Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!

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]

Kagenou, Cid Main

Yamashita, Seiichirou Japanese

Delta Supporting

Fairouz Ai Japanese

Alpha Supporting

Seto, Asami Japanese

Beta Supporting

Minase, Inori Japanese

Kagenou, Claire Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Midgar, Alexia Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Epsilon Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

Gamma Supporting

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Aurora Supporting

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Zeta Supporting

Asai, Ayaka Japanese

Kikushima, Kazufumi Producer

Watase, Shouta Producer

Maruyama, Hajime Producer

Mizuguchi, Takeo Producer

Reviews

Apr 20, 2025

Orangzer

Recommended

Whenever I consider writing a review, I tend to procrastinate and also I cannot overlook the fact that my proficiency in English has declined (it's not as good as it used to be). Anyway, let's dive into the review of Season 1.

Story:
I will admit I was one of those kids "who lived in a fantasy world". “What IF magic became real” was an exciting fascination for us as well. The protagonist, who is a Chūnibyō (中二病), took it to the next level. The first episode starts from his classmate’s perspective, who also wears a "mask" to hide her true identity. The MC wants to ... live in a fantasy world where magic is real (yes, he is insane because he trained his body for that purpose), where he can surpass human limits. A power that can rival or even surpass a nuclear bomb is only possible if he had access to magic, and he wants to control things from the shadows. His dream came true when he got hit by Truck kun (the most basic version to get isekai'd).

Now, from here on, some people will find the parody and jokes in this anime horrible, some might say “where is the parody,” and some will say “how is this a parody show, or is this a serious action isekai?” Some will find the jokes cringey. Yes, I find it cringey as well, but IMO the cringe is done so well that I got to enjoy it.

The story takes generic tropes from a power fantasy action isekai and delivers them to a very good degree. Everyone has a different sense of humor, so some will enjoy it while others won't. For me, I liked the first episode, but then the anime felt a bit weird. It was serious and also supposed to be a parody, so what is it then? I had mixed feelings about it, but after watching a few more episodes, I began to like the story more and more. As the series progressed, I liked the pace. Before, I thought it was too fast, but then I got used to it. I think the story, especially in the second half, moves at a good pace.

I like how both humor and serious action are mixed in such a way that I began to enjoy the story. There are more twists about a secret cult and the world than I initially expected. The MC thinks he's just messing around and making stuff up, but everyone keeps buying it. Turns out, everything he says ends up being true. He made up the stuff about the Diablos cult to satisfy his own fantasy, but the cult actually exists. Yes, there isn't much world building, but this isn't about world building.

Characters:The characters are enjoyable. Like I said, this MC isn't just a random overpowered average isekai MC who tries to save the world from all threats. He doesn't care about that. He wants to play the role of a background character while controlling everything from the shadows. He doesn't even feel remorse for killing actual people, even though they are bandits.
There's a whole set of harem and lots of girls who like him, especially the Shadow Garden members, but he doesn't care about building a harem. He cares about building the Eminence from Shadow to move the story his own way. He also cares about money because he needs it for that.

Some characters are generic but likeable. In 20 episodes, they showed us a whole bunch of new characters, some of whom are really likeable. But my problem with this is that every strong fighter besides MC Cid "Shadow" Kagenou is a beautiful girl. Like what? There are a few antagonist who are male and far weaker than those top tier girl fighters, but every member in Shadow Garden is either an elf girl or a female therianthrope like delta & Zeta until a human named Princess Rose Oriana joins them.

I liked the cliche seriousness of Rose and Iris. I really enjoyed their characters. Alexia also stood out. Some characters like Alpha and Delta have less screentime, but they are enjoyable (I hope they will get more screentime in next season) . There are many types of characters with different personalities, but my drawbacks are they lack a bit of depth and they are all female. I am saying this as a harem waifu enjoyer. I wish the series would develop better antagonist as well as they were quite dumb & weak.


Animation and Music:
The animation is really good but felt somewhat unbalanced. Whenever fights happened, the quality of animation obviously increased, but only for a short period. Though I guess it's the same for most anime. Overall, I really liked the animation.

Now, let's talk about the music. The music is really good. I felt the opening was average at first, but after listening to it a couple of times, I found it decent. I really liked the ending music. The OSTs are decent as well. Not the best music, but it's good enough for me. I liked the sound of heavy rain in the last episode too.

Other Factors:
I liked the fights because they had good choreography and animation, but the fights felt too short. The last episode was amazing, but I wish there were characters to rival the protagonist. Otherwise, fights with low stakes feel boring.

The jokes are funny (subjective humor) and the action is good. Like I said, it's in the middle of seriousness and comedy, attracting the audience of both worlds. Some may like this like me, and some may find it mixed shit.
It’s easy to get into the anime after a few episodes and start enjoying it.
The only thing I would complain about in this section is the lack of a good power system. The magic system wasn't explained properly, and characters can do random things without any explanation or even hinting at it.

There are also novels within the story that Beta writes, like Dragon Bowl and One Purse, a reference to Dragon Ball and One Piece. There’s a reference to Star Wars and other stuff too. They use the same currency as Dragon Ball, known as Zeni. There are also Knights of Rounds in the Diablos cult, like Code Geass, which was inspired by King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table.

Enjoyment and Impact:
Overall, I really enjoyed this series. It left a good impact on me and filled the void a bit, which was left by Code Geass.

Story: 3.5/5
Characters: 3.5/5
Animation and Music: 4.25/5
Other Factors & Accessibility : 3.75/5
Enjoyment and Impact: 4/5
Total Score: 19/25 (76%)
Overall: 7.5 to 8/10 (B++ to A-)

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 9, 2025

Beokros

Mixed Feelings

I'm more of a casual anime watcher so when everyone was glazing this anime, I made sure to skip it and wait until things die down so I can give an unbiased review. Lo and behold, after 2+ years since it's been out (as of 2025) I've given it a shot and... it's mid.

MC is the strongest there is, he builds an organization of girls he believes are strong and will follow him, turns out they are not on his level but still stronger than everyone. He can literally use his own clipped nail as weapon and he'd still be stronger than the entire nation. ... The anime just doesn't have any stakes involved when it comes to the story. No one is a match in terms of MCs downright OP strength and in so many battles, he's just letting the bad guys monologue for the fun of it, only to then unleash his OP attack no one has an answer to and peaces the f out. Oh, he also has a magic nuke attack. Not kidding. That's his "everyone's gonna sh*t bricks when they see it" moment - which is also his whole schtick.

The premise is that MC is super OP but he wants to play the village idiot - aka the "background character" no one pays attention to. I think I've read from some of the reviews that this anime was supposed to make fun of the usual "OP MC" tropes.
Well the anime attempts to do something like this but it's not even close to Konosuba's humor or One Punch Man's fun. In some episodes he takes himself way too seriously when he goes full into "I can do whatever the f I want" mode (when he's OP) and in others (when he plays as a background character), he's overexplaining stupid tropes. I haven't laughed once. There's a lot of blood and gore and can you guess who spills it? That's right, the MC and his posse! No one dies on his side, not even a bruise (in his OP mode). If he's playing his village idiot then he's intentionally putting himself in such situations. The characters he's tangentally related to in the story maybe have a semblance of character development but it's all shallow because there's always this OP guy there to "save the day". It's in quotes because he's always there to square off with the bad guy, win and leave the other character to deal with the consequences of HIS actions.

And let's not forget the one pink haired girl from academy who he basically mindbroke because he intentionally didn't tell her why her father is lying dead on the floor, killed in the same manner her mother was killed 10 years ago. He left her in the burning building, bawling her eyes out from losing one more parent (a repeat from 10 years ago) and this moron thinks to himself "she's better off not knowing why, I might as well be thanked for my service". Then we see her sometime later obsessing over wanting to kill HIM, thinking that her life is pain because of him. Once again, he acts and then leaves the other character dealing with the consequences of HIS actions.

...Nothing in the story was handled correctly. Everybody is just an NPC to him.
It's just plain boring as every trope is playing out exactly as the trope states, all the while the anime thinks it's being funny overexplaining the trope. If you don't find it funny, the "jokes" won't land and it'll leave you feeling like you've been eating bland porridge for the entire week; You can eat it but it tastes like wet cardboard. And the most insulting thing to me were the last 2 episodes, where he (as an OP char) battles Belatrix and Iris. Instead of some monologue that questions the reason as to why they're battling him, questions about pride or the good of the people, he basically takes pleasure in toying with them all the while Iris thinks he's just gonna end everyone. And then he beats them without breaking a sweat, goes for his signature magic nuke attack, then fu*king goes "sike!" and leaves... The characters in the story have no idea what this moron even wants and he's not even interacting with the world - he's amusing himself with the isekai fantasy of himself...

The fights are OK, if you can stomach the predictable outcome when he's fighting. He simply can't lose, can't be hurt, always 4 parallel universes ahead of everyone. The story is somewhat interesting but the MC doesn't care. He's playing his own game. And if he doesn't care, then it doesn't matter. It will wrap itself up, once MC interferes. Everything gets nicely mashed up into goo and prepared to be fed to the baby chick - hey, that's you! So open wide!

...Despite my review, this isn't a bad anime.
It's just bland and uninteresting. If you like flashy things and the usual isekai trope with an OP MC, you'd feel right at home. As for me, it's just slop. Slop that you can pig out on when you have nothing better to do with your time. A slop worth a solid 6.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 13, 2025

CriticalDragon

Not Recommended

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 dysfunctional losers. One Punch Man contrasts Saitama’s boredom with the insane world around him. But The Eminence in Shadow doesn’t do any of this. It relies completely on the one Joke of "Wow! Cid doesn't know all the things he's making up are actually real!! Isn't that hilarious?" No, it's not. It's boring and cheap.

Cid’s Chuunibyou antics should be the Joke but the show treats him as cool rather than pathetic. His delusions aren’t mocked, they’re rewarded. The World's lore is taken seriously, with dramatic backstories and political intrigue that isn't parody.

The One "joke" Cid's obliviousness is constantly repeated. But since the world always conforms to his delusions, there’s no punchline, just predictability. Real comedic obliviousness works because their ignorance clashes with the world in funny ways. Cid’s obliviousness never leads to real comedic conflict, just more power fantasy wank. The humor falls flat because. It’s just a lazy way to avoid consequences. A real parody would have the world react to how absurd his beliefs are, like people calling out his nonsense, his plans backfiring comically, etc. Instead, the narrative validates him at every turn. Compare this to Konosuba, where Kazuma’s idiocy constantly backfires, or One Punch Man, where Saitama’s boredom highlights how empty being OP really is. Cid never faces real irony, just accidental success after accidental success. The convenience of it also undermines any possible tension or comedy. Everything just happens to work out for Cid, not because of clever writing, but because the writer bends over backwards to suit him.

There are no stakes, no consequences, since Cid is always right by accident, and nothing he does matters. There’s no tension, no irony, just a dumbass delusional loser winning without trying. There's no clever subversion. A good parody twists expectations. Here, everything unfolds exactly as a generic power fantasy would, just with the added "Haha, isn’t it funny that he doesn’t know?"

Every arc follows the same formula.
1. Cid does something stupid.
2. The world interprets it as profound and wanks on about how cool he is.
3. He wins effortlessly well misunderstanding everything going on.
Rinse and repeat.

All the characters suck. Cid doesn't grow or develop, and everyone else is just a cheerleader or a prop. There are no meaningful interactions. The villains are all forgettable and generic.

So in the end, all we have left is a badly written slop isekai story which people have somehow convinced themself is some masterstroke of parody.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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