Shy

In the middle of the 21st century, powerful individuals with superhuman strength appeared all across the world. These people who wore flashy clothes and performed incredible feats in the name of peace became known as heroes—symbolic figures of the nation they came from. In Japan, 14-year-old middle school student Teru Momijiyama is widely known by her secret identity as Japan's hero, Shy.

As a young, timid girl, Shy is a fairly new hero with a lot to learn. She struggles with self-confidence and questions if she is worthy of the hero title. Even though she is unsure of herself, Shy works hard to save people and do the right thing. As new, powerful threats reveal themselves, Shy must cooperate with heroes around the world all while learning what it means to be a hero.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Momijiyama, Teru Main

Shimoji, Shino Japanese

Andreianov, Pepesha Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Dunant, Pilse Supporting

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Kekerakera, Kufufu Supporting

Hidaka, Rina Japanese

Koishikawa, Iko Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Ming Ming, Li Supporting

Murase, Ayumu Japanese

Kooriskaya, Tzveta Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Stigma Supporting

Tamura, Mutsumi Japanese

Wonder Jones, David Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Ebio Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Awaji, Tooru Producer

Jakuchi, Rei Producer

Oobayashi, Yuri Producer

Arai, Genta Producer

Reviews

Dec 18, 2023

Marinate1016

Recommended

It really breaks my heart that Shy flew so under the radar. Cute, socially awkward girl who has to overcome adversity and become a superhero while balancing her normal life? Sign me up. While it may lack the flair of bigger shonen titles, it makes up for it with a great cast and interesting world. I had a blast watching this one and will miss it on Mondays.

Being a teenager is hard. Being a teenaged superhero is even harder. What makes Shy so good to me is how it handles Shy’s struggles of being a young super hero with the country’s hopes and dreams riding ... on her, and her personal development as Teru. At the beginning of the show, we’re introduced to a really timid girl who struggles to connect with other people at school. When she puts the mask on and becomes Shy, she’s much more confident and assertive. It’s as if that physical mask shields her from the judgement of the world and allows her to temporarily forget the awkward little girl inside of her.

Over the course of the show, we see those two sides of her gradually merge into one thanks to the friends she makes in her line of work. Whether it’s the hot drunk Russian Onee-san who guides her in her super hero activities or her friend at school, she’s pushed forward by people who want to see her grow and evolve. It’s a really sweet and personal story as opposed to the flashy lights and bright beams of usual battle shonen.

That’s not to say there isn’t any action. There’s an overarching plot involving a villain who is quite mysterious and interesting. Also, the second half of the show has quite a few really well done fight scenes that were actually surprising considering how character driven the first half is. Particularly episodes 9 and 10 which serve as the emotional climax of the season.

But the series’ general lack of action isn’t a detriment to me. Instead, I enjoyed the focus on a hero’s growth and journey rather than generic action scenes and power ups. When watching Shy, I’m often reminded of the late great Stan Lee’s quote about Spider-Man. “Anyone can wear the mask”. While we might not all have superpowers. We can all be heroes in our day to day lives. Aspiring for greater heights and pushing ourselves to be better. The impact that Shy has as both a superhero and regular girl on those around her just really resonated with me and made me fall in love with this story. Is it going to be great for those looking for a lot of action? No. It’s definitely aimed at people who are ok with character drama, emotional string pulling and some good old coming of age issues, and it excels at that.

Shy is a really fun show that I think is one of the best superhero stories in the medium and I am very glad I got to watch this one. Onto the manga for sure.

Shy gets 8, out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 18, 2023

Stark700

Mixed Feelings

My first impressions on Shy? The premise screams on repeat with recent trend of superhero anime. Although Shy has yet to achieve a mainstream level of stardom, it has a premise attached that reflect on that recent trend. Most people would point fingers at My Hero Academia for setting the standard in recent years. When we look at Shy, we need to ask ourselves if this is really just another copy-paste superhero show or one that truly made an identity of itself.

Before we even jump into the main story and characters, it's noticable that the season consists of just 12 episodes. With the manga running ... at over 100+ chapters, it raised a question mark how the anime can stay faithful. And indeed, Shy's adaptation does skip over some material although stays honest with the majority of its premise. This is also the first and only adaptation by the original creator, so it really put them on the map. I'm not going to resummarize the synopsis because it speaks for itself. What we should know about is Shy, the title character. Yes, you can guess it without a bat of an eye. She is nicknamed "Shy" because of how shy and timid she is. Representing Japan as a superhero, the show follows her adventures in a futuristic dystopia that managed to evade World War III.

Shy's real name is Teru Momijiyama but her nickname stands out more due to the role she's in. Representing Japan is a huge responsibility and given her kind hearted nature, she does what's possible to help the helpless. I'm not going to sugarcoat it but some of her early missions and feats are rather underwhelming. It seems other superheroes clearly overshadows her role such as Russia's Spirit or Switzerland's Lady Black. Why? It's because they are much more confident in their abilities. Shy's biggest flaw is herself and although the season attempts to change that, it doesn't fare too well. In fact, this season represents the start of her career in what is essentially being a superhero. Shy knows her own limitations but does try to improve herself. The main problem is her own shyness that holds her back. Luckily, she does have support of her friends but it's ultimately up to herself to improve.

Among Shy's characteristics, it's easy to say that she is friendly and helpful towards others. After an incident involving a characer named Ike, the duo quickly forms a friendship that involves the two bonding outside of school. However, Shy quickly how tough it's to be a hero when when she faces Stardust, the representative from the United Kingdom. Despite being able to ultimately pass her training test, Shy has a long way to go to truly embrace her role. The anime tackle on her character insecurities to make it feel as realistic as possible. While I do praise the author's way of showing the vulnerabilities of her character, it will take much more to convince an audience how much she needs to improve.

Despite Shy being the main focus of the show, this season also establishes Pepesha/Spirit as a breakout star. Journeying into the colder climates of Russia, we learn much more about her past and connection to the mysterious character Tzveta. Although expanding only a few episodes, her character arc is one if not the most emotional part of the season. It's here we discover Pepesha's origins including where she came from and the tough environment she grew up in. Pepesha's story also draws the line that the lives of the superheroes we know in the present may be filled with pride and fame, it also has its darker secrets. Unfortunately, this season only scratches the surface and we don't get to learn about the majority of the superheroes. With just 12 episodes, this really shouldn't come as a surprise either.

Studio 8bit has an rather interesting track record to say the least. By interesting, I mean that they have a variety of shows produced over the years with various genres. Shy represents a mixture of action, drama, and superhero elements so the studio did have some experience with similar genres. They adapt the manga in a style that stays consistent throughout the show although didn't put much effort beyond that. Really, the real standout parts are perhaps the character expressions. They didn't put extra effort into the action chereography and some of the animation looked like as if it's on auto-pilot. Similarly, the voice acting and music can be said to be rather average. Shy's personality does remain honest throughout the show that matches her character personality, while the theme songs has a somewhat catchy superhero tone.

I don't think it's an open secret that creative minds in the anime and manga industry have attempted superhero themes into their work these recent years. While it didn't explode into the industry in a similar pattern as isekai, it definitely marked a spot that didn't go unnoticed. For Shy, it didnt exactly hit the sweet spot even with some of its more emotional tones. Truth is, this show could've extended much more than what see see on the television screen. Luckily, this show did get a season 2 announcement. However, the manga is where you can get real juicy details.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 27, 2023

7_3

Not Recommended

I think it’s safe to say that as time has passed, anime has gotten much, much more advanced, becoming more capable in all aspects than ever before. We’re getting some serious level-ups here in visual effects, in music, in animation handling quality, in everything you can think of. I mean, look at the Monogatari series. Sure, it’s quite old at this point (the first anime, Bakemonogatari, aired in 2009), but you can really see that studio Shaft killed it with displaying Akiyuki Shinbou’s creativity in the visual effects, worked a stellar job on the animation handling using clever techniques, and the music was, well, certainly ... not the norm. It’s VERY ahead of its time, at least in my eyes. This season’s SHY has some pretty unique visual effects too.

And that’s about it for the notable stuff in it.

Think of a Krispy-Kreme donut, about to be finished and put on sale. The bagel’s fresh out of the oven and all that’s left is for the glazing to be put on. But wait, the bagel was actually half-baked, and someone dropped it on the floor by accident. On the way to the baker-thingy-whatever, someone somehow rapid-fire sneezed in every corner of the room possible, and all that stuff landed on the unbaked bagel. After being half-baked, the delicious, appetizing glazing is put on, making the bagel a finished donut, and giving it a pretty touch-up. That donut is SHY. If you didn’t catch on to anything I said, basically what SHY is, is a poorly-conveyed, poorly-directed anime with a horribly overpompous attempt at being meaningful, and flashy, over-the-top visual effects to draw people in and make the dummies think that the anime is actually good by that quality alone.

I was extremely disappointed that, when I opened Crunchyroll, searched up SHY, and clicked on the title and its first episode, I was greeted with an overused excuse of a weak, insecure and socially inept MC, because I actually expected this to be something new, refreshing and different after the high and almighty visuals that came before. Instead, after upping your expectations, you’re smacked with that MC, and later presented with the most generic plotline in the world. Not just generic, but predictable as fuck too. It’s about these magical girls—ahem, superheroes—that each represent a country and together have to fight off some similarly one-dimensional villains threatening… the world? (I swear, they’re there just for the superheroes to find them and go all gung-ho on them). And all the while you are watching, it bombards you with super COOL and SLICK and MODERN visual effects and camerawork, all for you to lick up off the dirty floor. I shouldn’t have listened to the one person on an unreliable part of the internet cheering SHY on, claiming it’d be the anime of the season, because holy shit, it is not.

A lot of the time there are underlying messages in anime, hidden under the surface of its main attraction. A perfect case for this kind of anime is Cossette no Shouzou, a three-episode OVA with a similar score to SHY on MAL, filled to the brim with clever and appealing visual effects, accompanied with masterful animation handling and a similarly masterful soundtrack. Its main plot is drenched in the ‘donut glazing,’ so much so that it becomes hard to understand what actually is happening anymore. SHY does the exact same thing, only it wouldn’t have been so unnecessarily bad without its 'glazing'. Cossette no Shouzou needed its fanciness to portray the rest of its story and so the viewer wouldn’t be turned away due to the weird plot behind it, but SHY on the other hand just throws it all at you with a completely normal, completely fine-on-its-own message of ‘even if you’re a socially weak mess that looks like your textbook American nerd, if you believe in yourself and gain enough courage, you can be a normal woman’. It puts all its good qualities to waste and makes everything ten times more dramatic and serious than it needed to be, and it often becomes laughable. At least it was laughable, though.

You know, my expectations might have been a bit biased, as I’d seen someone praying that SHY’d be the anime of the season, and I’d also watched the PV that really, REALLY gaslighted me into thinking it’d be a unique anime. But I wasn’t expecting at all, even with my lowest expectations, that there’d be fillers. I thought we were past that era, I thought we’d learned from that. But no, no! Our author really wanted to stretch their story on and on! If these fillers were meant as a break from all the mess, they should’ve just toned the mess down, not strip the anime of its last bit of meaningful sense and reduce it to a dull and drab slice of life with no relation or necessity to the plot.

It's a shame that the animation handling was actually somewhat well-worked compared to the rest of this anime. Wasted budget and effort went into animating this godawful experience, and I can’t help but feel a strange pity for the animators that worked so hard to actually make this some good eye candy and not some poorly-worked garbage of abject misery. But I’m going to beat the dead horse here and say the animation handling isn’t anything amazing. I may have praised it, but that’s just because it’s not absolute rubbish like most of everything else in this anime. There are clear flaws strewn throughout (like Pepesha literally popping into frame out of nowhere) and some questionable usages of CGI, namely with Ebio-san. More on the directorial side of things, the animation handling can sometimes, out of nowhere, get overly flashy for no reason whatsoever, especially when random trivial scenes play out as opposed to where it’s really needed: the action scenes.

I love spending my time on YouTube, and I’m sure many others reading this do too. It’s an unavoidable part of the internet that’s just about held captive over two billion souls. And a big chunk of those two billion souls know the horrors of the cringy intros and outros that were prolific in every YouTube video back in the late 2010s. And now this year we had to relive that horror again, this time in the form of an anime. Not only is the OP a horrific vomit-inducing vertiginous mess of overused transitions with nauseating camerawork and overdecorative everything, but the visual effects ejaculated everywhere throughout the anime’s runtime doesn’t make it any better. That’s right, I’m bashing the visual effects even more. Oh, we’re going over a tragic event? Let’s add thirty spinning camera transitions and a snow filter so the viewer can’t see shit! Are we explaining some unnecessarily ostentatious lore that’ll change these characters’ lives forever? Let’s put on a film grain filter and make twenty-two triangles and eighteen squares ease into the screen, all starting at a thirty-four-degree angle and ending at a ninety-two-degree angle using keyframing! There might not actually be that stuff, but that’s the kind of stupidity you’ll want to expect. There’s a reason the manga is rated higher: It probably didn’t try to win a fucking Nobel Prize with dizzying visual effects like the anime did. The Nobel Prize for the most detriment to human eyes is what the anime is winning.

For how outwards they went with making the visual effects look like unicorn barf, the artstyle is probably the most non-infuriating, plain and normal thing in SHY. It’s like a ‘wake the fuck up, motherfucker’ call that snaps you out of the trance the visual effects threw you into. It reminds you that you’re not always experiencing Satou Yoshiteru-style directing and xXStickyHotdogGamingXx YouTube intros. It reminds you that at least this travesty can at least be mediocre and not all crapola. What I wrote just before might be the tiny little praise I’ll give to the artstyle in light of the rest of the garbage, but I can’t find anything to criticize, which shows just how bland it is. It’s almost the same as every artstyle you see mangaka use nowadays when they’re too tired or devoid of creativity, or the artstyle big companies use when they have zero budget left to spend on the character designers. Oopsie-daisy, I just criticized it, didn’t I?

Seems like we’re taking a break from all the rubbish, because now we’re talking about SHY’s music. It’s far from great, but it’s at least one look away from this eyesore of an anime. The music director knew what they were doing, appropriately picking when to play and what to play. You might be watching that one filler part of an episode I talked about, and you’d be hearing pretty carefree, light music, and a few minutes later you might be watching an action scene, a battle between superheroes and villains, and you could be hearing intense or tension-building music, or that weird piano piece that plays two chords each three times exactly… (shut up i’m not good at defining music genres ok) The music itself, though, while fitting, is reaaally uninspired and average. Okay, maybe theres a track or two that are actually a bit surprising, but that’s really it. Are ya proud of me? I don't dislike TWO things from SHY now. Go me!...

Oh, back to the dumpster, are we? Let's see... so, what about the one-dimensional characters? We’ve already gone over Teru as a basic bitch in the ‘I hadn’t gone outside before this anime started’ world. The author just slapped the mundane introvert personality onto her, and there ya have it, that’s Japan’s superhero. The other superheroes surrounding her also have stereotypical and sometimes discriminatory personality traits too, like Pepesha, the superhero representing Russia, who we see as drunk more often than necessary. There’s also the useless, burdensome plot device of the anime, Koishikawa Iko, who is around more than half the time as nothing more than a superfan stalker of Teru, even after Teru failed to save her from getting injured from a disaster. As for the supervillains, they’re akin to cardboard in terms of writing. They exist for the sole reason of making this anime work, and nothing more. There is no depth to them; nothing telling us who they really are, save for a single backstory that’s so generic it hurts, and why they’re so goddamn mentally sick, but this anime just has to be some pretentious pile of garbage or else the author wouldn’t survive. It’s clear from the moment they’re introduced into the anime that they were attempted to be given a deeper, more extensive meaning, but it just doesn’t work when the characters don’t have any meaning in the first place.

That was a bunch to cover, but that was my view on this season's SHY to the best my tired brain can type out. To shorten my statements, SHY is a pretentious work about superheroes fighting against evil that smacks nothing but drivel into your face by its sad attempts at giving itself meaning with backstories, wacky, over-the-top visual effects that when watching are like being sick on a rollercoaster, and its paper-thin, depthless characters. The only good stuff you’ll experience watching this is the pretty decent animation handling that was given at least some care, the average at best artstyle, and the nice but flawed music. If you’re wanting to watch something with meaning and sense in what it’s trying to achieve, SHY isn’t that. If you’re looking for dumb, sometimes agitating stuff to turn your brain off to and pay almost no mind to, SHY might be up your alley.

You’re probably going to grow dumber if you try to actually pay attention to this thing anyway. Don’t end up like me.

Thank you for reading my review.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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