Anime || Manga

#SPY x FAMILY is Not What You Expect

“SPY x FAMILY is Not What You Expect”

Season aired: Spring 2022

Number of episodes: 12

Watched on: Crunchyroll

Translated by: Michelle Tymon

Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life, Adventure

Thoughts: SPY x FAMILY entered the anime season as one of the most anticipated anime adaptations. It follows the story of a completely ordinary family of three: Loid, Yor, and Anya Forger. However, this family is far from ordinary. Loid is actually Twilight, a super spy on the hunt for world peace. Yor is actually Thorn Princess, an infamous assassin who kills in killer heels. Anya is actually a psychic, capable of reading surrounding minds. Together, the three navigate as a family despite the fact that only Anya knows the entire truth of this family!

The anime comes out swinging, leading you to believe that this is an action-packed adventure story with comedy mixed in. While the comedy is rich, SPY x FAMILY feels more like a slice of life than any of the usual thrilling spy stories. This development greatly surprised me, and as a result, I think it’s important for people to know that the show is not here to entertain you with intense missions, epic kills, and secret gadgets. Not yet, at least.

Through the first 12 episodes, this anime is really a story about navigating family life with very little experience. There are spy and assassin missions sprinkled in, but the series is largely episodic. The ‌conflicts vary depending on which character the plot is focused on, as does the cast of characters that matter. There is an overarching conflict, as all episodic series tend to have, but it really takes a backseat to the comedies of a strange family trying their hardest to appear as normal as possible.

Dodgeball

My favorite episodes are Anya’s, purely because she’s such a realistic portrayal of children. Anime children are either thrust into impossible situations and are complete angels/demons or they are used as a method to cause a conflict. Meanwhile, Anya‌ is a precocious child with a kind heart but a rash nature, and she both causes and resolves problems. Her curiosity can save a “mission” or make it harder, and that is the epitome of children — they’re a delight and they’re exhausting. Therefore, the conflicts in her episodes are often more mundane, like participating in a dodgeball game at school, but they are portrayed as larger than life with sweeping 360-degree turns in the scenes, imaginative color-exploding training montages juxtaposed with real life, and epic superhero music that fades when you switch from her point of view to third person. It’s a charming portrayal of how big and important everything is as a child, even if the reality is quite simple.

Of the two adults, Loid gets the bigger focus than Yor. His peace-preserving missions are often comical because he excels in the more physically demanding and dangerous ones, while he stumbles around being a father to a mind-reading daughter. Where Anya’s perspective shows the humorous imagination of a child, Loid’s perspective shows that the simpler tasks at hand prove the bigger obstacle.

As a result, Yor sticks out in the series. We don’t truly get to see her point of view as much as the other two, and, aside from one episode, none of the other conflicts are dedicated to her. We watch one assassination happen on screen, and the rest we only learn through Anya’s mind-reading abilities. She bonds with Anya quickly because of her experience as a mother figure to her younger brother, and the only real conflict we see her struggle with is being completely oblivious to social etiquette despite her exceptional assassination skills. Her scenes are funny without question, but in terms of impact, it leaves less than the other two characters.

Detailed animation

The animation, however, leaves the biggest impact of all. If my description of the dodgeball episode wasn’t enough proof, every single episode drips with the same amount of care and action. This might be more of a comedy slice-of-life anime, but it’s treated like the action-adventure people assumed it was. My favorite scene is when Yor drunkenly attempts to slap Loid in embarrassment while her younger brother zooms towards her. In a blink of an eye, Loid registers the speeding slap coming through, ducks out of the way, and widens his eyes in horror as the slap connects with her younger brother’s face instead. This detailed animation also defines the characters without a single line of dialogue. That one second dodge is clever evidence of Loid’s skills as a spy on the field.

An all-star voice cast also supports the characterization, but the crown jewel goes to Atsumi Tanezaki as Anya. You would never guess that this is the same voice actress who voiced Vivy from Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- and Uotani from Fruits Basket. She sounds like a genuine child, and she displays her full acting skills when she voices Anya mimicking the voices of other characters around her and sounding completely natural. Takuya Eguchi and Saori Hayami, as Loid and Yor respectively, embody their characters, but Atsumi Tanezaki simply sells it.

More wholesome than action

As a whole, this series is worth the hype, but I ‌think its beginning is rather misleading. It doesn’t surprise me to see the talk and push about the anime fade in our community as people realize the actual meat of the story. However, the fact that the story’s premise misled people in the same way the characters are misleading each other is rather serendipitous in the anime’s own charming ways.

Rating

Plot: 8 (Multiplier 3.5)

Characters: 7 (Multiplier 3.5)

Voice acting: 8

Art/Animation: 9

Soundtrack: 8

FINAL SCORE: 77.5

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