Review of The Eminence in Shadow Season 2
Kagejitsu season 2 is an improvement in every way over the first season. Partly due to the LN arcs it covers being the best in the series, and partly due to Nexus taking their production quality to the next level. All the while retaining the same comedic misunderstandings, loveable characters and Cid that we’ve come to know and love. Kagejitsu manages to be both an excellent commentary on the isekai genre and exemplary of it at the same time. It’s fully aware of the tropes that have been done to death in recent years, makes fun of them and in the process, manages to pull themoff perfectly. OP MC ✅ Hot girls in love with mc ✅ evil shadow organisation working in the background to take over the world ✅. All of these things are given to us at least 10x a season these days, yet this series is proof it’s not about what you do, but how you do it.
Cid has become one of the anime community’s favourite characters in the last year, and for good reason. He basically acts as a stand in for all of us, observing the usual isekai tropes, laughing at them and embracing them. He doesn’t take himself seriously and sees the entire world as a game, whereas everyone around him sees it as a matter of life and death. It’s such a refreshing experience to have a main character who isn’t trying to be a traditional “good guy” but just does what he wants, when he wants it. That sometimes works to the benefit of others, but sometimes it doesn’t. Even his own allies have been the victims of his selfish whims at times, and I love it.
Part of what makes isekai stale in the eyes of many, is you can take any MC from any series and drop them in another and you’d notice no difference. That’s not how a story should be. The main characters should be the sun, around every other character and plot point rotates. If you change that character, it should intrinsically change the story. For example, putting Naofumi from Tate no Yuusha in this story would weaken it. Putting Cid into Tate no Yuusha would strengthen it. The author’s done an amazing job at crafting a truly unique main character and that’s the biggest selling point.
This season in particular, sees a lot of that taken to the next level. Cid has several plots that his subordinates completely misunderstand and it leads to these absolutely hilarious moments that left me crying of laughter. Even when he doesn’t act, his subordinates see it as an act and will try to interpret his inaction. It’s just a really unique viewing experience that I wish more authors would try to implement. I love isekai unabashedly, but some variety in the genre would be great. Some more commentaries on fantasy worlds, characters who aren’t so down horrendously they’ll chase after every girl, etc., would be nice!
Like I said earlier, the arcs this season covers are just great. They’ve got more action and twists than last season, introduce some cool new characters, shed light on the villains of the story and give us a new direction to follow. I believe this is the author’s first major series and you can really see him getting better with each arc. The Oriana arc being my favourite of this season with some genuinely emotional parts.
Production values are also through the roof. The animation, direction, art, character designs, they’re all spectacular. While we know Cid is going to win every fight he’s in, they still make those fights interesting and exciting through their use of visual effects. The final fight of this season being a great example.
Over the top, wacky, great world building, a one of a kind MC. It should come as no surprise this series is as popular as it is. It’s one of the few extremely hyped series that deserves every bit of praise heaped on it. I am very excited to see what they do in the upcoming movie.
Kagejitsu season 2 gets a very easy 10, out of 10