Blair Loveday
Spy × Family is a weirdly fantastic anime.
When I first tried watching it it really didn’t gel with me, but on a second viewing I was enamoured.
The weirdly silly anime humour mixed with the seriousness of a spy thriller, when it clicks, it just clicks. After a fantastic Season One, Part 1, I was eagerly waiting for the blu-ray release of Season One, Part 2, and now it’s here.
When we left off at the end of Part 1, the Forgers were well into their mission as Loid struggled with his mission of a family man and other urgent needs that popped up. I mean, he had to quickly stop a dangerous mission involving a penguin and a weapon while enjoying a day out at the aquarium. Nothing is easy in the spy world.
If you aren’t familiar with Spy x Family, you definitely don’t want to start with Part 2.
But a quick catch up.
Loid is a spy trying to keep the world peaceful. Anya is a mind reading child who lost her parents. Yor is an Assassin who wants to live without suspicion. Loid adopts Anya so he can get a child into an academy so he can spy on another parent. To get her in there he needs a wife to pretend they have a stable family, so marries Yor who wants to be able to not be harassed for being single.
The kicker, none of the three know about each other’s special jobs / lives.
Well except Anya, she can read their minds, but they don’t know she’s a mind reader. Anya just uses that to help though as she wants to keep her family together so she doesn’t have to go back to the orphanage.
Anyway, Season One, Part 2 kicks off with a meeting between Westalis and Ostania where peace talks may happen. Our strange family is out looking for a pet dog when Loid is pulled away for a secret mission, apparently an assassination is being plotted. So while he is being briefed, Anya and Yor go to look at a dog show while they think Loid is having a very long session on the toilet.
Oh and the dog they get can see the future.
Yup the tone of the show is consistent with the last. Insanely serious at time with political espionage, a fun family that is building their relationships, and insane anime comedy as Anya throws curveballs everywhere. And this time instead of meeting someone weirdly in love with Yor, we get someone insanely in love with Loid.
The really interesting part of the show is we are starting to see some real relationships build.
How much of it is Loid’s acting and how much is Yor’s acting is tough to tell. There seems to be serious feelings and a family building, but is it real? I can’t wait to see where Season Two takes us.
The Limited Edition bits themselves are fantastic.
Like with many Part 2’s it comes in a hard box with space for Part 1. On top of that is an art book that has been designed to fold out like a newspaper which is so damn clever and fitting for Spy X Family. Then there is a dope WISE eye sticker, three cool art cards, and what it calls WISE cufflinks, but are actually just two WISE pins. They are still cool though.
Spy x Family has gone from decent to excellent with Season One, Part 2. If they keep the quality up this could be one of the many unmissable iconic anime series. For now, it’s just a fantastic start.
