Let's talk about The Eminence in Shadow
You guys, we just watched Miraculous Action again, and I kind of really like the Magical Charm for the King of Plastic, so I think it would be super awesome if they sold that version of the Magical Charm and gave a percentage of the proceeds to the Breteau Foundation. Just putting that out there.
On another note, as I posted day after day about our trip to Japan (which I enjoyed doing, don't get me wrong), things would come up that would have me going, "I need to write about that!" But then I'd get distracted by the continuing travelogue, and I'd forget all about it. ...Let's be honest, it was mostly Miraculous-related. But there was one other topic! And it was The Eminence in Shadow.
First off, I don't think we've really talked about The Eminence in Shadow that much, except for when I reported on the season two premiere at Anime Expo. Our experience with the series began when our project manager for Sentai Filmworks said, and I paraphrase, "The new season's coming up. Do you want this isekai series or this isekai series?" And we said, "We would like this one, please. Thank you." And she said, "Okay," and that's how we met The Eminence in Shadow.
The other isekai option was a farming one. I thought about saying "the" farming one, but I think there actually is more than one. I'm really not sure. There's just so much isekai these days. And the thing is, the farming one looked like it could be interesting, too, but we figured we'd have to look up a bunch of farming jargon that we're unfamiliar with. (We are such city girls.) And that sounded like a lot of extra work. And we're burned out, so we're not into that right now (although we do like a challenge under less burned-out circumstances).
On the other hand, The Eminence in Shadow promised to be about a guy who doesn't want to be the star of the show (all the time), but wants to blend into the background. As people who think the supporting characters are important, too, we really liked this concept. It turned out to not be exactly what we expected in that regard, but it was still a lot of fun, so we're enjoying the series rather well.
Now, as for this season. Most recently, there's been talk about...well, about the fan service filler episode, because that's the one that just aired. But before that, there was talk of the counterfeit money arc. And a lot of people (by which I really just mean "the reviewer at Anime News Network") seem to think it was a lackluster arc. And that has me going, "What!? But it was comedy gold!!!" And we had to look up a lot of economic and finance terms for that, so you better appreciate it!
...I kid. You don't have to care (as long as our translations didn't show us to be too incompetent in that field (what do you want from us? we think money is boring)). I will admit that we did dislike this arc for the amount of blah blah blah about money and credit whatever the heck else we had to deal with.
But aside from that! Gamma's big fight scene! Delta's battle against John Smith! And how else are you going to get an epic battle of Alpha versus Shadow? It was awesome!
Okay, I admit that Cid was a major jerk. But that's not anything even remotely new for this guy. I don't know why anyone would ever expect him to care about anybody else. Athena says, "I get that you want people to care about the people you care about, but you should know better than that by now."
...I'm realizing my thoughts on this subject are not fully formed. I guess what I want to say is, I can understand being unhappy about a story arc where your favorite characters are getting hurt, and that is a valid opinion. But we're more of the, "All's well that end's well" opinion when it comes to storytelling. In fact, we can be a bit sadistic about our favorite characters. Some of our favorite scenes in Miraculous are when Adrien is the saddest.
But on the other hand, that makes the happy scenes that much happier. For example, would Delta's return at the end of that arc have been nearly as powerful if Alpha and the others didn't think she was dead? It made me tear up, you guys! It was so good!
So maybe next time you watch that arc, just remember that Alpha and the others will be alright, and enjoy the comedic misunderstandings, because they are pretty darn hilarious. I mean, come on, his super cool elite secret agent name is John Smith! ...Actually, that's pretty smart, because if you want to be a secret agent, you want to be more of a blend-into-the-background type, but that's the irony of it! John Smith is supposed to be his super cool Shadow persona, while Cid is supposed to be the one blending into the background. It's really quite brilliant all around.
Today I'm thankful for getting to work on The Eminence in Shadow, getting to watch Miraculous Action again, being done translating all that stuff about economic theory, finding a bunch of Daedalian keys in Hogwarts Legacy, and that super cool courtyard we found while exploring that castle.
On another note, as I posted day after day about our trip to Japan (which I enjoyed doing, don't get me wrong), things would come up that would have me going, "I need to write about that!" But then I'd get distracted by the continuing travelogue, and I'd forget all about it. ...Let's be honest, it was mostly Miraculous-related. But there was one other topic! And it was The Eminence in Shadow.
First off, I don't think we've really talked about The Eminence in Shadow that much, except for when I reported on the season two premiere at Anime Expo. Our experience with the series began when our project manager for Sentai Filmworks said, and I paraphrase, "The new season's coming up. Do you want this isekai series or this isekai series?" And we said, "We would like this one, please. Thank you." And she said, "Okay," and that's how we met The Eminence in Shadow.
The other isekai option was a farming one. I thought about saying "the" farming one, but I think there actually is more than one. I'm really not sure. There's just so much isekai these days. And the thing is, the farming one looked like it could be interesting, too, but we figured we'd have to look up a bunch of farming jargon that we're unfamiliar with. (We are such city girls.) And that sounded like a lot of extra work. And we're burned out, so we're not into that right now (although we do like a challenge under less burned-out circumstances).
On the other hand, The Eminence in Shadow promised to be about a guy who doesn't want to be the star of the show (all the time), but wants to blend into the background. As people who think the supporting characters are important, too, we really liked this concept. It turned out to not be exactly what we expected in that regard, but it was still a lot of fun, so we're enjoying the series rather well.
Now, as for this season. Most recently, there's been talk about...well, about the fan service filler episode, because that's the one that just aired. But before that, there was talk of the counterfeit money arc. And a lot of people (by which I really just mean "the reviewer at Anime News Network") seem to think it was a lackluster arc. And that has me going, "What!? But it was comedy gold!!!" And we had to look up a lot of economic and finance terms for that, so you better appreciate it!
...I kid. You don't have to care (as long as our translations didn't show us to be too incompetent in that field (what do you want from us? we think money is boring)). I will admit that we did dislike this arc for the amount of blah blah blah about money and credit whatever the heck else we had to deal with.
But aside from that! Gamma's big fight scene! Delta's battle against John Smith! And how else are you going to get an epic battle of Alpha versus Shadow? It was awesome!
Okay, I admit that Cid was a major jerk. But that's not anything even remotely new for this guy. I don't know why anyone would ever expect him to care about anybody else. Athena says, "I get that you want people to care about the people you care about, but you should know better than that by now."
...I'm realizing my thoughts on this subject are not fully formed. I guess what I want to say is, I can understand being unhappy about a story arc where your favorite characters are getting hurt, and that is a valid opinion. But we're more of the, "All's well that end's well" opinion when it comes to storytelling. In fact, we can be a bit sadistic about our favorite characters. Some of our favorite scenes in Miraculous are when Adrien is the saddest.
But on the other hand, that makes the happy scenes that much happier. For example, would Delta's return at the end of that arc have been nearly as powerful if Alpha and the others didn't think she was dead? It made me tear up, you guys! It was so good!
So maybe next time you watch that arc, just remember that Alpha and the others will be alright, and enjoy the comedic misunderstandings, because they are pretty darn hilarious. I mean, come on, his super cool elite secret agent name is John Smith! ...Actually, that's pretty smart, because if you want to be a secret agent, you want to be more of a blend-into-the-background type, but that's the irony of it! John Smith is supposed to be his super cool Shadow persona, while Cid is supposed to be the one blending into the background. It's really quite brilliant all around.
Today I'm thankful for getting to work on The Eminence in Shadow, getting to watch Miraculous Action again, being done translating all that stuff about economic theory, finding a bunch of Daedalian keys in Hogwarts Legacy, and that super cool courtyard we found while exploring that castle.