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!
Tag Archives: Spy x Family
Spy x Family – Episode 25
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!
Spy x Family – Episode 24
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!
Spy x Family – Episode 22
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!
Spy x Family – Episode 23
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!
Spy x Family – Episode 21
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!
Spy x Family – Episode 20
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to get back into Spy x Family, and see what ridiculous nonsense the Forgers have been up to in our absence. Our last episode proved an intriguingly frictious experience, pushing against the presumed boundaries of Tatsuya Endo’s spy drama sandbox. Spy x Family is a situational comedy first, a found family drama second, and a war drama a distant third, and though it can usually juggle those aspects with relative grace, there are inherent tensions in its premise that will undoubtedly surface again. I’m particularly intrigued to see how Endo handles the characterization of Desmond’s father, whose narrative position naturally draws together all of Spy x Family’s contradictory instincts.
But for now, I assume we’re in for some more immediately gratifying shenanigans, and I’m absolutely ready for them. Genre tensions aside, Spy x Family remains immensely entertaining, Endo having proven himself a master of slapstick, deadpan, and anticlimax. Let’s see what lunacy awaits as we return to Spy x Family!
Spy x Family – Episode 19
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!
Spy x Family – Episode 18
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Spy x Family, and see if Anya’s skillfully executed Griffin Plan has earned her any points with the dreaded Damian. The end result of their collaboration threaded the narrow needle of impressing school officials while being useless as an offering to Damian’s father, so I imagine Damian’s own feelings are as jumbled as Anya’s collaborative blessing. Regardless, the episode offered us significant insight into Damian’s motivation, with Anya’s powers offering us a window into his sense of alienation and inferiority relative to his brother.
Damian and his family are clearly being set up as a thematic inverse of the Forgers: while the Forgers are a technically fake family that genuinely love each other, the Desmonds are a technically real family that share no personal affection. In fact, it seems like Damian’s closest confidant is the one member of his family who isn’t related by blood, his butler Jeeves. I’m always a sucker for these “families are the people you choose” sorts of narratives, and love the particular disconnect represented by Anya and Damian’s relationship. What Damian truly needs is someone who cares about him for reasons other than his status, and thus teaches him to avoid reproducing his family dynamic in his school life (as he has with his current toadies). Anya isn’t mature enough to realize this, but in her flailing attempts to impress him through stuff like showing off her cool dog, she’s nonetheless offering friendship without strings, and showing him that not all relationships need to be about structures of power. Let’s see how these kids are doing as we return to Spy x Family!
Spy x Family – Episode 17
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager as heck to get back to the adventures of the Forger family, having finally posted enough of my existing writeups to feel justified in jumping back to the series. Spy x Family has indeed become one of those shows that I can’t help but gorge myself on given the opportunity, and thus I’ve had to ration my viewing as judiciously as possible. Well, the rationing has transpired, and at last we’re here!
Our last excursion with the Forgers proved to be Yor’s finest hour, wherein the basic gag of “Yor can’t cook” was somehow expanded into an exploration of how food, family, and memory are naturally entwined, concluding with Yor finding a crucial link between her time with Yuri and her days with the Forgers. Touching on her core anxieties, her feelings about the past, and her dreams for the future, episode sixteen offered some vital texture to Yor’s personality, while further emphasizing her thematic alignment with the rest of the Forgers.
With Yor’s anxieties assuaged and Bond settling into the family home, I imagine we’re in for some Anya adventures over at the academy. But Spy x Family is full of delightful surprises, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy whatever madness awaits. Let’s get back to the Forgers!