Shy Season 2 ‒ Episode 21

She might not have been studying the blade in her spare time but Teru still swings a mean fire katana. That’s just one of several powerups featured in this week’s episode of Shy, which accelerates bombastically toward the climax at the tip of the tower.

Like the previous episode, this one is heavy on the superhero theatrics—and those fireworks fly true. Mostly. It’s a little silly for the story to act like Teru is dead, only to revive her with a cool fire sword two minutes later like nothing happened. That’s a twist that I’m sure worked better as a cliffhanger in manga form. But the fight, once it gets going, has nice choreography and effects animation. It looks good and it’s legible. That’s more than you can say for a lot of action scenes these days. The samurai duel setting also helps distinguish this from past fights and I couldn’t help but grin at Teru getting so wrapped up in the moment that she starts naming her techniques out loud. That stuff is always cool.

The philosophical musings of this episode are nice, too. Spurred on by the voice of Purity, Teru interrogates the true function of her Heart-shift bracelets—and there’s an almost Buddhist angle to it. Those bangles don’t just give her appropriately themed superpowers. They facilitate enlightenment through the negation of the self. In other words, by fully opening her heart to people, Teru can spiritually connect to them and blur the lines that divide. We’ve already seen her do this multiple times but this fuller explanation makes it less jarring when she enters Mai’s memories. I hope Shy continues to develop this angle, exploring both the power and peril that comes with Teru utilizing this state of selflessness.

I don’t think Shy needed to spell out what corrupted Mai in so many words; it got the point across just fine last week. However, I’m glad the narrative did so because it made my brain connect the dots to Yū Yū Hakusho, which I’m currently watching for the first time. Specifically, I’m in the middle of Yusuke’s big fight with the Chapter Black villain Shinobu Sensui—and Sensui’s and Mai’s backstories share a lot in common. Both were prodigies whose strict idealism crashed catastrophically against the grey morality of the real world, both wield light and dark energies, and both protect their psyches with an exaggerated dissociative identity thing. Oh, and both Shinobu and Shinobi use the same “heart under blade” kanji (忍). I have no idea how either of their arcs end up but I think the current (to me) similarities between the two of them are interesting enough to comment on. Maybe Bukimi Miki took some notes from Togashi when putting this arc together.

Thematically, Shy is definitely interested in what makes someone go down a dark path. It’s more complicated than a “good” person turning “evil.” Both Letana/Tzveta and Mai/Utsuro fell victim to larger societal and systemic failings that opened them up to Stigma’s influence. Amarariruku is itself a system that takes sustenance from these failings, populating its league of villains with misfits and outcasts who, when we dig deep, seem to have legitimate reasons for their heel turns. Teru only manages to deal a blow to Mai when she enters her heart and understands what happened to her. Sympathy and empathy are the sharpest blades she wields.

Mai’s ultimate enemy is Mai. Utsuro’s existence can be considered an act of metaphysical self-flagellation, forcing herself to become the villain she perceives herself to be. Mai’s true self appears to Teru chained to the innermost recesses of her heart, and it’s obvious Mai forged that chain on her own. Even Ai wanted to forgive her and it was only through Utsuro’s violent goading that she resorted to the blade. Teru, too, wants to save Mai, and after that final speech she delivers, Teru is undoubtedly more fired up than ever to rescue this girl from herself.

Rating:

Shy Season 2 is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. If he has misspelled “Amarariruku” anywhere in the above review, you have permission to rub it in his face. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.

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