I’ve only known Doki for an episode and a half, but if anything happened to him, I would write a very sternly worded episode review. You can be sure of that. For the time being, Shy is safe from my wrath. Teru’s infiltration of the Tokyo Dome (evil version) starts strong, seasoned with suspense, comedy, and a dash of gender politics.

Seriously, Doki steals the show. The last arc’s introduction of Kufufu lets the audience know that Amarariruku was not above recruiting goofballs to its cause and the gap between Doki’s appearance and behavior does much of the heavy lifting in this episode. I’ve said this before but I appreciate Shy for not taking itself too seriously. I’m sure there will be a time and a place for graver matters. For now, though, early into the mission, I got a kick out of the gang so easily disarming Doki’s fervor. It’s a decent meta-joke, too. Action stories tend to be structured to maximize the number of fight scenes, hence all of the henchmen, but there’s something to be said for the efficiency of strutting straight to the big bad.

Unfortunately, Teru puts her foot in her mouth before the gang reaches the tower. Such is the curse of being socially awkward: when you do muster the courage to say something, you’re going to say the wrong thing. Suffice it to say, I feel seen. Obviously, there’s no malice behind Teru’s words but she strikes a nerve that Doki has evidently had stricken before. And he’s right, too: there isn’t anything inherently girly about wanting to smother oneself with their giant plushie collection. Gender doesn’t enter into it… except when it does, thanks to society.

Gender nonconformance is a complicated topic—too complicated to cover in a single subplot—so I think the more anime that earnestly tackle it, the better. If the picture is too big to see all at once, show us a kaleidoscope of the details. Gender is nothing if not a spectrum full of possibilities. Last season’s Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, for instance, introduced Kiui, who used VTubing as a means of exploring their own nonbinary identity. Doki’s ire at Teru, meanwhile, looks a lot different, and I like that. Doki doesn’t doubt that he’s a boy (it doesn’t sound like he doubts much of anything), and he’s instead angry that his affection for cute things is perceived to be contrary to that. The source of his and Kiui’s ire is ultimately the same, however. Traditional gender expectations are too rigid, too old-fashioned, and too arbitrary to accommodate the breadth of human experience.

Thematically, this makes Mianlong the perfect opponent for Doki. In one corner, we have a manly guy who wants to enjoy girly stuff, and in the other corner, we’ve got a girly guy who wants to be more manly. They’re both struggling against the boxes they’ve been shoved into. They are, in part, also products of those boxes. In both their cases, they’re uncomfortable being associated with femininity, which, thanks to eons of misogyny, is often disparaged and discouraged no matter the identity of the individual. That’s another wrinkle tangled up in this mess. It’s too early to say how Shy will resolve their battle, but given its history of thoughtfulness, I’m optimistic it can say something worthwhile. And Doki had better get those plushies.

Besides these gender woes, it’s nice to see Teru get more comfortable leading her team. In the face of a legitimate dilemma, she puts her trust in Mianlong because of her history with him. She keeps a cool head under pressure and retains her focus on the biggest problem at hand: Utsuro’s bubble. I’m proud of her! I wish all managers exercised that combination of humility and confidence. Piltz also deserves recognition for her piggyback skills. I particularly like the exchange before that, though, and how quickly she retracts her snark once Ai tells her about her heart condition. Shy frequently acknowledges how easy it is to hurt someone but it also demonstrates the power within small acts of kindness.

The final encounter of note is Kufufu’s triumphant train-bound return. Like any good Joker knockoff, she’s been brushing up on the trolley problem and she’s eager to swap notes with Teru’s team. Now, I do genuinely like Kufufu. The gag with the toy train was good (and storyboarded to amusing effect) but the trolley problem has simply been memed far too much for me to accept it as a thought-provoking moral quandary. I hope Shy has more creative plans than that or, if not, I hope this is a short pit stop on the tracks to Ai’s date with her double.

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.