This review contains spoilers. I include some panels below as examples of the comedy and art as well as describe the basic story and how the series sets up its humor. As this manga is primarily a comedy I think its safe to read even if you havent seen the series but for those looking to go in blind you have been warned. Comedy is very subjective: similar to how we all enjoy different foods and like different music humor completely depends on the person consuming it. What one person finds funny may be offensive trite or asinine to another: it all depends on the person. With that said whether you find The Eminence in Shadow funny will completely depend on you. But that isnt at all helpful so Im going to talk about my experience with the series and why it very easily became one of my favorite comedies. To start The Eminence in Shadow is a power fantasy/isekai parody Ill get to that soon following Cid Kagenou a Japanese boy who is not like the other kids. Rather than fantasizing about becoming a hero who saves the day or a villain who takes over the world or literally any other normal childlike aspiration Cid instead dreams of becoming the titular Eminence in Shadow. He cares not for foolish ambitions like fame glory or recognition Cid has moved far beyond these laughable mortal desires instead seeking a far grander and worthier goal: to become the clever mysterious badass and powerful mastermind manipulating things from behind the scenes. His ambitions in all their magnificence are truly incomprehensible to us mere humans. Unlike those other weakwilled children who grew up or faced reality Cid has never even considered abandoning his dream. Instead he chooses to work day in and day out to reach his lofty aspiration toiling harder and suffering more than any other man. But Cid quickly ran into a problem: no matter how skilled a martial artist he became no matter how hard he trained he would never be able to overcome his physical limitations as a human. How dreadful Despite his unwavering determination reminiscent of Tobuscus Foxs megahit game Undertale or his suffering that far eclipses someone as blessed as Sisyphus the Gods have bestowed upon him a regular human body one susceptible to mere guns and nukes. Have you ever heard a more woeful tale? https://i.ur.com/TAWDNtG.png Luckily as befitting a genius of his stature Cid came up with a brilliant solution: magic If he can discover magic then he could become as strong as he dreamed of and finally reach his admirable goal. One night while attempting to discover magic by repeatedly banging his head against a tree and screaming magic he stumbled upon every isekai protagonists greatest foe: a truck. As luck would have it he was killed by said truck and reborn in another world specifically one with magic. How fortunate And with his sheer chuuni determination he actually managed to become the strongest in this world. But just as a power fantasy needs its harem or a harem needs its fan service an Eminence in Shadow needs something to manipulate something to do But Cid magnanimous as he is doesnt mind roleplaying as long as he can feel and act like an Eminence in Shadow. What a truly great man Henceforth Cid continues on his journey brandishing his alter ego Shadow to wage a hidden war against a cult that few even know exist. He recruits and trains loyal soldiers to fight alongside him bestows this world with valuable knowledge from his homeland maintains his Mob persona as the perfect secret identity and valiantly helps all those in need Ok Im gonna drop the sarcasm now. In reality Cid is far from perfect. Hes a bit dullwitted incredibly singleminded and denser than your average harem protagonist. However Cid has one major thing going for him: literally anything he says and does in this world actually comes to fruition. He invents a BS cult to fight well that cult actually exists. He gets lost in the middle of an important fight well he arrives at the perfect place to cut off the bad guy. Hell his sister gets kidnapped and he randomly throws a knife at a map turns out the knife landed at the exact spot shes being held. Its almost as if the world bends to his will and thats where the comedy comes in: everyone who knows his alter ego Shadow believes he is practically omnipotent overflowing with wisdom intelligence and strength. But hes just roleplaying fucking around. He legitimately believes hes just going around fighting thieves and that his harem underlings are just roleplaying with him. But in doing so hes significantly affecting the world around him waging a war against a massive worldwide cult that he doesnt even know exists. https://toxicmuffin.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/20200401003607kagenojitsuryokushaninaritakutechapter9page1.jpg The majority of the humor comes from this dichotomy the juxtaposition between everyone thinking hes some allpowerful Godlike being when in reality hes just a chuuni fucking around fighting random villains he encounters and saying whatever he thinks sounds cool. Cids monologues his expressions his entire character is just so funny. His actions incomprehensibly brilliant to those around him are almost always guided by his desire to be cool and enigmatic which leads to heaps of entertaining scenes and misunderstandings. And combined with how comically deranged he is its just so enjoyable to follow him and his hilariously ludicrous antics. Whether hes acting as his persona Shadow and spewing lines that sound cool but you know are actually bullshit or hes pretending to be a regular Mob character blending in with the crowd Cid is always absolutely hilarious and the highlight of the series. https://i.ur.com/SJA5aGn.png Cid depicted above confessing to a princess carefully orchestrating his every move to get rejected Now I mentioned earlier that The Eminence in Shadow is a parody. Whether or not its truly a parody is up for debate but I definitely believe it is. To me a parody isnt just media mocking or ridiculing other media. Its media that imitates or exaggerates something in this case a genre poking fun at it for comical entertainment while also appreciating and paying homage to the original thing its making fun of. One Punch Manhttps://anilist.co/anime/21087/OnePunchMan/ 100 Girlfriendshttps://anilist.co/anime/162694/The100GirlfriendsWhoReallyReallyReallyReallyREALLYLoveYou/ Konosubahttps://anilist.co/anime/21202/KONOSUBAGodsblessingonthiswonderfulworld/ theyre all very clearly parodies of their respective genres but they each embrace the genre theyre parodying signifying the love and enjoyment for said genre. But this leads to an important idea: to enjoy these series you have to at least somewhat like the original genre theyre parodying. Many people complain that these parodies become the very thing theyre parodying but I think thats pretty normal and by no means a bad thing as long as the series maintains the qualities that made it a parody in the first place. And The Eminence in Shadow perfectly matches these specifications: the series is chockfull of badass power fantasy moments awesome fights and even a massive harem featuring any type of girl you could imagine which the MC obviously doesnt give a shit about. It doesnt shy away and belittle these tropes or ideas instead fully embracing them to the extreme while maintaining the humor that makes it so funny. 800https://i.ur.com/hpCiiWj.png Now whether you find the series funny yourself will ultimately depend on you. Experience with and enjoyment of power fantasies will definitely help but this manga isnt going to be for everyone. Some people may find the jokes get stale and repetitive over time or wont find this type of parody funny or just really dont like power fantasy isekai. And thats all right. But for those who do youre in for one hell of a ride. Ive talked a lot about the content of the comedy which comes from the source material but I want to take a second to talk about the actual execution of the comedy. The mangakas interpretation of the source material and delivery of the comedy is nothing short of masterful. Coming from someone who has read both the LN and the manga her comedic timing drawing everything about the implementation of the comedy is just so perfect and deftly expands and arguably improves upon the original source. I legitimately believe shes incredibly talented and significantly carries the humor of the manga. https://i.ur.com/ih5YllO.png Cid celebrating his school being attacked by terrorists I mentioned this before but the fights in the manga are actually really good. Not in a HxHtype battle of wits way but in a more basic power fantasy fashion. Im a complete sucker for magic sword fights and I enjoy a good power fantasy every now and then so I can confidently say that the fights in this manga are better than the vast majority of power fantasy fights Ive read. And a large part of that reason is the art in the series which is seriously incredible. I could try and describe it but instead Im just going to include a panel below to highlight how incredible it is and how talented the artist is. 800https://i.ur.com/zGvDMgA.png The Eminence in Shadow isnt all comedy: there is an actual underlying story with some surprisingly interesting characters and worldbuilding. If Im being honest I think the LN and even the anime to an extent do a better job conveying the surprisingly decent world story and characters but the manga does a good enough job and the series isnt about that stuff anyways. Reading Eminence in Shadow for the plot is like watching Demon Slayer for its laughoutloud comedy or reading AoT for its brilliant ending so its really not a big deal. Ive run out of things to say so to conclude The Eminence in Shadow is an excellent comedy manga and a wonderful parody of power fantasies. There is an anime for the series and a movie recently announced which is fun and worth watching if you like the series but its humor really falls short compared to the manga or even the LN which is also a great read. So if you enjoy power fantasies or if anything here looked/sounded interesting you should definitely give this a shot. You wont regret it.