But when it came to SxF, it was so obvious: An action-comedy Cold War era spy show surrounding the eternally resonant theme of found family. Spy x Family is ultimately light-hearted, but not too saccharine as to be nauseating to the boys/men whom the manga is theoretically aimed for. In many ways, it's kind of the perfect blend of everything, so when the show predictably blew up last year there was an incredible amount of hype going in, and it only escalated during the first twelve episodes. I have a unique relationship with the story because: for one, enjoyed SxF far more than I initially expected, and two, I was left emotionally impacted in ways I couldn't have predicted. I will admit, I might've (possibly) had some kind of trauma-related emotional response when I witnessed Loid pick up that fucking blue penguin and follow his daughter around the block because he yelled at her. I don't think I'm unique in having a childhood where a scenario demonstrating such nonchalant tenderness basically never happened, but SxF was able to effortlessly depict such casual kindness in a way as to provoke that scarred part of myself far more effectively than I'm sure Tatsuya Endo or Kazuhiro Furuhashi intended. It's like that chapter in Chainsaw Man where Makima and Denji are at a movie theater bawling at the most innocuous scene of all time, that was basically me. In short, I was in Spy x Family's camp once I finished its first cour, and was looking forward to enjoying the rest of the season along with everyone else once it was completed.
However, when season one finished airing last year, I noticed an unusual drop off concerning the level of sheer enthusiasm surrounding the IP. Regardless of its eventual lukewarm reception in the West, in Japan, the manga sold an ungodly amount of volumes and got phenomenal ratings despite being in a late night slot. Inevitably, we were gonna get more of this shit anyway, so—how is it?
I will be very clear, if you really disliked that five episode gap of season one of SxF where it was half episode side stories, you are going to dislike this season too. In fact, you are probably not going to like Spy x Family at all. One of the biggest complaints about the source material is how it starts spinning its wheels after a certain point like a lot of comedy manga tend to, the difference being, SxF pretended it actually had stakes at one point. What made SxF initially engaging to even normies was how carefully structured the early scenarios were to still be engaging and narratively relevant. But now when you're in this early-mid point in the story where you're no longer at the beginning that things are more focused, but are also too far away from the ending where the structure gets shaken up and emotionally impactful twists might happen, each individual episode lives and dies by how engaging it is on a micro level. For SxF, it peculiarly seems like it just can't do the SoL comedy without feeling like it's wasting the audience's time, so half the show is middling to straight boring. That isn't to say everything is boorishly passe in Spy x Family Season 2, they adapt one of the longer arcs of the manga in this season and that can get decently entertaining. But it simply doesn't recover the lack of any sort of fucks to give about the other episodes, even if they vary in quality.
I would describe Spy x Family as compromisingly interesting and uninteresting, where it doesn't feel as though Tatsuya Endo has nothing novel to say with this work, but more so that he has to constantly give up the weirder parts of his writing style in order to appease a pop readership base. This in tandem, does seem to please the general Japanese public that are ingesting this shit like it's air. But, to the anime fandom on the English speaking internet, particularly those for whom Spy X Family is their first unintended foray into anime SoL comedies, this does little for them.
I don't want to completely scrutinize this season into the ground, there's still some great animation and solid direction. This is quintessential modern anime in how it looks for both good and bad, even if some of the art direction feels strangely rushed and there are cg crowds for no reason. This show is by Cloverworks and Studio WIT, two studios that so consistently punch above their weight thanks to having access to solid talent, you're not going to find off model character art or any kind of grody shit like that. Kazuhira Furuhashi, whom I'm a relative fan of, is an incredibly solid director who knows how to maximize his staff regarding big IP projects, so this was always going to look good. And some of the more low-tempo episodes are pretty decent, it's just die roll almost every time if it's boring or not.
Either way, I'm too committed at this point to give up, but if you're even more sour on Spy x Family than me at this point you might as well stop while you're ahead. I'm not sure how long this story is supposed to be, but I'm sure Shueisha wants to milk this cash cow as much as it can for the rest of the decade, so probably longer than you want. This review comes, again, at a relatively nauseating period of my life. I'm still nowhere close to where I want to be, nor do I know if I'm taking the right steps to even have a shot at doing so. In other, more pernicious and anxiety inducing ways, I am constantly paranoid as to whether I am already a failure or not. I can't necessarily say Spy x Family remedied any of those feelings whatsoever, but it certainly didn't make them any worse.
Have a nice day.
