Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! | Average by day, overpowered by night.

I probably won’t be doing the usual regular blog post about each episode for Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!. Before the Fall 2022 season began, I do what everyone does, scroll through the anime that are going to air during that time period. Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! so happened to be one of those anime that I felt like I should watch because I thought the feature image was fairly interesting and cool.

For as long as he can remember, Minoru Kagenou has been fixated on becoming as strong as possible, which has led him to undertake all kinds of rigorous training. This wish, however, does not stem from a desire to be recognized by others; rather, Minoru does everything he can to blend in with the crowd. So, while pretending to be a completely average student during the day, he arms himself with a crowbar and ruthlessly thrashes local biker gangs at night. Yet when Minoru finds himself in a truck accident, his ambitions seemingly come to a sudden end. In his final moments, he laments his powerlessness—no matter how much he trained, there was nothing he could do to overcome his human limitations.

But instead of dying, Minoru reawakens as Cid, the second child of the noble Kagenou family, in another world—one where magic is commonplace. With the power he so desired finally within his grasp, he dons the moniker “Shadow” and establishes Shadow Garden: a group whose sole purpose is to combat the enigmatic Cult of Diablos, an organization born from Cid’s imagination. However, as Shadow Garden grows in both membership and influence, it becomes increasingly apparent that the Cult of Diablos is not as fictional as Cid had intended.

Five episodes in and I’m on the fence. I admit, I’ve definitely grown tired of the idea of a ‘harem’, especially since every Isekai, Reincarnation anime I watch seems to be littered with them. I guess once you’re reincarnated in a new world, that gives you the privilege of having a harem.

Also what gives with each reincarnation anime having such an overpowered character? They have a gloomy or unfulfilling first life only to be given everything in their next. I don’t get it be hey, it is what it is.

Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! as a whole reminds me of Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru (Ansatsu Kizoku). But in this case, Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! is more violent in nature. You see a lot more blood in this anime than you would in the latter.

This is when originality is called into question, there are many parallels between both anime. So will this anime turn out to be something that has a little personality to it? Given the fact that I’ve seen so many anime like this one; maybe this anime will turn out to be one of the many.

Personally, I want Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!, more importantly, I want our main protagonist in Cid to be like Anos Voldigoad. I don’t want any of this ‘average by day, overpowered by night’ stuff because let’s be honest, more often than not, most anime lack lightening during night scenes. You literally cannot see anything and it’s a pain not being able to see what’s happening on screen clearly.

If it weren’t for this anime also being one of fantasy, which by nature means that there will be a ton of bright colours. I probably wouldn’t have been able to see all the fight scenes that all happened during the night.

Apart from what seems to be a lack of originality (which could be said about all anime), Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! is a very slow paced anime. Which is very weird. Given that most anime nowadays are all about speed and putting as much information as possible (or lack thereof) into twelve episodes. The fact that Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute is going to have twenty, could prove to be promising. However, it comes down to how the studio portions out each episode. We could have episodes where it feels like a 1A, 1B, and 1C or episodes where you can feel the progression. Right now, to me, it feels like a 1A, 1B and 1C sort of deal.

Hopefully that changes sometime soon or else it’s going to feel like one long anime.