“Spy x Family”: the spy anime where being a father is the true impossible mission

A spy, an assassin and a girl with psychic powers star in “Spy x Family”, one of the most anticipated anime of the year and currently available for Crunchyroll.

Based on the manga by Tatsuya Endo and set in the Cold War, “Spy x Family” revolves around a family made up of the father, Loid, alias “Twilight”, a spy infiltrated in the country of Ostania to discover the plans of domination of the government; the mother, Yor, leads a double life as a secretary and hit woman known as the “Princess Thorn”; and Anya, an orphan who was given the power to read minds by illegal experiments. She is the only one who knows the secrets of her parents, each ignorant of the other’s hidden life. There is also Bond the dog, who can see into the future. All of them are the Forger family, a word that can be translated as “forger”.

Spies have always been a subject of fascination in fiction, with the tension between what they present to the outside and their real selves. This double life offers tension, but also lends itself to comedy. This is how we have seen it in series like “The Americans” and “El superagente 86″, as well as in movies like “The Third Man”, “True Lies”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”; etc. In “Spy x Family” there is all this and, in addition, it becomes one of the most moving stories of a dysfunctional family that learns, chapter by chapter, what family love means.

The magnificent

“Spy x Family” is the third manga to be serialized by Tatsuya Endo, but the first to gain international recognition. The author worked very closely with his longtime editor, Shihei Lin, and for the work he combined elements from three self-contained stories of his authorship. For example, Anya’s appearance is taken from “Rengoku no Ashe” (2014), while her family dynamic is taken from “Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi” (2017). Finally “I, SPY” (2018) gave him the spy theme.

“I thought of ‘I SPY’ as a short story, so I didn’t imagine turning it into a serialization. But since I am a fan of the military and I am not averse to spy stories, we decided to do another project on this theme. Lin’s stance was that she could draw whatever she wanted”, Endo told in an interview with the Shonen Jump magazine website.

The comedic tone was something that Tatsuya Endo also consulted with his editor. “I remember talking a lot with Endo-sensei about the possibility of making a happy title. “When a dark story drags on, both the author and the reader can fall into a state of depression. That’s why I wanted to make SPY x FAMILY a bright and cheerful manga. I remember that I forbade him to draw something gloomy (laughs). Endo-sensei agreed to it, and I was happy to see him drawing the series with great enthusiasm.”, Lin pointed out in another interview with the same publication.

Mysterious international agent

Unlike popular manga such as “Dragon Ball”, “Naruto” and “One Piece” that appeared weekly on the pages of the weekly Shonen Jump magazine, “Spy x Family” was destined for its online edition known as Shonen Jump+, from where other popular manga such as “Chainsaw Man” and “Kaiju No.8″ have also come out. This helped increase its popularity internationally after Shūeisha reproduced it in English through its free international Manga Plus service.

“I started my career in print media, but in the end I think Jump+ was the best”, indicated Tatsuya Endo himself in an interview in 2021. “The number of pages and the intervals between the series are free, so it is easier to draw”.

“It’s also easy to see the number of views clearly, it’s great to know that people are reading the series. I’m looking at the comments all the time”, he added.

Such was the popularity that in November 2021, two and a half years after the premiere of the manga, its first anime adaptation was announced, for which no costs have been spared with animation by Wit Studio (“Attack on Titan”) and Clover Studio (“My Dress-Up Darling”). DKazuhiro Furuhashi directs, in charge of classics such as “Samurai X”, “Get Backers” and “Hunter x Hunter”.

Crunchyroll, which brings the anime to the region, also seems to want to give everything for the success of the show and in addition to its subtitled version on April 9 – almost on par with its Japanese version -, it is also providing dubbed versions in various languages ​​including English, German, French, Portuguese and Latin Spanish. The latter will be available on the streaming service from April 24 and will feature well-known talent within the medium with Miguel de León as the voice of Loid Forger, Romina Marroquin as Yor Forger, and Elizabeth Infante as Anya Forger.

Whether dubbed or subtitled, “Spy x Family” is an anime that deserves a look. Be it because of the action, the tension or this unusual mixture where lies gradually become a reality.