Despite opening on a scene of murder, the premiere of the new season of Spy x Family feels rather cozy. It’s a nice reintroduction to what’s great about one of last year’s most captivating anime series, providing a gentle showcase for its sense of humor as it tracks its characters across a misadventure that feels rather typical for them, as it slides back into the rhythm set by its previous season. Despite its proximity to the real world – its throwback, '60s-flavored fictional setting of Ostania and its information battle with the neighboring country of Westalis resembles Cold War-era Berlin – Spy x Family is just at home with quieter scenes of domesticity as it is with action-comedy and sometimes real peril, and that balance is what continues to make the series feel so special. The stakes could change at any moment from a child getting a failing grade to the fate of two countries being at stake, or some ridiculous combination of both.
Based on the hit Shonen Jump manga by Tatsuya Endo, Spy x Family is about the Forgers, a kooky make-believe nuclear family each with their own secret identity and ulterior motive, all hidden fromeach other. The father Loid (that’s not his real name) is actually a secret agent from a neighboring country codenamed “Twilight,” spoken about with hushed reverence amidst other spies. The mother Yor is actually a feared assassin known as the Thorn Princess. Together they raise Anya, a child who Loid adopted, and who harbors a secret of her own: She’s telepathic, and knows both of their secrets. They also have a dog – his name is Bond and he’s clairvoyant. The family is built on a triangle of transactional relationships: Loid needs the family as cover, to continue his mission, “Operation Strix”, monitoring an elusive political leader through their son, who is Anya’s classmate. Yor needs the family to maintain the appearances of being a normal person and not her nation's most infamous contract killer. Anya uses her knowledge to nudge the two together so she doesn’t go back to the orphanage (on paper that reason’s much sadder than the others).
As directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi and Takahiro Harada, with production by Wit Studio (Ranking of Kings, Attack on Titan) and Cloverworks (Bocchi the Rock, My Dress-Up Darling), Spy x Family is constantly finding creative ways to create tension along all of those points simultaneously – a number of its stories beginning with small misunderstandings that spiral into chaos as the characters scramble to maintain appearances.
This new season looks to continue along the path set by Endo, though one of Spy x Family’s best qualities is how it expands on the material from the comic without losing its spirit. The second half of the first season was a little less elegant – to borrow a favored word of Anya's monocle-wearing principal – in how it approached adaptation however, many of its episodes feeling rather harshly split down the middle into vignettes (an approach that seems to be continuing with next week’s episode). That never really diminishes how fun it is to watch it, however, and the same holds true of the new season premiere. Titled “Follow Mama and Papa”, it’s a gentle reintroduction that focuses primarily on the core cast of the Forgers (and Loid’s lovable idiot lackey, Franky). It’s a pleasant, low stakes excursion that follows its characters around on one of their quieter days (which is still characterized by murder-for-hire and a bomb threat).
The episode is about the aftermath of action, its only real conflict occurring in a flash of light at the beginning of the episode. The rest is farce, as Yor suffers a bullet wound to the glutes while on the job, and Loid mistakes her suppressed agony for a bad mood, so he takes her on a date to placate her. Anya, who has treated their relationship as entertainment from the very beginning, follows them to see what happens. From here it turns into an escalating series of gags where Yor refuses to do anything that involves sitting down – standing up in the movie theater, for one. Things get even worse as a survivor from Yor’s wetwork from the previous night turns up as a waiter in that very restaurant, and decides he needs to take her out before she gets him first.
It’s a solid start to the season, but perhaps not quite the knockout that the show is capable of (like last season’s "The Great Dodgeball Plan” or "The Underground Tennis Tournament: The Campbelldon”). This isn’t to say it’s underwhelming, just fairly par-for-the-course in terms of its visual presentation and story. But business as usual for Spy x Family is still pretty delightful, with great sight gags and physical comedy, plus charming discrepancies between the characters and what they’re doing. Yor is still a wild combination of winsomely earnest and terrifying, a tough freak of nature (she drinks poison in this episode, and it has a positive effect). The ever hyper-competent Loid is still absurdly over-prepared for everything (he has 862 plans to soothe Yor on their date, and about 700 of those go out the window when she refuses to sit down anywhere). The show is operating comfortably – from the intentionally warbled notes on the score by (K)now_Name whenever Anya gets involved in something, to a pratfall as an assailant slips in olive oil, a victim of Home Alone-style pranks. As ever, it has some wonderfully drawn expressions – Yor’s face in particular during this episode, is constantly contorted into a form that would be fearsome if it wasn’t so funny.
There’s no doubt that things will pick up as the show approaches one of the manga’s more exciting arcs – here quietly laying the groundwork for more interactions with the “Red Circus,” a terrorist organization that will cross paths with both Loid and Yor in their real line of work. For now, its newest episode simply feels like a warm welcome home.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/spy-x-family-season-2-premiere-review-follow-mama-and-papa