Introduction
For as long as he can remember, Minoru Kagenou has been fixated on becoming as strong as possible, which has led him to undertake all kinds of rigorous training. This wish, however, does not stem from a desire to be recognized by others; rather, Minoru does everything he can to blend in with the crowd. So, while pretending to be a completely average student during the day, he arms himself with a crowbar and ruthlessly thrashes local biker gangs at night. Yet when Minoru finds himself in a truck accident, his ambitions seemingly come to a sudden end. In his final moments, he laments his powerlessness—no matter how much he trained, there was nothing he could do to overcome his human limitations.
But instead of dying, Minoru reawakens as Cid, the second child of the noble Kagenou family, in another world—one where magic is commonplace. With the power he so desired finally within his grasp, he dons the moniker "Shadow" and establishes Shadow Garden: a group whose sole purpose is to combat the enigmatic Cult of Diablos, an organization born from Cid's imagination. However, as Shadow Garden grows in both membership and influence, it becomes increasingly apparent that the Cult of Diablos is not as fictional as Cid had intended.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Muruyono
•Starting from the characterization
There is not a single admirable character in this Anime, they all seem like just a lump of meat or a punching bag for the MC, there is no emotional bond that can be felt and the characters who pretend to be weak but are clearly depicted as strong at the same time look very annoying and disgusting, especially the MC, and also many characters who love the MC for no clear reason, this is one of the same reasons why I don't like Harem Anime, there are characters who look dignified but become very stupid later on
•power concept
One of the most ambiguous things about this anime is the concept of the MC power, he has a black slime as hard as steel but on the other hand he can explode like a nuclear, stop his heartbeat to pretend to be dead to Genjutsu like wh…
Read at the sourcegwaihir75
1) Not a Parody.
When you stab somewone with a knife and say that it was a joke, was it a joke? If Yoshiro Tagashi said that HxH is a porn, would it make it porn? Absolutely not. Genres, including parody, are more or less defined by their traits, not by author's opinion. If they really wanted to create parody then it only means that they failed, because for most viewers, there are no visible traits that define parody. It just feels like you everyday overpowered protagonist in lazily sketched world with boring one dimensional characters and toothless harem. Nothing really unusual.
2) Not an Isekai.
Sure, there is mandatory several minutes in the original world and ever so unimaginative truck. After that, it is all completely ignored and never impacts the story at all.
Also, shockingly, op…
Read at the sourcekevinsonthemoon
Been watching anime for over a decade now and this is the first time I’ve ever been compelled to write a review and to be honest it’s probably more of a question… how the fuhhhh did you people allow this show to reach an 8.2 score?!?!?? 8.2?!?!??
This show has absolutely no idea what it wants to be and just drags you along for the ride. 30 episodes in and I still have no clue what the point of the show is. I get the background character joke but it’s so inconsistent that I wish they’d just drop it and move the story along.
Overall I’m glad some people found a new favorite anime out of this but personally this is bottom of the bin level stuff for me - especially when I compare it to the other shows with an 8+ mal score.
Read at the sourceCriticalDragon
Where's the Parody?
The Eminence in Shadow is just more overpowered Isekai slop hiding under a thin veneer of comedy/parody.
Every trope is played straight.
The overpowered protagonist: The MC isn’t just strong, he's godlike, effortlessly defeating every enemy with zero stakes.
The harem of devoted followers: Shadow garden members aren’t comically misguided, they're genuinely loyal, capable, and treated as cool rather than as victims of Cid’s delusions.
The secret war: Instead of exposing the ridiculousness of Cid’s conspiracy theories, the narrative validates that the cult of diablos is real, and Cid’s nonsensical bullshit just happens to be right.
Again, I Ask Where’s the Parody? A good parody exaggerates or subverts tropes to highlight their absurdity. Konosuba makes its heroes dys…
Read at the sourceKasuk
I'm going to assume the high rating for this anime is due to a lot of Light Novel readers who were already fans.
The truth is that this anime suffers what you would have seen from the many other 'Not Recommended' reviews in that, it is supposed to be a parody but presents as a full on power fantasy
The jokes aren't funny
And the main character is presented to be a schemer with some intelligence... yet he is never able to cast off his delusions and finally accept that the spade in front of him is, in fact, a spade. That's the only part that reads as a parody, but rather than being done well, it just makes the character unlikeable and infuriating
The reason it gets a 5 is because the animation isn't bad itself and there are some waifu characters people enjoy. Otherwise I'd say a 3
Read at the sourceTheBigDog
I think i might be in the only one that didn't liked this anime......8.29 rating in MAL......Overrated......mc started of as batman wannabe then tried to turn into lelouch (code geass mc) wannabe but couldn't even laced his boot then he just turned into another isekai overpowered mc that thinks like this whole isekai world is just a video game.......majority of villains are girls and old man that are just made of blood balloons......villains should be build up from the start and have some credible threat to mc becoz if there is no pressure/seriousness on mc then action is just bland bullshit.........most of the scenes were pretty cringe as well still watched all the episodes becoz i thought it would get better but it didn't......the only thing that made me curious is that new villain intro…
Read at the sourceChackal68
Baki if it was bad and if it was an isekai.
Where Baki shines in making fun of every stupid shounen and fighting anime in making the characters bullshitting everything more and more after each episode while all believing in their words like it's absolute truth, here we get an anime where the main character is a chuunibyou and is kind of obviously a parody. The problem reside in the fact that the drama of the situations supposedly being too serious that you can't give a damn about it makes it just like another bad isekai anime.
In the end, it's just another isekai anime for the isekai fanbase. It looks almost not like a parody, if nobody told me, I'd have doubt until a name like "mundane mann" or "perv asshat" appears.
For an "absurd humouristic" anime, I didn't laugh once and I couldn't…
Read at the sourceakitaattribute
This is not a good anime. The protagonist is repulsive. The writing is bad. The only thing saving this from a 1/10 is the animation. The main character is absolutely unlikable. There isn't a single saving grace with him. You're spending the entire time watching for the story around him. I didn't read the manga, but unless it is meant to be a meme, it's truly a bad series. I've seen some real stinkers over my years of watching anime. From slice of life to Isekai to Sports. This is one of the very few that left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I would forever use it as an example of what not to do.
It's like a bad horror movie. I stuck around for 20 episodes because I couldn't stop watching the train wreck.
I can't imagine this was the goal of the writer though, as it seems to tak…
Read at the sourceLudwig_Anarcheon
Plot: 7.75
- Chunibyo, 8th grader syndrome, or whatever you may want to call it. The MC is insufferable as the anime moves forward, Overpowered from ep 1 with little to no difficulty faced. No matter what situation or conflict arises, poster boy sings the same tune and saves everyone.
- The story overall is pretty good, lots of development shown by side characters, villains are interesting but have no time to develop because of peter pan reigning on their parades.
Animation: 8.25
- Fight animation although repetitive is done very well.
- Choreography is amazing throughout.
- Heavy fan service, but otherwise character design is great.
Voice acting: 8
- One of the better points about the anime, voice acting is mostly believable and adds more to each characters emotions.
Music: 7.75
-…
Read at the sourcesaboth
[no spoilers]
I have no idea how the ratings are so high on this. I don't rate things unless I watch them to completion and boy, do I regret it. There is nothing even remotely funny in here to make it satire. The story is disjointed and all over the place. The character development is exceedingly poor. The storyline is... what? Maybe if you are a manga fan and want to watch it come to life, then good on you. For me, this anime was my first experience. Beyond the first episode, or two, it was at least holding my interest, and then it went in a weird and awful direction.
The redeeming qualities are that the art and voice acting are good, but everything else about it is pure, unadulterated trash. Do yourself a favor and find something better to watch. I plead with you. Do not waste your tim…
Read at the sourcejahver
My first exposure to The Eminence in Shadow was my friend on Discord singing praises for the anime. He told me it was a parody show that took all these tired isekai cliches and turned them on their head, much like Overlord. And he was right; The Eminence in Shadow is much like Overlord in that they both use the illusion of satire to deliver the same regurgitated stories and character archetypes as the genre they claim to parody, played completely straight with only the slightest modicum of irony to keep the veil from dropping. At first glance, you wouldn’t even be able to tell this is a parody. I struggled to sit through 4 episodes, and dropped it when I realized it was exactly as I’d feared; mediocre isekai nonsense putting on the pretense of being something greater to sell merchandise of…
Read at the sourceVego
Perfectly terrible isekai:
Lack of originality: The anime follows a well-worn trope of a character who is transported to a fantasy world and gains incredible powers. While this can be entertaining, "Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!" fails to bring any new or exciting elements to the genre.
Poor pacing: The anime suffers from pacing issues, with some episodes feeling rushed and others dragging on for too long. This can make it difficult for viewers to stay engaged with the story and characters.
Shallow characters: The characters in "Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!" lack depth and development, making it challenging to connect with them on an emotional level. This can make it challenging for viewers to become invested in the story and care about what happens to the characters.
In…
Read at the sourceBlitz872
When I found this anime I saw lots of people saying it was a guilty pleasure type of anime so I didn't really think too much about it and just left it but what brought me to this anime was the "I am atomic" scene and I thought it looked pretty good so I decided to pick it up however I quickly found out why people thought it was a "guilty pleasure" anime.
1- Story
Its story isn't bad though it isn't all that amazing as we have the protagonist who made up a story that turned out to be true and from that lie came his loyal subordinates who went on to create shadow garden. Problem with the story for me is that shadow garden plays way too much of a role in it and there is little to know development and explanation on said group for example in episode 20 (the final episode of the season) We are…
Read at the sourceCyrose
Trap anime of 2022.
There are entries that just don't worth the time and effort to write a review on. Despite that Eminence in the Shadow is particularly belongs to this garner. I’ve made an exception with it and shed some light over this gloomed garden.
Visually it looks good, I would give it an upper (7) or (8) to the animation. I don’t know however why the animation quality suddenly dropped to (4) after EP 18.
Sounds, pretty average. There were no one ost that stick into my ear. And yes, average means (5).
Characters, there are so many characters. Stories,
So it starts off with a guy who likes to live a peaceful and ordinary life. He goes to school like an ordinary student, but he also acts as a super hero in the nights, to save his classmates from the bad guys. (Actually, he jus…
Read at the sourcesakajii
This is the best anime I've ever seen.
If it was possible I would rate this 11 out of 10. The style of the anime, the art, the characters, the voice acting - it's all impossibly close to perfect. It isn't scared of trying new things and it maintains a cool yet often hilarious plot. After every episode it just kept getting better, so it made me sad to see other reviewers watching only a few episodes and not reccomending it, because it was ''just another boring isekai''. The anime is so much more than that.
This is the only time while watching actively an airing series and being sad that one moment it will end. This will most likely be forever my favourite anime ever.
Read at the sourceMattotsuo
"In order to be the best, you have to know the worst." - Someone probably
I have watched many, many isekai, from the smartphone one, to the one with a loveable group of 3 girls (blue, yellow, and red) and 1 guy (death by the 5mph tractor), all the way to the one who dies over, and over, and over, and over... So I think I have experienced a very wide spectrum of what is good and what is bad. This is the story of the least generic overpowered main character who wants to be the most generic overpowered main character, written by an author who seems to be just having a fun time.
For starters, the main character may say extremely cringe-worthy chuunibyo lines, but it is all in the name of it being cool. His ideal role is almost that of Batman, except instead of being the rich billionaire he w…
Read at the sourceIonliosite2
Have you ever heard of Poe’s Law? Here’s a little definition if you haven’t, Poe’s Law is that without a clear indication of the author’s intent the parody of something extreme can be mistaken for the real thing and if a real thing sounds extreme enough it can be mistaken for a parody. Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute falls exactly into this, if I wasn’t told like a dozen times by multiple people in social media groups that talk only about Light Novels and other places then I would fail to know that this thing is supposed to be a parody, after all, it plays every single cliché on it so completely straight that I don’t know what is supposed to be the parody in here.
This anime is claimed to be some sort of parody and even more bafflingly a deconstruction of isekai that makes fun of all…
Read at the sourceMarinate1016
Eminence in Shadow is a satirical tongue-in-cheek deconstruction of the isekai genre that’s a fun departure from the incessant stream of fantasy/isekai shows these days.
I believe those that call Eminence “generic” or “edgy” have completely missed the point of the series. It’s supposed to be over the top and cringe in many situations. It’s quite literally poking fun at traditional isekai tropes and cliches and giving us a meta commentary on them. Cid’s ambition to be a background shadow broker and a mob character at school which ironically leads to him becoming a central figure in this world is the entire point of the story. When you have that much power it is impossible to stay out of the spotlight completely. It is inevitable that someone as strong as he is becomes the main character…
Read at the sourceSpRayquaza11
I will admit I always wanted to be that one plain-looking guy who at crunch time managed to fight off bad guys bare-handed, steal their weapons pull off some sick reloads and headshots while my crush watched me save the day, and goes doki doki!!
There are two kinds of adults, the first are embarrassed by their childhood self and will surely cringe at the statement I made above If not report it xD and the other who still have a child hidden inside them, unable to let go of all the cool power moves and ninja signs the affinity one might have if they are more like the latter will definitely help you love this show more objectively speaking since in kagejitsu, we finally meet a chunnibyo who is actually everything he says he is! sign me the fuck up! Every second of the action is set up to make…
Read at the sourceZNoteTaku
Stop me if you’ve heard a line like this before – “It’s just like in a manga / anime!”
Being meta is more in vogue than ever. Ever since DreamWorks took it upon themselves to poke fun at the Disney company and the Disney brand with *Shrek* back in 2001 and became a monumentally-successful franchise financially, animated film had more or less entered the realm of metacommentary. It didn’t take long for Disney to follow suit; starting with *Enchanted* in 2007 and then expanding that into the soul-sucking exercise of their live-action remakes of the recent years (if not also including choice lines in others like *Frozen*). If there is any takeaway from this, it’s not only that animated properties being so overtly meta is here to stay, but that it is also a highly-profitable venture. After al…
Read at the source