The Eminence in Shadow – 28 – Unleash the Dragon

With the Currency arc concluded, this week omits Cid entirely, which I’m honestly okay with as I’m still mad at him for the mess he made. Instead we follow Skel and Po as they find six VIP passes to the grand opening of the ultra-exclusive Mitsugoshi Hot Springs Land. Eager to go on a date with hot chicks, they stop by Mitsugoshi and end up on Nu’s bad side … until they mention Cid’s name.

Nu takes this to mean Cid called the Seven Shadows to assemble. At the meeting of the seven, Alpha presumes he has some purpose in mind for which a group date is a cover. It may even have something to do with the “Dragon’s Tears”, something he babbled on about when they were younger and led to them discovering the hot spring in the first place.

The only thing is, there are only three passes for seven Shadows. As all of them are eager to join Cid, they engage in a fierce battle … of rock-paper-scissors to determine who gets to go.

The victors are Beta, Delta, and the rarely-seen Zeta, who are unenthusiastic to say the least upon seeing that Cid isn’t with Skel and Po. Still, the boys, led by the teachings of Count Virgin Boy and his World’s Best Love Tips series assure them he’s just running late. (Elizabeth and Mary, however, are also attending the grand opening)

Somewhat placated, the girls get changed into their cute swimsuits, and we learn that Alpha, Gamma, Epsilon, and Eta are also there to observe, with lesser members of Garden serving as staff. In their intense cat-dog volleyball fight, Zeta and Delta soon dispatch Skel and Po.

As the day rolls on and Cid fails to show, Alpha ponders whether he isn’t coming on purpose, and that his true intention was for the Shadows to simply kick back and have fun at the hot springs after so many long and punishing battles.

That said, she doesn’t claim to be able to ever fully comprehend Lord Shadow’s thoughts. We do get a nice shadow puppet play directed by Lambda that tells the tale of a princess that befriends a dragon; a tale that may carry within it the secret to what their lord truly seeks.

Once Skel and Po regain consciousness, they continue to follow Count Virgin Boy, who assures them that the girls only ditched them to determine who gets who, and that custom demands that they try to peep on them when they’re in the girls’ only bath.

When Eta’s anti-peeping system blinds the boys, one of their tears falls into the water and has an effect. When Eta turns the system against Beta and she sheds a tear, it has an even greater effect. The entire complex gleams with golden light, and a great water dragon emerges from the water.

With the apparent purpose of Shadow’s summons now clear, the Seven Shadows transform into their work clothes, albeit swapping their usual dark colors for white, red, and gold in order to maintain separation between Garden and Mitsugoshi.

The Seven Shadows dance among the water, Gamma trips and bonks her nose, and Alpha delivers a coup-de-grace to the dragon, which briefly re-appears before Beta in its golden form. Apparently the dragon’s soul had been trapped in the hot springs, and Shadow wanted them to rescue it.

While they may well have interpreted all of this out of thin air—there’s little to no indication Cid knows or cares about any of this and likely forgot what he said about Dragon’s Tears when he was younger—the Shadows believe their work for the day is done, which means getting back to the serious business of relaxing and having fun.

As for Skel and Po, they end up forgotten by their dates and don’t even clearly recall themselves exactly what happened on their date, only that they’re not ready to give up. Their faith in Count Virgin Boy, just as the Shadows’ faith in their lord, remains ironclad and unswerving.

The Eminence in Shadow – 27 – The End of Winter or Something

This week starts, appropriately enough, with a birds-eye view of the capital covered in mournful snow. Alpha sits by the fire in her bare feet, utterly checked out now that Shadow has forsaken her. But, as Gamma visits her, she knows the reason: he discarded them because they couldn’t reach his heights. She blames herself!

But then Nu arrives with confirmed reports that Gettan has Cult ties, and the Cult was planning to release counterfeit bills. Suddenly, the gears turn in Alpha’s head and she perks up: what if Shadow did what he did in order to steal a match on the Cult and protect Mitsugoshi … protect all of them?

As she considers this, Beta arrives with a letter from Lord Shadow decoded by her and Eta. Before we even hear it’s contents, we know it’s more good news for Alpha that soothes her heart. In the letter, Shadow cops to having to “play the villain” in order to take it to the Cult while maintaining distance from Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi.

He even mentions that all of the gold taken from the MCA during the credit crisis is stored where they helped rescue Claire. “In the end you’ll understand”—Alpha couldn’t accept those words back when she was fighting him, but they were true: she does understand what he did and why he did it.

As for Delta, Alpha can sense she’s waiting outside like a dog that knows it did something wrong, but Alpha, Beta, and Gamma welcome her back with open arms. If she was doing a “hush-hush secret mission” for “Boss” (i.e. eliminating Juggernaut), Alpha is fine with that, because she’s back home safe.

Needless to say, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma have achieved new levels of delusion where their lord is concerned. In truth, I’m not even sure Cid expected Beta and Eta to decode his message, which was written in Japanese after all. I believe he didn’t, because when he reaches the facility where the gold is stored, there isn’t a single coin in sight.

Now we know it’s because Shadow Garden misinterpreted his note, went to this location and took the gold. But when Yukime’s attendants arrive to tell “John Smith” that they fear Yukime has been taken by Gettan, they inadvertently provide him with a scapegoat: It’s Gettan who stole his gold!

Yukime is exactly where she wants to be: standing in judgment of Gettan. However, her first strike doesn’t kill him, and because he’s a Cult member, he cheats by swallowing a magic pill in order and slashes her in the back again. But before he can kill her, John Smith arrives, and proves more than a worthy opponent.

In fact, as expected Gettan can do absolutely nothing against Smith, and he even mentions that this awesome power reminds him of the one who took his eyes. But Cid doesn’t care about any of that. He wants to know where his gold is, and keeps punching Gettan until he tells him.

Of course, Smith is not so clear as to say “I want my gold coins.” Instead, he keeps repeating his desire to “retrieve something very precious to me.” Both Gettan and Yukime believe that “something precious” is her. So with his last breath, he entrusts Smith with Yukime’s care.

Cid walks to where Yukime is standing, she embraces him, and he heals her back. She recognizes the magic and realizes that this is the same boy who saved her life back at her village. This brings tears of joy and gratitude to her eyes, but while she’s right about this being the same guy, she’s dead wrong about his intentions.

You see, because Gettan was choking on his own blood and teeth while saying those final words, Cid thinks he said the gold is buried beneath the snow (as the yuki in Yukime also means “snow”). He walked to Yukime because that’s the spot he thought Gettan gestured to. Sorry girl, he just wants that money.

Garter is arrested by Iris as the mastermind behind the distribution of counterfeit bills and disruption of the market. Yukime rejoins her attendants, telling them the “compassionate” Mr. Smith stayed behind to give Gettan a proper burial, unaware he’s only using that shovel to dig for gold that’s not there.

Alpha appears before Yukime to deliver a letter that Gettan wrote to her which was found in his office. She explains how the Cult got its hooks in him just like it did countless other people with something or someone to lose and proceeded to corrupt and destroy him.

Alpha goes on to reveal that Shadow Garden and Mitsugoshi are one and the same, and that the Garden, led by Mr. Smith AKA Shadow, work tirelessly to bring down the Cult and ruin its plans. Thanks to him, they were able to retreive enough gold to end the credit crisis, and with the MCA gone, Mitsugoshi now stands alone atop the economic mountain.

Far from denouncing Smith/Shadow, Yukime accepts Alpha’s offer for her to join Shadow Garden, with Mitsugoshi as the front, and her organization as the underbelly. Considering Shadow saved her not once but twice and allowed her to get her revenge (or at least closure), Yukime is happy to accept.

The only loser in this whole ordeal, besides the MCA and Gettan, is Cid. Or is he? Sure, he wasn’t able to topple Mitsugoshi and indeed his actions ended up making them even stronger than before. And now matter how much he and Delta dig, he won’t find any gold in them snow-covered hills.

But Cid still won, because he still has the love and admiration of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and the others. He doesn’t necessarily deserve it, and he’ll certainly never fully appreciate it, but he has it, and that makes him a winner in my books.

That said, as far as he knows Alpha and the others are still furious with him, so after describing Santa Claus as a demon lord an villain of the highest order (a hilarious exchange), he announces to Delta that he’ll be going on a “journey of self-discovery”, with the goal of returning nonchalantly without apologizing to find that time has healed all wounds.

I never should have doubted Eminence. What this conclusion lacked in awesome combat, it more than made up for with its expertly wrought and highly amusing web of misinterpretations and misunderstandings. I had a big smile on my face as everything fell into place.

Cid broke Alpha’s heart last week, but now it’s whole again, and she and the others are more adoring of him than ever. It doesn’t matter if those weren’t his intentions. He doesn’t know it, but when he returns, Alpha will have a hard time not smiling.

The Eminence in Shadow – 26 – Once It’s All Over, You’ll Understand

Episode 26 usually marks the end of a two-cour anime, but thankfully we’ve got another half-cour left of Eminence to enjoy before the second season is out. And things escalate quickly this week, with Alpha and Gamma dispatching Delta to deal with John Smith. It’s reasonable that they assume even if he can defeat Shadows in the 660-range, he can’t beat the fourth Greek letter.

Smith, who is reading his journal of random notes, suddenly sees something moving extremely fast in parallel to the train. It suddenly maks a beeline for his cabin and blasts through the window. Smith’s magical threads stop her in her tracks, but Delta is able to burst through them, and even blast the roof off the train car.

Shadow counters by using the threads to bring all of the wreckage of the car on top of Delta, paralyzing her. She lies there under hundreds of pounds of metal, growling, until she has a good sniff at her foe and realizes it’s Boss! Unlike the 660s, visual disguises won’t work on her canine nose.

While I’m sure Cid didn’t intend for the Seven to discover him so quickly, he’s not surprised by how quickly they did and takes it in stride. He reminds Delta that an order from Lord Shadow countermands any order from Lady Alpha (whose anger Delta legit fears), and gives her a new mission: go hunt Juggernaut in the Lawless City.

That Delta does not return from her assassination mission, and when a lock of her hair is found, Gamma and Alpha expect the worst: Delta couldn’t have disobeyed, so she must have been killed. Gamma also reports the worsening credit situation, and a furious Alpha realizes Smith’s plan was never to profit off the market, but to seize it in its entirety once they and the MCA crumbled.

Gettan gets a visit from two Cult reps, who blame him for letting things get so out of hand to the point the Cult is going to take massive losses. He beheads them and orders every entrance and exit in and out of the city to be monitored. It’s a desperate move from an increasingly impatient Gettan who has yet to grasp just how thoroughly he’s been outplayed.

Two people who don’t seem concerned with the economic situation at all are Alexia and Iris. The latter encounters the former with a tall stack of books, and Alexia explains how she’s studying as much as she can about … everything to become a better warrior. That Iris walks away without saying anything makes me think she’s not interested in such a route, which is why it’s entirely possible Alexia could surpass her one day.

Cid actually makes an appearance as Shadow in his gaudy apartment with all the windows open. He sits near a brazier and shivers and sneezes as Beta gives him a report. He’s also taking notes, which she finds odd. Beta can’t help but tear up when she reports Delta is missing.

Cid can’t very well tell her the truth, so he simply says she’s “somewhere far away,” then offers a page from his notes (in a strange mix of Japanese characters, Western letters, and Arabic numbers), says he’ll teach her if she can decipher the code, and then takes off.

He’s aboard a train out of town, and even though Rettan’s henchmen have barricaded the track, he breaks through it with his thread and continues uninterrupted. Then, just as suddenly and even more stylishly than Delta, Alpha is facing off against him.

Alpha may be far more powerful than Delta, but she is still no match for “John Smith.” But just as Delta was able to sniff out her Boss, Alpha is able to determine he’s Lord Shadow by how he fights. But while she now knows Shadow and Smith are one and the same, she can’t understand why, and that breaks her heart.

Her whole life, all she’s sought is to be of help to Lord Shadow, the man who saved her life and those of her sisters. To support and understand him. Now, it feels like he’s discarding her. Could it be he doens’t need her anymore? All he’ll say is that Delta is far away, and that when it’s all over she’ll understand.

That’s not good enough for Alpha; not here and now. She continues her attacks, insisting that he allow her to remain by his side and let her keep supporting him. She even uses her Mistform, but he catches her blade in his bare hand, then blasts her off the train, just as easily as he did the 660s.

While I understand even Cid isn’t entirely sure what he’s doing, so he’s not being intentionally malicious, it still sucks that he has to hurt Alpha and mess with her emotions to such an extent. For all her power, when it comes to Shadow she’s still a scared, insecure, lonely girl who fears him abandoning her above all else.

Instead, he meets up with Yukime, who has procured a good chunk of the MCA’s gold reserves. She details how this will lead to economic chaos in the capital as the people demand redemption of their funds and business fall like dominoes. She then provides more of her backstory, revealing that Gettan was to be her husband in an alliance of Great Wolves and Spirit Foxes.

Everything was hunky-dory until the Cult got to Gettan and he burned her village and literally stabbed her in the back when she refused to submit to the cult as well. She blacks out just as Cid, in Stylish Bandit Slayer persona (with the bag on his head), slashes one of Gettan’s eyes while saving (and inspiring) Rose back in the day.

Yukime never met Cid, but worked her way up to Queen of the Lawless City so that she could take everything from Gettan the way he took everything from her. Since Cid is reclaiming all that he believes to be his (unaware it already is all his), he and Yukime make for perfect allies in this scheme. It’s all going their way so far, but I hope it’s worth it.

The Eminence in Shadow – 24 – Another World Is Not Enough

A group of ruffians start threatening seemingly defenseless employees of Mitsugoshi (Gamma’s corporation), but soon wish they hadn’t, as the three girls they’re harassing are actually full-fledged members of Shadow Garden. Alpha is leading a comprehensive purge of any and all threats to Mitsugoshi.

But economic battles in the Royal Capital aren’t just fought with daggers or swords. Po and Skel rock some Mitsugoshi knockoffs they paid out the ear for, while Cid wears the genuine article. His wardrobe is seen to by the girls, and it occurs to him they’ve gone too far in copying the culture of his home world.

To that end, Cid declares he’s going to “reclaim what’s mine”, and adapts an entirely new persona for that task: the “super elite secret agent” John Smith. Sure, why not?! He meets with Yukime in secret to discuss the escalating trade war between Mitsugoshi and the established Major Corporate Alliance.

While those two tear each other apart, he and Yukime agree to “take everything.” Yukime also has a personal stake in this, as she owes the leader of the MCA, Gettan the Sword Devil, a date with her own blade after he scarred her with his. When the MCA coordinates major sales in all its affiliates to leech customers from Mitsugoshi, Cid learns that Gamma & Co. even started their own bank and issue paper currency based on a gold standard.

They learned how to do all of this by listening to partial stories about his world’s economy back when they were little (he namedrops “MHK”, a trusted educational source on Japanese TV). As the Postcard Memory that ends the scene makes clear, Cid is serious about letting the MCA crush Mitsugoshi so he can crush them, then start a whole new corporation…I guess just so he can say he did it?!

After discussing the concept of using paper money to create and extend credit to all of the people all while maintaining the same base amount of gold in a central bank, Cid—ahem, John Smith floats the ideal of creating counterfeit money. She says they’d get caught quickly due to the fact the money they hope to fake is only in use in the capital.

But Cid doesn’t care if they’re caught…he wants them to be caught. No matter what, news of the fake money will spread across the capital and trust in the entire paper currency system will gradually evaporate. He intends to capitalize on the ensuing bank runs, where they can really clean up. Yukime believes he’s test her sincerity, but in truth, she kinda came up with the whole plan for him!

That night, Cid finds himself feeding a half-naked Delta meat from his noodle bowl. When she smells foxes on Cid, he says he was hunting them. Fresh from a bandit hunt ordered by Alpha, she’s eager to hunt with Shadow, and won’t take no for an answer as she hangs off of him.

As Rettan’s underling Garter reports that the bandits aren’t working, he mobilizes the “Clovers”, his elite assassins. Cid indulges Delta and they do some bandit hunting in the sewers…or rather Delta does all the killing while Cid checks out their loot.

Among the bandits is Delta’s real-life brother, from when she was known as Sara. In an act that underscores her therianthrope might-makes-right philosophy, Delta kills him on the spot, declaring she’s not interested in weak brothers. She’d rather Cid kill her father, the chief, and make lots of new, stronger children together.

Delta’s late brother Zabra turned out to be one of those Clovers Rettan was hyping up. Granted, he was the weakest, but I imagine the stength gap between the strongest—or even Rettan himself—and Delta, let alone Cid, is wider than the Pacific Ocean. I’m looking forward to watching this war to tear down and rebuild the capital’s economy unfold.

The Eminence in Shadow – 13 – The Beast Girl, the Witch and the Wardrobe

In the white void, Alpha sits back while Delta does her think as the “token musclehead”, rejecting the fact that being closer to the center of the sanctuary makes them weaker and Nelson stronger, donning a skimpy slime bikini, and summoning a gargantuan meat cleaver with which she splats all of Nelson’s clones in one go. It’s good to finally see Delta in extended action.

Meanwhile, Epsilon’s group encounters a memory that she’s able to purify, and they discover a library that holds all the knowledge on the possessed children held in the Sanctuary, as well as the means to open an exit. Epsilon briefly loses her falsies, but her underlings know better than to say they saw it.

Finally, there’s Cid and Aurora, who are like two peas in a pod and gradually build a genuine bond as they continue to explore her dark memories. Cid continues to treat her like no one else, neither as an adversary, underling, or hassle, but as a pal.

The two buds end up dead ended at the door that leads to the magic core. Cid knows his sword can’t break the chains, and also knows it will require a descendant (presumably of Olivier) to pull the key-sword out of the floor, Excalibur-style.

But while they kill time playing tic-tac-toe and pondering their next steps, Delta’s unhinged violence manages to shatter Nelson’s white void, leaving him no choice but to summon Olivier herself. That’s when Epsilon’s group meets up with Alpha’s to report their findings, and Alpha orders a withdrawal.

It speaks to just how damn powerful Alpha is that not only was her slime outfit not visibly effected by the power drain, but one stern look at Delta instantly cows the beast girl into leaving her prey and coming along. Alexia and Rose accompany Alpha, Beta, Epsilon, and the others through the exit.

Nelson receives an alert about Cid and Aurora, and meets them where they are with Olivier by his side. He orders her to kill Cid and while she’s extremely strong and is able to draw blood, she fails to do so. Cid, meanwhile, wears an involuntary smirk on his face. Nothing like a worthy opponent to lift the spirits.

Only Cid doesn’t necessarily consider Olivier that worthy; after all, she lacks a heart, and is simply a tool Nelson is using to try to kill him. Nelson tries to cut a deal with Aurora that will save Cid, but he rejects it, asking them to kindly not decide the outcome of his battle with Olivier before it’s over.

Nelson says fine, and sends Olivier to deliver a killing blow through Cid’s chest. But again, he merely smiles, and finally opens the right eye he’s kept closed this entire time, and not just because that’s what many anime characters do: he was suppressing an even greater power within him, which he will likely use to neutralize Olivier and continue assisting Aurora.

The question is, is Nelson right when he says the witch is just deceiving Cid and she’ll lead him to his doom once her memories are all back? It’s worth thinking about considering the Aurora with whom he’s gotten along with so famously is missing large chunks of her former personality…

The Eminence in Shadow – 12 – Through the Red Door

That big red seal-looking thing? It’s a door; a door that won’t stop following Cid no matter where he flies. Since it won’t go away, he decides to go through it. His Shadow Garden maidens have the same idea, and make their appearance at the arena before Alexia, Rose, and Archbishop Nelson.

Beta does a terrible job pretending to be her comrades’ hostage, while Nelson’s assassin Venom attacks Epsilon but only manages to slice off her fake boobs. She quickly re-forms them with her slime suit, and in any case everything happens too fast for the princesses to notice. Shadow Garden jump through the door, and Alexia and Rose follow, bereft of anything better to do.

They arrive in a strange and oddly futuristic sci-fi place that is the true Sanctuary the church has hidden from the rest of the world. In this inter-dimensional space there’s a statue of the real Great Hero Olivier, who was not only a woman, but looked just like Alpha (since they share blood). Alexia and Rose are rightfully very confused.

Rather than meeting up with Shadow Garden, Cid ends up in a different “section” of the Sanctuary, in which the real legendary witch Aurora has been incarcerated for centuries (she’s also voiced by Eureka herself, Nazuka Kaori, who possesses one of the more ASMR-triggering voices).

After exchanging pleasantries and freeing her from her straitjacket (she’s nude underneath but he doesn’t so much as blush), Cid agrees to help Aurora get out of this place, which is apparently constructed out of stored memories, among them a young Aurora crying, whom the older Aurora slaps.

Meanwhile the ladies find themselves in the main research facility of the Sanctuary, where the Diabolos Cult experimented on children with “Diabolos Cells” in order to create “Diabolos Beads”, a drug that can make members of the cult immortal and invincible.

Olivier was one of the few who survived the experimentation, a brutal affair carried on with the banality of a congenial modern office. One of the lead researchers was the not-so-good Archbishop himself, Jack Nelson. Alexia wrongly but hilariously surmises that hair loss was a side effect of the beads.

Alpha correctly surmises that Jack Nelson is one of Diabolos’ twelve Knights of the Round, which rings a bell for Alexia since her betrothed longed to become one of them. With no further need to hide his identity, Nelson starts to gloat, only to be impaled and cast into a pool by Delta.

Delta is ready to be scolded by Alpha for disobeying orders not to kill him, but turns out Nelson is made from stiffer stuff. He wipes away the reality of the research facility, leaving a white void where he proceeds to create copies of himself. But both Alpha and Delta are more than game for a fight.

This episode was a mind-bending trip and a half, introducing a real sci-fi underbelly to the fantasy surface world where Cid ended up after dying. It’s notable that much of the episode doesn’t involve him at all. It makes one wonder how much longer he’ll insist this is all a game!