I don’t think there’s much question that Spy x Family is the most anticipated new series premiere of the season.  Or that it and Chainsaw Man are the most anticipated of the year.  Or indeed that it’s going to be a very big hit.  That’s a given – the only real question, then, is just how big a hit.  It’s one only time can answer of course, but I think this series has a legit chance to be the next big thing in anime – the fourth in a line of succession from Kimetsu no Yaiba to Jujutsu Kaisen and Tokyo Revengers.

Why?  Well, it’s not necessarily that SPYxFAMILY is a masterpiece.  It’s damn good to be sure, but nothing historically great.  The thing is, though, greatness is not a prerequisite for commercial monstrosity in anime – as the three series listed above betray.  I don’t think a series has to be great, but it does have to be good enough.  And SxF is more than good enough – IMO better than any of those other three by a comfortable margin.  It also has a truly impressive demographic reach, which is perhaps the most essential quality for the animanga kaibutsu.  It crosses age and gender lines with ease, managing to appeal to fans of both the highbrow and lowbrow.

Indeed, I think the only factor cutting against its chances is where and how it’s published.  That would be Shounen Jump+, and bi-weekly.  The other three manga are/were all weekly, and the two biggest Weekly Shounen Jump.  As a result of that we have only nine volumes in print, which is plenty for a two-cour season but maybe not enough to maintain the kind of perfect anime-manga synergy a series needs to get from huge (say, Attack on Titan or Boku no Hero Academia) to truly historic.  That’s the best argument in favor of Chainsaw Man being the one to join that most exclusive club – it’s a WSJ title that will have 12 volumes in circulation by the time it premieres.

The last factor in the equation is the adaptation itself, and here Spy x Family can make its strongest case.  It’s a co-production of Wit and CloverWorks, with Wit clearly in the driver’s seat – perhaps a perfect scenario, with Wit driving the quality and CloverWorks as a pressure release valve to keep the production on schedule.  It has one of anime’s best and most experienced directors in Furuhashi Kazuhiro, most famous for Rurouni Kenshin and Hunter X Hunter 1999, and last on TV with the sublime Dororo.  SxF may seem like a stylistic reach for Furuhashi, but as this premiere shows, his touch remains pretty much unassailable.

As first episodes go, I don’t know what more viewers old or new could have asked.  This delivered on all fronts, both as an entertainment and as an adaptation.  It captured the tone of the manga, the performances were spot-on (and that’s a big deal with this series), it looked great.  Spy x Family more than anything is a relatively simple premise that also happens to be extremely clever, executed superbly.  I think manga readers will be very satisfied (if such a thing is possible), and new viewers will have seen nothing here to mislead them about what sort of show this is.  If the premiere worked for you, you’re pretty close to a lock to have a good time with this one.

The main character (for now) is a spy known as Tasogare (Twilight), played by Eguchi Takuya.  The setting is a very evocative take on early cold war era Europe – most obviously Germany, as it’s a country split into the eastern and western halves Ostania and Westalis (not the mention the capital is called Berlint).  Tasogare is a master of disguise (among other things) and he’s tasked with the job of spying on the extremist Ostanian politician Donovan Desmond, seen as the greatest thread to East-West peace.  Because Desmond is a legendary recluse who only appears in public at his son’s school events, Twilight is instructed to find a wife and kid and get the latter enrolled at Eden Academy ASAP.

Now obviously, in real life Twlight’s handlers would have made all the arrangements for his wife and child, but if that happened here we wouldn’t have much of a story.  Tasked with sourcing a kid on his own Tasogare goes to an orphanage, where the manager says “take whichever one you want” and he asks for one who can read and write.  That leads to Anya (Tanezaki Atsumi), who the manager finds creepy as hell and is desperate to be rid of.  Anya certainly seems clever enough, but she has a secret of her own – she’s an esper, the product of a government program to groom human weapons (which she escaped from).

Anya is a tricky character (and a vital one as she eventually becomes the focus of much of the story), and I wasn’t sure how she’d play on-screen.  Fortunately I think Tanezaki finds a good balance here, accenting the comic elements of the character and not going too cutesy with the voice.  The thing about Anya is, apart from being an esper she’s not super-precocious – in fact she’s not even all that smart, really.  That combined with her ability – and the fact that “Papa” doesn’t know about it – generates a ton of comic potential, which is evident in the premiere.  Tasogare – now going by the name Loid Forger (ROFL), is utterly clueless about kids and has no idea how to deal with Anya (but is nevertheless fundamentally a decent guy).  For her part she’s just desperate not to be dumped yet again (it would be the fifth time).

This scenario has pitfalls in terms of becoming maudlin, but Spy x Family mostly steers clear of them with its irreverent tone.  This isn’t a “comedy” per se, but it never seems to take itself too seriously – just seriously enough when it needs to.  There are many more layers to come, of course, but I think the intro is pretty much truth in advertising.  The dialogue in Furuhashi’s hands has a great rhythm to it, and there’s more than a little sense of an old Hollywood screwball comedy in the vein of Preston Sturges.  His writing has been described as “lowbrow aristocrat”, and I think that label fits Spy X Family extremely well – and does a good job explaining why it has the breadth of appeal that it does.

ED: “Kigeki” by Gen Hoshino