'Spy x Family' First Impressions: I'm enjoying this more than I ever thought I would

I'm not sure what made me finally decide to check this out. I'm not really the target demographic for this but I was searching for something that I could half pay attention to while I did other things. Somewhat treating it as background noise. This is a show I've seen mentioned all over the Internet over the past year but I absolutely knew nothing about. It would be an easy guess to claim it's about spies, after all. But that was it. I knew the show had a bit more of a detective style to it, one that relies more on the noir era of television and film. Really building a world that uses the tropes of the genre even within the world of animation: old and long Americanised cars, the jazz-like music, and the suit-and-tie fashion designs matched with a trench-coat for extra anonymity. The story following the nation's best spy tasked with maintaining a fake family in efforts to infiltrate a private school. That alone also sounds like the setup for a television show that would've been a comedy type sitcom back in the day. Not a bad concept after all, and upon reading the general synopsis I did begin to think of how this story could play out. A mixture of drama with the spy obligations as investigations continue, but also comedy in the home life of a fake family trying to look as authentic as possible. Though that last part actually sounds quite strange when you think about it: in reality any family around you could in fact be totally fake.

The spy tasked with infiltrating the school despite being an adult leading to the realisation of needing to build a family. Our spy being fully aware that he's a little too old to be trying to disguise himself as a child. This first episode setting the stage a bit to introduce characters and build that 'spy family'. Starting with attending a pretty awful orphanage in search of a child to adopt, knowing that there wouldn't be extensive records of any of these children that could lead back to him and his falsities regarding the family. Anya, the first girl the worker suggests not really being the type of child he's looking for due to the younger looking age and height. I liked that this first episode revealed something additional to the story though: Anya is actually psychic and can read thoughts. Not initially made clear to the spy, but that does immediately speak of how useful she would be in infiltrating a place and finding out the truth if she can read people's minds in real time. Also adding a bit more fun to the story beyond the detective narrative; snippets of magic and powers that again set the stage a bit more beyond the usual tropes to be found. It's also not like anime tends to be all that serious and grounded these days anyway. To add: I'm not really much of an anime fan these days, but I do think that I've reached a point in which I'll try anything out and see whether it sticks or not.

The development of Anya as a test subject was a nice touch, a child that had effectively been created as a weapon and had frequently been tested in a laboratory. Not just a usual psychic that had been born into those abilities or had them passed down in secret. Beyond the story so far, I've found the animation to be pretty good, I for some reason expected something far worse and more reliant on an animation style that used 3D. There is a bit of it here and there, but not as much as I thought. The backgrounds and environments look pretty good, as do the movements of characters with their designs. Although our spy protagonist doesn't really fit much of a spy look, but it could be argued that it's intentional given the best type of a spy is one that doesn't look like one! I'm not sure why I thought I wouldn't enjoy this, but so far it has certainly been exceeding my expectations. Bits of comedy here and there through the Anya character primarily: a silly childish character that struggles to take things seriously, with the mixture of her psychic abilities in certain scenarios that gives her more context (albeit a wrong perception) of things. But enough drama in the action side to give it something a little serious.

One thing that's kind of fun with the narrative and giving context to the viewer is when Forger speaks to himself through his thoughts. Given Anya has those psychic abilities, it's almost as if we're listening into his mind through her without actually being given direct access. Where much of these thoughts are actually secret and not meant to be heard by anyone else, hence them being inner-monologues. Outside of the life of Forger, I quite liked seeing the different characters and their lives. The world beyond the spies, going into the world of paranoia and dystopia with people being afraid of suspicious neighbours, or dark assassins. The show has the usual slice of life elements to it that show the ways in which people come together and face various life issues beyond the life of spies and secrecy. I'm not usually a big fan of slice of life shows and the genre tends to just not appeal to me, but I think it works here in this show again given it removes some of the seriousness, allows for some character development, and works alongside the comedy. Not to forget that slice of life moments also show the ways in which the characters bend the truth and find ways to manipulate each other to get what they want.

Given that this is a first impressions post, I'm surprised I watched as much as I did before writing this. I managed to watch through half of the first season in one sitting, actually quite enjoying it and getting quite immersed in the story and its various oddities. The seriousness of a cold war between two nations, the personal drama of the different characters, and of course the whole style of the show itself. I can understand why it managed to gain such popularity, it does feel like quite a unique show these days. I'll be watching more for sure.