If the laughs don’t get to you, the slice-of-booty will! Put your chastity belts on, believe in your faith and witness an example of how to do filler right!

Recap and Reaction

Look no further than our favorite comedic devices Skel & Po or as I call them, the “Bozo Bros,” leading us to the promise land of Shadow Garden’s assets. If you ever had questions as to how the other Shadow Garden members contribute, look no further than this episode that reveals more than just their personality. To believe in a good filler, you have to believe in everything else that’s not plot related. This episode brings all the goodies that make The Eminence in Shadow great. Feast your eyes and hide your mom from what you are about to witness!

Opener

Skel & Po wake up with a grand dream on their minds and go to wake up Cid to fill him in on their next major endeavor. As Skel & Po show up, they are surprised to find his room empty with the Mundane Mann mannequin head sitting on top of his bed frame. Surprised that his door was unlocked and not being there to hang, it’s clear that Cid will not be on this next grand adventure of picking up ladies.

Walking into Cid’s room and disregarding all respect for their friend, they see something special sitting on a desk. There were special VIP tickets for Mitsugoshi’s Hot Springs Land, 6 to be exact. With their ticket to booty and large cups on their minds, a man’s wish for the ultimate home run begins.

Skel & Po will lead us to the promise land! Honestly, they are always going to be great for comedic relief, but they are perfect tropes to make fun of a typical guy’s struggles.

The Interrogation

Both Skel & Po get excited in more ways than one and rushed to get to the hot springs. With Nu holding signs like she always does outside of Mitsugoshi, she notices that they got those special tickets reserved for a select few. Angered, she takes them in to investigate.

Nu channels her inner Yakuza, stomps the ground, caving it in. She musters all of her masculinity and interrogates Skel & Po. Both plead their case that their homeboy Cid, let them have this amazing opportunity to get to take the wonderful ladies out for a good time.

Like every comedically ironic matter, Nu puts two and two together that Cid could have used Skel & Po to bring all of Shadow Garden together. Baffled, she can’t understand why Cid would involve these two bozos.

Nu gets up to go consult the Seven Shadows. Before she leaves outside the door, Po says, “d-d-date?” In her response, “she is open to it,” said in one of the most aggressively motherly tones.

We know what to expect out of Skel & Po as their trope entails as comedic relief characters. What makes this scene amazing is Nu’s performance. We’ve seen Nu and her cold blooded meanstreak before, but this is totally the ruffian version and I’m sure we are all here for it. As it stands, she has the most ‘dom’ vibes in Shadow Garden. Yakuza Nu, who knew?

The Legend of the Dragon’s Tears

The Seven Shadow convene for a meeting that was prompted by Nu’s news of Skel & Po’s plan, supposedly given by Shadow himself. They are to meet up Skel & Po at Mitsugoshi’s Hot Springs Land, where Shadow will apparently arrive.

In a flashback scene, after defeating what looked like a cult member, the person crypitcally mentioned, “you can’t have the Dragon’s Tears, the golden!” Then, the cult member abruptly died. It is in this moment Cid does what he does best, creates fictitious lore and plot, but is at the same time real. As Shadow Garden mentions of the dead cultist possibly referring the region’s lore. Cid can’t help but tie it to the “Golden Dragon Tears.” He commands them to dig, while he makes like a shadow at night and disappears. Like always, Shadow Garden is left to interpret Shadow’s vague commands.

After all the Shadow Garden members dug, a hot springs was born. Even after this discovery, surely this couldn’t have been it. There has to be a more meaningful reason for Shadow to command a digging mission for something so trivial. In order to truly find out the real reason, they must go on a date with Shadow and the bozo bros, Skel & Po.

This scene reminded me much of Uncle From Another World’s humor with the flashbacks. While it does have its own comedic flavor, being in full color would have been better. Eta or whichever characters dubbing over it, would have still kept that same comedic delivery in tone. It would have just been more visually appealing, but I guess they saved the most appealing scenes for later.

Shadow Garden Fights Over For the Date

Like we all expected, Skel & Po get their wish of a blessed hot springs date with 3 of the “Mitsugoshi” ladies. With only 6 tickets and the three guys already determined, hypergamy couldn’t have been more real than this no-laughing-matter situation. Naturally, Nu inserts herself into the equation as being one of the ones that must do the deed, but as her names implies, Alpha alpha’d Nu into submission with knives and missions. Before Alpha can relieve her trauma and go on the date, Beta Beta’d her. The ladies that should go on the date should be knowledgeable about the area, be able to act like a normal person, be frugal with their replenished funds and be adaptable. Because of the high demand for such a date, they settle the score only fair way possible.. “Rock, Paper, Scissors!”

This scene is comedy gold. When Shadow Garden presents the kind of person that should go on this date, it mimics what everyone makes fun of profiles on Tinder for. People want a perfect person that doesn’t exist and end up rattling off list filled demands that doesn’t exist in one person.

The Bozo Bros Dancin’ w/ Death

It’s time for the big group date and Natsume, Zetan & Deltan find their way to meet a Cid-less Skel Etal and Po Tato. Skel commits a cardinal sin and mentions the surprise that the other girl, Miss Renu was too busy.

Judging by Nu’s temperament, it may have been for the best..

Skel and Po mentions that these ladies are still beautiful, as Deltan starts looking around the crowd for Cid. Annoyed, Natsume mentions the obvious missing person and Zetan echoes the same sentiment. Skel & Po make up another excuse that Cid had to cancel, but judging by Zetan & Natsume’s reaction, they come up with another excuse that Cid is just late for the date. Zetan & Natsume flip 180 degrees from mean girls to the most feminine maidens, as they realize their master Shadow will eventually arrive. Zetan & Natsume calls out to the ‘mutt,’ as they proceed to get ready to have less clothing on to be in the water.

The Bozo Bros realize that they are in quite the pickle. The poor third lady with be dateless without another man and will be stuck ‘fifth-wheeling.’ As they decide to stick to the plan of lying about Cid, a certain pink haired vampire queen comes lurking. Showing how utterly prepared they are, Po pulls out the ultimate scammy influencer dating book from Count Virgin Boy. With this knowledge in hand, nothing can go wrong in practice with these beautiful Mitsugoshi ladies. Today’s the day that they go from boys to men.

In this episode, we got to see Nu act a bit differently by being this ruffian ‘dom’ kind of personality. Now, we get to see Zeta just be Zeta, which is refreshing.

PUT IT AWAY NOW!

Beast poon, Elven poon and all the other unidentified poons, have blessed the audience with quintessential Eminence in Shadow fanservice. As all the Shadow Garden ladies discuss how Shadow may not actually show up, all the ladies start revealing more than what your mother would be comfortable with what you are seeing onscreen. With both possibilities of him showing up or not, all the ladies must stay prepared. With how they look in mind for when Shadow shows up, Alpha strikes an awkward pose with Epsilon and Zeta completely judging her. Out of nowhere, Eta reveals herself in more ways than one, putting see-through slime all over her body.

The Date Begins!

The scene begins with the beast poons, Zetan and Deltan, playing volleyball with Skel & Po. Zetan trades barbs with Deltan as the audience’s beast poon enthusiasts argue over what kind of beast poon each one is. Using their beastly strength over sheer competition, Skel gets caught up in the crossfire and gets nailed in the face with the volleyball. The scene instills its classic, “smashed face into the frame” gag. Zetan and Deltan argue over what just happened as Po on all fours, revealing his booty cheeks, cries out for his buddy taking in such a critical hit.

Shadow’s “True Purpose”

Epsilon and Gamma complain about what Deltan, Zetan and Beta are accomplishing, but Alpha steps in to explain that they are just having fun. Alpha starts to conclude that this might have been Shadow’s true purpose all along. This is the one true moment where the audience may have actually agreed with what the Bozo Bros had just done. Frame by frame, the audience can’t help but agree with what Alpha is saying as all of Shadow Garden are having fun in their scantily clad swimming suits. Just when you thought the booty cheeks galore couldn’t stop, Bunny Eta comes in to ruin your day with a plot.

Bunny Eta senses beyond the swirling pheromones to recognize something abnormally magical below the surface. Po tends to Skel’s CTE, as they discuss how their day has been going. All the Mitsugoshi ladies end up going to a ‘girls-only’ bath. He goes on to tell Skel that the Mitsugoshi Hot Springs Land bathing services for every kind of group. Using the influencer book knowledge, Po notes that the girls going into a girls-only bath means that they are just trying to see which bozo they want be with. Yukime ends up clearing the frame before we are met with Queen Elizabeth and Yukime, enjoying a sauna.

Zeta & Beta realize that getting their bodies wet is just good fun. Beta displays her frustration that a “delicate elven princess” can’t let Shadow down with another mission. Zeta, displaying as much personality and onscreen time as she’s ever had before, uses her logic to determine that there is more than meets the eye with this mission—that it likely has to with the Dragon’s Tears.

Dragon’s Tear Lore

There used to be a princess that saved a small dragon. They became pals that lived a peaceful life until a major war broke out. To its heart content, the dragon defended the princess by slaughtering more than 100,000 soldiers, taking in tons of battle damage. Coming back to see the princess, the dragon found nothing but destruction in the royal capital. The dragon eventually found the dying princess and said, “Your Highness, please open your eyes. Let us soar through the skies once more” Hearing the dragon’s words, the princess shed a single tear. Mourning, the dragon continued crying until the lands filled with hot tears of sadness. Somehow, the princess rose from the dead to find the hot springs of the present. In her search for the dragon, the dragon was nowhere to be found.

The ladies clapped as Lambda performed a masterful retelling of the events of the Dragon’s Tear lore. Somewhere within this lore, there are clues to what Shadow wants them to see.

Shadow Garden reenacting the Dragon Tear’s lore is the perfect Eminence in Shadow humor. Like providing the backstory of Yukime & Gettan, this episode takes a page out of that script to flesh out the backstory for its ‘plot ‘villain’ in one scene. Everything else is usually more important than the plot itself, so having a filler with an even more insignificant plot needs some help by providing the twist of the humor in it. This is case, the funny retelling by Lambda.

The Moment of Reveal

Switching scenes, in their lustful desires of your classic pervy Japanese anime scene, the Bozo Bros tries to catch a peak of the women’s bath. Using the inspiration of Count Virgin Boy’s teachings, recalling that “the bold man wins.” As bold and as confident as the Bozo Bros are, they launch their way up the wooden hot springs wall to catch a glimpse of a man’s paradise.

Another classic “moment of triumph” scene. The glory of what all men want to achieve, as Skel & Po bask in what will be the most triumphant moment they have ever witnessed, all railroaded by Bunny Eta’s gassy sneak attack that lays waste to the Bozo Bros. Now, as the gas causes Skel & Po to cry tears, with Delta worsening it by pushing the button to release more gas, Bunny Eta theorizes that the hot springs has been reacting to the tears. Giving off magical signals, Bunny Eta gives quite the devious look to the Elven Princess Beta. Unknowingly, Elven Princess Beta is sacrificed by Bunny Eta, wrapping her upside down, tentacle-style.

Taking Fanservice to the Next Level

In an attempt to make the Elven Princess Beta drop tears, The Eminence in Shadow takes matters one step further by causing the anime to blur out a particular artifact Bunny Eta wants to put into Elven Princess Beta’s rear end. Switching frames quickly to reveal the previously mentioned rear end, Elven Princess Beta lets it slip out slightly that she might just want that inserted. Bunny Eta starts rattling off the side effects of the artifact, saying that it may cause severe ‘leakage’ out of every opening of the body.

Bunny Eta proceeds to take down everything personal about the Elven Princess Beta. From her ‘airhead’ personality, her bosom and her being a ‘pick-me.’ Going even further beyond, she goes on about how much Shadow-sama is absolutely finished with her kind. As Bunny Eta proceeds to completely waste the Elven Princess Beta’s ego by demoralizing her in a not so consensual masochistic manner, Lambda explains to Eta that this is the way to break down new Shadow Garden members to make them obedient. Due to Bunny Eta’s terribly demeaning words, the Elven Princess Beta finally drops one of those tears of sadness.

Besides the obvious innuendos, the hazing of people is actually as real as ever. It’s one of the few underlying dark elements that this show presents. This episode really is toting the line with having to blur what looks like a plug that goes into your rear.

If you are going to do an episode that focuses heavily on the fanservice, then at least do it well. Having different angles and characters put in different scenarios makes it a little more refreshing. The creators hit us with that Bunny Eta, which is a classic fanservice outfit for a character. I love the fact that Alpha is getting a massage, but the other Shadow Garden members are portrayed with humor in the background to go along with it. Overall, nice!

A Waking Dragon

Once the tear drop fell into the pool of hot springs, the entire Mitsugoshi Hot Springs Land began to erupt. As Alpha is getting a nice massage, she starts to sense the magical energy that Eta referred to. The erupting disturbance has been cause by the water shaping itself into a water dragon. As the water dragon is causing havoc, all of Shadow Garden come together like superheroes in their slime outfits. Except, this time they are in a new red, white and blue outfit.

In the call for action, not like the ones prior in the episode, Shadow Garden proceeds to let their true assets be known. Delta attacks first, followed up by Epsilon. Alpha, Gamma and Zeta make their way over to the dragon, but the comedy was more important as Gamma trips over a metal pipe. Luckily, a good punchline doesn’t effect Alpha and Zeta, as they begin slicing through the water dragon. For a moment, the scene pans to Eta blowing the steam off of Gamma’s butt, while all the others are screaming to keep the aggression against the water dragon. Before Alpha ends up delivering the final blow, Beta is shown still reeling from the mental beat down from Eta.

Another day. Another episode where self-infliction brings out the best for the plot.

In the aftermath, Beta cries due to her just trying her best. Alpha proceeds to give closure to the episode, as she confirms now that Shadow wanted them to relieve the soul of its sadness all along. Like a good business does in taking care of their customers, Mitsugoshi gives their customers a massive discount on a limited edition item to commemorate their “Dragon Tear’s Hot Spring.” Luckily, the short battle only caused slight damage to the building. If all’s well, then it ends well. More fanservice frames continue to pan and switch from our favorite Shadow Garden members to another, until that takes us to the ending credits.

It’s a classic feel good moment ending with the characters realizing what Shadow was trying to teach them, even though he didn’t actually make this all happen. It was really the goats Skel & Po with their deceitful lies.

Ending Credits Scene

After the events of relieving the dragon soul of its sadness and angst, Skel & Po wake with a fuzzy memory. The only thing Po can think of is Count Virgin Boy’s saying how they will be ‘reborn.’ In this case from having no memory of the prior events, they chalk it up to being reborn as a man. The episodes end with both reborn men jumping for joy.

Last Thoughts

Even though this episode is anime only filler, we’ve had episodes like these in season 1 that were heavily comedy based with no real plot. Early Mundane Mann episodes were like that until Rose’s Demon Possession became more of a central plot point. With 2 heavy hitter arcs back to back in season 2, it makes sense to kind of unwind from there to do something more light-hearted, before the story breaks into the next major arc. Seeing the crazy Mappa situation with the animators, I’m going to be appreciate of the creators’ work, whether they want to make filler or add anime only content.

Most fillers or anime only arcs should stick to what makes the show special in the first place and secondly, show characters in a refreshingly new light. As if I didn’t already have tremendous belief in the show’s creators, they did just that with quite a bit more fanservice to help keep fans engaged with more than just their eyes. The comedy in this episode came together with a classic comedically ironic story. Most importantly, it got to display many Shadow Garden characters that we never got to really see interact onscreen before, besides a few lines here and there. Zeta, Eta and Nu got their shine. Everyone else contributed in a massive way to make a harmless episode fun. However, if all else fails, sex sells. I don’t really see filler being that much better than this.