Unfortunately, with my current work wrapping up, this has played hell with keeping things caught up on my daily blog posts – so I’m having to grab some ideas more or less off of the cuff. In this case – with my regular anime viewing, I’ve gotten about 3 episodes into one of this new season’s most popular shows – Spy X Family, and I figure it’s worth breaking from my usual tendencies to give my thoughts on the first 3 episodes of the show.

Spy X Family is based on a manga by Tatsuya Endo about a spy, code-named “Twilight” – who is known as a master of disguise. In order to get at a minister in the country of Not-East-Germany (Ostania), to avoid a war with Not-West-Germany (Westalis), he must get dirt on a particular warhawk minister. The problem is that he’s only seen at events at the prestigious academy his son attends, so to get access to him, he must infiltrate the school – as the parent of a student attending the school. So, over the course of the first three episodes Twilight, under the cover identity of “Loid Forger”, needs to get a daughter, get a wife, and then prepare for the entrance interview.

Little does he know that his adoptive daughter, Anya, is a psychic on the run from a mysterious and unexplained research program, and his wife, Yor, is secretly an assassin for a mysterious organization that is as yet unexplained, code-named “Thorn Princess”. Further, Yor is also unaware of Loid’s true mission, or that Anya is psychic. Anya is the only one who knows both of her adoptive parents’ secrets, and she thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world, even if some of what her parents think about goes right over her head.

I went into the anime with no previous knowledge of the manga, though I was watching it with my father, who has been reading the manga. Dad’s reaction was, basically that the show is moving a lot more quickly than the manga, and is doing a pretty good job of giving a balance of action sequences (with a side of comedy as both Yor and Loid attempt to do their respective missions or end up cover for the fact that they have a… particular set of skills from the other) – along with heartwarming family comedy, combined with perhaps the most adorable reaction shots in the world from Anya – who sees through all the nonsense but is fine with it anyway.

This is a wonderfully charming comedy and action series, and I’m definitely going to watch the rest of this show. I will give a full review at the end of the series/season.

Currently Spy X Family is available for streaming on Crunchyroll – it’s currently only subtitled, but a Dub is forthcoming.

If you enjoyed this blog post and would like to help to support the site, please consider backing my Patreon. Patreon backers get to access my reviews and Let’s Plays up to a week in advance.

If you want to support the site, but can’t afford to pledge monthly, please consider tossing a few bucks into my Ko-Fi instead.