Trivia / SPY×FAMILY

• All-Star Cast: The Japanese cast is comprised of Takuya Eguchi (Loid), Saori Hayami (Yor), Atsumi Tanezaki (Anya), Kensho Ono (Yuri), Hiroyuki Yoshino (Franky), Yuko Kaida (Handler), Kazuhiro Yamaji (Henry Henderson), Akio Ōtsuka (WISE Director), Hiroki Yasumoto (Bill), Hiroki Takahashi (Keith), Ayane Sakura (Nightfall) and Jun'ichi Suwabe (Shopkeeper).
• Breakthrough Hit: SXF is easily creator Tatsuya Endo's best-selling manga to date (while he'd published several one-shots in Shonen Jump beforehand, his attempts at ongoing manga series, such as Tista and Blade of the Moon Princess, had been cancelled prematurely), with sales in the millions, and it's the first to receive an anime and an official English translation.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: Shaping up to be one. Not only is there merchandise as esoteric as a tea set, but within a year of the anime airing, it got a stage musical, a second season renewal, a movie order, and is getting an attraction at Universal Studios Japan.
• Completely Different Title: In all Chinese regions, the title is modified to what can be translated to Spy Plays House.
• Creator Couple:
  • Dallas Reid (Yuri) and Jill Harris (one of the ADR directors) are both married in real life.
  • Jordan Dash Cruz and his wife Kelsey Maher voice Dominic and Kim respectively.
  • Aaron Campbell and Molly Searcy, voice of Bondman and Princess Honey are dating.
  • Bill Jenkins, voice of Matthew McMahon or Director and Linda Leonard, voice of Martha are married.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Being young boys, Damian, Emile and Ewen have voice actresses in most dubs.
  • Zig-zagged in the Latin American Spanish dub: Damian is voiced by an adult male voice actor, while the rest of the male kids are voiced by females.
  • George is voiced by a female in the English and the Taiwanese Mandarin dub.
• Defictionalization: The Super Oishii brand Peanuts that Anya really likes were eventually released in Japan.
• Development Gag: During Mission 23, Peanut(s) is among the names Anya goes through for naming Bond. It actually was one of the name ideas when developing the manga, but was decided against for bringing to mind another white dog.
• Dueling Dubs:
  • Or rather dueling manga translations: Manga Plus translated all the chapters up through Mission 12, then when Viz licensed the series with Mission 13, they went back and translated it from Mission 1 onwards (including the first extra chapter), replacing Manga Plus's translation with their own. When you see translations on the series' trope pages that don't match the officially available translations, they're not from fan translations, they're from when Manga Plus were doing the translation.
  • As of December 7th 2022, two English dubs exist: A dub that's produced by Crunchyroll for the North American markets, and a dub produced by Muse Asia for the Southeast Asian markets like the Philippines and Singapore.
• Dueling Shows: With Mission: Yozakura Family due to both Jump^note SxF is on Jump+ rather than the mainline WSJ like Yozakura series being about a family of spies.
• God Never Said That: It's often reported that Endo's said he doesn't care about the characters because they're not what he wanted to draw, but what others wanted to see. It's taken out of context from an interview in Eyes Only, where it's clear it's Endo, the interviewer, and the other interviewees joking around about Loid.
• Kids' Meal Toy:
  • For a limited time in September 2023, Spy x Family coloring books and sticker pages were issued in Japanese McDonald's Happy Meals (or as they call them in Japan, "Happy Sets.")
  • In June 2023, bubble tea chain Bearology ran a more adult-oriented promotion in the United States that offered collectible flasks with designs of Loid, Anya, Yor, and all three.
• The Other Darrin:
  • The SSS Director in the English dub was initially voiced by Anthony DiMascio, but was recast to Bradley Gareth due to allegations against DiMascio.
  • Bryn Apprill filled in as Fiona Frost for the 21st episode, since Lindsay Seidel had a laryngitis case at the time of recording. In the second season, Apprill stepped into the role of Anya when Megan Shipman went on maternity leave, but Shipman is expected to resume in the future.
• Playing Against Type:
  • While not foreign to voicing The Stoic such as Loid, Takuya Eguchi is more commonly known for his hammy Nice Guys, who are often the comic relief.
  • Kensho Ono voices Yuri Briar, a Knight Templar Little Brother working for the Secret Police who's also a Crazy Jealous Guy towards his sister. The same trope also applies for Dallas Reid, who is most known for voicing Asta of Black Clover fame.
  • Caitlin Glass usually voices young women, sultry villainesses and Cool Big Sis-type characters. Here, she voices Damian, a young boy, one of the few times she does so.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: The assumption that the Manga Plus translation, the one that uses Lloyd and Yoru Folger, is a fan translation. This one seems to come from fans encountering this translation without knowing the source, and assuming that since it obviously isn't the Viz translation, it must be a fan translation. It's understandable, given how often an official translation replaces a fan translation, but it isn't the case here, since Manga Plus's translation was official. (There've been one-off fan translations for omakes and one of the Extra chapters, but only the official translators have done the main series.)
• Sleeper Hit:
  • In spite of a very quiet release on Jump's digital service and being from an author best known for having his series prematurely cancelled, the series absolutely shattered expectations by quickly becoming one of the most popular series on Manga Plus, and the most popular series on Jump+ in the span of just four months. It then quickly became not just the best selling new series of the year, but also one of the best selling debuts for a Shueisha manga for that entire decade − volume 2 sold over 100,000 copies in its first week alone, something not even modern Jump hits like My Hero Academia or The Promised Neverland managed in their early days. This quickly led to the series getting licensed by Viz for a physical release despite not even being a year old.
  • The anime follows this as the most popular anime of Spring 2022 in Japan, North America, Europe, East Asia, and Southeast Asia, getting the highest ratings for a new anime in a while since Demon Slayer — even exceeding that show in some respects. It's even gotten higher ratings than Long Runner One Piece. On the day episode 1 aired, "Spy X Family" was the #1 trending topic on Twitter...worldwide!
• Star-Making Role: Natalie Van Sistine as Yor Forger in the English dub. It helps that her casting also broke from her previous typecasting as women with a deep contralto.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The manga volumes include some of Endo's early designs for characters with notes, including:
    • An older, meaner-looking, Anya;
    • Franky as the uncle in the family;
    • A design for Loid that Endo eventually reused for Daybreak;
    • An uglier-looking design for Damian;
    • Yuri originally not having his job at the SSS.
  • Eyes Only also includes some of Endo's early designs, along with discussion of other ideas he considered in commentary, such as Twilight being called Mirage instead.
  • Outed in Spy x Family's audio streaming show, by her agency’s inital plan, Atsumi Tanezaki was originally planned to be sent to solely audition for the role of Yor. But Tanezaki, who has been reading Spy x Family, and was a fan of the manga long before any adaptation news was lit, long felt she isn’t fit for Yor, and took the courage to proactively speak up to her agency that she wanted to also tryout for Anya. Since for one, she loved Anya the most, and two, she couldn't think of anyone but Saori Hayami voicing Yor.

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