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Spy x Family Season 1 Review

Spy x Family is spy comedy anime series that released its first season in two parts during 2022. Consisting of 25 episodes, the first season is fantastic and the show is a breath of fresh air in the anime landscape.

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“My mistake was putting that little girl in danger in the first place“

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The story follows a spy who has to “build a family” to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl he adopts as his daughter is a telepath, and the woman he agrees to be in a marriage with is a skilled assassin. It is rare for anime shows to target such a wide demographic as this one did. I can see men, women and children liking this show equally as it has so much to offer.

The spy elements were less important than the comedic ones, but they still worked. Yes, the spy action is executed in an exceedingly humorous manner, which did mean that we lost some of the urgency and stakes of those scenes, but they were still quite a lot of fun. Clearly the show is set in Germany as it is concerned with protecting the peace between the east and the west. Those geopolitical elements really worked and the Western European feel to the show was quite cozy.

But the highlight of this show is clearly all the comedy. It is not often that we get such a funny anime series as this one had me laughing throughout its run. Not all episodes are equally as funny, but most were hilarious. The situational comedy is tremendously well executed with the dialogue being the shining example of its wittiness. This is a further proof that when you have amazingly written, memorable personalities and strong dialogue, humor is bound to spring from these situations as well as many excellent character-building moments.

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Let’s talk about these characters. There are some quite memorable villains here and a couple of supporting players that do make an impact, but for the most part this is entirely a Forger family show. This is why it succeeds as a family-friendly comedy as it develops these characters in such a careful way that they all become very real. Yor is definitely the weakest of the bunch. Yes, she is hilarious and her penchant to get into trouble and to fight her way out with brute force was quite funny as was her lack of cooking skills, but overall she needed a bit more development.

Loid is terrific as the straight man of the gang. He is a necessary source of reason and empathy and his dynamic with the other two is quite moving. But clearly Spy x Family is Anya’s show first and foremost. Not only is this kid absolutely hilarious, but also genuinely endearing. She is a believable kid that just happens to be a telepath, which is a great source of humor for her. Anya’s over-the-top mannerisms and willingness to please everyone was so adorable. She is the heart and soul of this show and easily one of the most iconic characters in recent anime history.

The Desmond family was also well realized and the kid had an interesting dynamic with Anya. The school scenes appealed to me the most as I usually tend to gravitate toward these academy life-centric shows and movies. The other highlights include the subplot with the dog and every single plot point regarding telepathy as that was very intriguing and fun. As for the music, it’s only solid, but the animation is very strong and particularly memorable in its backgrounds and architecture.

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The pacing is all over the place as the structure of the show did lead to some episodes that were almost filler in their episodic nature and slice-of-life storytelling, but the majority of their adventures were just so fun and funny that I loved each of those episodes nonetheless. I just wished that the structure was better handled as the show jumped from important storytelling to slice-of-life family stories way too frequently and clumsily.