Highlights

  • Spy X Family's success lies in its relatable themes of balancing personal and professional lives in a daring spy family dynamic.
  • The Forgers' dual lives demand a grand charade of being the perfect family, concealing their true selves for the sake of their dangerous missions.
  • The emotional depth of relationships between Loid, Yor, and Anya showcases a desire for genuine bonds despite blurred lines of deception.

For many reasons, Spy X Family has garnered so much success following its release in the Spring 2022 season. Tatsuya Endo’s slice-of-life spy masterpiece features many relatable elements, like separating one’s personal and professional lives, except these characters actually live two lives. The story follows the adventures of the best spy in the world called Starlight, who takes up the identity of one Loid Forger and assembles a family to get close to a high-profile target.

Starlight adopts a young girl named Anya, who, unknown to everyone, is an esper who can read minds as a result of covert scientific experiments performed by an unknown organization. He also hastily marries Yor Briar, an office worker desperately searching for a husband to prevent dangerous rumors from flying. She is also called the Thorn Princess, the codename for the deadly assassin persona she puts on at night.

Featured Spy x Family Best Characters Loid Yor Anya
Related
Spy x Family: The 7 Best Characters In The Series

Every character in Spy x Family is unique, but there is a disparity as certain characters are better than others.​​​​

The Open & The Hidden

Two worlds Collide

Spy x Family Forgers

All humans have sides they keep to themselves due to a societal standard or circumstance of some sort. However, with the Forgers, it is a necessity for their missions and lives to carry on with no hindrances. They also have to put on a grand charade of being a perfect family to appeal to the community to prevent any anonymous tips from blowing up their operation and putting them at risk of arrest or death. They all have a different side, which no one else knows about except their daughter, Anya, who can read their minds and knows their true nature. They all try to go about their daily lives without revealing their true selves to each other and the world at large while playing their parts to appear as a perfect and lovely family.

Sometimes, while doing this, they abandon who they are and their reason for being there to play their roles in the make-believe family. Anya finds entertainment in watching Loid and Yor resist their inner voices and pretend not to notice anything. Anya is also not without her struggles, trying hard at school to make friends and good performances at school to further Operation Strix and help Loid out however she can.

No Man Is An Island

The Emotional Safety Family Brings

Loid Forger carrying Anya

Seeing the evolution and growth of Loid Forger just further emphasizes the fact that no man is an island. Even the great Twilight, who has taken on many names and identities and constantly made and broken bonds throughout the course of his career, is not immune to the emotional trap that is Anya’s innocence. He continually finds himself going the extra mile for her and cares for her as his own. One might say he is just carrying out his mission with the same perfection he applies to everything. Still, it is pretty evident that he cares for her outside of work, evidenced by how he subconsciously relaxes when she is around him. He also stated that he does not remember the last time he had actually slept before meeting Anya, as he is used to always leaving one eye open due to the nature of his job.

Spy x Family Manga Facts
Related
Spy X Family: 14 Things Only Manga Readers Know About Loid Forger

Spy x Family is an intriguing anime, due in no small part to the character of Loid Forger. Only manga readers are likely to know these facts.

On the other hand, Yor has no real friends and lived a painfully lonely life before her “wedding” to Loid Forger, spending all day at her job and all night hunting down targets. Her only family member, Yuri, spends all his time at his secret job with the State Security Service, so one could say she needed at least some sort of human connection, and she hopped at the first chance she got with the Forger family. Anya, formerly known as Test Subject 007, also suffered loneliness prior to her adoption by Loid, initially being raised as a lab rat for experiments. Even after moving to orphanages and subsequent foster homes, she was ostracized because of her abilities and the weird situations it caused, leading her to believe concealing her power is the only way she can be with a loving family.

The Complexity of Relationships And Desire For Bonds

The Blurred Lines Between Genuiness & Deception

spy x family anya family
(l-r) Yor, Anya, and Loid
Anya, Bond and Yor
Spy x Family S2 E7 Frustrated Anya
Spy x Family Yuri and Anya
Spy X Family Yor and Loid Forger

The incredible story of Spy x Family features not only Twilight’s journey as a spy but also the emotional and interpersonal dynamics that develop between the three “family” members. Despite all the comedy and action, it is quite clear that the show greatly highlights these three unique protagonists with varying backgrounds and their innate desire to develop meaningful bonds with themselves and other people.

Loid subconsciously enjoys having a family, mainly due to the lack of familial love from his childhood, and he tries his best to make sure Anya enjoys all the privileges, love, and support every child should have. Yor also lost her parents as a kid and had to fend for her younger brother all by herself, which is the main reason she became an assassin in the first place. She is no stranger to maternal instincts and a sense of responsibility over a human, so her displays of love and protection of Anya come from a genuine place.

Anime Like Spy x Family Feature
More
Best Anime To Watch If You Love Spy X Family

Spy x Family is heartwarming, hilarious, and just plain old fun. Here are some anime similar to the Spring 2022 show.