Hiya!

Well, the first season of Spy X Family is now over and it was one for the books. There are certainly many more anime out there which may have a lot more action, a whole lot funnier and even much cuter than Spy X Family, there is still that unexplainable X-Factor which drove hundreds, if not thousands, of anime lovers to watch it. I quite sad it’s over, in all honesty. This anime became a big event for me as I would tune in to Muse Asia’s YouTube channel and watch it on the latest episodes premiere broadcast. By the way, I do have to give a shoutout to Muse Asia themselves. This isn’t a paid promotion but I just love how they do broadcast Spy X Family as well as a lot of other animes with English subtitles free of charge. I’ve linked the first episode of the show via their YouTube channel. If you get an error message saying it’s not available in your region, well, you know how I’ve felt for a long time when it came to Disney+ before it came to the Philippines. Anyway, thanks a whole bunch, Muse Asia!

The entire first season of Spy X Family ran for a total of 25 episode. 25 beautiful episodes, mind you. I enjoyed every one of those 25 episode. There is, however, based on how the season ran, a part of me that wanted the show to end a little earlier. I do appreciate getting 25 episode of Spy X Family, but I think a better ending for the season would’ve been if they closed it out on the 24th episode, with a little tweaking.

Before I do go into detail, I will be diving into SPOILERS for the first season as well as what was translated from the manga into anime form. Regarding the manga aspect, don’t worry, I won’t be giving any SPOILERS for future chapters, which will definitely be adapted into anime form during the next season. However, if you haven’t seen the anime, then you’ve been warned.

Anyway, Spy X Family is a story of the Forgers, an upper-middle class family living in the country of Ostania. Loid Forger is the patriarch. Yor is his new wife and Anya is precocious daughter. However, all of them are living a lie. Loid Forger is actually a spy, codenamed Twilight. Twilight was given the mission to get information on Donovan Desmord, a recluse who seems to have evil intentions. As Desmond only goes out to attend meetings at the prestigious Eden Academy, Twilight adopts the Loid persona and adopts Anya from a local orphanage. Little does he know Anya is an escaped science experiment who can read minds. In order to maintain his cover as a family man, he also convinces a lowly government secretary, Yor, to pretend to be his wife. Unbenownst to him again, Yor is actually a professional assassin with the codename of Thorn Princess, and she is using her marriage to Loid as a cover as no one would suspect a married woman of being a stone cold killer. While it all starts out as a family of convenience, the bonds between Loid, Yor and Anya do grow stronger and they might actually become a real family in the future.

After watching the first few episodes, I became very enamored by the entire concept and the story. So I decided to learn a whole lot more and also read the manga. As expected, the manga is way ahead of the anime so, while I was watching the anime, I pretty much knew what was going to happen in the show. I mean, the anime pretty much covered each of the manga chapters in perfect chronological order as well. The anime did add a few things here and there to pad some chapters and stretch them into a full episodes early on. They soon started to bunch the smaller, more benign ones into one episodes, which made things feel a little punchier to keep up the pace.

As I knew the Spy X Family anime was going to have a total of 25 episodes, I dove into the manga to see where it was going to end. With a little math, I figured they were going to end the first season of the anime on Chapter 35 of the manga. I thought they were going to do the underground tennis story arc for several episodes or maybe devote an entire episode to the chapter where Nightfall challenges Yor to an impromptu tennis match for Twilight/Loid’s love.

Instead, the Spy X Family anime compressed the entire tennis tournament and the Nightfall/Yor tennis battle into just a couple of episodes. I was surprised when this happened. This means the season won’t end when I thought it would be. Would that mean the season would end with the Anya and Becky shopping trip? That didn’t come off as a good stopping point. If that’s the case, then the last episode of the season would deal with Loid finally meeting Donovan Desmond, his target, and having a brief conversation to size him up. This did make sense as this was the entire mission, after all. However, I thought this would’ve been tackled during the start of the second season, with it starting with the Anya and Becky shopping trip and then cutting the first episode of the second season with a cliffhanger as Loid comes face-to-face with Donovan Desmond. This made a whole lot more sense to me as it shows the second season isn’t pulling any punches anymore.

So, while the anime does end the season rather neatly, I still believe it would’ve been better off with ending at Chapter 35 of the manga. Why? Well, that’s because Chapter 35 is the official first date of Loid and Yor as a married couple! This might not seem like a lot for outsiders who haven’t been watching the anime. However, for fans, this is a big deal.

You see, as the anime moved along, I’ve also been watching some reactions of some of the people watching Spy X Family. While they generally have a good time watching each episode. They laugh as the comedic bits, amazed by the action scenes and aww at the wholesome family moments. However, the biggest reactions are definitely the ones involving the entire “will they/won’t they” interactions between Loid and Yor. I still remember how a lot of them got upset in Episode 8 when they ended the episode just as Loid was leaning over to kiss Yor to prove they’re a couple to Yor’s brother. That was a whole lot of fun!

Based on this, it does seem like a lot of Spy X Family fans were more invested in the entire family dynamic and, more importantly, Loid and Yor potentially getting together. They weren’t all that concerned about Twilight’s actual mission. While that comes off as the crux of the show, it’s more of the macguffin to get the ball rolling. The mission which made Twilight put this fake family together became secondary and it was more focused on these people connecting and becoming a real family.

This is why closing out the season on Loid and Yor’s date might’ve been better. It’s a funny scenario as Yor doesn’t quite love Loid but does love being part of a family, which is why she’s afraid of being replaced. Loid then tries to capitalize on Yor’s seeming jealousy by attempting to confess his feelings, which earns him a swift kick in the chin, knocking him out shortly afterwards. We then get the wholesome moment of the two reaffirming they can still stay as a family. If the season ended on that note, it would’ve been a really heartwarming point to close out the season.

We didn’t get that ending and it would be foolish of me to say the ending we did get for the season was terrible. It did follow the manga and it does show Twilight is still focused on the mission despite having this new family to take care of. It still ended on a satisfying note. I just wish it ended more on the Family aspect and not on the Spy stuff.

Byee!

What did you think of the season finale of Spy X Family? Let me know in the comments section below!