Eminence in Shadow: King of Cringe, Blue Giant: A Musical Obsession, Suzume Live Performance
How leaning into cringe can be a strength.
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Also based on some feedback, I am merging the What’s Up in Anime and Weekly Anime Rec into one section & making the entire thing more concise. :)
What’s Up in Anime?
Looking forward to the 4 new episodes of Naruto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKELA1qBAKA
Dr.Stone Season 3 is streaming on Crunchyroll starting April 6th & To Your Eternity Season 3 is approved.
Suzume no Tojima releases in USA theaters on April 14th. Live performance of Suzume (the song) by Taoka (voice artist of Suzume) & RADWIMPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VPYmuk48yY. Added to my Spotify ✅
An older animation style at Fire Hunter (Hikari no Ou), nice to see after so many anime have come out with modern graphics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkBeXGAFCvU
On my watchlist: Blue Giant (film) follow the story of Miyamoto Dai, a student whose life changes the first time he sees a live jazz performance & becomes obsessed with playing the saxophone day after day. How far will passion take him? I want to find out. :)
Note: I would love to hear any feedback from my readers! Anything you’d like to see, something that could be done better or just to say Hi!👋 Email me at animebuff.substack.com or leave a comment below.
Eminence in Shadow: King of Cringe Anime
Cringe.The word cringe is derives from the Middle English word cringan, or crincan “to bend, yield, fall in battle”, the Dutch krengen “to heel over”, the German word krank “sick”. One definition is “to shrink back, bend, or crouch, especially in fear, pain or civility, cower”, the other is “to feel very embarrassed or awkward; react with discomfort”.
Eminence in Shadow embodies both definitions and is the physical manifestation of a 14 year old’s dream horny, antsy show. Cid, the protagonist reborn in a new world with overpowered magical powers, creates the stupidest, Tumblresque plots on the spot that come true. He doesn’t invest in the people around him & instead, lives out his isekai power fantasy with everyone around him dancing to his tune. On one hand, he’s Shadow, the incarnation of vengeance against evildoers. Edgelord of edgelords. On the other, he’s Cid Kagenou, committed to being an NPC at all costs; refusing to break character even once. He actively seeks to be cringe because he wants to remain an NPC and away from the public eye. And so he will do anything, I mean anything, to remain anonymous.
Spelling out tropes and passing it off as a joke is nothing new to anime & E.I.S. does this to varying degrees of success. Every longtime anime fan can tell you that it's a part of watching anime. Words like “appealing to the audience”, or “fan service” are used to describe these scenes. But what Eminence in Shadow also does well, is it doubles, triples, even quadruples down on all the cheesy, cringe ass moments that we roll our eyes at in anime. You find yourself not wanting to watch, to then being super invested in Cid. The show becomes cool since you know that the show is intentionally trying to be cringeworthy. Instead of attempting to look past the cringe, the cringe becomes what you are watching for.
To understand why leaning into cringe works, imagine you are driving on a smooth open road. You have the driver’s side window down and you are enjoying the breeze over your face. Then up ahead, you see a sign signaling there’s a 90 degree right turn ahead. You’re a bit annoyed that the turn gets you out of the flow but you roll with it, slow down and take the turn & speed up afterward. That’s the cringe; it’s what gets in the way of a pleasurable experience. Now imagine a curvy, mountainous road (think of this Icelandic mountain road from the 2013 movie, Walter Mitty, skip to 0:49). While the curves remain, you start getting in the groove of the turns and pretty soon, taking those turns on your steering wheel becomes second nature. You lean into it and enjoy the ride. The cringe is the curves in the road. One alone or even a few get in the way of the ride. But when they become a feature of the anime, just as roads take into account their curves, it becomes an enjoyable ride/experience.
E.I.S. takes all of the things that you told your friend, “I swear, it’s not that bad! It gets better. I promise.” and says, “You know what? I am going to take that, dial it up 1000x and make an anime out of it.” E.I.S. doesn’t try to distinguish itself from other isekai; it wholeheartedly commits to being tropeiest (is that a word? Doesn’t matter I’m going with it :) ) of them all. Cid is OP. He’s never in any danger and says cringe lines & passes them off as the coolest thing ever. The truly best part is everyone will take Cid’s bullshit roleplay 100% seriously. Nations & secret organizations are all pouring resources to figure out who this guy is. This is an anime that gives zero fucks about being cringey, edgy or childish; Cid’s a man who larps so hard that it becomes reality. It throws at you every trope, every cliche, every eye rolling corny line you’ve ever heard.
And this is what happens when you reach the peak of trashy isekai anime entertainment.
- Anime Buff
Guide to Where to Watch Anime
Please note that this may not cover every platform or even the current availability of the shows (after some time has passed from the posting of this piece). Anime availability can change due to negotiations between studios & streaming giants, so please use this as a guide!
Naruto
Stream: Netflix (5 Seasons), Prime Video (5 Seasons), Hulu (4 Seasons), Crunchyroll (via VRV, 5 Seasons)
Buy: Amazon (6 Seasons), Google Play (5 Seasons), Apple TV(3 Seasons)
To Your Eternity
Stream: Crunchyroll (2 Seasons), HBO Max (1 Season)
Buy:
Dr.Stone
Stream: Crunchyroll (2 Seasons), HBO Max (2 Seasons)
Buy: Amazon (3 Seasons), Google Play (2 Seasons), Apple TV (2 Seasons)
Fire Hunter
Stream: Crunchyroll
Buy:
Eminence in Shadow
Stream: HiDive (Season 1)
Buy:
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