Episode 1

The Hated Classmate (嫌いなクラスメイト) is the series premiere and the first episode of the The Eminence in Shadow anime adaptation.

Synopsis
影野ミノルは幼少期からの夢である“陰の実力者”になるべく、着々と準備を進めていた.
 * -|English = Akane copes with her trauma by being popular and working hard to make people like her, but one boy in her class doesn’t care about her at all. That bothers her to no end.
 * -|Japanese = 「陰の実力者」. それは、主人公でも、ラスボスでもない. 普段は実力を隠してモブに徹し、物語に陰ながら介入して密かに実力を示す存在.

Summary
After Akane Nishino wakes up in the morning and takes a shower, she gets prepared for school and has her personal driver takes her. There, she is greeted by most students, and encounters the one she despises, Kageno-san. They exchange greetings, but he calls her Nishimura much to her annoyance and she corrects Kageno that her name isn't Nishimura. Kageno apologizes, stating he was pretty good at remembering named NPC, but lately haven't got much sleep, and calls her Nishitani. She gets quietly annoyed and corrects him again by repeating her actual name, but Kageno again gets it wrong and calls her Nishimura as he leaves. Akane notes that she doesn't despise him for getting her name wrong, but for never looking at her and even when his eyes are facing her direction, they seem to be looking at somewhere far-off place.

Going about her school day, Akane recalls back to when she was in middle school, she had to take a break from show business due to a scandal and has been hiding behind a mask ever since. She plays the teacher's pet so that the teachers like her, and plays the popular girl so that students would like her, being very careful to make sure no one hates her. After school, she calls her driver, but he doesn't pick up as he was attacked by some men. As he didn't came to pick her up, Akane is forced to head home walking, which is her first time doing it since the incident from middle school. On her way, she is kidnapped by the men that attacked the driver. While she loses consciousness, she sees Kageno hiding around a corner.

Later, Akane wakes up bound in some warehouse as one kidnapper tells her that the daughter of Nishino Zaibatsu shouldn't walk alone at night. The other kidnapper tells her that she just needs to stay there and she will be freed once they get the ransom. Outside, Kageno observes the kidnapper and moves to change clothes and don on a mask. The kidnapper wants to have some fun with Akane, as he notes that this should be her second kidnapping as the first time because of some stalker. Kageno then comes down from the roof window, introducing himself as a Stylish Ruffian Slayer. The lead kidnapper pulls out a gun, but is disarmed when the masked Kageno throws a piece of glass to injure him. Kageno then charges the guy, throwing him to the ground before smashing his face. The other kidnapper sees that Kageno isn't an ordinary man and states he was bored from doing kidnappings with amateurs.

The remaining kidnapper notes he is former military and readies a knife to attack Kageno, who uses crowbars. Although Kageno manages to disarm the man, he is still overwhelmed, then decides to get serious and show him the potential he found in crowbars as he fought bikers. From this, the man then realizes his opponent is the Balaclava Berserker, a man who has been fighting the bikers with crowbars. Kageno notes that the bikers started wearing helmets after that, so he had to stop using the crowbars like tonfa and instead use them as regular clubs. Kageno then proceeds to break the man's leg and brutalizes him, ending the fight and turning his focus to Akane. Taking the kidnapper's knife, Kageno then frees Akane and tells her to be more careful next time. Akane then calls the police and her father uses his connections to make the case not go public.

The next day, Akane goes to school and greets Kageno once more, but he correctly calls her Nishino. While she is ready to correct him, she stops when she realizes he got her name right and this time it feels as though he is looking at her. She then felt he is also living a life behind a mask, developing an interest in her odd schoolmate. The next morning, a local news report goes out that Minoru Kageno was run down by a truck on the side of a road and did not survive.

When adrift after death, Kageno doesn't remember when he started his fixation, but he always dreamt of being a hero. He spend his days training, while acting as the "background character" in his school life. He reached a point where he could beat up some guys, but still didn't have a chance when surrounded by armed men. If he became the best martial artist in the world, he might be able to beat said men, but he still wouldn't be able to do anything about a nuclear missile. Kageno wants to overcome those limits, determined to do so no matter the cost. After being hit by a truck, Kageno is reborn in a new world, a medieval world with emerging technologies and populated by more than humans. He formed an organization and with his squad, they ready to start an operation in service to their master. In this new world, Kageno had obtained a new power: magic. Now he wants to be the one who operates from the shadows, showing everyone their inner strength and greatness deep within themselves, as the one true Eminence in Shadow that he could never achieve in his previous life in this new world.