English Dub Review: The Eminence in Shadow “The Haven”

Overview

The moon is red. The frenzy has begun. Shadow is introduced to power players in Lawless City. Meanwhile, Mary and Claire run into Juggernaut.

Our Take

As the other two Lawless City lords named Juggernaut and Yukime ignore Cid and proceed to break into Elizabeth’s tower. The White Devil attacks Cid but is cut to pieces. While this is going on, one of the Shadow subordinates, Beta encounters Claire and Mary and reveals Shadow Garden intends to steal Elizabeth’s blood for research. And it’s here when Soldier 666 panics to hear of Cid’s supposed kidnapping but is stopped before getting proper answers. Juggernaut almost kills Mary, but during an unexpected thing Mary does, Claire realizes Mary is a vampire. Cid drops Juggernaut off the tower, making Claire confused why “Shadow” would save them. But Mary reveals her ties to Elizabeth along with many other unexpected twists.

But in short, during the Red Moon 1000 years ago Elizabeth went mad and slaughtered everyone in Haven. But filled with remorse, she committed suicide but before Mary could hide her body it was stolen by Lord Crimson who has secretly ruled from Elizabeth’s throne ever since. Feeling sympathy Claire reveals she is possessed by a demon and is desperate to help Cid achieve greatness before she loses her humanity. Cid then breaks into Crimson’s treasury for retirement funds and decides he might as well kill Crimson to leave a good impression. But while this is going on, Crimson attempts to resurrect Elizabeth for an unholy wedding marry her, however it takes one hell of an abrupt halt…

Overall, this was quite an origin story for a newly introduced character Mary that adds both Pathos and a sense of urgency for hte proceedings. And based on observation, I guess betrayals are something that exists in all societies regardless of race. Killing a villain when they’re in mid speech is a welcome change indeed. But Initially, the strategy to confront the Blood Queen involved deploying all of the Seven Shadows/Shades for battle. And finally Cid was as good as ever today. Showing up just in the nick of time by showing up with his over-dramatic entrances never disappoints. I can’t wait to see what happens next!