Spy x Family (Season One – Part Two)

Twilight continues his mission to get close to Donovan Desmond and stop another war from breaking out. To do so, he’s reliant on his fake daughter, Anya Forger doing well at school… Hopefully, there’s a good backup plan!

Spy x Family (Season One – Part Two)

What did you watch?

I absolutely loved the first part of season one and decided that I needed to go straight into the second part. The parallels between a spy’s life and that of a family man were hilarious and I needed to see what happened next and whether it would continue to explore that idea. It’s also worth noting that I watched the entire series on my treadmill over the course of eight days while running fifty-three kilometres which is longer than a marathon! Anyhow, let’s find out how the second part went!

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What happened?

Since Anya earned a Stella Star for her part in saving the drowning boy, she wanted a dog as a reward. Loid felt like this might be a good idea so he contacted his team who prepared a shop with former working dogs. Each one would make a great guard dog, however, none of them resonated with Anya. She wanted something cuter. As if Loid didn’t have enough to worry about, he was then told of a new mission that he had to take on as well. Someone was trying to assassinate a Westalis minister visiting for talks and he needed to help them stop it. They were using dogs with bombs which made it even harder. Luckily, they had caught one member of the group and were busily extracting information from him, with Twilight’s help, of course.

Yor took Anya to a dog adoption fair where they could look at all the cute puppies she could imagine. Then, Anya saw a dog out the window. It was large and white with fluffy fur. It looked at her and then she saw a vision of the future from within its mind. She saw her family in their apartment. Well, Anya was incredibly curious so she slipped out and followed the dog to the terrorists’ base. It was one of the bomb dogs they had trained to find the minister. Luckily, this dog didn’t want any part of it and when they caught Anya, it protected her from them. Then, when they were distracted by a ringing phone, it grabbed her and ran. The terrorists gave chase and soon cornered Anya and the dog. However, they hadn’t counted on Yor finding them and quickly incapacitating one terrorist. She reported the incident to the police, but Anya ran off once more when the dog showed her a vision of Loid being killed in an explosion.

Together, they found the location and were able to leave a message drawn in ketchup on the door. They saved Loid, but the terrorists were still at large. Twilight went to the minister’s room and took his clothes. Then, he drew the terrorist away and was able to remove the bomb from the dog’s back before it exploded. However, the terrorist escaped, but before long, he ran into Yor who quite literally kicked his car into a wall. Then, she reported that incident and went back to find Loid. Surprisingly, Anya, Loid, and Yor all met up together. Anya revealed that she wanted the big white dog and if she didn’t get him, she wouldn’t go to school anymore. And that’s how Bond became a part of the Forger family!

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What did you think?

I really enjoyed this series and continued to find a lot to love about it, however, it was definitely slower than the first part. We saw a few too many class-based scenes which didn’t really go anywhere and then we had the underground tennis tournament, which was absurd, but also wildly entertaining, if not really in keeping with the overall feel of the series. Of course, the relationships between the Forgers continued to be the strongest and most interesting part of the series and it even managed to hit a few moments that were genuinely heartbreaking. I’m expecting that to continue into the second season, although the movie will probably be more of a ridiculous side-story, which I also am looking forward to. Anyhow, this part was great, but not as strong as the first part.

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What was your favourite moment?

The first three episodes were amazing. They were the ones that covered the terrorists using bomb dogs and how Anya found and adopted Bond. It had everything including a dog that can see the future, but who has no way of relaying his visions… until now! He is a perfect partner for Anya and I think part of my disappointment with the rest of the part was that it didn’t follow up with anything similar. At least, there’s always that to fall back on. We also got to see Yor running around worried for Anya and mercilessly destroying anyone who got in her way. I love how protective she is, especially as she has the strength to back it up.

It was amazing how Anya played Loid and Handler when they said she couldn’t have that dog. Thanks to her telepathy, she knows exactly what to say to get her way… maybe all children are telepathic and we just forget about it as we get older… Anyhow, this was action-packed and full of drama. I did enjoy the scene in the square where Anya realised that she couldn’t tell the time on the clock tower and asked for help. These little moments remind you that she is just a child which is often glossed over in anime. To be honest, these first three episodes could have been a movie, which is what I’m hoping for with the movie CODE: White when I get a chance to watch it.

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What was your least favourite moment?

There were definitely more moments that left me underwhelmed in this part of the season. The first one that comes to mind is when Anya’s classmate, George Glooman was determined to disgrace Damian Desmond because his family’s business was going under because of Donovan Desmond. It was funny, but also a bit tedious. I saw the “twist” coming from a mile away so that didn’t help. However, there was one scene that I think I really need to single out. Franky had come to Loid for help getting a girl. Loid did what he does best and prepared Franky. However, it didn’t go well so Franky went to a bar and started drinking. Soon after, he was joined by Loid who decided to drink with him. I think this was the first moment that Loid was beginning to regret what might happen to his family when the mission was over. He knew that he was developing feelings for Anya and Yor, which made it that much harder that one day, he would just disappear. I hope that never happens.

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Who was your favourite character?

I think Yor takes it this time. I loved how she was secretly trying to improve her cooking and was having lessons with her work colleague. We learned that Yuri has a cast iron stomach and his failure to say anything about the terrible taste of Yor’s food had stunted her growth in the department. I laughed so hard when she served purple food. It reminded me of Shion’s cooking in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. It was great that she found a dish that she could cook and serve to Loid and Anya. However, she then followed it up with a dessert that left both Loid and Anya on their backs.

Yor also had to deal with the jealous advances of Fiona, Agent Nightfall who was infatuated with Twilight. I didn’t like the way she tried to get in between Yor and Loid. Even though she knows that they are a fake family, she must appreciate the damage she would do to the mission if she did replace Yor. I felt like Handler needed to seriously rain her in. That said, I loved how Yor finally got one up on Fiona by delivering an unstoppable serve in tennis, especially after her first attempt left the ball in tiny pieces, which also shocked Fiona. Yor deserves so much more than Fiona’s meddling.

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Who was your least favourite character?

The easy answer is Fiona for trying to steal Loid away from Yor. That said, I feel like I said all there is to say about Fiona in the last section, so I’m going to do something a little controversial… In the last episode, Loid managed to engineer a chance encounter with Donovan Desmond by ensuring that he was where Damian Desmond was when he believed that they might meet. It was quite clever and it worked. However, the entire conversation with utterly cringeworthy. If I was Donovan and some random parent started talking to me like that, I would ensure that I was not in a situation to let that happen again. Even Damian told him to ease off. For all the fantastic writing and insights about families and parenting, this felt like the first time they got it wrong.

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Would you like some more?

Definitely. Even with this part being weaker than the first part, it was still a lot of fun and there were some great moments. I’m quite confident that there will be many more too so I’ll be diving into season two as soon as possible and then I’ll be looking in the movie. Season two was only twelve episodes which makes it a nice quick one to get through and season three has already been announced, although there are no release dates yet.

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What have you learned?

I learned that I need to see a series about an underground tennis tournament. That was a blast and reminded me of Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story with its underground golf tournaments. I loved the sheer absurdity of it, even if it felt a little out of place in this series. It just goes to show that it’s possible to take any crazy idea and make something out of it. I also learned that I need Yor and Loid to fall for one another for real. I may have already happened, but they just aren’t ready to admit it to themselves let alone anyone else. Anyhow, this series is great. As long as they keep making them, I’ll keep watching them.

Series Information

English Title	Spy x Family
Japanese Title	Spy x Family
Genres	Action, Comedy
Demographic	Shounen

Anime

Season One – Part One

Season	Season One – Part One
Released	Spring 2022
Animation Studios	CloverWorks, Wit Studio
Episodes	12

Season One – Part Two

Season	Season One – Part Two
Released	Fall 2022
Animation Studios	CloverWorks, Wit Studio
Episodes	13

Manga

Author	Tatsuya Endo
Artist	Tatsuya Endo
Volumes	Ongoing
1	What a Wonderful Family You Are!

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