English Dub Review: The Eminence in Shadow: “The Hated Classmate”

Overview: The mysterious high school student, Kageno (Adam Gibbs) goes head-to-head with some thugs, who kidnapped his classmate and former actress, Akane (Natalie Rial). 

Our Take: Isekais can feel like they are a dime a dozen with the massive influx of generic ones we have gotten over the years. Eminence’s opening attempts to remedy that somewhat with a unique perspective of former idol, Akane Nishino, who hates her classmate Kageno, because of how perceptive he is of the façade she puts on for others. How it takes shape as a result of her being defiled and ousted from the limelight is a dark and interesting character setup. 

Akane’s story is a parallel that not establishes her, but also the main protagonist Kageno, in his own alter ego as the cheesy named Stylish Ruffian Slayer, who is known to beat on evil-doers in his neighborhood. Yes, let that ridiculous name sink in, because I sure as heck did in how much I laughed my ass off. 

Getting away from his terrible moniker, it is a nice bonus that he is power-scaled sensibly. Although he is well-versed in hand-to-hand combat and dispatched Nishino’s former military abductor, he is not broken and recognizes his weaknesses, for now anyway. With her understanding their shared connection, it makes the prospect of their relationship exciting until he, unsurprisingly, reincarnates, in classic car accident style with their reunion undoubtedly on the horizon at some point. 

Kageno introduces himself as your run-of-the-mill power hungry and idealistic protagonist, who feels limited in his human capabilities. His fantasy revamp is an expected catalyst for his power jump with it being mildly intriguing in how he will operate in secret, albeit a paint-by-numbers one. While there are plenty of cliché concepts and character traits, there are enough ideas revisited in a slightly different way that are tantalizing moving forward.