Thread by @Namaryuu

#陰の実力者

The Eminence in Shadow is a next wonderful light novel adaptation which is an unusual feat. From director's love towards source material, anime original scenes expanding on events, to telling the same story through different medium in splendid way.

Question: How?

Back in February 2020 author received information about anime decision and met with production members including Kazuya Nakanishi. This was not only Nakanishi's directional debut but he loved source material claiming so much he wanted to work on it after reading 5 chapters of WN.

During the meeting to decide the structure of episodes a proposal was made by Anri Sakano the mangaka to include chapter 146 of WN in order to better establish Cid as character to the audience and to illustrate what Eminence will be about. The proposal was accepted.

At the time only 3 volumes of light novel were out which is something that will be important later. Due to the specific structure of Eminence books that contain 2 arcs per book the team opted for a slower approach that normally would have been a lost case but not here.

Due to the peculiar nature of the material the team decided to lenghten the arcs in order to spend more time with characters that play a rather episodic role in books but also to make a better build up for eventual Eminence entrances and anime original scenes.

There was an important aspect that team was fully aware going into Eminence and that is the difference between manga and light novel in order to utilize anime medium as best as they can. Manga is heavily reliant on over the top comedy while light novel is more balanced.

What ended up happening is a creation that tells the same story by utilizing tools reserved for such medium and while this is obviously the case in pretty much every adaptation, doing so in such a way that doesn't lose a charm that got people hooked in the first place is key.

With the beginning established let's move to the other important aspect which many have no doubt noticed: Production. It was a breakthrough postion for Kazuya Nakanishi and possibly Nexus's as a studio with their small staff tackling a continous work from outside could spell doom

The results were anything but with the same names repeating constantly in credits especially Animation Directors with seemingly no decrease in quality. Nakanishi was in pretty much every episode and was heavily involved throughout especially in action oriented ones.

Daisuke Takashima was responsible for handling the more comedic episodes which Eminence had plenty of which have definitely worked in its favor but even so Nakanishi was everywhere, a feat that for sure should be remembered.

Despite the 20 episodes non split the team managed to handle production while consistently having very low amount of AD involved with very limited movement throughout. Eventually the show's finale had solo Key Animation by Nakanishi who delivered a spectacle like no before.

The purpose of this thread was to illustrate efforts of staff and background of Eminence that made it stood out so much. Splendid directional debut for Kazuya Nakanishi and devoted team that knew the strenghts of material and used the medium to its fullest. Monster achievement.