The Eminence in Shadow

Episode 13

The majority of this episode is just a series of fight scenes, one after another—and that's not a complaint. Delta's fight against Nelson is hilarious. He gloats about how easy it will be to beat her, and Delta just keeps tearing his clones apart. It doesn't matter to her that her magic is so low that the best she can make clothing-wise is a micro-bikini; she's having fun ripping him apart countless times.

While Delta has been a bit of a joke character so far—doing little more than yawn and kill things before she's supposed to—in this fight, we get to see why she is a member of the Seven Shades. She is their powerhouse, the person you call in when you need a building leveled or a couple hundred people killed. You don't call her in for anything less. You just let her sleep or do whatever else she wants.

Moreover, from her personality, we get our first power ranking of the Seven Shades. Delta doesn't take orders from Epsilon or Beta. It's only Alpha she listens to (even amid bloodlust). Given that Delta is a wolfkin—i.e., a pack animal—it appears that Alpha is, well, the Alpha of their little pack. This implies that, as powerful as Delta is, Alpha is stronger. Meanwhile, Beta and Epsilon are weaker.

On the other side of the story, we get Cid and his battle against first, a group of zombies, and second, against the shade of the hero Olivier herself. And while the fights are both funny and action-filled, what we learn from them is really important. Despite her compulsive lying and verbal jabs in his direction, Aurora really likes Cid. Not the background character or The Eminence in Shadow but the young man enjoying an adventure with her.

Now to be clear, by “like,” I don't necessarily mean romantically. She's not swooning over him like Rose or Beta. Instead, through the memories we see of her life, Aurora was always alone—whether in the laboratory or on the battlefield. But now, a millennia after her death, when all that remains of her is a fractured memory, she's not alone. She has someone willing to protect and fight for her—even when it looks like he's up against impossible odds. Simply put, she's found her first friend.

To her, this is more important than literally anything. She'll even help the cult—something she's been fighting against for a thousand years—to save his life. The memories she has made with him are simply a gift worth more than anything else.

Moreover, this episode also shows what she is afraid of: Olivier. Up until this point, nothing has phased her. Even without magic, she and Cid fought off an endless horde of zombies, making little more than light quips. But when Olivier arrives, we see her break. She panics—so sure is she that neither she nor Cid has a chance when it comes to fighting the hero.

And what's great about this is that, frankly, it pisses Cid off. Before Olivier shows up, he promises Aurora that he'll set her free if they wait a few minutes. Seeing her suddenly doubt him gets under his skin in a way we haven't seen before. After all, the key to being the “Eminence in Shadow” is being drastically stronger than anyone else. To say he can't beat Olivier is the same as saying he is not qualified to be The Eminence in Shadow—to play the game that is the end-all-be-all of his entire life. It doesn't matter if he has his magic or not. If he can't win this fight, then he is nothing. And he'll be damned if he lets that be the case.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I did not expect them to draw this arc out to a fifth episode, but I'm here for it.

• Just how little clothing can Delta have before its obscene?

• Cid was clearly pushing down rather than pulling up on the sword in the stone—and even then, he almost broke the darn thing.

• In this episode, we get a good look at Omega and Kai—which is the best kind of fan service. They are both mentioned in the books, but to the best of my knowledge, they've never been drawn before this anime.

• Oof. Omega and Kai know Epsilon's secret. They are not going to have a good time.

• It was only a frame each, but it was nice to see Omega and Kai's pasts before they met shadow.

• Can I say I feel a bit robbed that we didn't get to see either Delta or Alpha fight Olivier? It would be nice to know how they stack up to the legendary hero—and based on how well they would have fared, we could have seen how they measure up to a magicless Cid.

• On the other hand, it's nice to have intelligent characters who have clear goals and don't need to recklessly push their luck—especially when they're already operating under their full power.

• In this week's Kage-jitsu!, Delta gets ripped!

The Eminence in Shadow is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Richard is an anime and video game journalist with over a decade of experience living and working in Japan. For more of his writings, check out his Twitter and blog.