Review of The Eminence in Shadow Season 2

"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 theprevious 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.