This Week in Anime

Totally Spy×Family

Jean-Karlo
Don't mind me, I'm just your average everyday weeb sitting here for my other fellow weebs to show up. Look, I'm so inconspicuous I even make cat noises.

Hello, ordinary gremlin. You got the goods?

Time to run it through the decoder, apply the cypher to it, run it past our trusty code talker...

...aw yeah, this is just what the higher-ups needed. We got Spy×Family this week on This Week In Anime!

The "fish out of water" approach here is that Twilight, who had dedicated himself to a life of loneliness in the name of his political duties, finds himself having to find not only a kid but also a wife in order to carry out his mission. The logistics of just adopting a kid somewhere are already rough, having to marry someone within a week or so is even wilder. (I mean, haven't you seen the Chris O'Donnell comedy The Bachelor? It's wild.) But also, Twilight—adopting the alias "Loid Forger"—has no idea how kids think.

And what's worse: the kid he adopts knows what he thinks. Because she's an ESPer.

Pretty much. Anya can read everyone's mind, but she's still only five (or six, as she claims). She only really understands Loid's mission through the lens of her favorite cartoon, Spy Wars. Of course, Twilight doesn't know that: he just thinks Anya is a precocious little scamp. He doesn't have much time to dwell on it, either: his mission requires that Anya be enrolled in Eden College, a prestigious academy for upper-crust children. This is difficult, but easily attained with a little bit of tutoring. The hard part is that the interview requires that Anya's mother also be present, so here we get the other part of the formula.

Everyone, it's the Waifu of the Season: Yor Briar.

Under the alias of the Thorn Princess, Yor has carried out all kinds of wetwork for years in the name of supporting her little brother and giving him a decent life. A combination of Yor dedicating her life to her job and her also being a bit of an airhead means she wouldn't understand courtship anyway. Thankfully, once Yor and Loid have their meet-cute at the tailor's, Anya is able to play Cupid for them.

It's one of the coolest scenes in the show, for sure, and one I was really excited to see animated ever since people first went nuts for it on Twitter. But it gives us our set-up: Loid is a spy on a mission, Yor is an undercover assassin, and Anya is a telepath who knows both of their secrets. Nobody is the wiser, they just want to keep the family together for the sake of their own purposes... and it turns out they come to appreciate each other.

I've seen people joke about it, but Spy×Family is basically the ultimate millennial family: a fully-functional family.

Some time ago I saw some folks talking about The Big Three from way back in the day and wondering if there is a new "Big Three" now (there isn't). Bleach, Naruto and One Piece became The Big Three because they were similar shows in impact, theme, genre, and audience that came out in the west around the same time. And while we've had a lot of recent action hits in the U.S. like Tokyo Ghoul, One-Punch Man, and Demon Slayer (and the delayed rise of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), it's interesting to me that the biggest hits of recent history have all been romantic comedies to some extent. Komi Can't Communicate, The Way of the Househusband, and Spy×Family were hits with the manga crowd right away. The first hit of this year was the My Dress-Up Darling anime. I think it goes to show just how varied and expansive anime and manga are allowed to be as genres that this kind of thing can happen. I mean, here we are in 2022 and the must-watch show of the season is... an animated sitcom. Sure, it might not have aired on TGIF along with Full House or Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but I don't think it'd be too hard to sell Spy×Family to that crowd. You'd never have seen that coming in the days of Dragon Ball Z on Toonami. It's not even all that action-y because so much of the show is finding solutions to domestic problems that may or may not involve Twilight requesting backup from W.I.S.E. or Yor imparting some combat training on Anya.

Right from square one, the Eden College shenanigans were on-point. The interview process for families and students starts right from the moment they enter the gates: Headmaster Henderson up there and his colleagues had no issue cutting folks out just for slouching when they walk.

The Forgers get passing marks for "Elegance™" when it turns out they're not only selfless and observe local custom, but they keep three pairs of spare clothing on them in case of emergences. And apparently, they're quick-change artists.


I'm thinking Henderson up there is gonna need a change of pants after that display of elegance.

For the record, Yor was also about to throw hands—Twilight was just sitting closer to the goon. And what the Forgers couldn't do, Henderson did for them. Elegantly.

The show definitely works better with the sedate pace, I think. Sitcoms are cozy TV viewing and I don't think Spy×Family would have benefitted much from a more manic pace. Let the jokes come as they do, let the family stew in the tension. It helps the cute family moments earn that "Aww" from the live studio audience. That's key to the pacing, I think; this is a show where Yor can knock out a raging bull by pressing its pressure points. You need that breathing room.

Also, yes, the show definitely revels in its Cold War-era aesthetics. I don't know how period accurate Twilight in a white t-shirt and jeans or Yor's weird not-quite backless sweater are, but it still feels classy and stylish as befits a spy and an undercover assassin. Also, their big, chunky TV is just charming. Look at those dials! Twilight must be loaded to afford a color TV for Anya's cartoons.

I think I prefer Spy×Family's approach to 1960s style more than The Incredibles, but that might also be because The Incredibles is so steeped in Americana (and I otherwise don't really care for The Incredibles).

Anyway, with Anya in Eden College, there are further complications: Anya and the Forgers need to be invited to a fancy soiree in order to get close to Twilight's target. The only way for that to happen is for Anya to become an extremely-decorated student and earn eight merits called Stella Stars. Twilight knowing that Anya isn't that good of a student, his alternative is for Anya to become friends with Damien, his target's son and Anya's classmate. And, uh... that ain't happening, suffice to say.

Damien is a little snob and rags on Anya for her low birthright from the word "go," making Anya defend herself once he steps over the line. So much to Twilight's chagrin, both his plans are on thin ice: Anya's poor academics make getting Stellas an uphill battle, and this early bit of facial rearrangements earns her a Tonitrus Bolt demerit on her very first day.

Anya is also very astute: she recognizes that part of why her telepathy is failing her is because she has yet to figure out which students excel at which subjects, and makes a mental note to keep track of that for future reference. But she also genuinely wants to do well because she wants to help Twilight's plan work, partly because she enjoys being part of a spy game and partly because she really does look up to him as a father.

What's important is that Twilight is willing to understand Anya's limits and work within them; he demonstrates a lot of patience for the girl that a lot of kids no doubt wish they'd see from their parents. With his connections to W.I.S.E., he could find some way to put Anya's nose to the grindstone. For someone who's not even really Anya's dad, he shows a lot of care in making sure Anya gets to enjoy her childhood.

And like any dream dad, he'll move heaven and Earth for Anya if it means making her happy: when she gets enrolled into Eden College, he pulls a lot of strings at W.I.S.E. so that she can live out her fantasy of being rescued by a spy at a castle. No expense was spared. This was legit my favorite episode of the show, I smiled the whole time.


Yor takes part too, but she's mostly drunk the entire time.

Legit, seeing her carrying around a bottle of wine everywhere she goes while smiling like a goof was one of the nicest running gags this episode. And it teaches Twilight that the woman really can't hold her liquor.

Even Yor doesn't know that her brother, Yuri, is actually an officer of the Secret Police. Everyone's keeping secrets from each other, after all. He also has her quirk of having a puppy-dog face until he gets to business. He's possibly a total siscon, too.

As cute as Yor and Twilight might be together, they've never even kissed so having to kiss on command is a bit much for Yor's frazzled nerves to handle.

Shonen Jump™ Approved: a cavalcade of hot people living the chastest lives possible!

Yuri's presence does cast a seed of doubt into Twilight's trust in Yor, but a quick bit of chicanery quickly puts that to rest. Yor's no more aware of Yuri's involvement with the Secret Police as anyone else. As it stands, the only major threat to the plan is Anya's difficulties in earning a Stella.

W.I.S.E. projected that Anya could earn all eight Stella in four months. Like... I'm sorry, that's insane. Even if Anya weren't so academically challenged, that's ridiculous.

Incidentally, shout-out to Twilight's superior officer, code-name "Handler." She's basically the spitting image of our lovely editor. Yes, she has that hat—several, in fact.

And this is our editor when we use the word ::CENSORED:: in This Week In Anime!

Right, so dodgeball: Anya's classmates hear rumors that doing well in the dodgeball game can earn the MVP a Stella. So Anya recruits Yor's help in getting some physical training to turn her pudgy toddler arms (five-maybe-six-year-olds are toddlers, right?) into mean dodgeball machines. Damien also goes through his own training regimen, including a cheeky reference to that other famous Shonen Jump property about balls.

His name is Billy and he even sounds like a grown man. Hearing this guy say "daddy" was not a thing I needed in my life, thanks. (Though it was hysterical.)

Anya's own attempt at replicating Yor's ball-busting doesn't really work (again: Anya's arms are pudgy and weak), but it works out because it turns out that no, nobody was gonna earn a Stella for a freaking dodgeball game. Womp-womp!

It's a really brilliantly animated bit. Again, Studio WIT has been firing on all cylinders with this and other animated projects of theirs this season.

Unfortunately, Anya's so bad at even that that the orderlies basically boot the Forgers from the hospital. But it works out: Anya's telepathy clues her into a boy in rehab drowning in the pool, and even though she can't quite swim well enough to rescue him Twilight is able to rescue them both. The act earns Anya her first Stella.

Most importantly, it opens the door to Anya getting a reward from her parents—and fans of the manga have been waiting for this one member of the Forgers to show up for a long while...

Spy×Family has been a beloved manga since it came out, so this anime was hotly anticipated. And by and large, it's lived up to every expectation and more. There's a reason it's the fan-favorite of the season, even if most of that is because people are super-thirsty for Yor and Twilight. This is a really cute sitcom the likes of which anime doesn't get—hell, like I said earlier, it's a good sitcom period, I'd rewatch it a billion times before I ever cast a glance at Friends or How I Met Your Mother. It's good to see a good show get a big following. I do hope that folks keep an eye out for other shows this season and catch up to some of the others (Ya Boy Kongming is right there, I promise it's good, Eiko's just as cute as Yor don't "@" me), but yeah: this one's king of the hill for a reason.

Good work all around, folks, see you—
"This column will detonate in five seconds"? Wait, wha

Missed it by that much!