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How is Shy? Community score: 4.2
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How is Shy? Community score: 4.2
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How is Shy? Community score: 4.1
© 実樹ぶきみ(秋田書店)/SHY製作委員会
One day, people with supernatural powers suddenly appear, ushering in a new era of peace and eventual super villains, yada yada yada—we all know how this story goes. Modern superhero strings need a better hook than “Isn’t it crazy that a normal person can fly?” This is the first thing Shy does right. The show smartly skips over its stage set in its first minute, leaving plenty of room to focus on the real attraction: a teenage girl dealing with crippling anxiety while on a mission. his heroic service.
Shy begins with Teru doing a wonderful job of stirring up the scattered crowd of children waiting for the super sentinels they actually came to see. This isn’t an action scene and it certainly doesn’t make Teru look cool. However, it reveals the story’s priorities. It is an internal drama for Teru and specifically focuses on how her psychological struggles intersect with her ambition to use her powers to help people. I can imagine Teru slimming down in front of certain audiences, which is a testament to the way she writes. Speaking as someone who went through adolescence with equal levels of insecurity and self-beating, I found Teru’s thought process wonderfully authentic. While that makes her shy away from easy jokes, as have some recent comedies like Bocchi the Rock!, Shy’s overall perspective is much more stern. It really struggled with the almost paralyzing weight of responsibility that weighed on Teru’s small body.
This is evident in the premiere, which focuses not on her brave roller coaster rescue but its aftermath. Teru couldn’t think of anything she did right; she could only focus on the one thing that had gone wrong. This was, unsurprisingly, exacerbated by a thriving news and social media landscape surrounding the disaster, fueling Teru’s inward and downward spiral. Likewise, self-hatred also defines the context of the second episode, as Iko’s guilt over her parents’ death turns her heart into a mess of suicidal thoughts. This is also where we see Teru’s true power. Her anxiety and depression make her attuned to those aspects in others. While it may be difficult to express sympathy for oneself if one knows that pain, people often do not want those they care about to have to go through that pain alone. If Shy is a story about wounded hearts turned into weapons, it is also a story about wounded hearts turned into heroes.
In short, I really like Shy’s current theme. It doesn’t blaze paths with its psychological approach to superheroism, but it feels like it has its own identity. Teru is the most important ingredient in it. Despite her flaws and uncertainties, she still strives to improve and I can believe that her struggles are written from a perspective that fundamentally understands her strengths and weaknesses. hers. That perspective also seems to understand the importance of facing pain and trauma honestly. Note how Stigma presents her villainy with enabling language, saying that Iko’s wound essentially gives her the right to do as she pleases, even if it hurts others. You see this rhetoric all the time when people are justifying their bad behavior. On the other hand, Teru knows that being in pain gives one more reason to help others avoid it.
I’m also eager to see how that psychological perspective applies to the other heroes in the group. Spirit is Teru’s trusted advisor, but there’s certainly more to her love of vodka than the fact that she’s Russian. Meanwhile, Stardust’s public persona makes him an interesting foil to Teru’s antisocial habits, as well as a suitable (?) friendly rival. I suspect there’s more going on than a simple battle between good and evil. My eyebrows rose when the Unilord revealed that her bracelets worked on the same principles as the Stigmata’s rings.
Speaking of the Relic, he has a great, menacing introduction that shows off the anime’s best style. The overall visual direction leans back on the comic book origins with numerous color palette changes, Ben-Day dots, retro-inspired costumes, and highly visible panel choices. This paneling is especially reminiscent of Masaomi Andō’s previous work on Astra Lost in Space, but here it is used more strongly and appropriately. Stigma’s appearance includes striking storyboards that draw parallels between his prosthetic fingers, creepy umbrellas, and jagged crystals. These horror-inspired choices fit the story into the heart of darkness and herald a work willing to prioritize emotional reality over material reality. My main complaint about visual fundamentals is that I’m not a fan of the color design in “normal” scenes. I’m not an artist, so I can’t express it as well as I would like, but something about the color palette doesn’t work for me, like it’s not quite at the right saturation level for the colors used.
However, I can accept some ugly colors if it means seeing Teru overcome the demons in her heart as she helps others overcome their inner demons . She’s a wonderful and instantly likable protagonist, and I’m glad the story doesn’t shy away from her flaws or try to make them too palatable. She needs to be a little frustrated because it makes scenes like her wholesome date with Iko all the more impactful. Like Unilord’s borscht, the conspiratorial stuff about the league of heroes is fun when simmering in the background. However, the main course for me was the story of people helping each other heal. It’s heavy stuff, so I appreciated the light humor throughout. Yuks are not overbearing; they help keep the show’s tone from becoming too dull. So far, Shy has had exceptionally good balance.
My final note is that I haven’t read the manga, so unless I say otherwise, I’ll be approaching this as a future anime-only novice. Even now, I don’t think it’s a bad place. I can’t compare it to the source, but to me, the anime’s direction seems to understand the gears turning beneath the surface of the story. While I don’t know what twists are in store for Teru, these opening three episodes have laid a solid foundation that I’m looking forward to seeing.
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Shy is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Steve is on Twitter while it lasted. He’s a shy kid in recovery. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure on This Week in Anime.