History Manga / SpyXFamily

** Interestingly, despite the setting being inspired by the Cold War above any other historical period, Ostania does not appear to have any state socialist elements in its economy: there's no mention of the rationing of consumer goods or people being assigned their jobs by the state, and industry seems to be in the hands of wealthy families like the Blackbells. Culturally, Eden College's traditionalism also seems to be odds with any kind socialist ideology and closer to a contemporary Japanese or Western European institution.

** The Ostania government as a whole. Ostania's National Unity party take direct inspiration from Nazi and Fascist parties with a name inspired by East Germany's ruling party, Socialist Unity Party, whilst the country's [[PropagandaMachine propaganda about how awful Westalis]] is resembles Communist propaganda about how awful the capitalist West was. This is shown best when a kid who thought he was going to move to Westalis believed he was going to be sold into slavery. In addition, the SSS borrows elements from Nazi Germany's SS (with the most obvious example being the name), but mostly Soviet Russia's KGB and the Stasi (whose full English name was the Ministry for State Security, in contrast with the SSS's full name, the State Security Service). Considering that the National Unity party isn't even in power and yet the country's citizens already has the SSS observing their every move, the Ostanian people have [[MortonsFork no good choices for leaders.]]

* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Prevalant when two of the main leads are a master spy and a deadly assassin.

* HeelFaceTurn: In Mission 17.5, Yor, as the Thorn Princess, takes out the Red Circus terrorists, however one gunman woke up after passing out from massive blood loss and managed to shoot her in the butt when she was cleaning herself up, though she killed him right after. When Yor gets home, Loid confuses her pained expression with her being upset and takes her out on a date to a restaurant the following night, and has Franky babysit Anya again. When Anya convinces Franky to tail them, Anya reads the mind of the waiter serving them, who was the lone member of the Red Circus to escape the slaughter, and he makes it a point to avenge the mebers of the cell. He tries killing her with blowfish poison, but being a trained assassin, Yor has a high tolerance for poisons, and it acts as a pain killer instead (the narration says that although the difference between poison and medicine is sometimes thin, [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing it's best to consult an expert on the subject]]). When he decides to make a bomb with readily available products in the restaurant kitchen, his mission is sabotaged by Anya who spilled olive oil on the floor causing him to slip. Reading his mind, she made her own peanut bomb and when it went off on his face Anya warns him not to bother Thorn Princess again, and to go back to his girlfriend. The waiter takes this as a sign that he's not cut out to be a militant-insurectionist and decides to live a normal life instead.

Also has a split two-[[{{Seasons}} cour]] AnimatedAdaptation by [[Creator/ProductionIG WIT Studio]] and [[Creator/A1Pictures CloverWorks]]. The show began airing on TV Tokyo in Japan, as well as streaming on Website/{{Crunchyroll}} in most regions, on April 9th, 2022. An English dub of the anime began streaming on Crunchyroll one week later, on April 16th, 2022. A second single-cour season began airing on October 7th, 2023, and an original film titled ''[[Anime/SpyXFamilyCodeWhite SPY×FAMILY CODE: White]]'' released on December 22nd, 2023.

* AdaptationExpansion: Every so often, instead of adapting multiple chapters per episode, or a single extra-length chapter, the anime adapts a single normal-length chapter while filling in the run time - sometimes with stuff that was inferred and/or offscreen, and other times with anime exclusive elements that fits in with the original content.

*** Episode 19's first half adapts Mission 28, but the second half is an original addition where Yor realizes Anya left her gym clothes behind, and freaks out about this potentially being bad. As such, she gets to Eden College as quickly as she can - with numerous hijinks along the way, including seeing the farm animals from Mission 4 again plus inadvertently freaking out an Eden student (thinking she's a ghost) - and meets Anya in secret, only to find out that [[ShaggyDogStory Anya doesn't have gym class that day]]. When Loid catches up to Yor afterward (having seen her sneak into Eden), he cheers her up by offering to go on a lunch date.
*** Episode 20's first segment adapts Mission 29, with the second segment being an original addition where Anya, playing at being a spy, comes up with a secret code she gives to people she knows, expecting them to figure it out and meet her at the appointed time and place. However, because she doesn't explain what she's doing, they take different implications from it than she intended, particularly Franky - due to Anya getting Yor to write the code for her, and Franky recognizing it as a woman's handwriting, he assumes it's meant as a romantic message and turns up for the meeting in a suit with a bouquet of roses. Unfortunately(?), Anya sleeps in that day and misses the meeting.

** The Forgers' video recorder is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. While Video ''Cassette'' Recorders ([=VCRs=]) came to us in the 1970s, by the 1960s there were Video ''Tape'' Recorders ([=VTRs=]) and the one in the Forger household seems to be based on the MVR-65 - an $11,000 piece of kit in those days. They also were indeed open-reel. The aforementioned price tag of course would mean that one would not expect to find it in a middle class home being treated as something mundane for recording children's cartoons, implying this world's version is substantially cheaper.

** Since it wouldn't look very good to introduce our protagonist as shamelessly dumping a woman, reasons be damned, said woman is deliberately portrayed as the kind of person Twilight would never really care about- vain, shallow and the daughter of a criminal. For (probably unintentional) bonus points, her name is [[MeaningfulName Karen]].

* BecomingTheMask: The series ''runs'' on this trope. While one can make a case the three Forgers developed an attachment very early on - in the first three chapters - this trope ultimately powers the Forgers' interactions. As of the end of the cruise arc, Yor already considers Loid and Anya as ''family'' (on par if not above Yuri) and Loid has a FreudianSlip about how he "abandoned his family" before catching what he just said.

** In Mission-2, when Twilight is looking for a wife for Loid Forger, Franky [[StatingTheSimpleSolution asks why they don't just ask a female agent to step in for the role]], and Twilight answers [[SimpleSolutionWontWork that recent spy hunts have depleted the number of WISE operatives in Ostania]], and what remains are off performing their own missions. In Mission-29, Nightfall, aka. Fiona Frost, goes to the Forgers' home with the intent of making Loid get a divorce from Yor so that she can become Mrs. Fiona Forger, and eventually marry Twilight for real. In Mission-81, the reason for the decimation of [=WISE=]'s manpower in Ostania is revealed to be the work of [[TheMole Winston Wheeler, an Ostanian mole]] who, after being discovered, got away with a load of stolen top secret information, which includes the names and locations of the remaining [=WISE=] agents in Ostania, as well as [[spoiler: the plans for Operation Strix]].
** In Mission-24, when Anya learns that Yuri is coming over, she's excited to meet him, since she'll get to see the epic confrontation between her [[DeepCoverAgent spy]] father and SecretPolice uncle, but is left disappointed when the meeting is [[AntiClimax anti-climactic]], as once they share a brief, yet tense, greeting and goodbye, Loid leaves the apartment so that Yuri can tutor Anya for the upcoming exams. In Mission-82, after [[spoiler: the mission to capture Wheeler and the stolen intelligence goes wrong, due to their cover being blown after [[TheMole the WISE mole]] fed Twilight, Nightfall, and the Chief the wrong intelligence]], Twilight makes a break for it, and Yuri [[spoiler: chases him down to the sewers where they point guns at each other]]. In Mission-83, as Twilight and Yuri [[spoiler: fight in the sewers, Twilight manages to knock down Yuri [[GoodOldFisticuffs with several well placed blows]], only for Yuri to keep getting back up and repeatedly attacking Twilight]]. Yuri's dedication to keep going makes Twilight [[spoiler: wonder [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood if being raised by Yor]] is [[MadeOfIron what made him so tough]]]], and in the end, Twilight [[spoiler: has to resort to bashing Yuri's head with a metal pipe he snatched from him to finally knock him unconscious long enough to get away]].

** At the begining of the tennis tournament, Nightfall says that they have to retrieve a painting, lest the secret information it is rumored to contain within leaks out, which includes the names of Westalis intelligence operatives and secret government programs, as well as evidence of war crimes perpetrated by Westalis soldiers during the war, including the summary execution of surrendered Ostanian prisoners (though it is also rumored to have similarly damning information on Ostanian human experiments). At the end of the tournament, they acquire the painting and discover that the secrets contained within it are [[spoiler: the stash of valuable starlet photos collected by a high ranking Ostanian military officer, not government secrets]]. In Mission 62, it's revealed that Twilight, [[spoiler: years after he was orphaned during the opening stages of the war, joined the Westalis Army when he looked old enough to pass for eighteen, and by his account he wanted to achive closure for the death of his parents and friends [[SociopathicSoldier by killing as many Ostanian soldiers as possible]]. By his own account, Twilight racked up a sizable kill count, which, if his interaction with Franky who had just deserted from the Ostanian army is anything to go by, may have included [=POW=]s]].

*** The above is parodied further with said terrorist's "Plan B" of making a jerry-rigged suicide bomb, his thoughts racing through the ingredients necessary while he ran to the janitor's closet, with the actual contents [[AndSomeOtherStuff redacted and censored]] by black bars/bleep noises and only the colors of the chemicals kept, in a [[PlayedForLaughs tongue in cheek gesture]] to stop impressionable kids from making similar devices. In fact, Anya - though granted, already smarter than most kids her age - was able to immediately improvise a ''non-lethal variant'' of said explosive within ''moments'' of reading the ingredients from the terrorist's mind, and ''successfully'' incapacitated him with said non-lethal bomb no less.

** Franky points out the sheer improbability of Twilight finding a woman who fits his criteria for a wife - okay with a single father who's raising a child, elegant enough to seem upper-class, and willing to legally marry him in the next 48 hours. The audience knows, however, he's somehow going to manage just that with Yor, from either the opening pages of Mission 1 (manga) or the OP (anime).

** Yor's EpiphanyComeback in Mission 53 is a powerful moment in itself, as she figures out the true reason she became, and remains, an assassin - [[spoiler:to protect her family from needless tragedies - but it takes on further layers for readers when considering her family's secret lives and the motives behind them]].
* DystopiaIsHard: Ostania's society is falling apart at the seams. BigBrotherIsWatching, citizens regularly inform on each other (with all the distrust and witch-hunting that implies), bloodshed on the streets is not uncommon, and practically ''[[FlockOfWolves everybody]]'' is a spy or criminal or state enforcer, or has been victimized by someone who is. The only reason Operation Strix succeeds is because all Ostanians need a cover story - whether they're innocent or not.

** Loid is a handsome hard-working man who loves his family, and tries to be amiable with everyone he meets, but in reality he's [[DeepCoverAgent Twilight, a deep cover spy]] who uses backhanded tactics to accomplish his missions, such as [[BlatantLies brazen deceit]], and [[HoneyTrap using his good looks and charm to seduce, bed, and unceremoniously dump any woman who may prove useful]]. He's also not afraid to take a life if the situation calls for it, and Chapter 62 shows that in his youth [[spoiler: he sought to avenge the destruction of his hometown and the deaths of his parents and friends by killing as many Ostanian soldiers as possible, [[SociopathicSoldier including, if his first interaction with Franky is anything to go by, unarmed]] [=PoW=]s]].

* GoneHorriblyRight: Loid entered Anya into Eden Academy in the hopes that she'd befriend Damian Desmond, so Loid in turn could get close to the boy's father. Fortunately for Loid, Damian didn't befriend Anya -- he developed a crush on her. Unfortunately, Damian acts like any six year old boy would around a girl he likes: Immediately denies his feelings and insists he would never like her.

** In Episode 18, when Daybreak enters an incorrect code to unlock the school vaults, the display says "CHIGAU" - Japanese for "WRONG" - in English letters.

* MiniatureSeniorCitizens: At the end of Mission 90, Yor and Anya find out that they have new neighbors that moved into the apartment next to theirs, Sigmund and Barbara Authen, the former whom Anya and Yor spent most the chapter helping him find his way home, and the latter whom was being helped by Loid move their stuff into their new place, and both who are just a little taller than six-year-old, one-metre-tall Anya.

* TheMole: At the end of Mission-80, Nightfall informs Twilight that an Ostanian double agent was discovered working in within the Westalis government, but the mole escaped with a treasure trove of sensitive information, including [[spoiler: the blueprints for Operation Strix]], so Twilight is instructed to get ahold of the mole, and more importantly the intelligence, anyway he can. Meanwhile, in [[SecretPolice SSS-HQ]], Yuri and his unit are being briefed by their commanding officer on their new mission: ensure that their agent doesn't get captured by WISE, and secure the intelligence he's carrying by any means necessary.

** Mission 80 starts humorously enough with Yor trying to pick a fight with Loid because she's still a little drunk from the previous night and because her friends from the office told her it was normal for couples to fight. When Yuri bagrges into the Forgers' home he tries, in vain, to convince Yor to divorce Loid. After Loid gets a call from the hospital for an emergency, Yuri convinces Yor that Loid is having an affair and they tail him, but Yuri then gets called off to work, and Yor goes home when she sobers up and realizes the whole thing is dumb. The chapter ends with Nightfall briefing Twilight that [[TheMole an Ostanian mole]] was discovered in the higher levels of the Westalis government, but escaped with a load of sensitive information, from the names and locations of [=WISE=] agents as well as [[spoiler: the plans for Operations Strix]], and Twilight is assigned to capture the mole and, more importantly, recover the stolen intelligence. Meanwhile, at [[SecretPolice S.S.S. H.Q.]], Yuri and his unit are being briefed on their new mission: keep their agent from being captured by [=WISE=] and secure the stolen intelligence by any means necessary.

** Mission 15[=/=]Episode 10 features a dodgeball game between six-year-olds that's treated like a fight from Dragon Ball Z. One kid even reveals he used computers to run calculations while he was training so he could figure out how best to throw the ball.

** At the 1:07 mark in the first anime opening sequence, there is a very brief and colorful sequence of Yor in many outfits. Three of those outfits (the ones in pink, green and orange) come directly from the "Yor's 1 Week Coordinate" bonus page from Volume 3 - Days 2, 3 and 4 specifically.

* NeverMessWithGranny: In Chapter 74, Billy Squire, leader of the Red Circus, [[spoiler: and the other members of [[KnowWhenToFoldEm his gang turn themselves in to the authorities on his orders]], and [[TakingTheHeat he takes full responsibility for the schoolbus highjackings]]]]. However, [[spoiler: [[DragonWithAnAgenda Vadim]] decides to drive away in the school bus but is stopped when two armored police vehicles crash onto the bus, and when he staggers out in a daze]] Martha, Becky's butler/nanny and a woman who at the youngest must be her early sixties, jumps over the police barricade [[spoiler: and zaps him with a taser before he could either run away or use a weapon]].

** In Mission 11, Anya watches an episode of Spy Wars where the main character, Bondman, is tortured while shouting he won't reveal anything about his colleagues.

--->'''Loid''': [[LampshadeHanging What is with this morbid cartoon?]]

* WhoWatchesTheWatchmen: The Ostanian SecretPolice are typically given the authority to override the ordinary police force in matters deemed to be of national importance. Members' relatives are essentially [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections exempted from scrutiny]], and their approach to protecting the nation '''as a whole''' is cavalier toward collateral damage. In Missions 71 through 74, when [[spoiler: previously-vanished terrorists kidnap two buses full of young kids]], the organisation's response is to [[spoiler: kill/apprehend said group at all costs, the children's safety being a complete non-priority. Their ''only'' concern is waiting long enough that they can plausibly (falsely) claim they "tried as hard as they could to resolve it peacefully" before [[ShootTheHostage storming the bus with guns blazing]].]]

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: The bill from renting a castle and all the furnishings for Anya to play being saved from a castle as an award for being enrolled. Loid made WISE cover it as necessary expenses for Operation Strix, and gets chewed out by the Handler when he next comes in for a mission briefing. He then casually tacks on ''more'' bills from purchasing Anya's school uniform. When it comes time to get Anya ready for the school dance, she picks out a dress that costs a small fortune, and when Loid suggests returning it and renting one instead, Anya says that it can't be returned, so Loid becomes determined to make sure the plan to get Anya and Damian to be friends works.

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: The bill from renting a castle and all the furnishings for Anya to play being saved from a castle as an award for being enrolled. Loid made WISE cover it as necessary expenses for Operation Strix, and gets chewed out by the Handler when he next comes in for a mission briefing. He then casually tacks on ''more'' bills from purchasing Anya's school uniform. When it copmes time to get Anya ready for the school dance, she picks out a dress that costs a small fortune, and when Loid suggests returning it and renting one instead, Anya says that it cna't be returned, so Loid becomes determined to make sure the plan to get Anya and Damian to be friends works.

* ShockinglyExpensiveBill: The bill from renting a castle and all the furnishings for Anya to play being saved from a castle as an award for being enrolled. Loid made WISE cover it as necessary expenses for Operation Strix, and gets chewed out by the Handler when he next comes in for a mission briefing. He then casually tacks on ''more'' bills from purchasing Anya's school uniform.

*** The above is parodied further with said terrorist's "Plan B" of making a jerry-rigged suicide bomb, his thoughts racing through the ingredients necessary while he ran to the janitor's closet, with the actual contents [[AndSomeOtherStuff redacted and censored]] by black bars and only the colors of the chemicals kept, in a [[PlayedForLaughs tongue in cheek gesture]] to stop impressionable kids from making similar devices. In fact, Anya - though granted, already smarter than most kids her age - was able to immediately improvise a ''non-lethal variant'' of said explosive within ''moments'' of reading the ingredients from the terrorist's mind, and ''successfully'' incapacitated him with said non-lethal bomb no less.

** While the repercussions remain to be seen, since for the time being he claims to not believe her, Mission 96 features Anya for the first time [[spoiler:openly admitting her powers to someone elsem namely Damian.]] The line even gets a double page spread to show its importance.

-->'''Anya:''' Yes. [[spoiler:I can read people's minds.]]

* CassandraTruth: In Mission 96, [[spoiler:Damian rhetorically asks Anya if she read his mind, and she replies that she did, because she's a mind-reader. Damian doesn't believe her]].

** After an initial failed assassination attempt on a cruise, several assassins discuss working together and sharing the reward. One of them counters by suggesting they murder every single mother aboard... and is immediately murdered by the other assassins.

** The first ending sequence of the anime features a very modern looking [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_Corporation Blue Bird school bus]][[note]]While there were Blue Bird busses in the 60's and earlier, they didn't look like the one featured, which looks like a model from the 80's or later, and they definitely weren't used in East Germany[[/note]], which also features a stop arm, something that was only added onto school buses in the 70's.[[note]]As an addendum, German school buses tend to simply be standard public transit buses that run special routes on school days, and as such usually aren't painted school bus yellow[[/note]]

* ForcedDancePartner: In the cruise ship arc Yor grabs a hitman (who is more than twice her size) by both hands in the ship's ballroom, forcibly "dances" him to a chair, and knocks him out leaving him in the chair as if he had sat down in exhaustion.

** Loid is a handsome hard-working man who loves his family, and tries to be amiable with everyone he meets, but in reality he's [[DeepCoverAgent Twilight, a deep cover spy]] who uses backhanded tactics to accomplish his missions, such as [[BlatantLies brazen deceit]], and [[HoneyTrap using his good looks and charm to seduce, bed, and unceremoniously dump any woman who may prove useful]]. He's also not afraid to take a life if the situation calls for it, and Chapter 62 shows that in his youth [[spoiler: he sought to avenge the destruction of his hometown and the deaths of his parents and friends by killing as many Ostanian soldiers as possible, [[SociopathicSoldier including, if his first interaction with Franky is anything to go by, unarmed]] {{POW}}s]].

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In the third episode of the Anime, Loid and Yor talk about Loid's cookie baking skills with a plate of cookies on the table in front of them. While they're doing so, Anya periodically peeks in from the left to grab a cookie before moving back out.

** Two of the conglomerates mentioned in Mission 95 are the Hubrisse Business Group (hubris) and Brayzen Commerical Industries (brazen). The Hubrisse Group's heir is called Narcis, from "narcissist".

* MeaningfulName: During the underground tennis tournament, Twilight and Nightfall go undercover as Mr. and Mrs. Phony.