Shy – Season 2 Episode 2 Recap & Review

 Wind Coming from the West

Episode 2 of Shy Season 2 begins with Teru trying to contact Shrimpy because she wants him to bring her an umbrella. Teru’s currently at school and learns that Shrimpy’s asleep. She walks down her school’s hallway, enters its library, and sits at one of the tables nearby. A girl with an eyepatch approaches Teru and rambles about the rain outside.

The girl introduces herself as Beni Hanawa. Matters get awkward between Beni and Teru and Teru wants to leave. However, Beni convinces Teru to stay. Beni gives Teru more information about the literature club, her goals, and why she’s the only member (so far). After that, Beni discusses some horrific tales she heard about their school with Teru. Beni says all the stories besides the final one are fictitious.

She says the final tale refers to a text called The Bloody Book, which is said to reside in their library. Beni wants Teru to help her find the book because she wants to read it. Beni and Teru search for the book but can’t find it. The former argues it’s real and says she wants to read it, regardless if something bad happens to her.

Teru recalls Beni saying she searched as far as she could reach. This gives Teru the idea to look in places where Beni can’t. Teru grabs a ladder and Beni uses it to look on top of one of the bookshelves. Beni finds The Bloody Book and looks inside it. Beni notices the book belongs to this club’s former members. She argues this book is part of a scheme created by the literature club’s former members.

Although Beni’s somewhat disappointed, she’s glad she found it. Beni thanks Teru for helping her find the book as the sun rises outside. The two exit the school. Teru asks Beni if she thinks the literature club is responsible for spreading those spooky tales. Beni believes they didn’t because the Seven Wonders, the spooky stories in question, existed before the club.

Then, Iko arrives to greet Teru. Teru tells her that she was busy helping upperclassmen out with their issue. Iko doesn’t know what Teru’s talking about. Teru looks to her right and notices Beni’s disappeared. Iko tells Teru that no one’s a part of the literature club because it was disbanded ages ago. Teru’s shocked by this news.

Beni recites some lines about the Seven Wonders’s story about the disappearing girl. Meanwhile, Teru reflects on her situation with Beni, questioning who she is and if she managed to save her. The next day, Teru bumps into Beni, who tells her that the literature club got absorbed into the newspaper club last year. Beni apologizes for not telling Teru that.

Teru’s shocked that Beni wasn’t the ghost girl after all. Later, Iko and Teru visit a store and discuss a recent event involving a purse-snatching criminal. Then, Teru helps the girl we saw during the previous episode’s closing segments. The girl thanks Teru for helping her and introduces herself as Ai Tennoji. Ai asks Teru and Iko to take her to Tanpopo Station.

The two tell Ai they’ll gladly show her the way because they plan to do some karaoke there. We cut away to the girls discussing with each other while on their way to Tanpopo Station. Ai asks Iko questions about karaoke and other casual activities. Iko wonders if Ai comes from a rich family. The three head somewhere to chat about Ai’s past.

Ai reveals she comes from a unique family so she didn’t have time to hang with friends like normal girls. Teru asks Ai if she’d like to explore the town with her and Iko. Ai says she’d love to and we receive a montage of them having fun. Eventually, the girls notice the purse snatcher. Before Teru transforms into Shy, Ai stops her and defeats the purse snatcher herself.

After Ai solves that issue, she, Teru, and Iko discuss what happened. Teru and Iko are concerned about Ai, but Ai informs them she’ll be fine as she is great at self-defense. Moreover, Ai tells Teru and Iko that she ran away from home because she is being stalked. Ai explains why she didn’t inform her family of this matter either.

She asks Teru and Iko if they can stay by her side since she’s unfamiliar with this area. Teru and Iko comply. While the girls wander somewhere, Teru asks Ai how she can pull off those incredible swordsman moves. Ai says she comes from a family of shinobis. Then, a ninja named Tokimaru arrives.

The episode ends with Teru and Iko sounding surprised by Tokimaru’s arrival.  

The Episode Review

After reintroducing and introducing fans to this superhero-themed anime world, episode 2 of Shy Season 2 presents fans with a new obstacle for Teru to resolve. This episode felt somewhat strange compared to the usual episodes we’d receive from Shy. Essentially, this episode felt like it was following Urusei Yatsura’s approach to storytelling, giving fans an episodic chapter with two different set pieces. 

Having said that, the first half feels unnecessary in comparison to the second. Although the tidbits surrounding Beni and Teru were touching and semi-thoughtful, many would’ve preferred if the episode leaned more into Ai’s debacle with her family and stalker, who we can assume is Tokimaru. We could’ve received more details on her past, why she couldn’t participate in mundane affairs, and other things. 

Instead, we were given 15 minutes worth of content of a lightly meaningless ghost story segment. Hopefully, future chapters will go full force on the important content and less on the content that won’t hold significance to this season’s overarching plot.

Besides that, the animation and visuals looked great in the first half. From Teru’s design to the dark atmosphere felt in the library, 8-Bit Studios delivered impressive visuals in this episode’s first half.

Overall, this was a fine follow-up episode of Shy Season 2. I’m optimistic this sub-plot surrounding Ai’s character will spawn wonderful results.