Spy x Family (2022)★ 8.0/10

Is this really a spy story? It had a lot of potential, but it ended up being all about family drama. At first, I thought the little girl was really cute, but then it just got so boring.

It's a cute and heart-warming story for the whole family, and perfect for people who just want some simple, straightforward fun.

Spy x Family portrays a delightful and heartwarming story of strangers becoming family.

It's a light-hearted family comedy disguised as a spy thriller. Its popularity, similar to Demon Slayer, can be attributed to high-quality animation, likable characters, and universally positive values.

Spy x Family is both hilarious and profound. The theme that peace is hard-earned and worth cherishing comes through strongly.

Anya's mind-reading ability offers insightful perspectives on opposing strategies, highlighting that the seemingly happy family exists only within their role-playing. The stark contrasts between the mother's façade as a public servant and the father's life as a spy reflect the surface-level peace of the country and the underlying brutality of adult life, presenting a complex duality.

Each installment of Spy x Family seems to suffer a decrease in quality. The plot feels unnatural, like it's just filling in a preset outline, and the characters come across as stiff like they're mere plot tools, despite being drawn adorably and assigned distinctive traits. Overall, the narrative feels quite contrived, akin to playing house.

This anime has it all - action, adventure, everyday life stuff, romance, suspense, and comedy. It can get a bit intense with the violence, so I'm not sure it's kid-friendly, but it's definitely entertaining for adults with its light and appealing vibe.

The second season is a lot more lively than the first. It's nowhere as impactful as the manga, but it's still an improvement over the flat, emotionless characters from Season 1. The opening song gets wild and the characters are much more adorable than in the first season. All these have made it a more convincing and immersive season. Watching SPYxFAMILY is like Anya watching her favorite anime, onto which I could project some of my own fantasies and expectations of a fairytale world. It's almost like a virtual theme park where I could lose myself in for 20 minutes every week.

They obviously wanted to make sure that everyone who watches this film understands it. Anya is cute though. The original novel itself screams conservatism all over, so perhaps the film tried to stay true in that regard. But Anya is cute. Maybe I should put it this way - the reason anime adaptations of shonen manga are done in a such a conservative manner is so that it can be easily replicated. Again, Anya is cute and that is enough to make this film a success. It shows that creating a lovable 'mascot' is more crucial than actually creating good characters in a film like this. And did I mention that Anya is cute?

The plot lacks maturity and it doesn't fit in the settings at all. The fact that everyone claims to be righteous while having no issues in committing mass murders makes me feel like I'm watching a film set in the last century. It's no surprise that the Japanese anime industry is declining when what would be rated as merely 'second tier' is considered top notch by today's standard.

Aside from the confidence in pacing and the obvious restrictions by the source material, the fact that the original novel had neither a prominent plot nor the need to deal with complicated relationships or the topic of death makes it an excellent candidate for a comic book adaptation; the type that would grow to feel like a part of our lives. And for this reason this anime film will never leave you feel empty and isolated when you go back to reality. Instead, it will probably teach you to cherish everything in real life even more. In that regard, it's a masterpiece that celebrates simplicity and authenticity, and that's why it gets my unwavering support. The significance of a work like this lies in its very existence.