History CastingAShadow / AnimeAndManga

* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Celty]] from ''Literature/{{Durarara}}'' is a [[HeadlessHorseman Dullahan]] capable of manipulating shadows and giving them physical form. The uses of this ability range from creating weaponry (usually a scythe or dagger) and restraining enemies...to [[MundaneUtility instantaneously dressing herself and letting her type faster]]. It's also interesting to note that the shadows she manipulates aren't restricted by the presence or absence of the sun, meaning she can manifest a weapon at noon just as easily as she can at midnight. Also, her shadow is always drawn darker than all others, even when she's not manipulating it.

* Yumiella in ''Literature/VillainessLevel99'' uses Dark-element abilities like Black Hole, Dark Flame and Dark Bind. [[DarkIsNotEvil She is unambiguously a good person,]] if a bit [[AmbiguousDisorder quirky.]] Unusually for such characters, she even has [[HealingHands a healing spell]] that is just as effective as any other, though it [[{{Squick}} looks rather creepy in action.]]

* Varete of ''Manhwa/WitchHunter'' show just how powerful shadows can be, with her power to control shadows. She can block ''swords'' with the shadows up her sleeve and level entire towns using the shadows cast from a tree. She is almost impossible to hit with attacks, as she can use even the shadows between her hair and her head to attack and defend, with an almost limitless amount of mana to allow her to fight for extremely long times.

* ''Manga/CodeBreaker'': The Prince's power is this.

* Kageyama, Jose, Simon, and Zero from ''Manga/FairyTail'' are all users of this type of magic, the first one weaker than the other three.
** Well, Kageyama uses Shadow magic while the other three uses Darkness magic.

** The Magic World Arc introduces Kagetarou, who ''acts'' like an antagonist at first [[spoiler:but turns out to be a buddy of Rakan]]'s. There's also [[BigBad Fate Averruncus']] accomplice, [[spoiler:Dynamis, who can summons swarms of Invincible Minor Minions and a humongous EldritchAbomination, is stated to be almost as powerful as Fate himself, and tried to kill Nodoka and came damn close to succeeding, wiping out two of her friends who tried to protect her the first time, and only being driven off the second time by Setsuna (who hacked his right hand off at the forearm) and Kaede]].
*** [[spoiler:His personality and temperament are much less extreme than originally suggested, however. He's actually fairly ''reasonable.'']]
*** Negi's Magia Erebea may count as well, since, basically, it is still black magic, he just prefers lightning powers over darkness. Even Rakan notes that Negi's Affinity lies in the dark side.
*** There's ''also'' Kotaro Inugami, who has at his disposal the ability to summon vast swarms of autonomous spirit wolves made of darkness/shadow.

* Pumpkin Doryu, from ''Manga/RaveMaster''.
** Haru's MorphWeapon sword also has a darkness aligned form, Sacrifar. It turns Haru into TheBerserker, [[DarkIsNotEvil though it wasn't entirely the fault of the sword itself.]]

** Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame could be considered a mixture between fire and shadow. He's a ''DeadpanSnarker'' though, so it's O.K.

* [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Celty]] from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' is a [[HeadlessHorseman Dullahan]] capable of manipulating shadows and giving them physical form. The uses of this ability range from creating weaponry (usually a scythe or dagger) and restraining enemies...to [[MundaneUtility instantaneously dressing herself and letting her type faster]]. It's also interesting to note that the shadows she manipulates aren't restricted by the presence or absence of the sun, meaning she can manifest a weapon at noon just as easily as she can at midnight. Also, her shadow is always drawn darker than all others, even when she's not manipulating it.

** Takane Goodman, #2 Darkness (Shadow) as a form of GreenLanternRing. Prone to getting stripped, as the series has stripping disarm attacks; and when she tried to counter that by making her clothing out of Shadow, she ran up against Asuna and her magic cancel power. She usually uses her power to create golems for attack and defense, the other shadow user who has appeared used his power more like a Green Lantern, forming blades, etc. She is definitely one of the good guys, if a little over serious.

* Medusa Gorgon from ''Manga/SoulEater'' plays with this trope. While it's not explicitly stated to be darkness, her magic seems to revolve around a theme of it, as her energy is purple and black and the magic arrows she manipulates behave very much like TendrilsOfDarkness and even slither along surfaces like shadows.

** In Negima's sequel, ''Manga/UQHolder'' [[spoiler: Yue Ayase]] is shown to be using shadow magic.

* Pumpkin Doryu, from ''Manga/RaveMaster''

* [[MeaningfulName Yami]] from ''Manga/BlackClover'' uses Dark Magic, covering his blade in darkness to launch black crescent-shaped blasts or suck magical attacks into a black hole. Because Dark Magic is infamously slow to cast, he uses it more as a supplement for his [[MagicKnight swordsmanship]].

** Polpo from ''Manga/VentoAureo'' has the Stand, Black Sabbath, which can exist and move through shadows, and is weakened by sunlight.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': in the Sinnoh League, we have Tobias, whose signature Pokemon is [[spoiler:the legendary Darkrai]]. Possibly lampshaded as an ActorAllusion in the dub.

* Users of the Darkus attribute in ''Franchise/{{Bakugan}}'' include Ren Krawler with Darkus Linehalt, Alice Gehabich with Darkus Hydranoid [[spoiler:and Reaper]], and Spectra Prove with Darkus Infinity Helios.
* ''Manga/ZatchBell'' has Brago, Sherry's Mamodo. His spells are based both on dark energy and gravity manipulation, and from the very beginning was noted to be towards the top of the pecking order.

* ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'':
** Takane Goodman, #2 Darkness (Shadow) as a form of GreenLanternRing. Prone to getting stripped, as the series has stripping disarm attacks; and when she tried to counter that by making her clothing out of Shadow, she ran up against Asuna and her magic cancel power. She usually uses her power to create golems for attack and defense, the other shadow user who has appeared used his power more like a Green Lantern, forming blades, etc. She is definitely one of the good guys, if a little over serious.
** The Magic World Arc introduces Kagetarou, who ''acts'' like an antagonist at first [[spoiler:but turns out to be a buddy of Rakan]]'s. There's also [[BigBad Fate Averruncus']] accomplice, [[spoiler:Dynamis, who can summons swarms of Invincible Minor Minions and a humongous EldritchAbomination, is stated to be almost as powerful as Fate himself, and tried to kill Nodoka and came damn close to succeeding, wiping out two of her friends who tried to protect her the first time, and only being driven off the second time by Setsuna (who hacked his right hand off at the forearm) and Kaede]].
*** [[spoiler:His personality and temperament are much less extreme than originally suggested, however. He's actually fairly ''reasonable.'']]
*** Negi's Magia Erebea may count as well, since, basically, it is still black magic, he just prefers lightning powers over darkness. Even Rakan notes that Negi's Affinity lies in the dark side.
*** There's ''also'' Kotaro Inugami, who has at his disposal the ability to summon vast swarms of autonomous spirit wolves made of darkness/shadow.
** In Negima's sequel, ''Manga/UQHolder'' [[spoiler: Yue Ayase]] is shown to be using shadow magic.

* Users of the Darkus attribute in ''{{Franchise/Bakugan}}'' include Ren Krawler with Darkus Linehalt, Alice Gehabich with Darkus Hydranoid [[spoiler:and Reaper]], and Spectra Prove with Darkus Infinity Helios.