In an indeterminate European nation that's clearly at least inspired by Cold War era Germany, Twilight is the greatest spy in the world, who needs to get close to a secretive politician by infiltrating a highbrow school, Yor is the greatest assassin in the world, who needs to maintain her cover as a boring office lady in a culture where failure to socially conform can get a visit from the secret police, and Anya is a small but crafty orphan child and telepath who has learned the hard way to conceal her powers from the world. Together, these three people, each from dramatically different walks of life, need to pretend to be a wholesome family for their own reasons, but in the process, to the surprise of absolutely no one, end up becoming a family for real.
And it is hilarious.
Let's be clear, while the action in Spy X Family can get pretty intense, even borderline family-unfriendly in places, first and foremost it's a fish-out-of-water comedy about people who're comically competent in their areas of expertise having to deal with the problems of everyday life for which they have little frame of reference, while also trying to hide their secret identities from one another. The major exception, Anya, whose powers make her completely aware of her parents' secrets, still manages to remain part of the dynamic with her childlike confidence that she knows everything about situations she completely misunderstands and her hilariously effective attempts to socially fit in at the hoity-toity school she in no way ought to be attending.
Chapter to chapter, the story skips between different characters' lives, and therefore between different genres, whether it's Anya's struggles to get by in school and make friends, Twilight having to deal with gritty, somewhat grounded spy work, or Yor engaging in the sorts of flashy man vs. army assassinations you'd expect out of a video game, and even in Twilight's stories, which can often get very dour and serious, as when each member of the family separately and independently helps foil an attempt to cause a world war (and Twilight's horrible death, by the by), there're always little moments of levity, like Yor stopping a getaway by inexplicably punting a car with her super-strength, to keep one's spirits up. I also appreciate that it doesn't treat this dark subject matter lightly, with the trauma of not-World War II on several characters' minds, and that when it tries to deal with the characters' inner lives and emotions it generally works and comes across as sincere.
The side cast is also pretty funny, like Yor's little brother, who is both a secret policeman and total siscon, Twilight's protégé, a stone-faced woman who, thanks to Anya, we the audience know is madly in love with him, Anya's various friends and enemies at school, or Bond, the family dog who has elevated intelligence and clairvoyant powers thanks to an experiment, but is still, at the end of the day, a big fluffy dog and thinks like it. And they all further that overall theme of trying to keep secrets that are exposed to the audience.
The story can be pretty episodic, with limited forward momentum towards the ultimate goal of getting close to the extremist politician. And as of chapter 40, Yor's stories are frustratingly rare compared to Twilight and Anya's, although I have reason to believe that may soon change, and it relied too much on making Yor herself ridiculously gullible to start with. But overall, I can strongly recommend Spy X Family to anyone who doesn't mind those sorts of family-themed comedies that can sometimes come with a harder edge than you'd expect.
Great Premise, Great Characters, Good Execution
In an indeterminate European nation that's clearly at least inspired by Cold War era Germany, Twilight is the greatest spy in the world, who needs to get close to a secretive politician by infiltrating a highbrow school, Yor is the greatest assassin in the world, who needs to maintain her cover as a boring office lady in a culture where failure to socially conform can get a visit from the secret police, and Anya is a small but crafty orphan child and telepath who has learned the hard way to conceal her powers from the world. Together, these three people, each from dramatically different walks of life, need to pretend to be a wholesome family for their own reasons, but in the process, to the surprise of absolutely no one, end up becoming a family for real.
And it is hilarious.
Let's be clear, while the action in Spy X Family can get pretty intense, even borderline family-unfriendly in places, first and foremost it's a fish-out-of-water comedy about people who're comically competent in their areas of expertise having to deal with the problems of everyday life for which they have little frame of reference, while also trying to hide their secret identities from one another. The major exception, Anya, whose powers make her completely aware of her parents' secrets, still manages to remain part of the dynamic with her childlike confidence that she knows everything about situations she completely misunderstands and her hilariously effective attempts to socially fit in at the hoity-toity school she in no way ought to be attending.
Chapter to chapter, the story skips between different characters' lives, and therefore between different genres, whether it's Anya's struggles to get by in school and make friends, Twilight having to deal with gritty, somewhat grounded spy work, or Yor engaging in the sorts of flashy man vs. army assassinations you'd expect out of a video game, and even in Twilight's stories, which can often get very dour and serious, as when each member of the family separately and independently helps foil an attempt to cause a world war (and Twilight's horrible death, by the by), there're always little moments of levity, like Yor stopping a getaway by inexplicably punting a car with her super-strength, to keep one's spirits up. I also appreciate that it doesn't treat this dark subject matter lightly, with the trauma of not-World War II on several characters' minds, and that when it tries to deal with the characters' inner lives and emotions it generally works and comes across as sincere.
The side cast is also pretty funny, like Yor's little brother, who is both a secret policeman and total siscon, Twilight's protégé, a stone-faced woman who, thanks to Anya, we the audience know is madly in love with him, Anya's various friends and enemies at school, or Bond, the family dog who has elevated intelligence and clairvoyant powers thanks to an experiment, but is still, at the end of the day, a big fluffy dog and thinks like it. And they all further that overall theme of trying to keep secrets that are exposed to the audience.
The story can be pretty episodic, with limited forward momentum towards the ultimate goal of getting close to the extremist politician. And as of chapter 40, Yor's stories are frustratingly rare compared to Twilight and Anya's, although I have reason to believe that may soon change, and it relied too much on making Yor herself ridiculously gullible to start with. But overall, I can strongly recommend Spy X Family to anyone who doesn't mind those sorts of family-themed comedies that can sometimes come with a harder edge than you'd expect.