Having sold more than 29 million copies, the “Spy x Family” manga by Tatsuya Endo is one of the most popular series of all time, inevitably finding an adaptation as an anime, which seems to be also rather popular.
The story takes place in a setting that reminds of the two Germanies during the Cold War, with two rival nations Westalis and Ostania maintaining a rather precarious state of peace. It is in this setting that the Westalian agent code-named “Twilight”, a master of disguise who never fails to complete his missions, has been active for years. His latest mission, however, is quite different, as he is tasked with spying on Donovan Desmond, leader of the National Unity Party within Ostania. However, due to Desmond being notoriously reclusive, the only way Twilight can get close to him is to enroll a child in the same private school as Desmond's son and pose as a fellow parent.
To achieve this, he takes up the persona of Loid Forger, a psychiatrist, and adopts an orphan girl named Anya, just before he marries a woman named Yor Briar, who works in the public sector and is afraid that her single status will bring suspicions upon her. It is soon revealed though, that Twilight is not the only one with secrets, since Anya is an esper that can read minds, while Yor is a killer for hire, not to mention that her little brother, Yuri, who is obsessed with her since she was the one who raised him since childhood, is also a lieutenant of the State Security Service – where he is tasked with hunting down “Twilight” and other rebellious, terrorist, and overseas intelligence groups. Within all these intense dynamics, Twilight has still to make Anya worthy enough of entering the Academy, something he eventually achieves with a great dose of luck, but also to make her a top student in order to gain access to the elite of the school where Desmond's son, Demian, is bound to be placed.
Evidently, the most intriguing and appealing aspects of the series are its characters and the dynamics that are created between them. In that fashion, Twilight is a man who is constantly thinking about what to do next, while hiding his true identity from his make-up family, but Anya is able to read his every thought, which results in her being both terrified and resolved to help him. Furthermore, Anya may be able to read people's mind, but that has made her lazy and a really bad student, posing another issue for Twilight, while the fact that she reads her father's thoughts, but is still too young (an elementary student) to realize the gravity of what is happening, adds another level to their relationship. Yor, who also has no clue about the rest of her family's true abilities, is as kind and loving of them as she is cruel towards her victims, with her obsession for violence, which she keeps to herself, terrifying Anya when she reads her thoughts.
Moreover, the role of Yuri and his quite abnormal relationship with his sister that results in intense jealousy towards Loid, and the fact that again neither of them knows of each other's secret identity, adds another level to the story here. Lastly, the fact that eventually Desmond has feelings for Anya but hides them under the behavior of a bully towards her, actually complicates things even more, with Kazuhiro Furuhashi using all the aforementioned to add both drama and intense slapstick comedy to his narrative. Particularly the fact that the only one who knows everyone's secrets is an elementary child is used brilliantly throughout the series, in the dual path mentioned before.
Also of note are the peripheral characters here, beyond Desmond and Yuri. Twilight's comrades, and particularly the enigmatic persona known as the Handler, his main informant Franky Franklin and Fiona Frost, an agent he has trained and eventually provides a kind of adversary for Yor, just as Yuri does for Loid, are all indispensable parts of the story. That Furuhashi allocates much time on them throughout the series works excellently, allowing them to shine both individually and to analyze the main protagonists through their interactions with them. Add to that a dog that becomes part of the family, Bond, and an elderly teacher in Anya's school that is obsessed with elegance, Henry Henderson, and you have one of the most impressive collections of characters we have seen lately in a series.
In that regard, Kazuaki Shimada's character design emerges as another of the great traits of the series, particularly in the way the plethora of characters stand so much out from each other, while a number of them change their appearance according to their actions, with Twilight and Yor being the main representatives of this approach. Twilight is found in a number of disguises, but as Loid, he appears elegant, cool and kind; Yor looks like a normal housewife but transforms into a sultry murderer when she is “working” while extremely big eyed Anya is cute at all times, with the ‘silly faces' working quite well in her case actually, in a testament to the quality of work in that regard.
At the same time, the Cold War like politics and the constant danger that surrounds all the characters essentially add an element of agony, while the comments about class, the rich and the poor, and what constitutes a family are all excellently portrayed, even if the main premises of the series remain those of a comedy. The truth is that the quality falls somewhat in the school setting, with the humor there being essentially pedantic, while the main story moves quite slowly and some of the dynamics between the foes here are not explored as they could have. Nevertheless, considering that there are definitely going to be additional seasons to the title, this issue does not weigh particularly heavy, while the overall narrative definitely moves beyond any kind of individual fault.
Lastly, the presentation of the particular Cold War setting is excellent, as depicted in clothes, background and overall coloring, while the animation by Wit Studio and CloverWorks is impressive throughout, equally in the action, comedic, and dramatic scenes.
“Spy x Family” is an outstanding title, definitely one of the best of 2022, particularly because it manages to include all these different narrative elements in the most harmonic fashion, thus resulting in a title that almost every fan of anime will find something to like.
