Spy x Family | Anime Review: One of the best.

Corrupt politicians, frenzied nationalists, and other warmongering forces constantly jeopardize the thin veneer of peace between neighboring countries Ostania and Westalis. In spite of their plots, renowned spy and master of disguise “Twilight” fulfills dangerous missions one after another in the hope that no child will have to experience the horrors of war.
In the bustling Ostanian city of Berlint, Twilight dons the alias of “Loid Forger,” an esteemed psychiatrist. However, his true intention is to gather intelligence on prominent politician Donovan Desmond, who only appears rarely in public at his sons’ school: the prestigious Eden Academy. Enlisting the help of unmarried city hall clerk Yor Briar to act as his wife and adopting the curious six-year-old orphan Anya as his daughter, Loid enacts his master plan. He will enroll Anya in Eden Academy, where Loid hopes she will excel and give him the opportunity to meet Donovan without arousing suspicion.
Unfortunately for Loid, even a man of his talents has trouble playing the figure of a loving father and husband. And just like Loid is hiding his true identity, Yor—who is an underground assassin known as “Thorn Princess”—and Anya—an esper who can read people’s minds—have no plans to disclose their own secrets either. Although this picture-perfect family is founded on deception, the Forgers gradually come to understand that the love they share for one another trumps all else.

Anime Review

Believe you me, Spy x Family was one of the best anime to air during the Spring 2022 season and it ain’t even close.

What was there not to love about this anime? We have two highly interesting characters in Yor, known as the “Thorn Princess”, occupation, Assassin. Then we have Loid, known as “Twilight”, occupation, spy. We also cannot forget everyone’s favourite character, Anya. A six year old, who is able to read minds.

Somehow a mission develops that requires Loid to adopt a child, build a family and then raise that child to become one of the smartest academic minds in the world, in order to spy the elite. That’s quite the odd mission and a very interesting one. A mission that Loid thought was going to be straightforward turned out to be a lot harder and is something that Loid may have a hard time with. Anya is not your ordinary child, obviously, she can read minds and quickly found out that Loid was a spy and that she was phase one of Loid’s wider mission.

That alone excited her. Anya’s love for the thrills and adventure is what drives this show. You can also say that she’s the one pulling the strings because Loid didn’t want to adopt her, but Anya made it so that he had no choice. Then somehow some way, through Anya’s tremendously great acting. She helped Loid find a ‘wife’ in Yor. If you really think about it, Loid has little to no control over what happens during his mission. Anya is in the driver’s seat and that’s all due to her clumsiness, her inability to do certain things, and Anya’s spontaneous behavior that causes Loid’s mission to take all kinds of detours.

That’s what made the anime most enjoyable for me because just when Loid thinks he’ll be able to get his way for once, Anya throws a curveball that changes everything. A prime example of this would be there episode where Loid was forced to play the “Rescue the Princess from the castle” with Anya. Where essentially, Anya was the princess “kidnapped” by Franky (Loid’s associate) and brought to a castle (which was located at an amusement park, rented by Loid). From there, Loid had to defeat bad guys (Spies part of Loid’s agency, who were all convinced that this was part of Loid’s greater mission). In order to save Anya. The final boss being, a drunken Yor who was pretty badass during the action scene between herself and Loid.

All this was something you’d never expect happen and it was probably one of the best episodes of the anime.

I can go on and on about the anime as a whole, because this for sure has been one of my favourites. But not all things are perfect and Spy x Family was no different. There were things that I would’ve liked to see expanded on more. For example, we were only shown little snippets from the previous lives of Anya, Loid and Yor when they were younger. But those little snippets do not offer all too much, yes they’re still very informative for giving a rough, overall idea. But I wanted a more in-depth detail on their lives prior to everything.

Why was Anya an experiment? Why did Yor become an assassin? Why did Loid ultimately become a spy? What were the steps that led to all this? That’s something I wish was expanded upon more.

I also would have liked to see a little more action. Let’s be real, while I do love me Anya and all the memes she has produced. There is only so far you can go with filling an episode with what is effectively a child attending a school. Yes, the personalities within this school offer something different, they are all equally as interesting but when you see the same things day in and day out. It gets tiring. Prior to the school arc, seeing Loid in those fights and Yor performing her duties as an assassin was very fun to see. I wish there was more of that.

I also think that in a way, the anime lost its way with regards to the mission. Like we do not see much happening with regards to that. Yes, the great mission surrounds Anya succeeding, but apart from that we haven’t seen much regarding other missions that Loid could be on, or objectives that Yor must complete. As each episode progressed, it felt more and more like a normal family. Well as normal as it could get given the talents of each character. A part of me wishes that we saw more missions take place than just the one.

Conclusion

To conclude, I think that there are way more positives than negatives for Spy x Family. There were many things that I loved and to know that there will be a part two to this series is great. For as hyped up Spy x Family was, it lived up to those expectations, you can argue that it even surpassed them. For me, I loved this anime and everything about it and I’m looking forward to what comes next for this weird but very entertaining family.