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「覚醒の刻」 (Kakusei no Toki)
“The Hour of Awakening”
Don’t deny, I bet you saw the ending for this arc coming from a mile way. Sure, maybe not the exact method for it – witchy possession and attempted atomic ascendance do be spicing things up – but the usual Cid-isms, Beta imagination, and Shadow showing why he’s always primed to come out on top? Yeah, it was one of those episodes alright. And the best part is it’s only the first third of this season.
As repeatedly reinforced weekly, Eminence in Shadow’s strength is its parody and ability to wring the most out of it when asked. Normally the likes of Queen Elizabeth, her crazy power, and the implications of it would be midseason or season finale material in any lesser fantasy/isekai, but here they serve as the vehicle for the comedy. Everyone knows Cid will somehow save the day, it’s fully obvious the girls of Shadow Garden will serendipitously – and unwittingly – reveal the method(s) to the madness, but the process to getting it is what continues separating this series from the competition. The monetary loss suffered from Cid having to let his slime do the work is one example, his “just in time” arrival matching up with those chuuni fantasies another: everything is designed in a humorous way to ensure the larping is emphasized and misunderstandings emphasized (reverse atomic indeed, heh). Hell at this stage I often get more fun trying to figure out where the comedy will arise from the latest showdown; nothing says fun after all than knowing the climax is going to be pretty damn climactic. In more than one way.
All jokes aside, the ending for this arc has nicely set up the pieces for the next and the major character focus. Claire’s newfound possession of every chuuni’s dream in possessed arm of ridiculous magical power is a nice segue into some quality family time, as besides inevitably leading back to the Cult of Diabolos in some form there will be the whole shtick where little brother goes out of his way to ensure big sister appreciated the finer points of larping 101. Tack on the usual good guy suspects still seeking out Shadow, all the comedy derived from these various moments, and the fact Lawless City residents Yukime and Juggernaut are now part of the picture, it’s not that likely Eminence in Shadow runs out of material anytime soon.
Simply a matter of finding out how it intends on unleashing the upcoming chaos.
In the serious part of the story:
It’s revealed that Claire has the blood of both the vampires and the possessed, that Aurora is living inside Claire, that Aurora’s mental space is similar to that of the modern world, that the possessed and the vampires evolved similar to monkeys to humans, and that Aurora dropped a bomb. Not the actual one, since Claire’s body couldn’t handle it, but the bomb where she said even Beta could do the Atomic. And whaddya know, Beta displays a hint of that newfound power after the fight.
Claire is currently undergoing her own Hero’s Journey and Cid being there is so thematically on point with his dream to be an Eminence in Shadow.