Rating: B
If episode 1 was the tease of the arrival of the Eminence in Shadow crew then episode 2 is that series’ formal introduction to the Isekai Quartet sphere. Specifically, Cid and the Seven Shadows all join class 1, which prior to this point had consisted of the Shield Hero trio and the secondary characters from Overlord and Re:Zero. This sets up a situation primed for naming chaos, since the secondary Overlord characters in question are the Pleiades (i.e., the combat maid squad of Nazarick), and six of them have the first six Greek letters in their names (Yuri Alpha, Lupusregina Beta, Narberal Gamma, CZ2128 Delta, Solution Epsilon, and Entoma Vasilissa Zeta), while all seven of the Seven Shadows are named only by the first seven Greek letters when not using aliases. Of course, the writers do not miss the golden opportunity to exploit this by drawing comparisons/contrasts between like-named characters.
And as with other pairings of series in the franchise, some of the fun is seeing which characters align with each other. In this case, the two Alphas, as team leaders, are both the most responsible and sensible members of their respective teams. Beyond them, Eminence‘s Delta definitely aligns with Overlord‘s Beta as the aggressive idiots of their respective groups (although this characteristic seems more pronounced here for Lupsregina than in her home anime series), while Eta and Overlord‘s Delta also seem to be on the same wavelength. The two Epsilons having a brief conversation was to be expected, since the Overlord version is a slime, while the Eminence version has the most masterful control over her slime suit; that both of them literally have busts made mostly or entirely of slime is a joke which has to come up at some point. (For those not familiar with The Eminence in Shadow, their body suits are made of magical slime, and the slightly-built, very self-conscious Epsilon has put considerable effort into mastering realistic bounce for the slime enhancement to her assets.) Eminence‘s Beta and Gamma only get a line each, but there are other characters in other series that each of them would better bounce off of, so their turns will presumably come later. The commonality on both sides is that members of each groups got their names from people they venerate, so getting around the overlapping name issue won’t be easy. Honestly, I kinda feel sorry for Naofumi.
And of course the writing isn’t going to pass up an opportunity to work in Cid Kagenou/Shadow’s quirks. He’s worked diligently to be Background Character A in his source series, so playing that aspect up to the point that he’s virtually invisible when in the classroom or walking by other characters could make for a great running joke. (Curious that Kazuma did notice him, though.) Him finding Ainz being referred to as the “ruler of darkness” being cool would be completely in-character for him, and even reading Don Quixote in class kinda fits with his delusional state, too.
And what would an Eminence introduction be without Shadow getting to combine his signature “I am atomic” spell with one of Megumin’s Explosion spells? The intersection of the two creating fireworks seems about right. I also chuckled at how everyone knew the end of the school day had come from the skies darkening as Megumin preps and fires her daily spell.
Also deserving of comment here is the animation effort. While the art style may seem simplified, there is a fair amount of background animation in this episode. Particular attention seems to be paid to Eminence‘s Zeta twitching her animal ears (for those not familiar with Eminence, the Seven Shadows are all either elves or Beastkin), to the point that this could become a running joke.
When will Cid find a music room with a piano? Will the Tuna King restaurant from the Eminence setting make an appearance? These are jokes I’m expecting to see. But while this may not have been one of the franchise’s funniest episodes, it’s still a pretty solid introduction for the new team.
USA Anime 