You’ve got to feel for Anya.  School can be a nightmare anyway, but to be able to read all those guttersnipes’ thoughts?  The horror…  When you get right down to it, Anya’s esper ability is the MacGuffin of Spy x Family.  It’s the only explicitly fantastical element in a series that’s otherwise a straightforward farce.  It greases the wheels of both the plot and the comedy – without it, both would quickly grind to a halt.  As such, I find the series works best when it acknowledges this peculiar reality, rather than seemingly forgetting it exists (as it sometimes does for surprisingly long stretches).

Along with Anya’s peculiarity, Loid’s obsessive and neurotic nature is another major plot – and comedy – driver.  As such, he’s freaking out pretty good over Anya’s unfortunate first encounter with Damian Desmond.  He pounds it into her head that the first thing she needs to do when she arrives back at Eden is to apologize to Damian (which isn’t wrong – punching other children is not OK behavior to learn).  But not satisfied with that, he goes undercover to make sure it happens – which causes considerable angst when Becky Blackbell keeps getting in the way.  Loid even briefly considers that Becky may be a counter-agent (truly, he thinks like a spy) but not even Loid is quite that neurotic.

In point of fact nothing in Loid’s experience can prepare him for what’s next, as the biggest ship in the S x F fleet prepares to set sail.  All the other kids are thinking “Delinquent!” “Scary”-type thoughts at Anya, but what’s coming from Damian is a lot more confused.  The amusing part is that Damian’s confusion is quite apparent to Anya – though of course reading his thoughts doesn’t mean Anya has the contextual toolkit to understand them.  When she finally does manage to choke out a tearful apology (thanks to Loid getting Becky out of the way) Damian is pretty much flummoxed by it.  Or more precisely, by his own reaction to it.

Tsundere characters are hardly a rarity in anime (and that may be the biggest understatement I make this week).  But being privy to their thought process – with all the self-deception that goes along with it – is Spy x Family’s twist on the trope.  Add to that the simple reality that’s already become clear – Damian is actually not a bad kid.  He’s imperious as befits his upbringing, but he was the only one whose parents never showed for the new student indoctrination.  When he reflects on Anya biffing him it’s not his father he thinks of, but “not even my big brother ever hit me”.  Anya standing up him piqued his curiosity – her apology piqued something else altogether.  None of the principals – Damian, Anya, Loid – have any idea what’s just been unleashed.

Back home, things take a more familiar and not as entertaining turn as Loid returns his focus to Plan A, assuming Plan B is toast (how wrong he is).  Anya is at least a year and possible more younger than she claims, and clearly no savant – of course Eden mathematics is too much for her.  And trying to lure Yor into thinking of the answer only backfires – one senses that book smarts is not one of Yor’s strengths (that may be the second-biggest understatement).  This is already fairly standard S x F fare and not necessarily all that compelling – I think the series is better when it’s trying to be funny – but I was intrigued by Loid’s reflection about recording the sleeping Anya’s spy anime.  I would have guessed that even VCRs would be some years ahead of the time period when this story appears to be set.

The other major development this week is that we finally see Yuri – first as a child in Yor’s memories, then as he is now (where he’s played by Ono Kensho).  And Yuri’s co-worker from the party drops the rather shocking bomb that Yor is married (information she obviously chose not to share herself).  It doesn’t take Olympic-level jumping to conclusions to think that Yuri’s place of work is not coincidental – this is clearly someone destined to play a significant role in the story going forward.