Anime Spotlight #27: SHY & Love After World Domination

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Animeister,

Hoping you had a Super Valentine's Day!

Finally, I get to content that makes overall sense because the theme this week is heroes! Everybody loves heroes, and everybody needs a hero, whether they are super-powered, peak-human, or merely inspirational. Whatever the case, it all comes down to what's in your heart and how strong those feelings are. Plus, because I'm reviewing two movies this week, I thought I'd review two anime as well.

So don't be shy; use your power and share the love by remembering to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment your true feelings at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and choo-choo-choose me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest heart-shaped boxes of news on my content.

It's Anime Spotlightin' Time!

If the post title and theme of the week didn't give it away, SHY is a superhero anime based on an ongoing manga by Bukimi Miki. You may be surprised by the lack of "novel-turned-light-novel-turned..." that was present over the last two weeks, unless you realize that the title is way too short for that.

The main setting is Japan, because anime, but SHY takes place on a global scale on a fictionalized Earth where a masked alien/goddess/something named Unilord (which is totally not a villainous-sounding name at all) made certain humans into magical girl/Ranger-esque superheroes to prevent World War 3 (remember when the goal of every 80s and 90s action movie villain was to start World War 3?). The series begins in the period of peace after the heroes stopped the war, and they are now tasked with living their lives and doing domestic heroics like public appearances, stopping crimes, saving people from accidents and natural disasters, and coaxing old ladies' cats out of trees. And because each country has its own hero, there's some satirical stereotyping going on like Australia's hero being macho, Russia's being an alcoholic, Switzerland's being a nurse, and Japan's being...SHY.

Which is a great place to start for a hero's character growth. The titular Shy is a timid high school student named Teru Momijiyama, who has her first "failed" rescue attempt when a girl named Iko Koishikawa suffers a leg injury in a roller coaster accident that Shy prevents, leading to Shy pondering a "Spider-Man No More!" scenario for herself, which causes her transformation bracelets to stop working because they run on Heart Power (or for those who recognize anime and fiction tropes: the Power Of Friendship). But her instincts and strong feelings draw her back to heroics when she saves someone from a fire and Koishikawa is later infected by the series' main villain, Stigma. Shy manages to turn Koishikawa back to normal (making her both "the friend who knows the hero's secret identity" and the only person to survive being Stigmatized--that's my term for it, but I'm sure that if 4kids still existed, they would have beaten me to it when they butchered the localization of this series), and her journey of growth and self-discovery begins in earnest. There are parts I didn't like (such as the episode where Shy gets beaten powerless and nearly unconscious by Australia because he doesn't believe in her; it goes a bit too far even though it serves a narrative purpose), and parts I loved (like the episode after that where Shy develops a passion for calligraphy that gives her pyrokinesis, and the story arc in Russia where we learn that Stigma leads an entire group of villains looking to remake the world into one of "freedom" and "security"). The animation is great, the fights are great, the character work is great, the various tones of the series are well balanced, Brittany Karbowski voices one of the villains, and SHY is a good omen of how far the magical girl genre has come since the days of Sailor Moon. Highly recommended.

Another series that I almost forgot even though it has more to do with Valentine's Day and is also a superhero anime, and I highly recommend, is Love After World Domination. Based on a manga written by Hiroshi Noda and illustrated by Takahiro Wakamatsu, Love After World Domination is a comedy send-up of the Super Sentai and Power Rangers series where the Rangers are named after fruit desserts and the workout-obsessed lunkhead Red falls in love with the enemy's lead commander behind everyone's backs. The star-crossed couple's respective teams are the comedy-requisite level of oblivious to the situation, and despite being super-strong and regarded as the most ruthless general in the organization, the "Reaper Princess" Desumi is secretly a girly girl. The most joy-inducing comedy since Sleepy Princess In the Demon Castle, Demon Girl Next Door, Chio's School Road, Kakushigoto, and Mieruko-chan ensues as the couple adorably stumble through the logistics of their relationship, from working way too hard to hide it from everyone (because they're comedy anime-stupid, remember?) and having secret picnics in the middle of their weekly fights to the death, to a creative take on the "meeting your girlfriend's father" trope. It won't provoke any deep thoughts, but the action, comedy, and animation are worth experiencing. Put this on if you need some warmth in your heart and some pain in your smiling muscles.

The TBT Anniversary push of my Take Shelter review might not have much to do with love or heroics unless I stretch for it, but Stay Tuned for a Ticket Stubs on the original The Incredibles and a Just the Ticket on The Incredibles 2 later this week. Also, please continue to share the love by remembering to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment your true feelings at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and choo-choo-choose me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest heart-shaped boxes of news on my content.

Animeister,

Out.