t even think why someone thought this was a good idea, it was as smart as someone asking “if there’s poverty, why don’t they print more bills?”, which is almost the basis of the entire arc. Oh, and that arc is followed by an original episode obviously for the sole purpose of promoting the gacha game, so instead of actually doing something with Shadow Garden, they just thrown them in swimsuits, because actually creating a character out of these pieces of cardboard with boobs would be too much work.

The battles of course are still as uninteresting as ever, because as the first arc showed, the MC is so strong that even one of the monarchs of the Lawless City, who was strong enough to actually fight against Shadow Garden, was still easily defeated by him. How is he so strong? Because he is the protagonist of an isekai series where the world bends over in favor of the MC to get maximum power fantasy points for those self-inserting as him. Actually, that is the entire joke of the series, that whatever delusion the MC has is actually true, and this problem goes all the way back to season 1. And don’t worry about animation, it looks about the same as it did in season one, which is mediocre but nothing too bad.

How this shit is popular or considered good at all is something I will never comprehend, I always compared it to Overlord as it has pretty much all the same issues that one has, and while I guess that is good for some people, for me it means that the series belongs in a trash bin.

Thank you for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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