Adding another anime series to the collection of media that I have reviewed, “Spy X Family” (pronounced without the X) is an incredibly cute series with a really fun premise. A spy from a foreign country is sent to an enemy nation to do reconnaissance on a number of high-profile officials to prevent a war. However, to blend in while living in this country, the spy must create a fake family to dissuade any prying eyes. However, the family he ends up with all have secret identities and are trying to hide them from each other.
Loid Forger (the father of this fake family) is the spy mentioned earlier, tasked with stopping a war between these two countries. Yor Forger (the mother) is a high-profile assassin with very high-paying clients who work in the government and military. Finally, Anya Forger (their fake daughter) is a telepath, the failed result of a failed project to make human weapons with unnatural abilities. As expected, Anya figures out fairly quickly who Loid and Yor actually are (she can read minds, after all), but cannot reveal this without Loid and Yor finding out who she really is. This leads to a wonderful dynamic of secrecy and interesting situations as they all have to sidestep each other to prevent each other from finding out who they really are.
One main thing I really like about this show is Loid’s character progression. Loid starts off as a no-nonsense spy, and a good one at that. He is highly respected by the agency he works for and seems to have a very good reputation for his work. But as he marries Yor and adopts Anya, we see a softer side of him come out. A part of him that starts to care for the other members of his fake family, even if they are only a family for the sake of his mission. As the show goes on, we see Loid struggle with this conflict of his mission to stop a war versus his newfound love for his wife and child. Loid has to make many hard decisions to protect the good of his mission and the good of his family at the same time. This leads to a very fascinating character arc of Loid falling more and more into the family lifestyle, while still (sometimes reluctantly) taking new missions that he has to leave his fake family for.
This job of Loid’s creates a cool atmosphere for the show, it goes back and forth, sometimes very rapidly, between a quiet, wholesome household to action-packed missions and escapes from danger. There’s something for everyone in “Spy X Family,” and it all works surprisingly well together. The scenes of calm are often very wholesome and cute, as the whole family starts to believe they belong with each other. And the action scenes are very well choreographed and are very engaging for the viewer.
The thing about this show that interests me the most, however, is when things are going to fall apart. The show only has two seasons, with more on the way, and I can’t help but feel like this seemingly perfect fake family is going to fall apart at some point. It seems like it’s only a matter of time before Yor gets a job to kill Loid, or Loid has to take out Yor as part of an assignment, or something else goes wrong, perhaps one of them gets outed for who they truly are. The potential this show has is insane, and I can’t wait to see how it ends.
All in all, I think “Spy X Family” is a great show that I would recommend to anyone who likes themes of family values and/or high-paced action scenes. Truly a jack of all trades, I think “Spy X Family” can appeal to most anyone. I would give it a four-and-a-half stars out of five, and that rating will probably get higher as more seasons come out. “Spy X Family” can be found on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
