Isekai Trash Worth Treasuring | The Eminence in Shadow 

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I think the reason Cid doesn't realise it's all real is because he genuinely does not care whether it is real or not, dude's about one step off of being an actual psychopath.

The man sat with his back to an open window for hours, saying the same line, on a chance one of his associates would turn up and be impressed he sensed their presence with his back turned and it worked.

I think the quote "literally gaslighting everyone including himself" is the perfect way to describe this anime

I love how the manga shows the absolute calculated planning that goes into even the stupidest little mob moments, like how he has to bow at an angle of EXACTLY 90 degrees in order to make the mathematically cringiest love confession to Alexia.

It was so funny when the bad guys were discussing if Mundane Mann might be part of Shadow Garden and one of the guys was just like: "No way. He's a guy."

The first time I heard "I am Atomic" I almost suffocated from laughter, never in my life have I watched something that is both so fucking ridiculous and so epic at the same time

Cid's the kind of guy who'd genuinely say "I know you're here, you can stop hiding" whenever he enters an empty room, AND IT'S AWESOME

I wish I had friends that I believed loved me enough to perpetuate and set up a conspiracy about a demon cult complete with snuff film actors whenever we hang out. Cid is truly loved.

Honestly, one of my favorite early gags/character building moments is when Beta and Epsilon are having their oppai-off, the camera immediately tells you how normal and unremarkable this is by ignoring them in favor of some randos playing with a cat.

"Run? Who's running? Where? AND WHY?!" I love Cid so much, down to my being pretty sure his Shadow outfit is a mashup between Kirito and Lelouche on purpose.

I'd like to point out, as the anime really didn't cover this, that part of the reason why Cid still believes it's all an elaborate LARP is that he thinks he's become unable to tell apart his delusions from reality, so whenever he sees or hears something "confirming" that his bullshit was actually on the mark, he dismisses it as his being delusional. He simply thinks he's both the type of person who'd end up like that, and self-aware enough to recognize it and ignore it.

"Perfect genre awareness, and total situational ignorance" perfectly describes it

I may or may not have called it "Eminem in Shadow" due to the strong lyricism of the protagonist.

I think the "playing Moonlight Sonata in the sewer scene" is when this series goes from "dumb fun trash" to "dumb fun god damn masterpiece." Rose turns from a secondary character who's main role is comedy to being someone I was so invested in that I would genuinely watch a show where she is the protagonist. When he main arc gets rounded off in the Light Novel I totally forgot that what I was reading was supposed to be a dumb fun parody series because it was rounded out in the most genuinely satisfying and brilliant way. As soon as the "secondary protagonist" role switched to Rose it's like Aizawa really hit his stride and forgot that he was supposed to writing a dumb power fantasy

The greatest writing advice I've ever received: "If your series is a comedy, then your protagonist is a comedian, whether he knows it or not."

A good friend will LARP with you but it takes a truly great one to hire actors that are totally okay with being murdered to play the bad guys.

Can we have a moment of applause for the crowbars? They're what really made that last episode perfect. Like a metaphor for situational awareness that rivals the anime itself.

The fact that he doesn't realize his adlibs are real while just trying to be a cool shadow monarch adds so much more comedy than if it was played straight and is a major reason its so memorable and good

The dub for this show is also pretty funny not just because most of the actors are very good and play up the funny bits but also because Cid's vo refuses to change his pitch much at all even as a baby or child which i think is hilarious

I specifically remember him throwing a dagger at the map for the planned rescue and missing his target; the dagger lands in a random area where nothing their intel gathered points to. Coincidentally this turns out to be the correct location of the "secret tunnel" where his sister is being held captive.

The Joke about Cid not realizing his own conspiracy is real reminds me of the running joke in King of the Hill with Dale, the conspiracy nut who doesn't see the one actual obvious conspiracy before him of his wife cheating with John Redcorn. It's absurd and stupid. And I love it.

Two things: 1) I always assumed that Cid didn't take any of the hints of the Cult of Diabolos really existing seriously because he's aware that he's an End Stage Chunibyo and thus is aware that he's clinically insane. If this is true, then it stands to reason why he'll dismiss any evidence that the Cult he thought he invented YEARS before is real and he's fighting it at every step. "I'm just an insane chunibyo, of course I'll be hearing and seeing these things because they just fall in line with my fantasies, thus they're not real" is something you could expect from someone with THIS amount of trope awareness. In essence he's applying real world logic to fantasy land and failing to understand that fantasy land is ruled by chunibyo logic. 2) Can we talk about how he is pretty proud of "The Scream" painting he found on a raid? I thought he got it offscreen, but no. You can see it RIGHT THERE LEANING ON THE BOX WITH THE BOOZE OF THE CULT. That painting is in his possession longer than Alpha on her Elf form. I watched this anime in its entirety TWICE and even if small clips I can find new and exciting uses for the whole buffalo.

I do love how he basically tries to be the Batman in his first life and realizes “prep-time” isn’t a good enough super-power, so he reincarnates and is literally able to live as Batman, but with magic….

Alpha commands the 7 Shades to never stand out to avoid being revealed as SG members. Gamma: *builds the statue of Shadow and 7 Shades in Mitsugoshi company* at 6:16

It bears repeating that Cid is a man so committed to the bit he jumped in front of a truck on purpose to get isekai'd. An absolute madlad Edit: The good people of the comments let me know im mistaken and that he actually banged his head so hard while trying to develop magic powers that he stumbled in front of the truck, thinking the headlights were his powers manifesting. That's still some madlad energy

"I gotta poop" gotta be the most relatable anime quote.

Cid is the physical embodiment of what makes a villain a SUPER one. PRESENTATION!

They don't know that he doesn't know and assume he's got it all figured out. Otherwise known as the Ainz Ooal Gown scenario, and oh gosh I love it every time it gets used.

The author really became the Eminence in Shadow when writing this. The genre? Background character A. The story itself? A multi-layered harem isekai power fantasy that's able to juggle multiple characters and their development while also parodying the very thing it is. This entire story is just him hiding his true writing skills under the guise of a generic isekai.

I love the secret sauce of of Eminence Everyone out there having thier entire kingdoms and worldviews shattered, being reduced to a literal puddle of tears and Cids just having a sociopathic goof. It's every RPG players weird little fantasy and it's a heckin great time

A hilarious detail I caught at the end of the series is when the credits roll on the final episode while the episode continues. Right after Rose has her name changed to 666, the credits pop up on screen and now her character's name is changed to 666 in said credits. I love how it plays right into her character development and how she truly was stripped of her name.

I remember the first time I saw the "I am Atomic" I was a bit "bruh thats dumb" but I was vibing with the series. But on the the last battle that he faked it, I saw myself craving for him to do that...... did I become the cringe?

The piano episode is so perfect, they spend all the time calling the sewers the labyrinth, then they show you the girls talking in stairs for the longest time, implying the place is found very deep beneath the city but you don’t pay attention to that cuz it just seems like another plot exposition to lower costs, then the piano part happens and now you are thinking how many floors he draw it trough a F*** labyrinth just to have that moment and you see the feathers flying and not longer is a edgy scene from any other isekai cuz now you are also thinking about he killing 1000 pigeons and blowing the feathers trough a smoke machine or something just in the name of coolness

Cid literally just doesn't care about the plot in his own show 😭

I honestly love that there are so many characters in this story that could pass as the MC in their own story. Alpha, Aurora, Rose, Sherry, Claire, etc. All a bunch of MC-worthy characters stuck in a world where their thunder is taken by an isekaied psychopath

I love how everyone working on the project got the joke and ran away with it Episode 20 was a throwaway chapter in the novel and manga, but the show expanded it into the thematic climax of Cids existence

“Chekkumeito-da, Athiest-tachi!” is probably the weebiest thing I’ve ever heard, and I will cherish it forever. 🥰🥰🥰

I mean cid literally explicitly said he took everything out of himself and analyzed coldly what really was important. And chose a single thing he really cared about. It was not love Not responsability Nor honor either Not good or evil My dude decided that being a mastermind was the truly important thing in life. He's megamind.

I liked how in the final episode, when Iris told him to not run, he was actually OFFENDED.

I am fascinated by the tech level in this anime. Most isekai just do the genetic medical European fantasy. It's a nice change of pace for it to be an industrialized pre electric civilization. I can't help but wonder how much of this is the influence of Shadow Garden. It would be rather fitting if Cid's actions changed the world on such a level. That said three years is a rather short time frame to rebuild the city like that. You mentioned guns, but the first one we saw was used by a random bandit against Cid before he met Alpha, and by extension Eta. That means they already had firearms. An interesting part is that this world's magic system doesn't like guns. Dark knights are effectively bullet proof if they have their guard up. Only a magic infused sword can harm them unless you catch them with their guard down or when they can't use their magic. If you tried to infuse a bullet with magic it would dissipate before it hit it's target. Granted that only applies to dark knights, regular civilians are just as squishy as the rest of us.

This one was winking so hard at its chuuni/power fantasy inspirations that the wink vibrations took it straight through the cringe barrier to a new but incredibly funny dimension. A dimension not of sight or of sound but of mind-blowing. Cannot wait for the second season.

Honestly, "The Eminence in Shadow" was just a fun anime for me at first. Its story was ordinary, and also many of the events and episodes had nothing to do with a story, and sometimes I felt that the anime had no specific story in the first place. But with the last a few episodes, especially the last episode, the level of the anime changed completely and became a really good anime, and even the fight that appeared at the end was amazing. That's why I always say: "Don't judge any anime if you haven't watched it to the end."

This was an anime that I was like "oh yeah, im going to hate this after like 5 episodes and drop it" and then here I am 20 episodes in wondering when the season 2 is coming out. It was fun.

In classic Mother's Basement fashion, I started this video, paused it, then watched the entire anime before finishing it. Now I've got this piano song stuck in my head...

Honestly, a lot of people say that this anime is "so bad it's good" or "the worst show I can't stop watching" and all I can think is, "why do people say this anime is bad?" It has great animation, a great soundtrack, interesting, likable, and well written and characterized characters, great pacing, good comedy, and all around good concept, writing, execution. Personally, when I ask people why they think Eminence in Shadow is bad, almost all of them say "it's an edgy isekai power fantasy". It may just be me, but since when does that equate to an anime being bad by default? Yeah it's edgy and cringy, but this show proves that can be done right. Same thing with the fact that it's a power fantasy isekai. It just goes to show you can't lump everything into one category. I'm not saying this anime is legendary or a classic or anything (because it does have some issues) , but I just don't agree that Eminence in Shadow is a bad anime. I think this video was well constructed and, while I don't agree with everything, I completely agree with the overall point

The fact Cid still somehow doesn't realise his bullshitting is based on real/historical fact really is one of the anime's comedic strengths. But I'd never really thought about how it means that Shadow Garden meanwhile is doing most of the plot heavy-lifting to keep dramatic stakes going. Like, I _knew_ they did, but it didn't completely register to me. And that is yet another strength, perhaps giving _everyone but the protagonist_ more relevance to the story.

The Eminence in Shadow is to Isekai, like how One Punch Man is to Shounen Action. They do their genre well while satirizing it.

Just binged the whole show because of this video. I agree with a lot of the points you made, Jeff. The world really does feel lived in, populated by characters with agency and motivations all their own. A small but notable example of this that you didn't mention was of the King (Iris's Dad). Like, he gets mentioned and named dropped several times throughout every arc and both his daughters are prominent. Yet that whole time, he gets brushed off as being "hands-off" in policy, as painted by said daughters. It seemed like a lazy excuse at the time. But when the King shows up with a speaking line of himself for the first time, his whole implied characterization is turned on its head. He is a level headed maintainer of peace and security for his people rather than a slave of the status quo; Iris is the one painted as immature for impulsive nature rather than him for his inaction. The lazy excuse, as with all the other tropes in Eminence, was actually just a way to take the audience's expectations to make a framework it later subverts to fantastic multi-faceted effect. And it doesn't just add to the characters, it adds a ton to the world as well. That one moment for me defined the shape of the board every piece was playing on on a global scale, which was so important to do given that final arc's turn towards international politics. But anyway, that's enough rambling for me. Thanks for the recc, I would never have given this show a chance if not for this video. Great work as always.

This is not a Harem Anime, it isn't even a Romance. Because Cid is already in a committed relationship with The Bit. He's a very dedicated partner Edit: I almost forgot the best part of this story, there's like a dozen panels in the manga where after Cid does or says something stupidly edgy, deeply fucked up, or just deeply stupid, the Narrator looks us in the eye and goes [Yes, this is our protagonist]

In based there is cringe, in cringe there is based. In Cid Kagenou, they are one and the same

Yeah Cid's always come off as 1 step away from being a Psychopath. Especially when he's more concerned about experimenting on this weird creature he found after the bandit attack than showing concern for what it becomes. Also "I AM ATOMIC" is both one of the funniest and coolest things I think I've ever seen in an isekai.

as Sun Tsu once said "I am cringe... and that is based."

I marathoned this show over the past week just to be ready for this video. I genuinely cannot believe I slept on this series, it's awesome.

This legitimately was one of the funnest experiences I have had with anime in recent memory. With the 20+ anime I watched the last two seasons, nothing made me look forward to the next week like this. I am so glad it came out when it did, because I was personally super disappointed by Demon King Academy season 2. For some reason season 2 just didn't hit at all with me. Despite loving season 1.

The frenzy has begun. The moon is red. We are out of time

the way i'm forever going to remember this show is basically the thought process i have every time it comes up; "that one mobile game crunchyroll advertised to hell but didn't actually have the streaming rights to, also what the hell is hidive"

I started Eminence in Shadow with my partner, and it was just us constantly losing it over how over the top and played so straight the story is, and for some god forsaken reason it is somehow really enjoyable and decent writing

What surprises me the most ... is that this is one of the Only Isekai Anime where the MC doesn't have a unique special bullshit power what so ever. - His Strength, Skills and Magic? Diligent training. - Slime Suit? Diligent Research and Development. - His Harem? Most of it is because of Alpha, actually. - All the cool shit around him? The Diligent Work, from the girls. - The Power to turn bullshit into reality? Isn't actually rarer to find a story where the MC talks about something and it doesn't happen?

Cid constantly goes "Doing this is too norm... What should I do instead? Ahhh yes! They will never expect that! Applaud for my performance!"... He is essentially a lead performer at night, background character at day. It contrasts a double life considerably well and is done well. You can see him constantly thinking about this "Performance" during both day and night. To him, it's all about the performance... until he finds someone good enough to fight him, in which case he wants to have some fun. It's boring being the strongest, you see? This anime is very good.

I feel like Mundanne Man is the best metaphore about this show itself. It's like your Mundanne isekai but.. HOLD ON! IS IT REALLY? type of feeling

Another video justifying my trash taste in anime. Beautiful

I kinna feel like the whole unaware bit is making the protag kun infinitely more likeable. Like, it doesn't matter if he knows whats going on or not, he puts his best effort into any role that comes his way, he is so into it, it makes it really fun to watch xD

The real kicker for me is that Cid’s subordinates are all what “competent” Isekai protagonists are. They are either combatively unmatched or using other world knowledge to make their lives amazing-kind of the two main sub-genres of Isekai right there. Heck, Alpha is *literally* doing what Cid is *pretending* to do. But Cid isn’t interested in being a “competent” Isekai protag. He’s not even interested in the literal tsunami of consenting waifus crashing into him. Dude’s number one priority is his Live Action Roleplay. On one hand, that’s hilarious unto itself. On the other, this show has enough weird quality where I could see all that being a character arc or big plot point down the line.

I think for the plot hole that makes more sense (headcanon) is that these two groups existed without their current names, Cid adlibed so hard that both groups were like “hey that goes hard” and adopted it.

I never thought about how well TEiS builds its characters in the background until you mentioned it with claire and rose. Excellent analysis and it has given me even more appreciation for the show.

UwU All hail the man who doesn’t even know he has a statue of himself engraved.

You forgot to mention that, unlike most of the "self-insert loser turns hero" Isekai MCs out there, Cid put in a LOT of effort to become OP. That's why he's a great character that we can truly support despite being cringe as fuck.

I unironically love the world development in this story. Even if you look at it outside the lens of "it's all due to the MC's will" it doesn't feel that artificial. Also like the "mystery" behind the girls as well. And Iris' personality

The Anime Pope has now blessed the most important anime out there, Haruhi be praised. I read this manga back when it first started, and it's one of the few pieces of written media that has made me laugh out loud, and at times laugh so much it hurts. So seeing it got the adaptation it deserves is amazing. And for our Anime Pope to preach it's good word to others is even better, so others may be inspired by it.

Funny how you mention Claire getting more spotlight, since she's the main focus of the next arc in Season 2.

This was the final push I needed to demand my friend watch this with me. We just got to 'I am atomic' tonight and I don't think I've laughed this much at an anime in a long time. Thank you for your continued trash sommelier service.

This anime is the absolute perfect "turn off your brain and enjoy the epicness" series. It just caters and feeds off of young adults' power fantasy and chuuni vibes so much and I love it.

Just reminding me that I need to binge this entire show after watching it week to week. I was absolutely obsessed with this one as it was airing specifically because it knows exactly what it is and revels in it.

My favorite boy from the entire season was him trying out like a 100 different ways to rag doll himself during the school tournament

I had to think about a by now legendary quote from Megamind while watching this anime: "Oh... you are a villain. But not a super one." - "What's the difference?" - "PRESENTATION!" I think Cid has that point trained up to a T and hits his "role" mostly spot on.

With the parallels it seems one could draw between this series, and Trails (using worldbuilding and character writing in tandem to give a sense of immersion, plus what some would call Anime Bullshit (TM), demon pills being a plot point), it's no surprise I adore both. I would also say the anime brings some stuff to the table that the LN outright lacks, and am quite happy with the adaptation. Thanks for the video!!

And add into this unholy mix of seriousness and goofiness the dulcet tunes of Kenichiro Suehiro, the man who made the OST of Re: Zero, and BOY. 👌 Honestly, this is one of those ultra rare cases where the anime version far outclasses the source material. Take for example the now classic legendary cringe moment of I AM ATOMIC. In the novel it's impactful and cool (it is narrated from Alexia's perspective, and she is genuinely admiring Shadow at that moment), but the anime's collage of image, sound and Seichiro Yamashita's stellar delivery dial the whole thing over 9000. It's simply so trashy that it's so good. Like Cid's dedication to roleplaying, THAT is commitment.

It is unbelievable how few good parodies function as extreme and loving versions of the best a genre has to offer.

I've been reading the manga for this and even just the clips shown here make me want to watch the show cuz its clear theres even MORE insanity packed into the anime Cid being simulateously the Most and Least genre savy person in his isekai world is a feat of character writing I will never get over, its so good

Geaff. Can you make a video about the most anime that made you cry? I really want to know how many anime could make you cry, honestly.

Loved the references and amount of detail you went trought to point out all of them.

The train fight was actually anime original. The source has them fight for a few moments in the arena. But the anime stretched it into a season ender.

This was definitely my favorite series of the season. I miss having something to look forward to on Wednesdays.

Damnit I've seen and read the LN and anime twice and I didn't pick up that Cid used loot from cult to come up his starting Diablo story, lol you've made me consider a 3rd reading to see if there's anything else I've missed... This story shouldn't have this much depth to it...

That scene in the final fight where he says “NAZEEEEEE!!!!” Literally gave me goosebumps lol. I was wearing headphones at the time too, good shit.

Thank you for putting words to why I enjoy this anime so much. It pulls off all the worst tropes in anime and I loved every second of it. It’s so self aware that it may have achieved enlightenment! Sure, Cid is unquestionably a psychopath, and I love this story. Don’t know if anyone can ever put themselves in Cid’s shoes, but this also feels just perfect

This doesn't have anything to do with this video (I haven't watched it yet), but I just wanted to say THANK YOU for pushing me to read Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. It was life-changingly good and I will never forget it. Ok, now to watch this video!

10:35 And it's important to mention that now the kingdom economics is dependant of Mitsugoshi. If they wanted, they could vanish and make the entire economy collapse.

Cid is so committed to his bit that it's hard to tell what he actually knows, what he thinks he knows, and what he's just cluelessly running with. There are parts of the story that even he couldn't believe are set up by Shadow Garden, like the stuff with the witch and the research center, or the takeover of his school. It's clear, to me at least, that he does know somethings about the stuff that is going on. Maybe even that the cult is actually real. But it doesn't really matter because fighting them is not his motivation, being cool and mysterious is. At no point will he ever admit to his ignorance, and the girls of Shadow Garden think so highly of him that there's no way anyone could convince them that he's been playing this whole time. This isn't the kind of story where that sort of dramatic reveal would make sense. Honestly it would be more amusing if at the very climax of the story, Shadow turns up at Shadow Garden HQ and starts immediately organizing the girls for the final battle, showing once and for all that no actually he knew everything the whole time, and it was us, the audience, that was the ultimate target of the gaslighting from the beginning.

Glad you did an episode on this. Thought it was fairly funny and well animated.

I am Atomic is the hardest move I've seen.

He is the embodiment of 'I am a nuke, your argument is invalid'.

I love this video so much Thank you for letting me watch an in depth analysis of my favorite anime

Can we just talk about how the first monologue/battle soliloquy he has is how a crowbar is more useful as a weapon when you use it... as a crowbar

I saw it from the Gigguk video review on it. Watched the entire season in a day. I was so unexpectedly impressed with the world building and main story. It is a fantastic masterpiece

Cid was a guy so focused on gaining magical power to withstand a nuclear bomb, that he went into the mountains headbutting trees until he had a concussion, after which he jumps in front of a truck because its headlights looked like the source of magic or something to him. Needless to say I find it completely believable that he wouldn't catch on to the cult of diablos lol

When you started talking about the magic + technology, I genuinely got chills up my spine, because most just use tech to get bigger explosions, but I love the magic actually being used to fuel the tech, like the circuit board thing you showed.

Perhaps the most genius isekai ever thought of to date. Very much looking forward to season 2 this fall!

As Megamind once said the different between a good villain and a bad villain is PRESENTATION!