Spy x Family Review

Spy x Family is an action spy comedy based on a manga by Tatsuya Endo. It is directed and written by Kazuhiro Furuhashi. It is produced by Wit Studio and CloverWorks. The latter studio is known for many series, including Akebi’s Sailor Uniform, My Dress-Up Darling, In the Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki, and Bocchi the Rock!, which released this year. The former studio gained recognition after it produced Attack on Titan‘s first three seasons. This review will have spoilers.

The plot of Spy x Family focuses around the mission of a skilled secret agent codenamed Twilight (voiced by Takuya Eguchi). He is tasked with enrolling a child in a prestigious university to spy on an important political leader as part of Operation Strix, in an effort to keep peace between two warring nations, Westalis and Ostania, an allusion to East and West Germany. In order to complete his task, he takes on the name of Loid Forger, adopts Anya (voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki), a young orphan girl, and marries a beautiful woman named Yor Briar (voiced by Saori Hayami).

Little does he know, but Anya and Yor have secrets of their own: Anya is a mind-reader and Yor is a deadly assassin who is named “Thorn Princess” due to her deadly nature. Despite these dangers, and Loid making decisions which don’t always follow common sense, he struggles with juggling the duties of being a caring father, husband, and perfect spy all at the same time.

This plot makes for an enjoyable comedy. Anya is a character that many can relate to not because of her mind-reading abilities, but her quick wit, flexibility, and love for cartoons. Hilariously, the cartoon she loves, Spy Wars, resembles what Loid actually does for a living.

In the same way that Carmen Sandiego, in the recent animated series of the same name, is shown to have human limits, Anya, Loid, and Yor are not superhuman. Anya’s powers wane during a new moon and crowded places stress her out. Yor can become insecure and has a lack of social skills, leading her work colleagues to bully her. Loid can become physically exhausted from his work, including his cover job as a psychiatrist at a local hospital in the city of Berlint.

All of the characters have their own villains which makes Spy x Family an intriguing series. Apart from the country’s secret police, Loid faces a skeptical brother of Yor, Yuri, who is wholly dedicated to her. Just like the protagonists, Yuri has his own secret. He masquerades as a diplomat when he is actually a secret police officer. Also, Yor feels threatened by Nightfall, a former apprentice of Loid who has a crush on him, and believes that Loid may leave her for Nightfall. At school, Anya faces challenges from fellow students and instructors.

While each of the characters, especially those in the main cast, have their strong points, Yor stands out above the others. While she only marries Loid at first as a matter of convenience, as the series goes on, she is further drawn to him, and dedicating herself to him, and Anya. She has a tough and strong nature unlike any other character, which is displayed when her assassin skills are put to use. Similar to other anime characters, she drinks to calm herself down. In an interesting twist, she can clean well, but cannot cook (unlike Loid), and can be selfless but absent-minded.

Spy x Family is unlike any other spy series I’ve ever seen. It does not have the combination of comedy, action, and adventure like the classic 2000s Disney series Kim Possible or similar to the often formulaic, and glitzy, spy fiction Totally Spies! This is because Anya, Loid, and Yor are all playing certain roles, either as schoolchildren or parents, to allay any suspicion from who they truly are.

The series has been positively received, with fans engaging in cosplay, and manga editions flying off the shelves. This popularity has been recognized by the show’s producers, who recently renewed the series for a second season and film, which is set to premiere in 2023.

There are many themes in Spy x Family that go beyond a focus on spying. For one, human experimentation is an important sub-theme, even more than occasional mentions of it in the ongoing yuri golf series Birdie Wing. For example, Anya detests studying because it was forced upon her when she was a test subject. Furthermore, the family dog, Bond, later adopted by the Forgers, has future vision akin to Garnet in Steven Universe, and was also experimented on by humans.

The smoothness of the anime’s voice acting, music, and animation make it stand out more than other series which aired this year, such as Bocchi the Rock! and Do it Yourself!. This is unsurprising since the show’s director, and writer, Furuhashi, is well-established in the anime industry. He previously worked on series such as Rurouri Kenshin, Zipang, Hunter x Hunter, Gunslinger Girl, and Le Chevalier D’Eon.

The show’s music is by (K)now Name, a Japanese group known for their work in five other anime, including Sakura Quest and Dorohedoro. Additionally, the show’s voice actors are seasoned. For instance, Eguchi prominently voiced Kazuya Kujo in Gosick, while Hayami voiced Yuzuki Shiraishi in A Place Further than the Universe. These elements are enhanced by the show’s writing.

Spy x Family doesn’t have any direct or indirect LGBTQ themes, even if some have argued it has queer themes, but not queer representation. In this way, it is different from other spy fiction like the 2018 steampunk spy action Princess Principal, or the OVA and anime springing from the Read or Die light novel and manga. Both have some indirect yuri themes and subtext.

This series was only rivaled on Crunchyroll by the final season of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, the third season of Ascendance of a Bookworm, and new series such as Love After World Domination, Aharen-san wa Hakarenai, and Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, all of which were well-animated and constructed series. However, Spy x Family was the only outright spy fiction which began during the Spring 2022 series lineup for the streaming platform. This anime was on par with those series because of its staff, artwork, story, and plot.

Although accurately identifying which anime have the best production values can be challenging due to a lack of public information, and the fact that having a big budget doesn’t “mean that a production ends up looking great,” Spy x Family is well illustrated, animated, and constructed, meaning that the production value is higher than other series. As such, it is no exaggeration to say this series has some of the best production values I’ve ever seen in an anime. This has attracted many fans to the series, which received some of the best ratings “among all [TV Tokyo] programs on all stations for the July 2022 season.”

In Western animation, happy families are often the norm, especially in Disney series. This series stands against that norm. Yor, Loid, and Anya are only together for convenience. They are a chosen or found family, but all feel a connection to each other. This is not unique to this series.

A similar family of sorts exists in the popular isekai I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level. The protagonist, Azusa Aizawa, becomes an immortal witch, and has a family of sorts which includes a dragon girl, sentient slime spirits, and a ghost girl. A difference is that Spy x Family is more focused on each family member trying to fulfill their societal role, of sorts, and the family in this anime only consists of three people, rather than something larger.

This series bucks the common theme of anime protagonists struggling to do “their best” in school. Such a theme is present in the well-regarded magical girl series Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon, but is also often present in Western animations.

In Spy x Family, Anya is a terrible student, in part because of human experimentation on her. As a result, she tries to become friends with fellow students to further the “friendship scheme” rather than becoming an Imperial Scholar. Anya is just as bad at academics as Eve in Birdie Wing. However, she has the unique advantage of reading minds and a level of charm that Eve doesn’t always have.

Although this series is not as absurd as the overly dramatic golf tournaments in Birdie Wing, the interactions between the characters make you invested in them, and want to watch more. This is strengthened through the many comedic moments, either between Loid and Anya, Anya and Yor, or Anya and Bond. As a result, you root for the characters, either when Loid is gathering intelligence for his next mission or when Anya is trying to make friends at school.

The second season of Spy x Family, set to air sometime in 2023, along with a film, will likely develop the growing romance between Loid and Yor, the friendships Anya is making at school, and the strained relationship that Damian has with his family. As was the case with the 25-episode first season, all of these stories will be intertwined together in some form.

The first season of Spy x Family is currently streaming on Hulu and Crunchyroll.