My Thoughts on Spy X Family Season 1
Spy X Family is one of my favorite anime of the current decade so far. This is probably my third or fourth time watching it since it came out in 2022, and I generally don't re-watch anime that often, mainly because there's just so much anime to watch that I usually prefer to view something I haven't seen before. I'm obviously not the only one though, as this one is very popular. It has a simple premise, but it does a lot with it. Loid Forger is a spy. I'll admit the geopolitics are a bit confusing in this series fo rme so I don't remember the names of the various countires, but memorizing that isn't crucial to enjoying this story anyways. What is important is that Loid is a master spy who's known as the man of a thousand faces for his ability to disguise his appearance. And his next mission is to hunt down Donavan Desmond, who's an enemy of his country. To do this he starts a fake family, adopting a young girl named Anya has his daughter from an orphanage, and an episode later marrying a woman named Yor Briar, now Yor Forger. However Yor has her own secret, that she's actually an assassin from the opposite faction that Loid works for, a job that she's been doing to make ends meet since she was a teenager to support her younger brohter, but she still does it as an adult because she doesn't really know anything else. At the end of this seaosn they also adopt a pet dog named Bond, but we don't get that much with him yet. Oh, Anya has her own secret as well, and that's that she can read people's minds because of an experiment in her past that hasn't been elaborated on yet.
The family dynamic is the first and most notable aspect of this show that everyone loves, myself included. It's incredibly wholesome and they have great chemistry. Anya is unbelievably adorable. I am kind of split on her because I'm aware of the author's statements that he hates Anya and the only reason she's a major character is because his editor forced her to. it was obviously a good decision from a money standpoint because she's pretty much the most iconic character in the anime, with the only one coming close being Yor. And I'm generally in favorite of authors having absolute, 100% creative control of their own art. But at the same time I'm part of the problem because I also love her, so I don't know. And anyways I guess that speaks to the author's talent that he's able to make Anya so lovable and fun even though he supposedly hates writing for her. Some of the funniest scenes in the series are from Anya, as well as her intractions with another character, Damian Desmond, which I'll get to later. Yor is cute and attractive, and it's engaging watching her navigate a life that she's never lived before, and probably thought that she never would, that of a housewife. Loid, while being much more outwardly serious than Yor, also struggles with this new mission of his because of the complications and trials of being a father and husband, even if it's only pretend. And I love watching them grow to geninely care about their family, even if they seemingly haven't realied it yet, that's obviously the direction it's going in.
To complete this misison they enter Anya in an extremely prestigous school so she can get close to Donavan Desmond's son, Damian. And yeah, it's time to get to that now, they are cute af. Damian is rough around the edges, very arrogant and rude, but it's also implied that the reason he's like this is because of the strict way he was raised by his father, which lacked standard affection and empathy. I'm not sure if the author is going to go in the direction of them being romanticly interested in each other when they get older, honestly at this point I could go either way with it. I think they work great as friends, even though that friendship hasn't really been cemeted yet at this point in the story, but I could easily see it progressing beyond that if the author really wanted it to. But yeah, there interactions are some of the funniest moments in the series. I think it's debatable to say that Damian DESERVED to get punched in the face by Anya, considering he's only like that because of his father, and is a small child too, but I can't say I DIDN'T enjoy watching it either. And after that the way whenever he looks at her and to his vision she becomes very cute and innocent looking and he blushes like crazy. It's gold. I also enjoyed Anya's friendship with Becky Blackbell, who seems to be the only conceited student at that school aside from Anya herself of course. And even when Anya is alone she's entertaining, like when she finally earned a Stella. There are many points when she acts like a real kid, but there's also exaggeration as well. I love the mix, because it makes her feel real, without being annoying.
Found family is one of my favorite tropes in all of fiction, and this series executes that theme extremely well. Not every character is great. Obviously Yor's coworkers are incredibly unlikable, but I also think that they're meant to be, so I can't say they're bad characters, they're just bad people, in my opinion, especially the blond one, which doesn't inherently equate to bad writing. They serve their purpose well. Regarding the blond one in particular, her only role it seems like, at least in this seaosn, was to be awful to Yor so that Loid could come in, save, and impress her, and she served that purpose extremely well. Oh, I almost forgot to mention Yor's brother, Yuri, who works for the Secret Police, which I believe is another faction that opposes Loid's, but also opposes Yor's. Yuri has an obessive, protective relationship with Yor, stemming from the fact that after their parents died Yor worked constantly to support him, (that's when she started being an assassin, although Yuri obviously had no idea what she was actually doing), and he joined the secret police, a job that he might not entirely want to do but is really good at, to become independent from her. Because of his borderline siscon feelings towards her, he's very hostile towards Loid when they first meet, a plot which isn't fully resolved by the end of the season. So many of these characters have dark secrets, but of course Anya knows it all because she can read minds, and it seems like she can't fully control that power yet.
The family dynamic is the first and most notable aspect of this show that everyone loves, myself included. It's incredibly wholesome and they have great chemistry. Anya is unbelievably adorable. I am kind of split on her because I'm aware of the author's statements that he hates Anya and the only reason she's a major character is because his editor forced her to. it was obviously a good decision from a money standpoint because she's pretty much the most iconic character in the anime, with the only one coming close being Yor. And I'm generally in favorite of authors having absolute, 100% creative control of their own art. But at the same time I'm part of the problem because I also love her, so I don't know. And anyways I guess that speaks to the author's talent that he's able to make Anya so lovable and fun even though he supposedly hates writing for her. Some of the funniest scenes in the series are from Anya, as well as her intractions with another character, Damian Desmond, which I'll get to later. Yor is cute and attractive, and it's engaging watching her navigate a life that she's never lived before, and probably thought that she never would, that of a housewife. Loid, while being much more outwardly serious than Yor, also struggles with this new mission of his because of the complications and trials of being a father and husband, even if it's only pretend. And I love watching them grow to geninely care about their family, even if they seemingly haven't realied it yet, that's obviously the direction it's going in.
To complete this misison they enter Anya in an extremely prestigous school so she can get close to Donavan Desmond's son, Damian. And yeah, it's time to get to that now, they are cute af. Damian is rough around the edges, very arrogant and rude, but it's also implied that the reason he's like this is because of the strict way he was raised by his father, which lacked standard affection and empathy. I'm not sure if the author is going to go in the direction of them being romanticly interested in each other when they get older, honestly at this point I could go either way with it. I think they work great as friends, even though that friendship hasn't really been cemeted yet at this point in the story, but I could easily see it progressing beyond that if the author really wanted it to. But yeah, there interactions are some of the funniest moments in the series. I think it's debatable to say that Damian DESERVED to get punched in the face by Anya, considering he's only like that because of his father, and is a small child too, but I can't say I DIDN'T enjoy watching it either. And after that the way whenever he looks at her and to his vision she becomes very cute and innocent looking and he blushes like crazy. It's gold. I also enjoyed Anya's friendship with Becky Blackbell, who seems to be the only conceited student at that school aside from Anya herself of course. And even when Anya is alone she's entertaining, like when she finally earned a Stella. There are many points when she acts like a real kid, but there's also exaggeration as well. I love the mix, because it makes her feel real, without being annoying.
Found family is one of my favorite tropes in all of fiction, and this series executes that theme extremely well. Not every character is great. Obviously Yor's coworkers are incredibly unlikable, but I also think that they're meant to be, so I can't say they're bad characters, they're just bad people, in my opinion, especially the blond one, which doesn't inherently equate to bad writing. They serve their purpose well. Regarding the blond one in particular, her only role it seems like, at least in this seaosn, was to be awful to Yor so that Loid could come in, save, and impress her, and she served that purpose extremely well. Oh, I almost forgot to mention Yor's brother, Yuri, who works for the Secret Police, which I believe is another faction that opposes Loid's, but also opposes Yor's. Yuri has an obessive, protective relationship with Yor, stemming from the fact that after their parents died Yor worked constantly to support him, (that's when she started being an assassin, although Yuri obviously had no idea what she was actually doing), and he joined the secret police, a job that he might not entirely want to do but is really good at, to become independent from her. Because of his borderline siscon feelings towards her, he's very hostile towards Loid when they first meet, a plot which isn't fully resolved by the end of the season. So many of these characters have dark secrets, but of course Anya knows it all because she can read minds, and it seems like she can't fully control that power yet.
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And has a catching opening song