Spy x Family Part 2
SPY×FAMILY
With Anya Forger successfully enrolled at the renowned Eden Academy, Operation Strix advances to its second phase. To investigate Ostanian politician Donovan Desmond, Anya must either befriend his son Damian or collect eight Stella Stars to become an Imperial Scholar. Fortunately, Anya has already acquired her first star. In celebration, her adoptive father, Loid, decides to fulfill her wish to adopt a dog. During their canine search, Loid receives new orders from his superiors, who have found that a band of Berlint University students is plotting to assassinate Westalis' Minister Brantz using bombs worn by trained dogs. While Loid tries to stop their plans, Anya stumbles upon the terrorists' base of operations. There, she befriends a kindhearted, clairvoyant dog who the family later names Bond. Although the Forgers continue to lead their individual lives in secrecy, the family—with a new fluffy addition—remains united through all of the unusual obstacles thrown their way. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Synopsis
With Anya Forger successfully enrolled at the renowned Eden Academy, Operation Strix advances to its second phase. To investigate Ostanian politician Donovan Desmond, Anya must either befriend his son Damian or collect eight Stella Stars to become an Imperial Scholar. Fortunately, Anya has already acquired her first star. In celebration, her adoptive father, Loid, decides to fulfill her wish to adopt a dog. During their canine search, Loid receives new orders from his superiors, who have found that a band of Berlint University students is plotting to assassinate Westalis' Minister Brantz using bombs worn by trained dogs. While Loid tries to stop their plans, Anya stumbles upon the terrorists' base of operations. There, she befriends a kindhearted, clairvoyant dog who the family later names Bond. Although the Forgers continue to lead their individual lives in secrecy, the family—with a new fluffy addition—remains united through all of the unusual obstacles thrown their way. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Reviews(20)
ApplePieHunter
December 24, 2022
Like most people that gave Part 1 a try, I quickly fell in love with “Spy x Family” and the Forgers. Although the author, Tatsuya Endo, says he was only trying to appeal to the mass market, I truly believe that “Spy x Family” had a story and characters that could become one-of-a-kind. However, comparatively speaking, I think Part 2 was a letdown when looking back at Part 1. There are some modifications the story makes that detract from Spy’s original charm. For this review, I’m going to look at changes in three key areas that I believe diminished the quality of “Spy x Family”from great to just good. FAMILY GROWTH - You need pressure to make diamonds, otherwise you’re just left with nothing. One of the most disappointing aspects of Part 2 was how much more laid back the Forgers’ lives were. And no, I don’t mean that every chapter should have chaotic terrorist attacks similar to the first three episodes. What I mean is that we don’t see each person’s double life/secret identity pressuring or influencing the family as much as in Part 1. In Part 1, we see how Loid struggles to complete his spy missions while maintaining a happy family. We see how Yor frequently loses control of her physical strength (a key part of her assassin job) and raises suspicion in doing so. We also see Anya making up lies to avoid being caught as an esper. But in Part 2, these difficulties are either non-existent or significantly turned down, which kinda ruins the whole fun behind the fake family. For Yor in particular, her whole assassin side job is never even portrayed as problematic or intrusive for her life as a mother and older sister. However, there is a trade-off that does offer some compensation. Although I’m pretty disappointed at the lack of pressure from the hidden lives, this season does offer some interesting growth through interpersonal connections. There were a lot of well-made scenes that subtly show the trust Loid develops for his “fake” family, the motherly skills Yor has nurtured, and the love Anya has grown for her parents. It’s not really enough to justify ignoring other routes of character progression, but it does serve as a nice way of strengthening the already existing bonds. OPERATION STRIX - It seems that everyone except Anya has forgotten the mission…? Another gripe I had with this part was how Operation Strix, our main plotline, was put on the back burner until the finale. It really seems like everyone involved in Operation Strix has either forgotten or doesn’t care enough about the operation anymore. Loid has stopped making efforts to progress any methods of making contact with the Desmonds. Instead, he just hopes that Anya will get some Stellas by herself somehow. The entire WISE agency seems to take Loid’s reports at face value without offering assistance to make things quicker. And we’re getting no old or new characters that threaten the mission. All of this just creates a plotline that feels like it has no stakes or urgency, so I’ve grown to not care for it. I mean, why should I? It seems like Anya is the only one actually trying to complete it, so I guess I shouldn’t worry about it, right? (Edit: I want to clarify... I mean this is the case up until the last episode, not the entire season, where key actors of Operation Strix seem unconcerned with its progress.) What we get instead is a lot of side stories to fill in our watch time. Some of these side stories are great! I particularly like the ones involving Loid’s spy life, like the first three episodes, as they usually bring the most action that can somehow connect back to the Forgers in some way. It’s not perfect (as I described in the earlier section), but it’s more than enough to satisfy me on those episodes. I just wish we could see more of Yor’s double life because I don’t think we’ve ever seen her assassinate someone except in Part 1 Episode 2. However, some of these side stories are huge misses. They introduce new side characters that have (at the moment) absolutely no ties to Operation Strix or the Forgers. We then get this 10-15 minute long comedy routine that is funny, but not really why I watch “Spy x Family” in the first place. The ones that don’t use new characters often have no strong purpose related to world-building, character development, or plot progression. Again, it just feels like a comedy routine that comes off as filler rather than actual story content. CARTOONISH ENTERTAINMENT - Works well as a Saturday morning cartoon, but nothing more. Reiterating some earlier points, Part 2 has begun to fill like a Saturday morning cartoon with how many comedic side stories fill up the runtime. This is not inherently a bad thing, as comedy created from a unique premise has every right to be declared objectively good when done correctly. My problem is “Spy x Family” finding the balance between feeling like a cartoon and feeling like a story. In Part 1, the majority of our efforts were dedicated to pushing a story. Of course, there were a lot of funny moments along the way, but the core of most episodes/chapters moved one of our two main plotlines: Operation Strix and becoming a real family. The ones that didn’t involve Operation Strix or building relationships between the Forgers would masterfully use the cartoon routine. The best example I can think of is Yuri meeting Loid. It felt like a refreshing step back from Operation Strix and Forger family secrets as we were served some hilarious new character interactions, all of which were possible through the anime’s unique concept. But after, we go back right back to one of our two big plotlines. In Part 2, we get so many of these cartoon stand-ins that finally returning to a big plotline feels like an “oops! I forgot lmao” moment. If you want to use the comedy found in cartoons within your story, that’s perfectly fine. After all, this is Endo’s story, not mine. But don’t give us so much focus on big plotlines in Part 1, then swap this out for mostly cartoon routines in Part 2. Instead, sparingly use your cartoon entertainment as a way to dissolve tension and refresh the audience, not as a giant filler that takes up most of the season… FINAL VERDICT - “Spy x Family” Part 2 is by no means a horrible season, but if you’re coming hot off the heels of Part 1… you might want to lower your expectations a bit. I’m hoping that with this promising finale, Season 2 will start off strong and stay strong just like Season 1 Part 1. I’m still looking forward to the original story movie, which will hopefully fix upon Part 2’s mistakes to make a better delivery of side stories or cartoons. For now, I can only wait and see if “Spy x Family” will return to the former glory that sucked me in during Season 1.
