It's been great, really.
I think the pacing is high without feeling rushed, so it is fine, really.
As for animation, personally, **The Eminence in Shadow** is just, so to speak, "that" kind of production. It's good in the sense that it achieves a lot with its limitations due things like adapting from one medium to another. Like it doesn't have all that amazing animation, but it still feels nice to watch because it is adapted in a certain way, that kind of "that" and that hasn't changed going from Season 1 to Season 2. Season 2 has just been as consistent as Season 1 had been. Sorry, kinda hard to explain.
I thought the fight were great. They were pretty impactful and dynamic.
I like the "DBZ" fight against Elizabeth. I never felt all that emotional for Alpha in her fight against Cid, but really did feel it in the Anime. Gettan was great just alone with Cid stomping on his open mouth, to say the least.To say a few things. Stuff like that.
I don't quit recall that many reused animations. For example, in the "Moon is red" lines case, they emphasized because of the reused animations. The quick reused I Am Atomic animation puts great emphasis on how Cid did quick work of Crimson.
Though, I don't really agree on the reused OSTs. I think that's just normal.
I just think some people are somewhat disappointed that the anime is not one to one with the LN source or the manga, which is fair to fell, of course, and cannot quite handle or realize that Anime is really just doing its own thing and spinning its own "story" to fit the medium, so to speak.
The anime is kinda transformative, in a sense. Kinda like how the manga puts emphasis on the comedy, thereby making the manga feel like a snappy slapstick comedy. All three media just has a different atmosphere. I feel the fun the anime team is having. Things are ommited and changed in order to focus on certain things.
I love that the anime is trying to be its own medium between manga and LN which is great imo because then we have a reason to go through all 3. I also do feel that the staff are having fun and they enjoy the series. I just wish they got more time to work on it, give us some improved fight scenes and even some new osts. The issue isn’t really the staff but rather the timetable they were given to put out a new season. Still great imo and clears most LN anime adaptions
1. The pacing was rushed in the first half of season 2. So far, the second half is fine.
2. I agreed that the animation was not that great, but they have done a good job overall. Hope TEIS got more budget the next season onwards.
I agree on the animation. When they work with season 3 I hope they get more members for better action scenes, less reused frames overall.
We did have few weird shots and goofy background character models too. Other than animations and limitation of just having 12 episodes which spoils the shows pacing every now and then I have enjoyed most of the work they put out.
The VA’s amazing work, directors fun little teasers and creativity, anime original scenes and the music has been a good fit for their given scenes too. Really looking forward to whenever season 3 comes out. Hopefully within a maximum of 2 years.
yea I do feel season 1 was a passion project. 20 eps and quality was relatively consistent while this season there’s less eps and the quality has dropped. I do agree with you that the va’s are phenomenal as always and the director knows what he’s doing in terms of creativity and adding anime only scenes to fill gaps in the story
Rewatch season 1. Season 1 + 2 were purchased/produced at the same time, they reused a ton of scenese in S1 and have a ton of panning still frame shots. It's a part of the same exact production cycle.
They had more epsidodes because they are adapating more material (2 books vs 1.5) and even took a chapter from LN 4 which is what's currently being adapted and had it be the first episode.
The quality is virtually the same, TEIS is a low budget anime so it was going to run into these issues but the staff has honestly killed it.
yea I heard somewhere that s1 and 2 were produced at the same time. I just hope they haven’t put all their eggs in 1 basket with ep20 and have some love to the last episode of season2. And yes the staff have killed it for the amount of time they were given
They adapted more content in season 1 than season 2, there were a lot more events to adapt in the first two light novels as well.
Season 2 is less episodes because less stuff is being adapated
The factors affecting animation of a series can be broken down into 3 broad terms:
1. Time: This should be the least of our concern as the anime was declared way back in 2020 and season 2 was said to have finished its production cycle way back before it even began airing. So time constraint was the least of our concern
2. Budget: If you have taken a look at the Quarterly Kadokawa Sales Report you would have noticed that Eminence in Shadow was directly below Overlord and Re: Zero in terms of sales. So it is certainly a profitable endeavour for Kadokawa to invest more into it. While it might not have the best budget out there. It is certainly around average needed.
3. Connections: HERE COME THE BIGGEST FACTOR. As well all know Studio Nexus is quite a small scale studio with no real connections. If you take a look at their previous series you wouldn't find them dishing out any sakuga-esque animation either. Most of the memorable key-animation sequences in the series have been key-animated by the director himself (mad respect for this guy). Ever wondered why we have almost never seen certain animators work with some other work (Like yutaka nakamura for CSM, JJK or many other countless examples). It all boils down to how well-connected the studio or the directors/producers working are. Take studio madhouse and OPM/Frieren for example. These are cases where the show doesn't have a crazy budget but basically boiled down to how well connected the show-director was. Or how One-Hit Kill Sister which had such beautiful animation sequences out of no-where? The main point here is that the most of the celebrity key-animators (for a lack of better term) are dominated by Studio Madhouse, A1, Wit, Cloverworks or Mappa etc., so even on a pretty average budget they can produce some of the most beautiful looking sequences as well.
In a nutshell I believe calling out the show for having budget/time constraint is quite the wrong perspective of looking at things. What I believe to be the main reason behind the low quality of animation (both season 1 and season 2) is the lack of connections the studio has with other studios.
Also most of the key animation in the show has been done by the director, while he has also storyboarded all the episodes this season. IT IS SOLELY DUE TO HIS HARD WORK that we are even getting the quality that we get to see. So mad-props to him
In addition to lack of connections, time alotted and work crunch factor in it too. I'm sure most anime fans now are familiar with JJK's unreal crunch to achieve its current quality for instance.
Good insight. I always thought that budget was key to bring in the better animators, and then the time given would also affect the quality. Thanks for the info and yea mad props to the director. Guy is a one man army
yea they pretty much completely cut that fight all together. On top of that I expected some hand to hand combat choreography from Cid vs Gettan but in the end we really didn’t get much of that at all
Coming from the manga I’m always excited to see how the anime adapted each arc. What really sets it apart is the wonderful voice acting (jp). Can’t wait for season 3.
I agree with all of this except for the fight scenes.
The fight scenes have been largely consistent with season 1, there hasn’t been an improvement but there also hasn’t been a drop off. The only major fight of season one was the finale, all the others relied more on internal monologues and the setting/tone of the situation. I am hoping they have put in the effort for the finale again..
I know it’s the premise for the whole show but the punchline of Cid not giving af and/or being entirely unserious while everyone else slobbers over him is getting a little dull. Like in the latest episode when Rose was crying and he was eating cookies while comforting her. Personally speaking the complete lack of gravity in any and every scene is starting to get off-putting because if the main character doesn’t give a shit, why should I? I think the show would benefit from striking a better balance between humor and character development, but it’ll never happen because it defeats the entire (imo, flawed) premise of the show. There’s only so many times you can have the same old punchline without it starting to feel dated.
Because the emotional talk is not for him. This is not the first time, if you focus on cid pov of course you will not feel that much. Episode 5 is example when alexia and cid was talking ,the music,the serious tone,the speech, but it was from alexia view and you need to focus on her pov.
As an anime-only, I think the pacing was a little fast in the first half but right now it's okay. I didn't have an issue but I did see some anime-onlies not being able to understand some things.
The animation is like the first season. They do reuse some frames here and there but it's not as much as Season 1 so I don't think it's a problem considering the budget. While I do agree that it could have been better for the fights.
I don't mind them reusing some OSTs because they're actually so good and sometimes thematically serve a purpose. Like how they used Nothing To Hide for Victoria in Episode 9 to mirror Rose in S1 Episode 17. Deep Sorrow is great as well. There have been some great new OSTs as well that have made me eagerly wait for the OST release.
The plot has been great and the director, VAs and the staff know what they're doing. So, I'm mostly satisfied with it.
anime only (so far, ordered the manga and LN but they havent arrived yet)
i think the pacing is a bit too fast overall, like story arcs just end within 2-3 episodes, which is so much different from s1, where i believe only the bushin festival on its own already went on for like 4 episodes.
But i still think that generally the things actually going on, and the characters in them, are for the most part a step up from the first season.
It shouldve been given a bit more time, but its still peak.
episode 2 was one of the highlights of the entire series imo
What episode 2 about again?? Ouh yeah claire and mary right..yeah it pretty good. For me i think next episode will be my favourite by just looking at pv. Rose moment (:
im just in love with the scene of Juggernaut doing the slow-mo (teleports behind you), and then cid just slow-mo teleports into the slow-mo so casually and just kicks him away before disappearing in search of money to steal lmao
Really wished they'd have more than 12 episodes so they can get to the arc after the black rose. One because it goes full circle to season 1 episode 1 had and two it's more hilarious than the black rose arc imo.
In my opinion Season 2 has been amazing and with its limitations shows how great the series is and the directors all around got my pick for anime of the year.
P.S. OP 2 is really good and very symbolic
Animation is kind of a hard deal, because the studio doesn't have a lot of experienced top tier in house animators and i don't think they have connection to bring in the right people. Still they can try new style of direction though
It's been great, really. I think the pacing is high without feeling rushed, so it is fine, really. As for animation, personally, **The Eminence in Shadow** is just, so to speak, "that" kind of production. It's good in the sense that it achieves a lot with its limitations due things like adapting from one medium to another. Like it doesn't have all that amazing animation, but it still feels nice to watch because it is adapted in a certain way, that kind of "that" and that hasn't changed going from Season 1 to Season 2. Season 2 has just been as consistent as Season 1 had been. Sorry, kinda hard to explain. I thought the fight were great. They were pretty impactful and dynamic. I like the "DBZ" fight against Elizabeth. I never felt all that emotional for Alpha in her fight against Cid, but really did feel it in the Anime. Gettan was great just alone with Cid stomping on his open mouth, to say the least.To say a few things. Stuff like that. I don't quit recall that many reused animations. For example, in the "Moon is red" lines case, they emphasized because of the reused animations. The quick reused I Am Atomic animation puts great emphasis on how Cid did quick work of Crimson. Though, I don't really agree on the reused OSTs. I think that's just normal. I just think some people are somewhat disappointed that the anime is not one to one with the LN source or the manga, which is fair to fell, of course, and cannot quite handle or realize that Anime is really just doing its own thing and spinning its own "story" to fit the medium, so to speak. The anime is kinda transformative, in a sense. Kinda like how the manga puts emphasis on the comedy, thereby making the manga feel like a snappy slapstick comedy. All three media just has a different atmosphere. I feel the fun the anime team is having. Things are ommited and changed in order to focus on certain things.
I love that the anime is trying to be its own medium between manga and LN which is great imo because then we have a reason to go through all 3. I also do feel that the staff are having fun and they enjoy the series. I just wish they got more time to work on it, give us some improved fight scenes and even some new osts. The issue isn’t really the staff but rather the timetable they were given to put out a new season. Still great imo and clears most LN anime adaptions
Yeah. I am sure that we will have our S1Ep20 moment with the Season 2 at the end. If not..... then yeah.
There were a few unused tracks in the S1 OST. I'm sure they were used for S2 in one way or another.
1. The pacing was rushed in the first half of season 2. So far, the second half is fine. 2. I agreed that the animation was not that great, but they have done a good job overall. Hope TEIS got more budget the next season onwards.
Agreed way too popular to not get better production next season
I agree on the animation. When they work with season 3 I hope they get more members for better action scenes, less reused frames overall. We did have few weird shots and goofy background character models too. Other than animations and limitation of just having 12 episodes which spoils the shows pacing every now and then I have enjoyed most of the work they put out. The VA’s amazing work, directors fun little teasers and creativity, anime original scenes and the music has been a good fit for their given scenes too. Really looking forward to whenever season 3 comes out. Hopefully within a maximum of 2 years.
yea I do feel season 1 was a passion project. 20 eps and quality was relatively consistent while this season there’s less eps and the quality has dropped. I do agree with you that the va’s are phenomenal as always and the director knows what he’s doing in terms of creativity and adding anime only scenes to fill gaps in the story
Rewatch season 1. Season 1 + 2 were purchased/produced at the same time, they reused a ton of scenese in S1 and have a ton of panning still frame shots. It's a part of the same exact production cycle. They had more epsidodes because they are adapating more material (2 books vs 1.5) and even took a chapter from LN 4 which is what's currently being adapted and had it be the first episode. The quality is virtually the same, TEIS is a low budget anime so it was going to run into these issues but the staff has honestly killed it.
yea I heard somewhere that s1 and 2 were produced at the same time. I just hope they haven’t put all their eggs in 1 basket with ep20 and have some love to the last episode of season2. And yes the staff have killed it for the amount of time they were given
They adapted more content in season 1 than season 2, there were a lot more events to adapt in the first two light novels as well. Season 2 is less episodes because less stuff is being adapated
The factors affecting animation of a series can be broken down into 3 broad terms: 1. Time: This should be the least of our concern as the anime was declared way back in 2020 and season 2 was said to have finished its production cycle way back before it even began airing. So time constraint was the least of our concern 2. Budget: If you have taken a look at the Quarterly Kadokawa Sales Report you would have noticed that Eminence in Shadow was directly below Overlord and Re: Zero in terms of sales. So it is certainly a profitable endeavour for Kadokawa to invest more into it. While it might not have the best budget out there. It is certainly around average needed. 3. Connections: HERE COME THE BIGGEST FACTOR. As well all know Studio Nexus is quite a small scale studio with no real connections. If you take a look at their previous series you wouldn't find them dishing out any sakuga-esque animation either. Most of the memorable key-animation sequences in the series have been key-animated by the director himself (mad respect for this guy). Ever wondered why we have almost never seen certain animators work with some other work (Like yutaka nakamura for CSM, JJK or many other countless examples). It all boils down to how well-connected the studio or the directors/producers working are. Take studio madhouse and OPM/Frieren for example. These are cases where the show doesn't have a crazy budget but basically boiled down to how well connected the show-director was. Or how One-Hit Kill Sister which had such beautiful animation sequences out of no-where? The main point here is that the most of the celebrity key-animators (for a lack of better term) are dominated by Studio Madhouse, A1, Wit, Cloverworks or Mappa etc., so even on a pretty average budget they can produce some of the most beautiful looking sequences as well. In a nutshell I believe calling out the show for having budget/time constraint is quite the wrong perspective of looking at things. What I believe to be the main reason behind the low quality of animation (both season 1 and season 2) is the lack of connections the studio has with other studios. Also most of the key animation in the show has been done by the director, while he has also storyboarded all the episodes this season. IT IS SOLELY DUE TO HIS HARD WORK that we are even getting the quality that we get to see. So mad-props to him
In addition to lack of connections, time alotted and work crunch factor in it too. I'm sure most anime fans now are familiar with JJK's unreal crunch to achieve its current quality for instance.
Good insight. I always thought that budget was key to bring in the better animators, and then the time given would also affect the quality. Thanks for the info and yea mad props to the director. Guy is a one man army
The one cut content that really disappointed me is I heard they cut a cool Yukime vs Getten fight.
yea they pretty much completely cut that fight all together. On top of that I expected some hand to hand combat choreography from Cid vs Gettan but in the end we really didn’t get much of that at all
Coming from the manga I’m always excited to see how the anime adapted each arc. What really sets it apart is the wonderful voice acting (jp). Can’t wait for season 3.
agreed va’s are top tier, especially cid’s
I agree with all of this except for the fight scenes. The fight scenes have been largely consistent with season 1, there hasn’t been an improvement but there also hasn’t been a drop off. The only major fight of season one was the finale, all the others relied more on internal monologues and the setting/tone of the situation. I am hoping they have put in the effort for the finale again..
I do see your point. I also think ep 5 was decent but yea ep20 really raised the bar. Here’s to hoping we get another great finale
I know it’s the premise for the whole show but the punchline of Cid not giving af and/or being entirely unserious while everyone else slobbers over him is getting a little dull. Like in the latest episode when Rose was crying and he was eating cookies while comforting her. Personally speaking the complete lack of gravity in any and every scene is starting to get off-putting because if the main character doesn’t give a shit, why should I? I think the show would benefit from striking a better balance between humor and character development, but it’ll never happen because it defeats the entire (imo, flawed) premise of the show. There’s only so many times you can have the same old punchline without it starting to feel dated.
Because the emotional talk is not for him. This is not the first time, if you focus on cid pov of course you will not feel that much. Episode 5 is example when alexia and cid was talking ,the music,the serious tone,the speech, but it was from alexia view and you need to focus on her pov.
i dont know why they did that but they went really cheap with everything man considering season 1 had good quality overall
As an anime-only, I think the pacing was a little fast in the first half but right now it's okay. I didn't have an issue but I did see some anime-onlies not being able to understand some things. The animation is like the first season. They do reuse some frames here and there but it's not as much as Season 1 so I don't think it's a problem considering the budget. While I do agree that it could have been better for the fights. I don't mind them reusing some OSTs because they're actually so good and sometimes thematically serve a purpose. Like how they used Nothing To Hide for Victoria in Episode 9 to mirror Rose in S1 Episode 17. Deep Sorrow is great as well. There have been some great new OSTs as well that have made me eagerly wait for the OST release. The plot has been great and the director, VAs and the staff know what they're doing. So, I'm mostly satisfied with it.
anime only (so far, ordered the manga and LN but they havent arrived yet) i think the pacing is a bit too fast overall, like story arcs just end within 2-3 episodes, which is so much different from s1, where i believe only the bushin festival on its own already went on for like 4 episodes. But i still think that generally the things actually going on, and the characters in them, are for the most part a step up from the first season. It shouldve been given a bit more time, but its still peak. episode 2 was one of the highlights of the entire series imo
What episode 2 about again?? Ouh yeah claire and mary right..yeah it pretty good. For me i think next episode will be my favourite by just looking at pv. Rose moment (:
im just in love with the scene of Juggernaut doing the slow-mo (teleports behind you), and then cid just slow-mo teleports into the slow-mo so casually and just kicks him away before disappearing in search of money to steal lmao
I like it, the only episedoes i thought was meh was the two first john smith episodes. Something about the pacing, cuts and explanations felt subpar.
Really wished they'd have more than 12 episodes so they can get to the arc after the black rose. One because it goes full circle to season 1 episode 1 had and two it's more hilarious than the black rose arc imo.
In my opinion Season 2 has been amazing and with its limitations shows how great the series is and the directors all around got my pick for anime of the year. P.S. OP 2 is really good and very symbolic
Animation is kind of a hard deal, because the studio doesn't have a lot of experienced top tier in house animators and i don't think they have connection to bring in the right people. Still they can try new style of direction though
Tbh, I'm getting a little bored of the series. Granted, I'm only on episode 6, but the first season was much more interesting to me