Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be stopping in with the Forger family, and seeing what fresh madness is brewing in the world of Spy x Family. Last episode saw the franchise at its most delightfully farcical, with Loid being forced to play damage control for the worst spy in Ostania. Dashing superspy Daybreak immediately proved himself one of Spy x Family’s most entertaining side characters, and I hope he’ll return to torment Loid again soon.

As far as actual character development goes, the threat of Anya’s midterms ended up facilitating both Anya and Loid’s personal growth. Inspired by Yuri’s pragmatic framing of education, Anya began to understand that school is not an obstacle to her advancement, but actually the vehicle through which she might grow into the secret agent she’s always dreamed of being. And though Loid took every measure possible to ensure Anya would pass, he was ultimately forced to concede that Anya worked hard and succeeded on her own, which will hopefully engender a little more faith in his daughter. The Forgers are growing both individually and as a unit, and I’m eager to see what lunacy awaits them next. Let’s get to it!

Episode 19

The show’s first OP attempted to evoke a spy drama tone with mixed results, but this Bump of Chicken song nails the warm family vibe effortlessly. The show might not intentionally be suggesting its audience hook up and have kids, but it’s making a deviously effective argument for it either way

We pan in on an ominous meeting “Sometime Last Month,” taking place on the top floor of GLOOMAN enterprises

Love the extremely angular heads of these businessmen. I occasionally feel melancholy about how anime character design sensibilities have largely shifted towards realism and homogeneity of form, as unique character shapes and silhouettes are powerful design tools. I appreciate how often Bocchi is allowed to be some kind of weird shape in Bocchi the Rock

Apparently the Desmond Group is making a hostile takeover. Thematically pointed final line here, as the boss wonders “what am I going to tell my son,” once again framing Desmond as the antithesis to all that is right and good about families

“Desmond-Style Rolling Sweep!” Nice seeing Damian get to be an actual kid for once, even if it’s still framed in terms of domination and mastery. There’s an odd sort of parallel between Damian and Loid – both of them are defined by their pursuit of a mission arbitrarily handed down from above, and both of them will have to eventually recognize their own agency in this situation, and begin to figure out what they want out of life

We meet George Glooman, the son of the ousted company head, who bears a very triangular resemblance to his father

Apparently George was the one who hired Daybreak, which explains a few things

This seems like an excellent development for Anya’s narrative, one that significantly complicates the field of play here at school, while also providing opportunities for Anya to support and get closer to Damian

Spy x Family’s complicated, evolving conceit means it has difficulty maintaining a sort of “narrative neutral” compared to your average situational comedy. Tatsuya Endo has to maintain a balance of fully exploiting each new narrative development (so as not to immediately burn through his own premise) without making it feel like the story is going in circles, and I think he’s done an excellent job of it so far. Crucially, the story still feels like it’s generally expanding, rather than losing track of its premise

Fantastic Anya faces as she stares down this teacher, terrifying him into leaving Damian alone. Anya developing a reputation as the class heavy is fantastic

Some consistently wild storyboarding here, with the camera frequently sweeping around the characters and perspective warping dramatically as characters push right up against the frame. It’s a dynamic approach to staging this conflict that emphasizes their relative physical presences quite well, making it easy to feel the threat of physical escalation that these characters must feel. Apparently this episode’s director and boarder is Hidekazu Hara, a fairly new director who also handled The Promised Neverland’s excellent premiere. I’ll have to keep an eye out for him!

“Your company was the one that crushed mine.” “Father ‘s company would never do something so evil!” Ooh, this is a delightfully messy direction to take Damian’s story. Damian’s stuck up, but he clearly lacks his father’s ruthlessness – will he still cling to his pride as a Desmond when he learns what being a Desmond really means?

“Don’t try to drag me into these adult matters!” “You’re right, it’s not fair. But as it stands, I’ll be forced to leave the school because of some dumb adults.” You can’t simultaneously take pride in your father’s power while disavowing the consequences of his actions, Damian. Damian has been able to live in a small, siloed world so far, but the real world is steadily creeping in

And then Damian’s lackeys immediately rail into this guy, giving Damian further reason to question his assumed righteousness

“I wanted to experience my youth to the fullest in this school, too!” This is sharper than I actually expected the show to get quite so early in. The kids acting as proxies for their parents was all fun and games up until now, but this kid’s life is being genuinely ruined by Desmond

George briefly overdoes it in asking for favors from his classmates, but a kind word from Anya actually brings him to tears, as he finds himself genuinely valued by his classmates for the first time

They’re obviously stringing us along for a punchline, but this moment is still genuinely charming. These kids embody a hope that the enmities defining their parents won’t be carried on into the new world – the same hope that inspires Loid to pursue his quest. Seeing them realize that hope through granting George’s earnest desire for a final song is delightful

And yep, as it turns out, the Desmond group actually folded GLOOMAN into its larger operation, and George’s father still has his job and everything. Well George, you’ve gone from being a pariah because nobody notices to a pariah because everyone hates you, but at least you got to enjoy that caviar

This backpedal makes me wonder how far Endo’s actually willing to go in portraying the alleged villainy of Damian’s father. He’s obviously a bad father at least, and I figured he’s also intended to embody the opposite of Loid’s quest for peace, but we don’t actually know much about him (aside from the fact that he’s apparently both a political leader and a business mogul)

I appreciate at least that George’s position was earnest – he genuinely believed this was the end for him. “Victims of economic churn are just lying to beg for treats” would have been an unfortunate thematic takeaway

Part two opens on Anya forgetting her gym clothes, prompting some panicked fantasies of disaster by Yor. Yor isn’t exactly convincing as an adult character, but her immaturity does facilitate plenty of fun melodrama

This is a classically Yor-sized conflict: “Yor must run to school super duper fast.” I’d welcome some more emotional development for her, but Endo’s still mining plenty of dramatic value out of her physical abilities

Hara’s dynamic boarding returns for these sequences of Yor’s athleticism, carrying us alongside her body’s graceful, lightning-fast movements. I’m sure it’s no surprise he’s also boarded recent Attack on Titan episodes

Goddamn are these some luscious cuts! Also a nice sense of depth in the composition, particularly for this cut of her bouncing off a series of objects to scale this back alley

This makes for a nice pairing with last episode’s academy invasion, contrasting the two elder Forgers’ skill sets when facing a common obstacle. It’s been a while since the bomb threat, so I’m eager to see their next group operation

And as expected, Anya doesn’t even have gym class today. Mission accomplished, Yor

And Done

Quite an interesting episode, that one! Visually, this was one of the more impressive episodes of the second half, with Hidekazu Hara’s uniquely energetic storyboards finding willing partners in this production’s remarkable animation team. Narratively, it seemed to stretch towards and in fact push against the dramatic limitations of Spy x Family’s conceit, raising some thorny questions regarding Damian’s relationship with his father, but seemingly retreating from their full consequences. As this story moves forward, it will undoubtedly continue to discover sources of friction between its weighty premise and carefree tone; personally, I’m eager to see how Endo navigates the unique dramatic challenges Spy x Family represents.

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