Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!
The Eminence in Shadow

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*This review contains slight spoilers past the manga*

Is there much more to say other than it is a Power fantasy that is also an Isekai where the MC has black hair and is edgy? Yes, and its the reason I think this story will evolve past a Light Novel and Manga Adaptation.

Looking at this story for the first time it was clear to see what it was going for. It's an Isekai; guy dies, gets reincarnated with his old memories, tries to become more powerful. Its the most simple rinse and repeat pattern with a lot of modern Isekai that are coming out. There is ... only so much a story can evolve from after this point, with the most usual path being to become the Hero and slay the Demon Lord. But within "The Eminence in Shadows" the story is already changed from the start.

Story: 7
Like a lot of the Manga and light novels to appear within the last few years, the Isekai aspect in this show is only relevant for the first few chapters. Where it is apparent that the MC "Cid Kagenou" is from another world, it is rarely mentioned past the first few chapters. Which is one of the glaring problems with a lot of Isekai, so i wont give it too much slack in that department. Some of the other issues are the progression at which main events happen, the one I have in mind is the meeting of Alpha, and the start of Shadow Garden. The reader is first introduced to Alpha at the end of chapter 2. By this time, Cid has gone through: Being alive in the real world, dying, reincarnation, Self taught(maybe?) magic training, the production of slime gear, and a bandit attack. ONE AND A HALF CHAPTERS. That is criminally short, this could have been stretched to at least 3-4 chapters and still be a reasonably progressed story. BUT, there is more to gripe about. Because the story is so short it is hard to fully analyze and realize some of the characters that are present in the show. I often found myself asking questions such as "How does the magic system work?" "How did he make that?" and "What is the reason?". A lot of these question could be answered by a subtle or even non-subtle description of the trait, whether it be magic, geography, using descriptive words. it felt like everything was snuffed because of the rushed story line of the novel. There has to be a line drawn at where "too fast" and "too vague" are. Sadly this web novel fails to grasp where that line is, lack of knowledge becomes confusion, and confusion leads to loss of interest. It is pretty safe to say that no writer wants people to lose interest in their stories. That being said there are a lot of strong point that are going for this story, and parts that are hard to avoid as well.

So, what was my decision in giving the story a 7? Well its not too complicated actually. The story and progression within "The Eminence of Shadows" is so simple that its okay that it skips over some of the logistics of the world. Speaking for myself, this format has been done so many times before that it all made sense, without the story having to explicitly tell me how and what things were going on. So questions like " What is the slime gear?" can be answered by common knowledge of how fantasy worlds usually work. "Pour mana into the Slime to form a sword and clothes" (This is later confirmed by epsilon). Although it would be nice to have that confirmation it wasn't necessary to the story to fill out a few chapters explaining how Magic works. I've read enough manga to figure out what mana and mana manipulation is. The farther you go within the story the more questions are answered as well, such as how the kingdom works, How Alpha and the other members of Shadow Garden met and grew up together, and why Gamma is so gosh darn cute. After reading as much as I have I look back at the first few chapters as a necessary evil, the vague properties aren't so vague anymore. While initially writing this, it was hard to rip into the beginning because i knew that all of the short descriptions and foggy answers actually helped my interest within the story. That being said, it is still a massive pain to go through it for the first time, but I can say that it does get much better.

I didn't talk much about the actual story, so i will say some small points now
-It flows extremely well, there is a clear sense of cause-effect where all the actions have innate consequences
-The main gimmick of being a hero in the shadows isn't original, but it felt as though it was fresh and new

Art: 6
It's a Web Novel, c'mon. You can't expect the world from a project like this, so it will not be affecting my final score. But going off of the Light novels art style, I can't say that anything stood out to me. All of the characters looked how I expected them too, with my reactions going as "wild" as "oh so she had blue hair'. I mean the style that they chose definitely suits the style of the novel and story. No complaints here! Just wasn't as face slapping as it could have been.

Character: 8
It's interesting to see how the characters play off of one another. In any story one of the hardest things to create is social interactions. "How does Character A interact with Character C". It is one of the things that i find interesting within a story. A lot of the characters within this novel are crafted from a mold and an archetype that relates to that mold. It's mostly a randomizer that takes a body type and a personality and adds them together
"Curvy" + "Myrmidon" = Alpha
"Flat" + "Over Bearing" = Alexia Midgar
"Athletic" + "Student Council President" = Rose Oriana
and so on. The more interesting aspect is how the characters react and interact with their environments. Characters like Cid are pretty self explanatory, he has multiple personalities that causes him to react differently. As Cid he is a timid boy who doesn't seem to understand the consequences to the actions he takes, which adds to the "mob" character he wants to become. While as Shadow, Cid is a powerful force to be reckoned with, and he knows it. The duality between Shadow and Cid plays into how certain characters react to them. The character design of Cid alone could be enough to write an entire review on. While there are other characters that have great history and interesting back stories and history. (Ill be using the first initials of characters that appear later in the story) Characters such as Bea who have some character relation that goes back farther than the story has told. With antagonists like Get who are relatable and have some sense of understanding of the protagonist. Or Yuk who brings out an entire personality of an original character that is not seen before. Its hard to tear into these "cookie cutter" characters when the actions they take are relatable, and interesting. Each character that is introduced has meaning, that relates back to the cause and effect I had talked about earlier. There are few characters that do not get any time in the light (I'm looking at you Zeta and Eta) but that only adds to the personality of the character and how their characters interact with others. It shows that they don't interact. There is nothing that I can say, obviously there is going to be more character evolution in the future, so my opinion is bound to change, but as is, I am quite interested in all the characters.

Enjoyment: 8
It really is an experience to read through this novel, there are some things that would be nearly impossible to explain, but the smile put on my face after the Moonlight Sonata scene was very real. But overall it is a great read and it passed the time extremely well. Managed to read through it in about a weeks time, and I couldn't wait to continue reading through it. I'm sure that it will continue on and become more and more popular as time goes on

Overall: 8
Alright, it isn't perfect, and there are a lot of flaws within the story that could easily be buffed out with the licensed English release of the light novel in July this year. In all honesty, I could see this getting an Anime adaptation within the next year or so. With the state that the world is in now, that date may be delayed for a while. But I wouldn't leave it out of the list of shows I think could get an adaptation, that being said it may only be up until the Holy Ground Infiltration Arc, it still would be a good way to increase the popularity of this series

(Tradução em português abaixo da em inglês?

English review (as of 3 volumes)

Have you ever got disappointed with a series that started as a funny and uncommitted one, but then it got serious, disregarding the initial approach, didn’t staying true to its essence?

So let me tell you right away: The Eminence in Shadow is not one of those series. Not even close. And I’ll try to explain why.

The Eminence in Shadow is a comedy, fantasy-isekai and action series written by Daisuke Aizawa and illustrated by Touzai. It was first published as a web novel series in the famous site Shousetsuka ni Narou, and later got licensed ... by a official publisher.

The synopsis is where you already know that this novel is something different. The protagonist, Cid, in Earth, always dreamed of being the final boss or the protagonist, lying low as a side character to only after revealing himself to be the mastermind of all the events that happened. That said, he trained in all sort of martial arts to become the Eminence in Shadow. Unfortunately, his dreams didn’t come true. He mistook the light of a truck with magic, and got hit and died. But he was reborn in another world! In a fantasy world! And now he will strive earnestly to reach his utmost dream.

Got you interested? Probably not. But here we go. Cid wanted to be a mastermind, right? So, he must have an organization, which works in the shadows. And that’s exactly what he does, gathering members around the world and telling them about an evil cult that they need to take down, creating Shadow Garden. But it was a lie. He made all of it with his great imagination. But you know what? Actually, everything he created was real! There is a cult, and there is a threat, but he created everything and gathered a lot of members!

Now, what you think will happen? Cid will fight this evil cult and save the world, losing comrades and everything? No. He just wants to live a life as a side character, and building up the momentum to reveal himself as the mastermind.

This is the beauty of this novel, if you ask me. How Cid, a extremely powerful and overpowered guy, goes with his life and how he hide himself, not revealing his power. In the school, he is your average guy, getting bullied by the princess (he was her dog!); but, at night, he is Shadow. The leader of Shadow Garden, and the most powerful being on the world. He doesn’t just kill everyone; he creates specific scenes to appear “cooler” in front of everyone. For example, to calculate the perfect timing of appearance to save his sister, or to simulate his phrases as Shadow to appear more intimidating. It is fantastic. It is refreshing. It is funny. It is perfect. Not only as Shadow, but as Cid the student too. He created a scene in which he sacrificed himself to safe the President of the Council, calculating the time and even his last phrase! It is amazing!

The girls of The Shadow Garden help the funny atmosphere of the novel by a lot. They have so much confidence in theirs master, Shadow, that they don’t even question him when he does something strange. Someone is attacking the QG and he is not doing anything? He is surely doing something even more important. But he is not! He is just tired! This is a common occurrence in the novel and it is just so much fun and good to read.

Seriously, it is such a great read. I could read 100 volumes and never tires myself. The prose is so fluid and natural that I don’t even see the time passes. The transition between Cid’s chapter, which are in first person, to the other people’s chapters are really smooth and never feel unnatural. Not only Cid’s, but the Shadow Garden’s girls’ chapters were amazing. I love all the girls. All of them who got a bit of development were great.

I will not talk about the plot or worldbuilding because the series doesn’t focus in that. The central focus is really in Cid and how he lives his life as Cid and as Shadow, creating scenes in his mind to employ in the real life to look cooler, and how the other characters, such as the girls of Shadow Garden, the princess, the president, and other ones, react to the impact of Shadow Garden.

As always, I'll put some illustrations here of the light novel. The art is SICK! Touzai must have more recognition!



FINAL THOUGHTS

If you want a good light novel, not too serious, with top-notch humor and an overall great read, you will enjoy The Eminence in Shadow.

Now, if you want a light novel with good plot and worldbuilding, that “is serious” enough and do not leans to the comedy side, I will not recommend this one.



Review em português com deepL


Você já se decepcionou com uma série que começou como engraçada e sem compromisso, mas depois ficou séria, desconsiderando a abordagem inicial, não se manteve fiel à sua essência?
Então, deixe-me dizer-lhe desde já: A Eminência na Sombra não é uma dessas séries. Nem de perto. E vou tentar explicar por quê.

The Eminence in Shadow é uma série de comédia, fantasy-isekai e ação escrita por Daisuke Aizawa e ilustrada por Touzai. Foi publicada pela primeira vez como uma web novel no famoso site Shousetsuka ni Narou, e mais tarde foi licenciada por uma editora oficial.

A sinopse é onde você já sabe que esta novel é algo diferente. O protagonista, Cid, na Terra, sempre sonhou em ser o chefe final ou o protagonista, deitado em baixo como personagem secundário para só depois de se revelar o cérebro de todos os acontecimentos que aconteceram. Dito isto, ele treinou em todos os tipos de artes marciais para se tornar a Eminência na Sombra. Infelizmente, seus sonhos não se tornaram realidade. Ele confundiu a luz de um caminhão com magia, e foi atingido e morreu. Mas ele renasceu em outro mundo! Em um mundo de fantasia! E agora ele se esforçará seriamente para alcançar seu sonho máximo.

Ficou interessado? Provavelmente não. Mas aqui vamos nós. O Cid queria ser um mestre, certo? Então, ele deve ter uma organização, que trabalha nas sombras. E é exatamente isso que ele faz, reunindo membros ao redor do mundo e contando-lhes sobre um culto maligno que eles precisam derrubar, criando o Shadow Garden. Mas era uma mentira. Ele fez tudo isso com sua grande imaginação. Mas sabe de uma coisa? Na verdade, tudo o que ele criou foi real! Existe um culto, e existe uma ameaça, mas ele criou tudo e reuniu muitos membros!

Agora, o que você acha que vai acontecer? O Cid vai lutar contra este culto maligno e salvar o mundo, perdendo companheiros e tudo mais? Não. Ele só quer viver uma vida como um personagem secundário, e construir o ímpeto para revelar-se como o mestre da mente.

Esta é a beleza dessa novel, caso você me pergunte. Como Cid, um cara extremamente poderoso e dominado, vai com sua vida e como ele se esconde, não revelando seu poder. Na escola, ele é um cara comum, sendo intimidado pela princesa (ele era seu cão!); mas, à noite, ele é a Sombra. O líder do Shadow Garden, e o ser mais poderoso do mundo. Ele não apenas mata todo mundo; ele cria cenas específicas para aparecer "mais fresco" na frente de todos. Por exemplo, para calcular o momento perfeito da aparência para salvar sua irmã, ou para simular suas frases como Sombra para parecer mais intimidante. É fantástico. É refrescante. É engraçado. É perfeito. Não apenas como Sombra, mas também como Cid, o estudante. Ele criou uma cena na qual se sacrificou para proteger o Presidente do Conselho, calculando o tempo e até mesmo sua última frase! É incrível!

As meninas de Shadow Garden ajudam muito na atmosfera engraçada da novel. Elas têm tanta confiança no seu mestre, Sombra, que nem sequer o questionam quando ele faz algo estranho. Alguém está atacando o QG e ele não está fazendo nada? Ele certamente está fazendo algo ainda mais importante. Mas ele não está! Ele está apenas cansado! Esta é uma ocorrência comum na novel e é muito divertido e bom de ler.

A sério, é uma leitura tão boa. Eu poderia ler 100 volumes e nunca me canso. A prosa é tão fluida e natural que eu nem vejo o tempo passar. A transição entre os capítulos do Cid, que são em primeira pessoa, para os capítulos das outras pessoas é realmente suave e nunca se sente antinatural. Não só os capítulos do Cid, mas os capítulos das meninas do Shadow Garden foram incríveis. Eu amo todas as meninas. Todas elas que tiveram um pouco de desenvolvimento foram ótimas.

Não vou falar sobre o enredo ou a construção do mundo porque a série não se concentra nisso. O foco central está realmente em Cid e em como ele vive sua vida como Cid e como Sombra, criando cenas em sua mente para empregar na vida real para parecer mais legal, e como as outras personagens, como as meninas de Shadow Garden, a princesa, o presidente e outros, reagem ao impacto do Shadow Garden.

Portanto, pensamentos finais. Se você quiser uma boa light novel, não muito sério, com um humor de primeira e uma ótima leitura em geral, você vai gostar de The Eminence in Shadow.
Agora, se você quiser uma light novel com boa trama e construção do mundo, que "seja sério" o suficiente e não se incline para o lado da comédia, eu não recomendarei este.

If you like the gag, repetitive jokes, misunderstanding taken to the extreme then look no further than this novel. A story about a guy suffer from extreme chuunibyou syndrome. It started out quite interesting with MC spewing crap about a secret cliche organization in a typical Isekai world whose goal is to revive the long dead demon lord. After years of picking up orphans, destroying countless of their lairs MC brain is still too stupid to even think of the mere chances his crap may have so truth in it. I mean after the xth cave you blow up that all of your "underling" claim ... it contain sign of demonic summoning, blood sacrifice, every enemy you fight spewing stuff like "you can stop me but you won't be able to stop his revival", MC might have figure out something but nope, nope not happening. He is still the idiotic moron who think everything is a elaborate play made by his lovely underling and all the villain he kill also suffer from extreme chuunibyou syndrome.

The reason why all of his underling never found out why he is a moron cause everything he did miraculously turn into a good thing. Got lost after entering the bad guy cave ? The big bad boss came running straight at you. Don't know what the villain up to ? Spew some crap like "if I am them, I will be kidnapping the princess" and what do you know, the castle got blown up and the princess been kidnapped. This dude don't "do" anything. He just say crap and the author make it happen. If you are here to follow the gag then sure it is a nice read but after the umteenth time it happen and the MC is still behaving like a blabbering buffoon, I just give up.