The Eminence in Shadow (Volume 5) – A Memory I Never Want to Lose
Shadow defeated Aurora in the Goddess’ Trial and now finds himself standing before a door. He ignores it and runs away, but the door is always there. Reluctantly, he steps inside and finds Aurora waiting for him.
The Eminence in Shadow (Volume 5) – A Memory I Never Want to Lose
What happened?
The door led Cid to the Sanctuary, a magical place that grew up around the severed arm of Diablos many years ago. Inside, he found Aurora or her memories. She had been trapped there and was hoping for a chance to finally fade away. Cid was that chance, which is why she called to him in the Goddess’ Trial. He agreed to help her escape but to do that they would need to go deeper into the Sanctuary. After passing through several more memories, the Sanctuary turned on them creating monsters to try to stop them. Cid wasn’t about to give up, even with his magic being severely restricted.
Meanwhile, Alpha led Shadow Garden into the Sanctuary too with their prisoner, the acting Archbishop. They discovered that Alpha must be a descendant of the hero Olivier who had been wrongly portrayed as a man in the fairy tales. They discovered that the heroes were tricked by the Cult of Diablos so that they could obtain the arm. With that, they have been producing pills that grant them immortality, provided they continue to take them. They are only able to produce twelve a year. Once they have all the information they want and Delta has killed the Archbishop’s clones they leave. The rest would be up to Cid!
What did you think?
One big difference between the manga and the anime was the depiction of the Sanctuary. In the anime, it almost felt like a futuristic laboratory which put it kind of out of place in the fantasy world that Cid was living in. I wondered if that was deliberate to show us that the world is not entirely as it seems. Then, in the manga, it felt like a castle or dungeon which was more in keeping with the overall style of the story. I’m not sure what that means for the story though, especially as we have two contrasting visions.
We definitely found out more about the Cult of Diablos and Aurora in the manga which was nice. Aurora was definitely Diablos and she asked Cid to kill her if he ever met the rest of her. That makes me think that Diablos was just a tool from the beginning, possibly corrupted by an evil organisation that wanted to use her powers. I think that possibly gives some credibility to the idea that Aurora is the one responsible for his rebirth and the way the world seems to fall into place for him. There’s still lots to be resolved which is great and also, we’ve just started the Bushin Festival where Cid competes as Mundane Mann. Great times!
Volume highlights
Other posts in the series
Series Information
| English Title | The Eminence in Shadow |
| Japanese Title | Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! |
| Author | Daisuke Aizawa |
| Artist | Anri Sakano |
| 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
| Volumes | Ongoing |
| 1 | We Lurk in the Darkness and Hunt Down Shadows |
| 2 | I Am Atomic! |
| 3 | Hidden Normie Technique |
| 4 | Battles Are Like a Conversation |
| 5 | A Memory I Never Want to Lose |
| 6 | What Beautiful Swordplay… |
| 7 | A Fancy Bandit Slayer |
| 8 | The True Aberration!!! |
| 9 | He Who Destroys All and Rebuilds it Anew! |
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