YMMV / The Eminence in Shadow

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Given how utterly insane Cid is, it's hard to tell if what he says, especially in his own thoughts, are true.
    • As Shadow, he tells Sherry that she doesn't need to know anything after killing her foster father. This can either be interpreted as him just wanting to say something cool or he genuinely did not want to tell her the truth that her foster father is actually her mother's murderer, especially considering how disgusted he was upon hearing him talk about the deed.
    • In Episode 20, before he's about to fire his I Am Atomic attack upon Midgar, his mental scape has his child self seemingly saying something to him that causes him to direct the attack elsewhere. Fans who had read the lip movements suggests that he was saying the Japanese word, "Yamero" which is translated as "Stop". Could that his conscience calling him to stop?
  • Did Delta murder her brothers out of her Might Makes Right beliefs or sheer resentment or both?
  • With the reveal that Zeta is planning to resurrect Diabolos to make Cid immortal and expected to be discarded for her actions, are her antagonisms towards her fellow Shades, Alpha and Delta genuine or an attempt to push them away so that they won't feel guilt for killing someone they saw as family.
• Angst? What Angst?: Sherry doesn't seem distraught at all over her stepfather's death in the manga adaptation when she could barely keep it together in the light novel and anime since this is deliberately downplayed to fit in with the Denser and Wackier style.
• Base-Breaking Character: Cid/Shadow. Some readers love the approach on his character, being completely unique compared to the now bland Stock Light-Novel Hero and deeming him one of the funniest characters but a portion of the readers denounces Cid as the worst protagonist due to his stupid behavior and selfish actions.
  • Another divisive Cid/Shadow trait is his asexuality. For some it can be refreshing to have an Isekai protagonist not interested in romance. On the other hand, he is constantly surrounded by attractive female characters who are more often than not in love with him. This has left some fans wishing for Cid to start showing more interest in women rather than leave the main female cast in a perpetually one sided relationship with a man who won't reciprocate their feelings.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: One of the colored illustrations of volume 6 includes Cid in a chibi artstyle, while all other characters are drawn normally. This comes off as very odd with many readers initially thinking Cid somehow became younger when said Art Shift was actually done as a reference to Case Closed with a Captain Ersatz version being referenced in the story.
• Broken Base: Just as Cid himself, the series in general is a bit of a Love It or Hate It affair. It follows a lot of the same beats as many mediocre isekai power fantasies, and while it doesn't take itself seriously at all and can be considered as something of a parody of the genre, unlike works like KonoSuba or Re:Zero, it doesn't really mock or dismantle the usual tropes. Instead, in what can only be described as a passionate love letter to terrible isekai, it runs away with them and blows them so out of proportion that the audience no longer knows whether to cringe or to cheer loudly. If the series gels well with you, you will find it in equal measure absolutely hilarious and pure awesome and won't be able to get enough of Cid/Shadow's edgy-ass shenanigans. If it doesn't, it's just another bad isekai power fantasy, only even more shameless than the usual fare.
• Catharsis Factor: Volume 2/Season 1 ended with Duke Perv Asshat getting away for his crimes, though he suffered a few losses^note He lost his puppet king and one of his arms had been injured by Rose.. In Volume 4/Season 2, Perv finally got the full dose of karma, starting with having a Villainous Breakdown after losing an important artifact that he's supposed to hand over to his superiors, his crimes finally exposed to the people of the Oriana Kingdom, his collaborators turning on him and finally, losing his life by Mordred.
• Common Knowledge: Due to the lack of explanation on how the ranking system in Shadow Garden works, several fans believe that the Numbers refer to all members of Shadow Garden aside from Shadow and the Seven Shadows. Master of Garden shows it actually refers to a group of especially skilled members, who obtained a Rank Up and are thus members below the Seven Shadows in authority. This was further compounded by the fact it is also shown that Nu, Chi, and Omega started as No. 93, 111, and 122 respectively.
• Complete Monster: Crimson is a brutal vampire supremacist who corrupts and forces the kindly Elizabeth, the vampire progenitor, into waging war with humanity, leading to the destruction of several countries and countless dead. With Elizabeth sealed away, Crimson rules Outlaw City as a place of horrid atrocities as he awaits the time to revive her. Crimson sets his minions to kill off the humans of the city while planning to reawaken Elizabeth in order to cull humanity and put them under the foot of vampirekind.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • Cid. It doesn't matter if he's not in his right mind, the guy does many amazing feats that common sense is blown out the window.
  • Delta. Her fights are one of the most jaw-dropping highlights in the series, second only to her master. Once she enters into "wild mode", be ready for some ultra-violence.
• Crossing the Line Twice: Cid screwing over his loyal followers to make a quick buck, terrible. Them misunderstanding his actions and accidentally robbing him blind of his gains, hilarious.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Claire, Cid's overbearing older sister. She tends to be the source of many of the funniest moments of the series and the fact that she is seemingly the one character who keeps Cid in check quickly endeared her with readers.
  • Delta is the most popular member of the Seven Shadows, even more so than Alpha. This is likely due to her fights, her cute yet bloodthirsty personality, and her having the most stunning physique among the seven.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Due to confusion on what the Numbers were referred to in Shadow Garden, people call Nu, Lambda, Chi, and Omega "Named Numbers" to differentiate them from the other members, who have actual numbers assigned to them as their name.
  • The Seven Shadows are also called the "Seven Shades" by fans to differentiate their name from Shadow.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: One popular idea common in fan works is that Cid discovers the Cult of Diabolos he "made up" actually does exist and Shadow Garden isn't playing pretend like he thought.
• Genius Bonus: The morse code Eta sends out at the end of season 1 actually spelled out "To be continued".
• LGBT Fanbase: It's easy for the audience to see Cid as asexual-aromantic given his blatant obliviousness and even aversion to romance. Not to mention the overwhelming amount of evidence that his only "love" is becoming the Eminence in Shadow since he's Not Distracted by the Sexy and definitely doesn't recognize romantic gestures or cues.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "The frenzy has begun. The moon is red. We are out of time."^Explanation A line Cid hears Maria utter during the Blood Moon arc, and finds it so awesome that he spends the entire remainder of the arc spouting it like a Broken Record to absolutely everyone as Shadow. At some point he even ends up shamelessly saying it to Maria herself, who somehow fails to recognize her own line being cited right back to her. Any time a discussion of this arc, and sometimes even the series in general, comes up, expect to see at least one person quoting this line or a corrupted version of it.
  • Due to Cid focussing on maintaining a low profile as a mob, many fans jokingly state that Kanade is the perfect wife for him due to her also being an unremarkable mob along with being somewhat of a Distaff Counterpart to him (without his hidden powers and persona).
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Holding the entire school hostage is already a heinous act in and of itself, but topping that was Ruslan murdering Sherry's mother and using the poor girl for his own selfish ends. After that, he truly deserved to be killed by Cid.
  • Akane's brother, Akira crosses this after experimenting on his own sister and the result was the rampaging Akane slaughtering almost every citizen at Messiah.
  • Reina Oriana was at first seemed like a hapless hostage of the Cult of Diabolos but it was then revealed she was a conspirator, not only having her husband brainwashed but also wanting her daughter, Rose dead so that she can be together with her fiancée.
  • Eliza crosses it by showing no remorse over the fact her experiments with the Bomb Collar in the White Mist caused the deaths of several students.
• Narm: It's hard not the chuckle whenever Perv Ashat's name is mentioned.
• Play-Along Meme: Fans of the series like to pretend Cid is the mob character he emulates and not recognize him at all while also treating Shadow and his other personas as entirely separate characters from him. Some even go as far as to extend this to his alter egos calling Mundane Mann, John Smith, or Jack the Ripper as interesting villains that could give Shadow a challenge.
• Signature Scene:
  • Every time "I AM ATOMIC" is chanted by Cid.
  • The "Excalibur" scene is often mentioned as Fanservice done right by the viewers.
  • The entirety of episode 20 is often considered the Growing the Beard moment for the series and has even the source readers blown away in comparison to how dull the fight is in both light novel and manga
• Tainted by the Preview: Many fans are disappointed by the fact that the preview of episode 8 of season 2 shows it's an anime-exclusive episode featuring fanservice of Shadow Garden members rather than an episode that could expand the events of the main story. This is not helped by the fact that Cid wouldn't be featured much with his two mob friends Skel and Po filling in instead.
• Unexpected Character: Considering the fact that both Zeta and Eta were not physically shown in the novel or manga in spite of being part of the Seven Shadows with the latter being mentioned several times in volumes 3 & 4 and the former not even being mentioned at all, it is rather unexpected that they would make their full debut in the Animated Adaptation with the former even gaining her own profile and explanation for what her role in Shadow Garden is.

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