The Hero Anime You Need to Watch After MHA

Key Takeaways

• SHY is a hero anime with familiar themes to MHA, focusing on the protagonist’s insecurities and struggles with being a hero.
• SHY’s world is similar to MHA with celebrity-like heroes, but the rarity of powers and societal pressures offer a unique perspective.
• SHY stands out by delving deeply into the protagonist’s insecurities, offering a sometimes more thorough approach than MHA.

The My Hero Academia manga has officially released its last chapter in Weekly Shōnen Jump as of August 5th 2024. The anime will likely finish airing as soon as next year, and the final manga volume has just been released as well. While there will be many other events, artbooks, exhibitions and more to celebrate the story of MHA, many people will be eager to find another hero story; not to replace what MHA represented, but to capture similar important themes that the MHA story did. Invincible is airing on Amazon Prime. The Boys is technically a hero story, but not in the vein of MHA. So what will be the next hero story to take up the mantle of MHA?

For those of you looking for the next hero anime to fulfill your cravings, you’re in luck as there is one such story still being published, and has just finished airing its second season. While not yet as popular as MHA, SHY is a hero anime that MHA fans can find a lot of familiarity in. The themes, protagonist and social setting evoke a lot of the same questions and feelings as MHA does. But SHY is more than just an homage or paraphrasing of MHA. While it was first published in 2019, 5 years after MHA first started, it definitely stands out on its own, even with the clear inspiration taken from MHA.

If you haven’t yet heard of SHY, then please let me introduce you to an incredibly charming Hero story.

The Story of SHY

The Introduction Should Feel Very Similar to MHA Fans

SHY takes place in a world of Heroes much like MHA. However, the prevalence of heroes is not nearly the same. In SHY, heroic powers are incredibly rare, so much so, that a single hero will usually stand as the representative of their country. In SHY, the titular character is Japan’s hero, but whereas other countries’ heroes are a source of pride, Japan’s hero isn’t as popular. This is due to the fact that, as the title suggests, she is quite shy.

But shyness is a fairly soft word to describe the struggles of our heroine. Her intense insecurities and social anxiety means that she struggles to be the face to inspire hope and security in her supporting population, to the point that it even renders her heroic powers inoperable at times. This is due to many things, but perhaps most notably the fact that she is just 14, whereas’ other countries’ heroes are often well into adulthood.

And so SHY deals a lot with themes of insecurity, anxiety and more, with other heroes’ personal issues also becoming a topic of focus and reflection for the story. This is where the real strength of the story lies.

You’re right… Even heroes can be overcome by fear… I’m really scared right now… My whole body is trembling… But I… I want to overcome that fear because I don’t want you to see me in this embarrassing state. Because… I… am Shy! – Shy

Similarities to MHA

A Unique Social Setting That Gets Explored

SHY places the audience in a society reminiscent of MHA. We are immediately thrown into a world where superheroes are now an accepted and commonplace phenomenon, even achieving celebrity status. We see images of other countries’ heroes and learn about the strides they made to make their countries proud. While the number of superheroes doesn’t compare to MHA, their high status should feel familiar.

We are also told that with the rise of these heroes, the world has entered a relative peacetime, and we hear the same in MHA as well. But again, much like MHA, we are warned of a looming threat that will call our heroes to rise to a grand occasion in the future.

Both Protagonists Share Similar Traits

“SHY”, civilian name Teru Momijiyama, holds a lot of similarities to Deku right from the get-go. At the beginning of the first episode, we are first introduced to her civilian identity, as she nervously reviews her lines for a speech she needs to give at an upcoming event. Images of Deku shrinking away from attention in the classroom and nervously moving through life are very reminiscent here.

The parallels only become more apparent when “SHY”, the hero, finally transforms. While her timidness makes her public presence non-engaging for the audience of her speech, when it comes time to save someone, there is no question as to her commitment. A roller coaster at the amusement park she is speaking at begins to malfunction, and after hearing screams from children onboard, SHY arrives to rescue them. In a scene very similar to Deku attacking the 100 point robot in the UA exam, Shy puts herself in the path of a rouge roller coaster cart, saving the girl on board while sustaining a lot of damage to herself in the process.

Despite her efforts, the girl on board does still receive injuries even though she is alive. This causes Teru to panic, and her self-doubt at being able to be a hero causes her to be unable to transform (more on that later). This is a point where we see a lot of the same thoughts that Deku had early on about his self-worth, and whether he really deserves to be a Hero.

Where it Stands Out

SHY Lingers Where MHA Sometimes Hurries

Reminescent of the name of the Anime, a very important focus of SHY is dealing with the heroine’s timidness and feelings of self-doubt and insecurity. If that was a big draw of MHA for you, then you might even enjoy SHY more for how deeply it delves into this aspect of the heroine.

From the first incident at the amusement park, SHY actually regresses a bit due to the result of the incident. Since the girl she saved is still badly injured by the accident, and seeing the media scrutiny over her ability to be a hero, SHY begins a period of seclusion. When she receives a visit from a friend and fellow hero, she reveals that she hasn’t been able to heart-shift, which is how heroes assume their identity in the world of SHY.

This may be a bit more heavy-handed than MHA’s approach to dealing with insecurity, but having the heart-shift mechanic in place in the story means that SHY’s timidness has to be discussed and handled at the forefront a lot more often. When your hero’s insecurity causes them to become physically unable to be the person they need to be, it becomes much more necessary for these personal discussions to become a core part of the ongoing conflict of your story. As the story continues from this first incident, we see the struggles that SHY and her fellow heroes face with handling this massive responsibility for safe-guarding the public.

Why Should You Watch This Anime?

There Are More Great Heroes to See

My Hero Academia has become a legendary anime because of its unique way of handling Deku and Hero Society. Among Japanese Manga it stands out. Even among the hero comics it is inspired by, it stands out. And with this legacy will inevitably come stories and authors that were inspired by this incredible story.

SHY is perhaps the first anime in the post-MHA-era to show clear inspiration from the story. And while these similarities are surely noticeable, it does a great job at managing to stand out on its own. It is very much inspired by and not copied from the incredible story that is MHA, which could have been much more difficult to do. So for those of you who loved to see Deku overcome his insecurities, and realize the hero that was always in his heart, you will surely fall in love with Teru’s journey to do the same.

SHY is now available to stream on Crunchyroll.

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  My Hero Academia

  In My Hero Academia, Young Deku is born into a world where people commonly have something called quirks, also known as superpowers. He himself is born without any, but circumstances lead to that changing. He enrolls at the UA High School, a prestigious academy where the worlds future heroes learn how to use their powers.

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