Technically speaking, I guess I should have titled this an “End” post rather than a season finale. This is not officially a split cour, and there’s been no official announcement of a sequel (and timetable). But we didn’t need that *see you next x mission” end card to know it’s only a matter of time. Spy x Family is huge, very huge. It’s one of the biggest hits of the decade, it has a theatrical film coming soon, and it’s a virtual certainty that it will receive a complete adaptation (though it may get the Haikyuu!! treatment, as it’s even more popular). I’ll be very surprised if we don’t see a continuation (whether they call it Season 3 or Season 2 Part 2) before the end of 2024.
Which is, you know, fine. Some of the bloom is off the rose for me – this season was a definite step down from the first. SxF is another kaijuu I just can’t fully embrace. At its best it can be very good indeed – the comedy is sometimes really sharp and when it shifts into true screwball comedy (as in old Hollywood) mode, it’s got a lot of charm. But the bad moments can be pretty grisly, and a lot of this season was frankly kind of boring.
I mean, you’re going to finish with an entire episode focused on Bond? That’s somehow fitting, seems to me. Borf is fine, but he’s not a character to carry a series for 22 minutes. He’s got one gag, basically, and if he’s in the spotlight for too long Endou basically has to put that gag on a loop. The training thing and the ice cream and the bird poop misunderstandings would have worked fine as a six or seven-minute B part. But a whole episode they’re not, even with the fire subplot thrown in.
This season seemed to have less of what really makes Spy x Family look the best – the Eden stuff generally and Damian specifically. There was no real development in Damian’s subplot, but in fact the whole thing with Loid’s mission (which is the catalyst for the entire premise) went absolutely nowhere. And this is a larger problem, in that SxF just doesn’t have much development, period. Yor stays dumb, Yuri remains insufferable, Anya is Anya, Nothing much ever seems to change, really. And that limits a series’ upside in a profound way.
All that makes me feel pretty ambivalent about the idea of covering a third (or whatever it’s eventually called) season. I imagine I probably will, at least at the start, because I still feel like this show’s best is the strongest of any of the current megaseries crop’s best. I just wish we saw a lot more of it, and that I had some real idea where Endou was trying to go with this series – whether there’s some sort of larger point to any of it. There are times I wonder if he know himself, to be honest – and that too is part of the problem.
BenDTU
December 26, 2023 at 4:25 amI’m up to date on the manga and you’re absolutely correct, the series is stuck in its own frustrating status quo and nothing ever changes. There are plenty of arcs that feel like they *should* move things forward but they just… don’t. Characters have experiences which should change their dynamics with each other going forward but then everyone snaps back to their usual selves and everything moves on as it always had.
I saw one post in which someone mentioned that the boat arc was the last time we actually saw Yor doing any assassin-ing and it blew my mind that as far as I can remember they’re genuinely correct.
Around Bond specifically it blows my mind that the series introduced a dog that can see the future and it’s done positively nothing with him outside of his introductory arc and some gag chapters.
Ditto
December 26, 2023 at 5:16 amAs you seem to enjoy Damian and his subplot, I would really recommend watching Season 3 as it does a lot with his character/subplot.
Guardian Enzo
December 26, 2023 at 8:00 amA rare nugget of optimism from a manga reader.
Lem
December 26, 2023 at 5:19 amOnce I learned that Endo doesn’t like characters of SxF I lost interest in the series fast, I feel like Endo just milk series while he can, there is no passion in SxF only sterile repetition of formula he found the broadest amount of people like.
Nicc
December 27, 2023 at 8:13 amThat’s it from this season, though it’s going to get a complete adaptation for sure. The “Spy × Family Code: White” movie just dropped before Christmas weekend in Japan and had a terrific opening weekend. I’m sure that it will do well here too once it crosses the big pond sometime in 2024.
Otherwise, I wasn’t impressed with this season. The Princess Lorelei arc was a dud for me. Certainly, it was about time that Yor got the spotlight as she’s been a secondary character so far. What we got was an action showcase for the Thorn Princess. It wasn’t so much about Yor Briar/Forger and at the end of the arc she’s still the same Yor. Weirdly enough, I think that Loid actually got some character development as he was being relegated to the background. He may not realize it, but the line between Loid Forger and Twilight is blurring more and we saw that in the season finale with Bond. He eventually learns to treat Bond as the family pet first and then secret agent’s best friend later. With how much time Franky has been babysitting Bond, he knows him pretty well. I’ll be back when the next cour drops, but I hope that the writing improves.
I take it you won’t be watching the “Code: White” movie, then? It’s kind of strange that plot seems to be about the Forgers going on vacation when the Princess Lorelei arc this season was just about that.
Okay, Christmas off-topic. A good deal of our radio stations have been playing Christmas music non-stop since mid-November. It makes it easy for those stations and their DJs. It automatically goes back to whatever genres of music they’re supposed to do once it hits midnight on December 26th (I only know of one station here who still has late-night/overnight DJs). I picked one station and the last Christmas song played was “Carol of the Bells” by the Mannheim Steamroller. The first post-Christmas song was “Hotel California” by The Eagles. That was perhaps fitting for those who have felt they were being trapped in Christmas music purgatory since November. I’ll go pick another station next year.