Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys, the fall season is here which means new anime is just around the corner as well as returning anime. One of the animes returning is none other then SpyxFamily. In a time when dark shonen manga seems to be reigning supreme in the market, it’s nice to see a wholesome yet funny story gain some popularity with readers all over the world. The series had a fanbase long before the anime, but thanks to the anime’s success the fandom only grew and made it a worldwide hit. While it hasn’t reached those same levels as Demon Slayer it was definitely getting over and bringing in new fans. Last year, I jumped the gun and reviewed the first season a bit too early. So this week I’m going to review the second half of the anime and see if the season still holds up. Let’s get ready for some wholesome spy family fun. This is SpyxFamily.
Opening/Ending Theme
The opening for the second half is “SOUVENIR” by BUMP OF CHICKEN. Right away a major improvement over the first opening. The song is catchy to listen to and the animation is beautiful. Like, holy shit this animation is incredible and it matches up with the song perfectly. Seriously, the whole anime needs to look like this opening.
For the ending we have “Shikisai” by Yama. While I like the first ending more this song was still great in my opinion. It’s cute, catchy, and the lyrics do a good job relating to the three main characters and their hidden desire to stay connected to each other even if they themselves don’t realize it.
Episodes 1-4
The second half of the anime starts off with our wholesome family going to the pet shop owned by Loid’s organization to find a dog. Sadly, Anya doesn’t like the selection (can’t say I blame her, those dogs are ugly. Scene here: https://youtu.be/PAYdDMIu8Q0). They decide to hit up the adoption fair near the station (scene here: https://youtu.be/amlvvy60OWA), but Loid gets called away to handle a mission. It turns out some terrorists who are college students are planning to attack a representative from Westalis who is in Ostania for a summit. Being that relations between the two countries is on thin ice, they want to keep this attack as secret as possible (it only takes one match to light a powder keg). With the help of Loid, they find out that the terrorist plan to use dogs with explosives to kill the representative (that’s really fucked up, assholes). While that’s going on, we see Anya and Yor at the adoption fair where Anya sees one of the dogs the terrorists plan on using and is able to read its mind where she saw a vision of her and the others (you have found your dog). Anya follows the dog into the building (almost reminds me of the Rugrats) and hears the plan of the terrorists. She gets discovered but the dog breaks his leash to protect Anya. When the phone rings, the two use this distraction to escape. Anya figures out that the dog has the ability to see the future (a dog that can see the future. This doesn’t feel out of place at all). It turns out the dog is part of an experiment called Project Apple. The plan was to give animals super intelligence and use them as weapons of war (do you want Planet of the Apes? Cause this is how you get Planet of the Apes). However, due to funding and a collapsing government, the project was shut down and the animals were sold on the black market. Despite being on the run, Anya can’t help but feel excited (waku waku) and decides to stop the terrorists herself and earn a star (scene here: https://youtu.be/Z6z3d8wT6nc, Starlight Anya returns). On their way to the police station, they make a wrong turn (https://youtu.be/Awu7g7eQbdc?t=3) and wind up in the arms of the terrorists only to get saved by Yor (mama to the rescue).
At the start of episode 2 Yor scares away the terrorist and ties up the other one (scene here: https://youtu.be/8hHreOz9nhA). Anya explains to Yor what’s going on and she calls the proper authorities (just say you got a tip from gossiping wives). While Yor is on the phone the dog has another vision of the future where Loid dies in an explosion set up by the terrorists. This results in the terrorists killing the minister and war breaking out between the two countries. Anya rushes off to the location in the hopes of saving Loid and protecting world peace (this looks like a job for Starlight Anya and her trusty dog companion). While that’s going on Loid and the other agents find and capture the other terrorists except their leader Keith, where Handler tells them the truth about war they want so much (scene here: https://youtu.be/-jnzyq9JOEw. You know, in light of everything going on in Ukraine this scene carries more weight now than when the author first wrote it). Realizing that his back is against the wall, Keith realizes that he has no choice but do this himself. Knowing that spies will investigate his hideout, he sets up a bomb near the clocktower. Once they open the door the bomb will go off killing everyone in the vicinity. Anya and the dog arrive at the location of the clocktower where they have about 30 minutes to find the bomb (also, Anya doesn’t know how to read time. (Neo): Which is to be expected. They don’t teach that until first grade. (Nitsuj): She goes to a prestigious school. You’re telling me they teach kindergarteners mid-level addition but won’t teach them how to read time?). Anya finds the bomb and tries to disarm it only to discover all the wires are black instead of multi-colored like in her shows (scene here: https://youtu.be/pAo9bNF5dh0. (Chris): Wires A, B, and C are all fucking black! (Nitsuj): Haha! That was great. You can go Chris. (Chris): You had me drive all the way here for that one joke? (Nitsuj): Yep. (Chris): You owe me gas money! (Nitsuj): Worth every penny). Having no other choice, Anya leaves a message for Loid in ketchup. Loid sees the message and doesn’t open the door thus altering the future for the better. Loid and the other agents go to the minister to ask him a favor (https://youtu.be/uKDJYBlfDG8?t=3). Under the disguise of the minister, Loid leads Keith and the dog away from everyone to end the episode on a cliffhanger (scene here: https://youtu.be/4l-9pzGz76o).
Episode 3 picks up where we left off with Loid shooting the bomb off the dog (damn, eagle eyes on that man) and then tosses it into the river. The terrorist drives away only to run into Yor who causes his car to crash with a kick (scene here: https://youtu.be/FUoIR-l5i14, she never skips leg day) and then calls the police to hand him over (and thus the world was saved by the Forger family). The family meets up where Loid decides to hand the dog over to WISE but Anya wants to keep him or she’ll quit school. Handler decides to let them keep the dog and after a health checkup gets delivered to their house the next day (scene here: https://youtu.be/A3d4X346zXk). At school Anya brags about her dog to Damian but he has the same attitude as honey badger (he don’t give a fuuuuuck~). That, and Anya hasn’t even given him a name yet (scene here: https://youtu.be/Y5f_wd7shRU, this girl keeps finding the most comedic ways to fail). After much thinking she decides to name him Bond (Dog. Bond Dog. Scene here: https://youtu.be/voIm0wTcYSc).
Not much to say about episode 4. In the first half Yor is secretly learning how to cook from her co-worker Carmilla (the jealous bitch from episode 2). With Yuri, Carmilla, and her boyfriend as the taste testers we see her food is anything but edible. However, she manages to make her mom’s stew that’s edible and shares it with Loid and Anya (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZPpUeh-9Obo). In the second half, Franky is in love and asks for Loid’s help. After a bit of training, Franky goes to talk to girl named Monica who works in a cigar shop only to get rejected. Loid shows compassion and shares a drink with him.
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 focuses on Anya and her school life. In her pursuit to get Damien’s attention, she tries to show him a picture of her family but he completely ignores her (scene here: https://youtu.be/WC5-GsfJ6Q4, that’s cold man). Becky on the other hand takes a shine to Loid and has the hots for him (scene here: https://youtu.be/Z1pwsgokIE8, didn’t know she was a panther. Her teen years are going to be interesting). In art class the students are told to make 3D animals with their supplies (again, these are kindergarteners or 1st graders. They aren’t ready for complex art like this). Anya and Damien wind up in the same group where Damien in an effort to stand out and get his work noticed by his dad (https://youtu.be/906lPhQo9cA) tries to create a griffin. Anya offers to help him but keeps messing up and in the end creates a beat up griffin that looks like it’s been to Hell and back. Ironically, the board of education took a liking to it, were moved to tears, and gave it a gold medal (reminds me of that one time in elementary when my art teacher submitted one of my art pieces for a contest without my consent and it won a red ribbon). In the second half not much really happens. We see Handler aka Sylvia aka Fullmetal Lady being followed by members of the Secret Police. You would think this would lead to a showdown between them and or she would have Twilight or members of WISE axe them off, but nope, she puts on a disguise to fool them and goes to meet Loid to deliver information and get updates on the mission.
Mid-terms are around the corner for Anya and she’s feeling the pressure. Not only are her grades bad, not only will she receive a Tonitrus if she fails, but she won’t be able to read minds on the day of the exam. We find out that Anya can’t use her powers on the day (or is it night) of a new moon (meaning she’s gonna have do the test the old fashion way. Sneaking glances at other people’s test. Admit it, you all did this at some point in your school life). Yor gets Yuri to tutor Anya and aside from this being a fun interaction between the two, nothing gets done (scene here: https://youtu.be/HrdVooR3Bzo). Two weeks later, it’s time for the exam and Loid decides to take things into his own hands. He plans to sneak into school and switch out her answer sheet (wouldn’t that raise a few eyebrows from the teachers if Anya gets a perfect score?). While trying to switch out the answer sheet, he runs into another spy named Daybreak. He was hired by a wealthy family to sneak into the school and alter their child’s answer sheet (well this is a clear sign that the school’s exams are way too hard). Unlike Loid this guy is a total amateur and almost gets caught a few times, but Loid is there to bail him out. Loid finds out that the guy was hired to alter the answers of Desmond’s sons. After Daybreak makes his “dashing” escape, Loid inspects the papers to find out that the answers he put down were wrong meaning whoever hired Daybreak wanted the sons to fail (horribly). Loid changes the answers back and then gets back to his original task to change Anya’s paper but decides not to. Five days later and everyone gets their tests back where Anya barely passed. Loid could have changed out her answer sheet but chose not to because he could tell that she was doing her best (in her own little way). Damian did very well and got the second-highest score on the history exam meaning he gets a stellar star.
Episode 7 focuses on a student named George. His dad’s pharmaceutical company has gone bankrupt because of Desmond. Angered by this and seeking revenge, George tries to get Damian in trouble at school (we also find out that he’s the one who hired Daybreak last episode. This explains so much). He tries to get Damian expelled by planting a cigarette bud on the ground claiming Damian smokes (he’s a fucking kindergartener), but Anya speaks up for Damian to clear his name (scene here: https://youtu.be/x9pbyidaxeI). George tells everyone what’s going on saying that he’ll have to leave the school because of his dad’s bankruptcy, so the students band together to give him a good final day (scene here: https://youtu.be/ihHYCjYr53Q). Only for the next day to arrive and we see he made a huge mistake. It turns out his dad’s company was brought out by Desmond. While management will change, George’s dad will still be brought in as part of the research team. George goes to school and all the students are rightfully pissed (scene here: https://youtu.be/NOf0qlGneY0, there’s a lesson here but I’m not going to be the one to figure it out). In the second half, Anya oversleeps (we’ve all been there) and forgets her gym uniform. Yor becomes the wind and rushes to the school (giving us a pretty cool parkour sequence. This is once again anime only content and is a welcomed addition to the series. It’s something I could honestly see happening in the manga. Scene here: https://youtu.be/OIOpd62FAug). She makes it to the school and not wanting Anya to get in trouble, doesn’t alert the school of her arrival (shame, I wanted to see how some of the boys would react to Yor). She manages to find Anya only to discover that she doesn’t have gym today meaning this whole trip was pointless. As she walks home Loid approaches her since he was spying on Anya and invites her to have lunch with him.
In episode 8 Anya gets a school assignment to shadow her parents at work. She chooses to go with Loid who uses the hospital as a cover but has become quite the popular guy. Anya’s report on him however lands him in serious trouble (this is why you need to look over her work). In the final part of the episode Anya with the help of Loid creates a secret code and gives it to people hoping to meet them at the location it deciphers. The only person who deciphers it is Franky because he thought it was a love letter and Anya oversleeps.
Episodes 9-13
Episode 9 is the introduction I’ve been waiting for all season. We meet a new agent of WISE named Fiona aka Nightfall. In the past this was an agent Loid trained and was originally slated to play the part of Loid’s wife, but couldn’t due to being on another mission (and we got Yor instead so I say we won in the end). She comes to the Forger residence (it is the best part of waking up. Boom! Finally, made a Folgers joke. I know it’s spelled with an l but r and l are written the same in Japan so it works) to bring Anya her magnifying glass she left at the hospital and to check up on the operation where she’s not impressed. Loid and her get into a heated code argument and it seems like the two don’t like each other, but in truth, Fiona is madly in love with Loid (scene here: https://youtu.be/wtGL4aTu-Tk). She considers him the perfect man and wants to marry him (Loid surprisingly has his own little harem going on in the background). She now wants to replace Yor as the wife in the operation (This isn’t like Aunt Vivian from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. You can’t just take her role and expect everyone to accept it). Anya refuses to accept Fiona as her mom and puts on the love act to show how much she likes Yor (scene here: https://youtu.be/iz8eYyfWccY). When Fiona takes her leave Loid follows after her to give her an umbrella because it’s raining. She doesn’t accept the umbrella and tells Loid an upcoming mission they’ll be working on together. She then tells Loid that the family life is making him weak and vows to show him that she’s the only one worthy of being his wife. After the credits we get a short story about Bond. He’s jealous of Anya’s stuffed penguin so he destroys it making Anya very upset. Bond presents a peace offering to her and all is forgiven.
In episode 10 Fiona tells Loid about their upcoming mission. The two will be investigating Cavi Campbell and stealing an art piece from his antique collection called “The Lady in the Sunlight” (I’m just gonna call it Sunny for short). The painting once belonged to a military man from the war era and they believe it contains a clue to the whereabouts of some documents that could ignite a war between the east and west. Getting into the vault is next to impossible (not if we call the master thief himself Lupin) so that’ll have to try an alternate route. Cavi hosts an underground tennis tournament where anything goes and the champions get an item of their choice from his antique collection. Loid and Fiona enter the tournament under the guise of a married couple and manage to make it to the finals where they’ll be facing Campbell’s children (scene here: https://youtu.be/d2wxbAxo_lY).
The match against the Campbell kids begins in episode 11 where we see they use a number of underhanded tactics to win such as raising the net, using wind to throw off the hits, and even having trap falls on the court (geez, this is like a court from Mario Tennis). But all their attempts fail as Loid and Fiona are in the zone (they’ve got. . .the Focus) and can’t be stopped. On the final set the Campbells decide to just straight up shoot them (oh God, these guys aren’t messing around. Granted it’s rubber, but those things still hurt like hell). Loid takes a bullet for Fiona and gets back up okay because he’s wearing a vest, knowing something like this would happen. The Campbells use all their tricks including the ball boys (why don’t you just throw the kitchen sink at them?) and we get an amazing match of tennis (with some nice animation) where Loid and Fiona win the match (scene here: https://youtu.be/o-eUS1LRHjQ). With this win they can finally get the painting, but public security called Campbell to secure the painting for themselves (we’ll play you for it). Using a disguise, Loid and Fiona get the painting and hand the fake one to public security. When they return, they see Yor and Anya playing in the park where Fiona challenges Yor to a tennis match to prove she’s superior to her (no you’re not~). It’s a short match as Yor not only hit the ball so hard that she sliced it into tiny pieces, but she hit it with such force that it broke Fiona’s racket. Defeated and ashamed, Fiona retreats to the mountains and trains for the next battle (scene here: https://youtu.be/0XliVtIsHR4). As for the code on the painting, it was nothing. The documents were instead just photos of actresses the military man liked (perv).
In the first half of episode 12 Yor is still worried about Fiona replacing her. Loid hears the other wives talking and realizes that he has to fix this before the Secret Police get involved (aka the brother-in-law). Loid takes Yor out for a drink where she gets drunk and in her drunken state spills all her worries. Loid misinterprets Yor’s worries as jealousy and he believes she’s falling for him (in a sense). Loid tries to lay on the charm and receives a kick to the chin which knocks him out for five minutes (it’s still impressive. Much better than everyone else in the anime so far. Scene here: https://youtu.be/Ad5TrR5QCQ8). Loid wakes up in Yor’s lap in the park where he decides to be truthful and tells her how much he feels comfortable leaving Anya in her care because she protects her, knows she’s a fine mother, and has no intention of replacing her (if he did, he would be the most hated guy in shonen history. Even more hated than Makoto from School Days). In the second half we focus on Anya and Becky. Becky has decided to help Anya get Damien to like her (he’s tsundere, give it a little time). The two girls go shopping where the original plan was to find Anya a nice outfit, but it shifts to Becky finding an outfit to win Loid’s attention when they meet (the panther is on the prowl again). In the end the two girls do buy matching keychains and we even learn a little bit about Becky. In the past she had a hard time making friends because she told it like it is and believed she was more adult than the other kids. So when she met Anya and became friends with her, Becky finally started acting like a kid. She may still have her weird habits (i.e watching soap operas and possibly trying to sabotage a marriage), but hey, at least she has a friend to help even her out.
In the final episode we see a school gathering for the imperial scholar students and their parents. Naturally, Loid is there in disguise hoping to see Donovan but knows it’s next to impossible to sneak into the building of the gathering without arousing suspicion. Damian also wants to see his dad and asks his older brother to deliver a message on where to meet him, but his expectations are low on him showing up. So Damian decides to go to where the scholars are gathering and see his father directly. Loid follows him and his stooges (it still amazes me he has stooges. The rules of school apply to all ages) but Damian starts to get cold feet and is about to retreat. Luckily, Anya shows up and gives him a push in her own little way (never change Anya. Never change). Damian goes to the meeting spot with his stooges and waits, hoping for his dad to show up. Anya also stays, but falls asleep and gets taken home by Becky’s servant. Loid makes his move and approaches the young Damian just as Donovan arrives (we finally get to meet the man himself. Man, his pupils are small. That guy looks like he hasn’t slept in days). We get a conversation between Loid and Donovan where it’s a good mental battle as the two are trying to size up the other to get an idea of who they are. After enough talking, Loid takes his leave and allows Damian to have some time with his dad (scene here: https://youtu.be/b7HQj5W-M-Q).
Final Thoughts
This season does a good job keeping the laughs going, introducing new characters, and advancing the plot. It’s nice to see Loid at work and see why he’s so respected and feared by his peers. Yor continues to be the adorable yet badass mom. It’s clear she’s developing feelings for Loid and vice-versa. Anya’s antics both in school and at home continue to be both cute and funny. You can tell she’s trying her best in her own little way and Loid can see that. Her relationship with Becky is endearing. Becky wants to be an adult but Anya is there help her be a kid and Becky gives Anya some sense of normalcy and interaction with the outside world. Anya’s love/hate relationship was Damian continues to be funny and it’s cool to see that despite having mixed feelings for him she does care enough to help him out. Like I said before the new characters are welcomed addition to the series. Bond being a dog that can see the future doesn’t feel out of place in this scenario and he quickly fits in with this family. Fiona being this serious and cold-hearted face woman who secretly loves Loid is funny, cute, and took me by surprise. The reveal of Donovan at the end of the season was a nice touch and helps get you a feel for who he is and what he hopes to accomplish.
The animation is still great. Not much change from the first part but it does seem like they have more fun with it in this part. There also seems to be more action scenes in this part which adapt the manga perfectly and adds in extra scenes that make the series better and don’t feel out of place.
Final Score The final score for SpyxFamily S1 is still a 9/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. If the first part had you hook you’ll definitely like the second part. I argue that second part is actually better than the first part. With a second season and movie set to come out soon it’s clear that this series is going to be mainstay within the anime community. Will it be as big as Demon Slayer, MHA, and Jujutsu Kaisen? Only time will tell. Either way, I’m happy this series is getting the recognition and popularity it deserves. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.