One of the most popular anime series of 2022, Spy x Family, has returned for a second season. I’ll be covering episode reviews for it every few weeks to the best of my ability. So far, I’m enjoying the fun and cuteness just like the first season. The visuals remain great, with a bright and pleasing art-style. Cloverworks and Wit studio tend to make really nice-looking shows, and I’m glad the quality didn’t drop for the second season.

The audio components are also top-quality, with excellent Japanese voice-acting, a jazzy OST, and an opening song I already love. The upbeat song is “Kura Kura” by Ado, and I love the vocal style. I’m not super enthusiastic about the ending song, which is “Todome no Ichigi” by Vaundy featuring Cory Wong. To each their own.

With those rambles out of the way, let’s check out the first three episodes of the new season of Spy x Family!

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Episode 1 (26): Follow Mama and Papa

Let’s start with a brief recap, followed by some highlights of the episode that I especially enjoyed. During an assassination of a criminal group called the Red Circus, Yor got injured. A bullet apparently grazed her… on the butt. Not wanting to tell Loid what happened, Yor hides her wound and pretends to be fine. However, she is trying so hard to withstand the pain that her expression is warped. Loid thinks she must be angry.

To help lighten Yor’s mood, Loid takes her on a date the next day. Anya is worried about them, so she tails them around the city with Franky. The date isn’t going well, and no matter what Loid tries, Yor still looks “angry.” The last place they go is a fancy restaurant. One of the cooks who works there is a survivor of the Red Circus assassination. He wants to avenge his dead comrades, so he tries to poison Yor by giving her a cocktail full of toxic blowfish blood.

Yor’s immunity to poison allows her survive, but the cook hasn’t given up yet. He plans to create a makeshift bomb. Unfortunately for him, Anya got to it first. She snuck into the restaurant, listened to the enemy’s thoughts, and actually constructed a small bomb. She also added peanuts for a unique flair. After being injured by Anya’s bomb, the cook gives up and swears he will quit being a criminal. Anya saved the day!

As for my own thoughts, I found this episode highly entertaining. It was fun watching Loid trying his best to please Yor and just not getting it. I loved seeing these two and their interactions once again. I’ve said this before, but I’m bi/pansexual, and I find both of these characters extremely attractive. Since Yor was under the weather, Loid took the cake as far as being the sexiest (this time).

It was both funny and gross when Yor downed that fish-blood cocktail. Aside from that scene, I think my favorite part was Anya’s awesome confrontation with the Red Circus man. Imagine what she will be capable of as an adult if she can already do this much on her own as a child. She even made a bomb correctly based only on the inner monologue of a stranger listing ingredients. Well done, Agent Anya.

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Episode 2 (27): Bond’s Strategy to Stay Alive / Damian’s Field Research Trip

This episode was divided into two mini stories. The first one was about Bond seeing a vision of his own death in the near future. There were multiple death traps. Fate seemed to be making it very difficult for the big puppy to live through the day. Bond realized that he needed Loid to come home early in order to survive. So he ran away from the house and tracked down Loid.

Although Loid was skeptical at first, he eventualy allowed Bond to stay with him and help on that day’s mission. Together, Bond and Loid completed defeated the enemies and fulfilled the task. Loid promised to make a delicious special dinner for the amazing family dog. Bond is such a good boy, so I’m happy for him.

The second story focused on Damian and his two friends, Ewen and Emile. In order to secure another Stella award, Damian has been working extremely hard on studying. When he skips out on the field trip planned for the weekend, Emile and Ewen remain with him. Touched by the friendship, and wanting to provide a new learning experience, Mr. Henderson intervenes. He sends Damian and the others on a nature research trip.

Supervised by a gruff but good-spirited man, the three boys have many different experiences. They go canoeing, they catch their own fish for dinner, and after nightfall, they walk to a beautiful lake to admire the stars. Damian was finally able to relax and “touch grass.” It was a refreshing little adventure.

Oddly enough, I don’t have much to add about this episode. It was very cute and fun as usual. Of the two stories, I think I enjoyed Damian’s adventure slightly more. Whenever I see an episode like this, it makes me want to go hiking in the forest or even just go explore a local park. I really need to get out in nature, because it’s been forever, and I know from the past that it can be a healing experience.

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Episode 3 (28): Mission and Family / The Elegant Bondman / The Heart of a Child / Waking Up

Much like the previous episode, this one was divided into multiple mini-stories. The main one was about Yuri Briar and his work for the East Ostania Secret Police. That took up most of the episode, and it was genuinely interesting and serious, unlike the rest of the stories. The secondary mini-story was a sample of the Bondman cartoon that Anya loves to watch. It was mildly amusing.

After the credits, there are also two very short installments, basically both about Anya being a strange and goofy child. Damian is used for character contrast, as he’s much more serious and disciplined than Anya. I did think it was funny when she went to the pool and telepathically overheard other kids thinking about peeing in the pool. Classic public pool shenanigans.

I’ve got a few notes to share about Yuri and his work in this episode. First of all, I’m not a big fan of this young fellow due to his inappropriate and incredibly creepy infatuation with his sister. That being said, at least he isn’t physically weird with her. I don’t completely hate Yuri, as he has a great character design, and there are some interesting sides to his personality.

For one thing, Yuri is an extremely dedicated and hard-working person. Though he often shows intense righteous indignation toward enemies, Yuri isn’t above helping them out in small ways. I was pleasantly surprised when he said he would request financial aid for Perkins’ elderly father. And speaking of Perkins, even if he was on the right side of history by and large, he’s still a shitty individual who thinks nothing of bullying children.

That brings us to the other topic I wanted to briefly touch on. Ostania is a a not-so-subtle fictional reimagining of Germany during the time when it was divided into East and West. If we assume most of the historical factors are the same, then it’s clear that Yuri is “the bad-guy” and Loid is the “good-guy.”

Interestingly, Spy X Family has a great way of humanizing its characters regardless of their side’s political evils. Episode 28 is a great example of that, as it showed the kinder side of Yuri paired with the mean, immature behavior of Perkins. I enjoyed the good character development. That concludes my episode review.

Thanks for reading~

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PATREON