Shy

Episode 6

I know Unilord is a mysterious alien with a limited frame of reference for earthly concerns, but she should have given Teru some pants before sending her to the North Pole. Fire powers are no substitute for a good pair of leg warmers. More seriously, a lot about this episode's plotting feels slapdash, as we take a circuitous route to a remote locale when the main thrust of this development is only the introduction of Stigma's bad guy posse. He could have done that anywhere. It's the supervillain equivalent of "this meeting could have been an email." Still, I can't begrudge a superhero series too much for superfluous globetrotting. That's part of the fun.

Despite Teru's best efforts, she continues to meet new people. Mianlong, China's hero, proves to be an excellent complement to her anxieties, as he, too, has reservations about using his powers for combat. He'd rather be doling out humanitarian aid than throwing haymakers. While his issues could have come across as a rehash of Teru's, Shy avoids this by tying them into his other anxieties about the expectations of his gender. His feminine appearance and inclination towards pacifism do not align with traditional masculinity, and it bothers him. Within the confines of the episode, this detail is mainly fodder for a joke about Teru mistaking him for a girl, but I'd like to see this angle explored more seriously in the future. Gender norms are made to be broken. His sleep powers are a good thematic fit for his presumed arc, too; they don't lend themselves to a particularly manly way of fighting, yet we see their effectiveness all the same.

Teru's other new friend is Tzveta, the soft-spoken girl with ice powers who tries to stab her several times. Fire versus ice is a rivalry written in the stars, and Shy emphasizes Tzveta's mastery of her element with the variety of floes, icicles, and spikes she can conjure. Teru, comparatively, is still learning how best to blaze it, so her fight only goes as well as it does, thanks to assists from Spirit and Mianlong. Like her sparring match with Stardust, the point is that she's still out of her depth. This is where we'd expect a traditional protagonist to train more and get stronger. Teru's struggles, however, are similar to Mianlong's; she's caught between what she thinks heroes should be like and what her highly empathetic personality is more attuned to. Shy so far has found interesting ways to thread that needle, so I expect that pattern to continue. Plus, I can't picture Teru doing a bench press.

The other point of interest regarding Tzveta is her presumed connection to Spirit. She calls her by her real name, Pepesha, which lets her sneak an ice spike through her ribcage. However, the episode doesn't give us much more than that, so there's little for me to comment on besides looking forward to learning what (other than vodka) fuels Spirit. This episode doesn't give us much to chew on overall. I like the characters it introduces, and it opens the door to interesting future developments, but its action-oriented focus doesn't do it many favors. Tzveta's ice queen schtick only goes so far before it feels repetitive, and the series' visual direction and modest production values can't match the kinetic energy of other blockbuster superhero anime. The humbler happenings of last week's episode felt better attuned to Shy's strengths.

Shy is still figuring out precisely what kind of story it wants to be. Stigma's introduction to Amarariruku (say that five times fast), at least, signals its intention to keep following the basic tropes of the genre—a league of heroes must be balanced against a league of villains. This introduction is also the most substantial portion of the episode. Visually, it dips back into the surreal and nightmarish imagery that accompanied Stigma's earlier scenes, and narratively, it further complicates the central conflict. It's no longer just a matter of Stigma drawing out the darkness in people's hearts. Now we know there are other people graced with superpowers who don't answer to Unilord. Are they failed heroes, or is there something else going on?

Despite the clumsiness it took to get there, I'm willing to follow Shy down this path. As long as the series doesn't abandon its psychological angle, I'm perfectly fine with it indulging in classic superhero pulp. I also think we have to start keeping track of Teru's harem of female suitors. Iko is obviously her main squeeze, but Teru easily tanked through Piltz's tsundere defenses last week, and now we have Tzveta's innuendo-laden obsession with Teru "warming" her up. For a girl with crippling social anxiety, she has some pretty potent rizz.

Rating:

Shy is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. He is a recovering shy kid. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.