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]

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Background

Shy was released on Blu-ray in three volumes from March 27, 2024, to May 29, 2024.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Shy
Sequel:	Shy 2nd Season

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Momijiyama, Teru

Main

Shimoji, Shino
Japanese

Andreianov, Pepesha

Supporting

Noto, Mamiko
Japanese

Koishikawa, Iko

Supporting

Touyama, Nao
Japanese

Kekerakera, Kufufu

Supporting

Hidaka, Rina
Japanese

Dunant, Pilse

Supporting

Suzushiro, Sayumi
Japanese

Ming Ming, Li

Supporting

Murase, Ayumu
Japanese

Tzveta

Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Stigma

Supporting

Tamura, Mutsumi
Japanese

N-Vilio

Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu
Japanese

Wonder Jones, David

Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Ezoe, Hikaru

Producer

Awaji, Tooru

Producer

Kosuge, Hidenori

Producer

Jakuchi, Rei

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Shiny Girl" by MindaRyn

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Ending Theme

	1: "Shiritai Kimochi (シリタイキモチ)" by Shy / Teru Momijiyama (CV: Shino Shimoji), Iko Koishikawa (CV: Nao Touyama) eps 1
	2: "Kimi Dake ga Hero (君だけがヒーロー )" by Iko Koishikawa (CV: Nao Touyama) (eps 4)
	3: "Watashi no Aoi Sora ~As I Am~ (私の青い空～As I am～)" by Teru Momijiyama (CV: Shino Shimoji) (eps 5)

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.

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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.

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Dec 27, 2023

7_3

Not Recommended

Funny

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 ...

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Poll: Shy Episode 7 Discussion Stark700 - Nov 13, 2023	43 replies	by alejito480 »» Mar 28, 7:05 PM
Poll: Shy Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Oct 30, 2023	47 replies	by Refridgerater »» Mar 27, 3:54 PM
Poll: Shy Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Oct 16, 2023	50 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Mar 22, 6:14 AM
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Momijiyama, Teru

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Koishikawa, Iko

Kekerakera, Kufufu

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Tzveta

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