The Eminence in Shadow

Daisuke Aizawa

Aug 2020 · The Eminence in Shadow Vol 1 · Sold by Yen Press LLC

About this ebook

ONE BIG FAT LIE AND A FEW TWISTED TRUTHS
Even in his past life, Cid's dream wasn't to become a protagonist or a final boss. He'd rather lie low as a minor character until it's prime time to reveal he's a mastermind...or at least, do the next best thing-pretend to be one! And now that he's been reborn into another world, he's ready to set the perfect conditions to live out his dreams to the fullest. Armed with his overactive imagination, Cid jokingly recruits members to his organization and makes up a whole backstory about an evil cult that they need to take down. Well, as luck would have it, these imaginary adversaries turn out to be the real deal-and everyone knows the truth but him!

Ratings and reviews

Not the most interesting mc, and the characters can be a little one dimensional. That said, the story has an interesting premise(hero pretends to be a "normie"), not too much power creep and the potential for character growth galore. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your taste) there is also a good chance this will end up as some kind of harem story at some point.

The book is pretty meh. The premise is the best part. Its a funny spin on a more typical chuuni boy dies, is reincarnated, and becomes very op plot. In this story, the boy makes up an evil organization and plot early on, and is accidentally correct, resulting in a situation where he thinks he role-playing, but his followers know he's correct. So that's the good part. The bad parts are that much of the dialogue is really cringe (The protagonist's is supposed to be, but not the other characters) and the characters do not react to things the way normal human beings would. It gets egregious at points. I bought the book based on a recommendation from friends, not realizing that they had read the Manga, not the LN. I cab see the potential for the Manga to be much better since the cringe dialogue would be gutted for space. I did finish the book. It's certainly better than some, but not in upper tiers.

When an OP character decides to live a double life. As a Shadow Éminence, he acts as the mysterious cool guy. As a mob, he acts as the pathetic loser that anyone can find. Strangely, he is quite popular with the girls even as a mob.