The Eminence in Shadow (Episode 25) – He Who Pulls the Strings
Yukime presented the counterfeit bank notes to Shadow… I mean John Smith. It’s go-time! Before long, Shadow Garden and the MCA have become aware of the counterfeit money and are desperate to know who’s behind it!
The Eminence in Shadow (Episode 25) – He Who Pulls the Strings
What did you watch?
We’re five episodes into the second season of The Eminence in Shadow and I’m already starting to worry about what I’ll do when it’s over. As much as I love binge-watching a series, it’s great having a show that you are looking forward to each week. At the moment, I’m lucky enough to have three of them, which sets the following season up for disappointment. What are the chances that I find three more shows as good as these ones? I guess, I’ll just have to wait and see, but for now, let’s just enjoy what we have!
What happened?
The Major Corporate Alliance is determined to bring Mitsugoshi down by any means necessary. However, they have no idea that they are up against Shadow Garden, and Mitsugoshi wants to make sure that they never make that connection. So, when the MCA sends assassins to capture the manager Luna (Gamma), she asks to take care of them herself. Alpha would prefer if Nu handled things, but Gamma was quite insistent. Reluctantly, Alpha lets her go, she is seventeen, after all! What? She attacks Leaf One, the first leaf of the Clovers head-on, and he’s a little shocked. Her fighting style is horrendous, however, she was able to work out his style within seconds and adjusts her style accordingly, however, it’s still horrendous. Then, she trips over a piece of debris from the wanton destruction she’s causing. Amazingly, Leaf One tries to leave but is hit by an accidental attack from Gamma.
Gettan is disappointed about the news of the failed attack and is then told about the counterfeit money entering the capital. He’s disappointed because it had been his plan to do just that to destabilise the economy and bring Mitsugoshi to its knees. Who would do such a thing? Maybe it was Mitsugoshi. Either way, he needed to get the gold out of the depository to ensure that the Cult of Diablos is not financially crippled by this plan. He’s also hoping that one day, he will find the person that blinded him and get his revenge. It was some kid with a bag on his head, calling himself the Fancy Bandit Slayer…
What did you think?
There have been some amazing episodes this season, but none have made me laugh as much as this one. I loved the interactions between Alpha, Gamma, and Nu as they tried to decide who would take care of their intruders. What? Gamma is hilarious. She’s like a tank. Almost zero fighting skills or agility, but she can take a hit like it’s nothing. Then, we had the revelation that Gettan killed Yukime’s family and that Gettan was injured by Cid. My guess is that the two things are related. Cid probably saved Yukime from Gettan and at some point, she will realise it, the same way Rose (or Agent 666) realised Shadow was the Fancy Bandit Slayer. I also had to laugh that no one could tell which was the fake bank note and which was the real one. Brilliant!
What was your favourite moment?
It had to be the train ride at the end where Rose, Agent 664, and Agent 665 tried to intercept the counterfeit money from the Lawless City but ended up tangled in magical threads. It’s funny, but Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End just had an incident with unbreakable magical threads. If only Shadow Garden had seen that episode… Anyhow, it was good for a number of reasons. Firstly, we got to see Rose adjusting to her new life in Shadow Garden. I know we only just saw her in the Lawless City a couple of episodes ago, but the interactions between her, 664, and 665 were fun. Of course, nothing compares to the sheer bravado that Agent Smith shows when he captures them and then tosses them from the train. I think Cid is enjoying himself too much.
Who was the most impactful character?
I’m not sure there was a single most impactful character, because this episode seemed to focus on laying down some work that I believe will tie everything together. In the last episode, I mentioned how I thought that Delta and Gettan were somehow linked and we know that Yukime and Gettan are linked. Gettan is also linked to Cid which means he’s probably linked to Yukime too. Of course, Gettan is also linked to the Cult of Diablos, which means the Major Corporate Alliance going up against Mitsugoshi is actually the Cult of Diable versus Shadow Garden although neither wants to let the other know. It’s a wonderfully convoluted mess and I can’t wait to see it unravel, especially as I believe Alpha will come to the conclusion that Shadow was showing them that they had lost their direction since they were focused too much on Mitsugoshi and not stopping the Cult, even though they were without realising.
What have you learned?
I’ve talked before about how I love it when characters misunderstand something and that ends up making the story that much more interesting. Well, coincidences are up there too. However, there is one caveat with a coincidence – it can’t solve a problem. When the hero stumbles upon the answer it can be incredibly annoying and often undoes all the actual work they’ve done before that. So, if you’re using coincidences they need to make things harder for the hero or make some unlikely connection to someone or something that happened before. Of course, I say unlikely, but in reality, coincidences happen all the time. I’ve bumped into family members on vacations in different countries. More than once. I hate it when people say coincidences are unrealistic in stories because they happen in real life. This just adds to realism and makes it more entertaining.
Other posts in the series
Series Information
| English Title | The Eminence in Shadow |
| Japanese Title | Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! |
| Genres | Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Isekai, Magic |
| Demographic | Seinen |
Anime
Season One
| Season | Season One |
| Released | Fall 2022 |
| Animation Studios | Nexus |
| Episodes | 20 |
Bonus Posts
| Analysis | How Much Does Cid Know? |
| Lists | Five Best Fights |
Season Two
| Season | Season Two |
| Released | Fall 2023 |
| Animation Studios | Nexus |
| Episodes | 12 |
| 21 | The Lawless City |
| 22 | The Haven |
| 23 | The Hour of Awakening |
| 24 | The Mask of Falsehood |
| 25 | He Who Pulls the Strings |
| 26 | John Smith |
| 27 | Something Precious |
| 28 | The Dragon’s Tears |
| 29 | The Key |
| 30 | Caged Bird |
| 31 | Determination |
| 32 | Highest |
Manga
| Series | The Eminence in Shadow | |
| Author | Daisuke Aizawa | |
| Artist | Anri Sakano | |
| Volumes | Ongoing | Chapters |
| 1 | We Lurk in the Darkness and Hunt Down Shadows | 1-4 |
| 2 | I Am Atomic! | 5-8 |
| 3 | Hidden Normie Technique | 9-12 |
| 4 | Battles Are Like a Conversation | 13-16 |
| 5 | A Memory I Never Want to Lose | 17-21 |
| 6 | What Beautiful Swordplay… | 22-25 |
| 7 | A Fancy Bandit Slayer | 26-29 |
| 8 | The True Aberration!!! | 30-33 |
| 9 | He Who Destroys All and Rebuilds It Anew! | 34-37 |
| 10 | You Stole What I Hold Most Dear! | 38-41 |
I don’t know if I tell you this but it seems Cid has been really pushing the limits of how much he can abuse his relationships and this stems from him being cocky.
For a majority of Season 1, Cid just thought that everything was just one big game to his fantasies. However, it’s during the Bushin Festival where his cockiness was born from fighting both Iris and Beatrix. There was never any thought that the festival was an elaborate game by Shadow Garden, Cid knew this was real and he willingly chose to fight one of the biggest authorities in Midgar and won.
And after duking it out with the Blood Queen, Cid has become a bit full of himself, to the point he’s gambling with Mitsugoshi’s money.
Yeah. I can see that. I’m hoping it doesn’t get that far, but Cid could use a kick in the pants. Whether anyone could do that to him or not is yet to be seen.
At the moment, he’s pretty much oblivious to the actual story which is kind of hilarious at the same time. It’s going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
I could be wrong, but my understanding was that Alpha and the others were actually using the conflict between their company and the MCA to draw the Cult’s pieces into action, ie, to wage their war. I would imagine that when the collapse comes and both sides suffer financially for it, Shadow Garden will come out ahead while the Cult loses a lot more, so they’ll probably say Cid was a genius again, and unconcerned with financial success if it means bringing the Cult to ruin. Like a game of chess, when it costs a pawn to take a queen and a knight.
For sure. They are always thinking about the Cult so there is that. I don’t think they would want to lose Mitsugoshi though as a secret organization requires a lot of funds to run. An acceptable lose maybe, but it wouldn’t be without repercussions. I think the fact that Cid appears to be going against them may have some say in how they see his actions. I don’t know what that is yet, but I think they’ll assume they were doing something wrong and Cid came in to correct their course.