The Eminence in Shadow: [SPOILER] Utilizes Cid's Past Life Knowledge Better Than He Does

The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of The Eminence in Shadow, available to stream on HIDIVE.

Thanks to his sole purpose in life being to become the Eminence in Shadow, Cid Kageno’s skills and knowledge that he accumulated over two different lives are on another level, even compared to the strongest figures in his new fantasy world. However, despite his vast expertise and experiences, the original Seven Shades of the Shadow Garden seem to utilize his knowledge in ways that even Cid hadn’t thought of.

Under the guise of imparting ‘Shadow’s Wisdom’ to the girls, Cid taught the Seven Shades several things from his previous life on Earth, from basic self-defense to economics and music, but even he did not expect that the girls he took in for the sake of fulfilling his fantasy would use that wisdom to develop themselves and the Shadow Garden to such surprising extents right under his nose.

The First Shade Alpha

Alpha was the first child that Cid saved from the curse of possession and took in to form the Shadow Garden, making her his first and longest student and friend on the stage to becoming an Eminence in Shadow. At first, Cid taught Alpha and the other victims of the possession they found some simple self-defense and basic martial arts that he developed during his past life. However, Alpha’s devotion to Shadow (Cid’s name as the leader of the Shadow Garden) and their goal of destroying the Diablos Cult led her to develop these skills further.

With just the basic skills that Cid taught them, Alpha was able to evolve them into lethal combat techniques until she became the second-strongest member of Shadow Garden, losing only to Shadow himself. As she strove to improve herself and catch up to Shadow’s strength so that she could stay by his side, Alpha also developed the skills in stealth and infiltration that she learned from Shadow to the point where she became invisible to everyone around her — all except Shadow, of course.

Aside from her physical skills, Alpha was able to take simple stories and anecdotes on the construction of simple Japanese homes and buildings that Cid mentioned in passing to create a familiar architectural style in their current world as a temporary base for the Shadow Garden members. Despite her young age at the time, she was able to take the key details that she learned to turn them into a practical and physical result, shocking Cid since the structure reminded him of his past life, and doing something that he hadn’t even considered in his new life.

Beta (Natsume Kafka)

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Another Shadow Garden member that was able to apply Shadow’s wisdom better than Shadow himself was the jack-of-all-trades, Beta. While Beta was an all-rounded member of the Seven Shades, she had a talent for taking the fairytales and stories that Shadow told them and plagiarizing them into novels to establish herself as a famous novelist.

Under her civilian disguise as Natsume Kafka — a mixture of the names of acclaimed writers from Earth, Natsume Soseki, and Franz Kafka — Beta sold Shadow’s stories as her own to build her reputation and naturally get invited to large, important events as a guest of honor, allowing her to gather information for Shadow Garden, such as during the God of War Tournament. However, this particular action disappointed Cid when he found out, as he originally told her those stories because of her love for literature and did not anticipate Beta copying the stories exactly as they were before selling them.

Beta’s position also helped her get closer to high-status figures like Princess Alexia Midgar and Princess Rose Oriana, keeping an eye on them so that they did not disrupt Shadow’s plans, even if she did know what he was thinking.

Gamma (Luna)

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Of all the members of Shadow Garden, the highly intelligent Gamma was able to make the most of Shadow’s wisdom, using his knowledge to create the Mitsugoshi company right under Cid’s nose and becoming incredibly successful. Based on Shadow’s memories of department stores and economics from Earth, Gamma used the civilian alias ‘Luna’ to build the company as an economic powerhouse in the kingdom of Midgar before expanding and developing branches in neighboring kingdoms, such as Oriana, Lindwurn and the Vegalta Empire.

The Mitsugoshi company sold products that Gamma had reverse-engineered from the basic and vague information that Cid could recall from Earth. From garments, cosmetics, technology and confectionary — especially the popular signature chocolate that they introduced to the fantasy world — the products that Gamma, with the help of Alpha and Eta, was able to create both revolutionized the world’s economic businesses and earned a significant amount of money.

While Cid was impressed by Gamma’s ability to commercialize products he had only told her about, as he believed that the Shadow Garden members were merely playing alone with his fantasies and roleplay, he misunderstood that she was doing it for her gain. However, the main reason for founding and creating the Mitsugoshi company was to administer and organize the Shadow Garden’s finances, garnering money to fund their activities while simultaneously growing their influence and power as they battled against the Diablos Cult.

Epsilon (Shiron)

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One more Shadow Garden member that took Shadow’s wisdom and used it to benefit her better than Shadow himself was the prideful yet magically talented Epsilon. Aside from developing the magic control skills that Shadow taught her until she could keep her slime bodysuit’s voluptuous shape and earning his acknowledgment, along with the nickname ‘Precision,’ Epsilon used Cid’s expertise as a pianist to make a name for herself.

Publicly known as ‘Shiron,’ Epsilon used the piano skills that she learned by watching Shadow play to establish herself as a famous professional composer and pianist. Although the ‘original’ compositions she wrote were stolen from historic composers from Earth, such as Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven, Epsilon was able to win awards and invitations to noble events, much like Beta and her novels. It was also only after hearing and seeing Epsilon play as Shiron that Cid was reminded of his passion for the piano and how cool it would be for the Eminence in Shadow to skillfully play the piano under the moonlight.

Cid Kageno may have been the one to impart the knowledge and skills that he developed throughout his two lives to the Shadow Garden members; however, it was the Seven Shades that truly utilized this wisdom to help them achieve their goal. While Cid only used his skills and experience to benefit him on his journey to be the Eminence in Shadow, the Shadow Garden members used the insight he taught them more practically, building their power and influence to prepare themselves for their war against the Diablos Cult.