The Eminence in Shadow

The Eminence in Shadow is an isekai comedy anime about a boy who wants to be the secret mastermind behind everything, and accidentally becomes one. It adapts Daisuke Aizawa's light novels, illustrated by Touzai, and studio Nexus has animated it under director Kazuya Nakanishi since 2022. Reborn in a fantasy world, Cid Kagenou plays a forgettable noble by day and, as Shadow, leads Shadow Garden, a secret order he founded to fight an evil cult he made up for the drama.

The joke that powers every episode is that the cult is real. Cid's followers, led by the elf Alpha and including the novelist Beta and the feral Delta, believe his improvised speeches are the plans of a genius, and turn his role-play into a global intelligence network while he has no idea. The show plays both layers at once: the staging, lighting and score treat Shadow's entrances with full seriousness, while Cid's inner monologue is a teenager rating his own poses. His signature move, "I am atomic", turned into a meme because the anime commits to it so completely. Fans divide on Cid himself; some find a hero who never learns the truth tiresome, but the comedy depends on that gap, and the cast around him carries the emotion he refuses to feel.

Season 1 ran for 20 episodes across two cours, from October 2022 to February 2023, and season 2 followed with 12 episodes in autumn 2023, opening in the Lawless City. HIDIVE streams both in English. The next instalment is a film, The Eminence in Shadow: Lost Echoes, which sends Cid back to modern Japan; as of October 2026 it is dated for Japanese cinemas in 2027 with no exact day, and no third TV season has been announced.

It suits viewers who enjoy overpowered heroes but want the genre's habits played for laughs, and anyone who liked the theatrical villainy of Overlord. Our list of anime like Solo Leveling places it with the power fantasies, and our best isekai anime ranking explains why its self-awareness earns it a place.