Eminence in Shadow Review

Overall Rating 6.5 out of 10 - Very Good at times and meh at others

I more or less recommend watching.

Eminence in Shadow had a lot of potential, but unfortunately miss most of the marks. It is still enjoyable when they focus on right characters and tight themes.

The good about this show it Lord Shadow himself as well as his harem/organization called Shadow Garden. Name is stupid but all girls there are very loyal to their Lord Shadow and most of them are cute. I especially like Gamma, Delta and Eta are also ok.

Together they fight a secret undercover war against Cult of Diabolos (against stupid name) and save the world from their cruel experiments. That is almost like a simplified Code Geass done right this time. Simplified but good enough to earn 8 out of 10 on my ranking.

Unfortunately, they had to screw this successful formula with a few annoying characters who take too much screen time. Alexia ark wanted me to drop the show, she kept showing up in later episodes as well. 

Cid's background persona takes too much screentime as well. Show clearly goes too far in showing us how far he goes to hide the fact that he is really powerful. Sure, Lelouch did that too, but that did not take half of the screentime. Aside from that Ashford scenes were funny in their own way, but here it is hardly anything but abuse of Cid that drags way too long.

That said, despite a significant number of flaws that drag the score down by more than one point, at its best moments this is still a very solid show. Shadow Gadren Girls are cute, loyal and obedient, just how I like them. Some side characters, such as that librarian-scholar from second ark as well as Diabolos-chan (Aurora) are cute as well.

Unlike Guilty Crown, that gets everything wrong, Eminence in Shadow is a solid effort and I recommend watching it. You can skip most of the first ark (episodes 1 to 4) to see less Alexia and improve your experience.