A new promotional video and artwork for the TV anime of Daisuke Aizawa's light novel series The Eminence in Shadow (Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!) was unveiled at the AnimeJapan 2022 event on Saturday. It was also announced at the event that the anime will premiere in October.



Kazuya Nakanishi will direct The Eminence in Shadow for anime studio Nexus, while Kanichi Kato will provide the script and Makoto Iino will adapt the character designs from the light novels for animation.

The main characters of the anime are:

- Seiichirō Yamashita as Cid Kagenou / Shadow
- Kana Hanazawa as Alexia Midgar
- Yoko Hikasa as Iris Midgar
- Asami Seto as Alpha
- Inori Minase as Beta
- Suzuko Mimori as Gamma
- Ai Fairouz as Delta
- Hisako Kanemoto as Epsilon
- Ayaka Asai as Zeta
- Reina Kondo as Eta

Yen Press has licensed both the light novels and the manga adaptation and describes the first volume as follows:

Even in his previous life, Cid never dreamed of becoming a protagonist or a final boss. He prefers to keep a low profile as a supporting character until it's time to reveal he's a mastermind...or at least do the next best thing - pretend he is! And now that he's been reborn into another world, he's ready to create the perfect conditions to live out his dreams to the fullest. With his overactive imagination, Cid jokingly recruits members into his organization and invents a whole backstory about an evil cult they must bring down. As luck would have it, these imaginary enemies turn out to be the real ones - and everyone but him knows the truth!