Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m happy to announce that we’re checking back in on the Forger family, as we explore their first full-length cinematic adventure. Spy x Family is pretty ideally positioned for these sorts of original tie-in films; the manga itself is mostly episodic and gag-based, balancing comic spy shenanigans, warm slice of life vignettes, and the occasional longer excursion into a major mission by Loid or Yor. Aside from the steady deepening of the family’s bonds, there’s no real continuity for such a film to exist outside of, and every reason to expect a focused, independent tale might capture the franchise at its peaks.

Outside of the immediate, obvious pleasures of seeing this family be their ridiculous selves, Spy x Family is lent further allure through that consistent lurking pitch of the Forgers working in concert, their diverse talents aligning to take down some grand, implacable obstacle. Tatsuya Endo wields this hook judiciously, maintaining its status as lure by ensuring we never take it for granted – in fact, so far we’ve only seen it realized twice, during the bomb scare and then again during the cruise. I’m guessing we’re about to witness our third pan-Forger venture, and with Code Geass scribe Ichiro Okouchi handling the script, I have every confidence it will be an energetic and charmingly stupid venture. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive right into the presumed conclusion of Spy x Family’s action-packed cruise arc, wherein Yor has fended off countless would-be assassins while Loid does his best to be a Perfectly Normal Man. I am proud to say that both have conducted themselves admirably; Yor’s efforts have prevented any harm from coming to her charge, and Loid has (with a little help from Anya) engaged in such profoundly normal activities as miniature golf and wearing everything in the gift shop.

Along the way, Yor has been challenged to find the answer to a fundamental question: why exactly does she fight? Yuri no longer needs her protection, and while she once saw the Forgers as a cover for her actual work, she’s now more committed to their collective life than her original purpose. What she has decided serves as a tidy echo of Loid’s convictions: she must fight to ensure other families enjoy such happiness, using her skills to preserve peace just as Loid fights for all the lonely orphans of war. I’m sure the two would be quite proud of each other, if revealing their secrets wouldn’t immediately put them in mortal opposition – but for now, I’m just happy Yor’s found a meaningful reason to fight, a drive that will hopefully prompt future growth. Let’s see if we can catch the last of the fireworks!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to Spy x Family, wherein it seems we’re galloping towards the conclusion of its cruise liner arc. While Anya provides cover and Loid works on his Normal Man impression, Yor has been fending off a procession of devious assassins, each more cunning and lethal than the last. At the same time, her growing bond with her targets has led her to question the meaning of these missions, and whether she still needs this Thorn Princess persona at all.

Granted, I don’t expect her to actually abandon her duties as a result of these questions. Spy x Family’s conceit relies on a delicate balance of comically contradictory circumstances that doesn’t really allow for that much personal reinvention (even the very title is a riff on “spy vs spy”), at least until Tatsuya Endo decides to aim for the endgame. At the same time, its best personal drama tends to involve chafing at the edges of this paradigm – Loid favoring Anya over the “greater good” of his professional duties, Anya risking exposure by flagrantly using her powers, and now Yor questioning whether she has outgrown her Thorn Princess role, as she has found in the Forgers the stable family life she once saw her secret identity as protecting. Regardless of her conclusion, Yor challenging her own unconsidered beliefs has made her feel significantly more substantive as a character, and I’m eager to see how this story ends. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am beyond eager to charge back into Spy x Family, wherein the Forger’s Family Cruise is ratcheting up its tension and violent provocations by the second. When last we left off, Yor was on the verge of fighting the appropriately titled Sickle-and-Chain Barnaby, an assassin who apparently cares a great deal about appearances and very little about disguises. With this ostentatiously murderous assailant stalking the halls, how will Yor hide her assignment from her husband in the next room!?

I have no idea, but I’m quite certain the solution will be marvelous in its ingenious stupidity. That’s most of what I’m looking for here: ideas so stupid they loop back around to brilliant, something this cruise ship arc has so far offered in abundance. Drawing the family together for a group adventure always adds a welcome dash of spice to Spy x Family’s theatrics, and if protecting these informants prompts Yor to reflect on her relationship with her own alleged family, so much the better. Let’s see what madness awaits in a fresh Spy x Family!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Spy x Family, wherein we’ve most recently commenced the Grand Forger Cruise Ship Operation, involving Yor protecting the wife and child of a recently deceased crime lord while Loid learns to relax for once in his fuckin’ life. And so far, it unfortunately seems like neither of their missions are proceeding smoothly; Yor has just accidentally clued the entire ship’s worth of assassins into the assumed identity of their target, while Loid is, well, still Loiding it up in his usual, painfully self-reflective fashion.

Personally, I’m just delighted to see a specifically Yor-focused extended arc, particularly since this mission is clearly prompting her to reflect on the motivation and continued relevance of her Thorn Princess persona. Having taken on this role in order to provide for her brother, she is now beginning to question whether it’s still a necessary part of her life, or if it’s simply a crutch preventing her from discovering her own purpose. That’s some satisfyingly weighty personal drama, and though I very much doubt her ultimate conclusions will shift the show’s status quo, I’m happy to see Yor at last getting the sort of layered, conflicting interiority that lends some dramatic heft to Loid, Anya, and even Damien’s stories. Our choices are only meaningful if we’re the ones making them; by shifting Yor from a passive to an active actor, Spy x Family will ultimately make her bond with Loid and Anya that much more impactful, a reflection of the priorities she herself has chosen. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re gonna be hopping back over to Spy x Family and checking in on those wacky Forgers, because goddamnit, I’m in the mood for a cheerful and very silly time. Our last sojourn was classic Spy x Family all over, as Anya waged war for The Cookies That Make You Smarter while Yor assisted in a preposterous cat-hunting expedition. Not exactly the most revelatory adventures, but nonetheless vintage Spy x Family, making innovative use of Anya’s telepathy and Yor’s agility to add a flourish of insanity to their everyday lives.

As for what’s to come, it appears we’re now in for a Yor-focused multi-episode arc of some kind, which sounds perfect to me. Yor has always been the weakest link in Spy x Family’s main cast, due primarily to two main factors. First, she lacks the multifaceted motivation of someone like Loid; his internal battle between pragmatic, “greater good”-focused spy training and increasing prioritization of individual children gives him both a compelling origin story and a clear evolutionary path, and Yor learning to forgive herself for her “failings” as a mother can’t really compete with that. Secondly, her active characterization tends to frame her as a total ditz, making it difficult for her to learn, grow, or express complex feelings about her various escapades. These might seem like serious detriments, but in truth, the line between insufficient and satisfying characterization in a dedicated comedy like Spy x Family is pretty thin, and one good arc with her would go a long way towards resolving her scripting issues. Let’s see if this new arc can manage it as we return to Spy x Family!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am suffering in the grip of my first winter cold, with snuffles, a sore throat, and a persistent headache all collaborating to bring me down. I’d say I’m “under the weather,” but frankly the weather today is also pretty miserable – as such, I have decided there is no recourse to lighten the mood but to indulge in a fresh episode of Spy x Family, and see what those wacky Forgers are up to.

Our last episode was actually quite light on Forgery, concerning itself primarily with Yuri’s investigations of a potential political dissident. Forgunately (okay, I’ll stop), with Yor out of the picture, we were able to see a somewhat less one-note portrait of Yuri as well. Like his sister, his dedication to his mission stems from a fundamental conflation of family and country, and when he’s forced to reckon with how his “enemies” are just as dedicated to their own families, his resolve immediately wavers. The siblings are essentially both child soldiers who’ve grown into adulthood without abandoning their naive ideals of binary justice, making them perfect tools of political suppression. That certainly makes them unusual stars of a wacky romantic comedy, but that’s really Spy x Family all over, isn’t it? Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today seems like a perfect day to treat ourselves to some cozy Spy x Family, so that’s precisely what we’re going to do. Our last episode provided an equal portioning of Spy x Family’s two principle offerings: ludicrous spy drama shenanigans and heartfelt family drama. Of course, Endo’s always gotta be mixing it up, so each of those courses were provided by an unexpected server, with Bond headlining the spy mission while the unfortunate Damien learned a thing or two about community and friendship.

Damien’s unhappy family situation, and the way the lessons of his father have filtered down into his classroom social dynamics, have unsurprisingly made him one of my favorite characters in Spy x Family. While the Forger house is pretty close to idyllic, Damien embodies the consequences of family constructed as a strict hierarchy, where only deference and scholastic accomplishments might earn you the favor of your allegedly loving parents. Seeing both his peers and caretakers push him towards embracing ordinary, unconditional happiness has been one of the most satisfying arcs within Spy x Family, and I’m anxious to see where his journey leads next. But whatever’s coming, I’m sure we’re in for an altogether lovely time with this eminently likable production. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured I’d treat myself to a fresh episode of Spy x Family, and see how the Forger family are holding up these days. It certainly hasn’t been easy juggling family life, professional cover stories, and clandestine operations, as last episode’s “Yor got shot in the butt” saga clearly demonstrated. As goofy a concept as that was, I appreciated how her troubles pushed her out of her physical and emotional comfort zone, prompting the sort of friction that might actually help Loid and Yor come to better know and ultimately trust each other.

There’s an obvious tension at the core of Spy x Family, in that its protagonists’ need to keep their secrets pushes against their efforts to become a truly unified family. Whereas most found family dramas consistently trend towards greater mutual understanding across their principle characters, Spy x Family’s alternating spy and family drama modes each resist subordination to the other, making it that much harder for the Forgers to truly connect. It is both the story’s core hook and also perhaps its limiting factor, and either way, I find the story’s efforts to juggle these contradictory instincts fascinating in action. Let’s see what our crew gets up to next!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am tossing and turning in the maelstrom winds of the apartment hunt process, which has understandably got my nerves a-frazzling. As such, I’m feeling hungry for some animated comfort food, and fortunately the second season of Spy x Family has arrived just in time to wrap us all in a collective blanket of familial cheer. Spy x Family’s first season was consistently funny, often surprisingly thrilling, and perpetually brimming with love for its awkward protagonists. Tatsuya Endo has proven to be an inventive sculptor of both spy and family drama, and the combined talents of Cloverworks and Wit Studio have made for a persistently generous animated adaptation. With last season having concluded on the fateful first encounter between Loid and his target Donovan Desmond, I’m eager to see both the continuation of Operation Strix and the Forgers’ further cohesion into something resembling a functional family. Let’s get to it!

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