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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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d treat ourselves to a fresh episode of Spy x Family, and see what cozy shenanigans our diversely talented found family are getting up to. Spy x Family has proven itself a warm security blanket of a show on the whole, exploiting Tatsuya Endo’s keen talents for comedic timing and anticlimax in order to spice up a fundamentally heartwarming exploration of three strange outsiders discovering trust and community in each other.

It’s a show that never fails to buoy my spirits in difficult or anxious times, and that is an eminently honorable pursuit. I’m sure you all know I love the shows that break my heart, but equally precious to me are the shows that offer comfort in the storm, speaking to both our common humanity and the glory of talented artists celebrating all that is warm and beautiful in life. I’ve greatly enjoyed our time with the Forger family, and am thankful that our journey through Spy x Family’s first season has carried us all the way to these goofballs’ triumphant return. Let’s see what nonsense awaits at the end of Spy x Family’s first season!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’d say we’re about due to check back in on the Forger family, after a two episode arc that saw Loid and Frost competing in the most high-stakes and dangerous of semi-professional tennis tournaments. Their participation in the Campbellian offered an opportunity for both Wit and Cloverworks’ animators to really flex their muscles, while also reveling in the sincere spy drama trickery Tatsuya Endo clearly loves.

Of course, focusing so completely on a “Spy” escapade has left this production’s “x Family” element by the wayside, so I’m looking forward to a return to our heroes’ fraught domestic life. I am happy to admit I’m an easy mark when it comes to found family drama, and the gradual transformation of each of our leads as they come to trust and rely on each other never fails to warm my heart. Loid has come to care for and even take pride in his daughter’s accomplishments, Yor is gaining greater confidence in her worthiness as a partner and mother, and Anya is beginning to believe that her parents really are her stalwart protectors, spy mission or not. It’s always a pleasure seeing lonely people find their missing pieces in each other, and Spy x Family’s eminently likable crew are seeming more unified and whole by the episode. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to dive back into Spy x Family, and also supremely embarrassed to admit that I somehow skipped an episode the last time I checked in on the Forger family. What’s more, I managed to skip the first half of one the show’s rare two-parters, missing out on all the context that apparently existed for episode twenty-three’s high stakes tennis match. I have neither explanation nor excuse for how I managed this feat, and can only sincerely apologize for my dumbassery.

Fortunately, while the context is less than ideal, this does in fact mean we get to enjoy another episode dedicated to high-octane underground tennis matches, with presumably even more clandestine skullduggery than the last (next) episode. Tatsuya Endo always nails the full-on Twilight missions, so I’m expecting great things from this preposterous assignment. Let’s get to it!

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Editor’s Note: I initially skipped past episode 22 and right onward to 23, resulting in this writeup’s somewhat lopsided perception of events. My apologies!

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It’s been a rather chaotic week so far on my end, so I’ve decreed it’s time to chill out with another cozy episode of Spy x Family. Though I was initially nervous about last episode’s formal introduction of a rival for Loid’s affections, Frost’s visit to the Forger home actually ended up serving as an affirmation of how close our family have become. Frost’s condemnation of Loid’s softening instincts as a spy was simultaneously a validation of his growing bond with his new family; just like with Yor’s brother, every attempted division of this family has only proven how close they’ve grown.

Alongside the simple pleasure of seeing these characters come to care for each other, Loid’s transition is also facilitating new venues of comedy, as his panicked mediation of the Pengy-versus-Bond crisis illustrated. I’ve mentioned before how Spy x Family’s inherently propulsive conceit sets it apart from fully episodic sitcoms, and while that fact adds a certain tension to its long-term viability, it also means Tatsuya Endo is consistently able to exploit new comedic dynamics, like Loid using his now-exhaustive understanding of Bondman lore to comfort Anya. Endo’s clear confidence with this evolving platform makes me feel confident in it as well, and I’m eager to see what new calamities are approaching. Let’s get to it!

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Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today seems like the perfect chance to stop in with the Forger clan, and see what our favorite spy-slash-assassin-slash-telepath-slash-precog family has been getting up to lately. For the moment, the show appears to have settled into a comfortable rhythm of episodic Anya school challenges embellished with some spy action lunacy by either of her parents, but as I’ve said before, one of Spy x Family’s most interesting qualities as a sitcom is the inherent momentum implied by its premise. The show rarely sits still for long, and so I imagine we’ll soon be either introducing a new variable (perhaps through elaborating on that spy associate of Loid’s from the opening), or drawing closer to the Desmond clan.

As for me, I’d be happy with either that sort of narrative push or simply an affirmation of how much closer the family has grown. Since their last meaningful group outing, we’ve received a steady breadcrumb trail of tender moments: Yor sharing her region’s cuisine with the others, Anya proving she can fend for herself academically, Loid consoling Yor regarding her overeager parenting. The steady friction of these accumulated moments has been eroding Loid’s professionalism inch by inch, and I’d quite enjoy some sort of narrative reflection on how far they’ve come. But regardless, I’m sure we’re in for a cozy and gag-rich adventure. Let’s get to it!

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