Spy x Family was an incredibly popular show when it first aired earlier this year. With the first half of season one finishing its airing schedule in June and the second half beginning to air in October, it would have been reasonable to expect the show to remain fairly similar across the 25 projected episodes. Instead with the airing of episode 14 this past weekend viewers are starting to agree that a slight artistic shift, a deviation from the original storyline, and a major tonal change have all occurred, though it is unclear how long they will last. Although the changes were present in episode 13 as well.

Spy x Family follows the story of Agent Twilight, a Westalia spy stationed in Ostania. His mission is to get close to a major Ostania political player. In order to do so, he must create a facsimile family. Unfortunately for him, the child he has chosen is a telepath and the wife an assassin. Anya, his adopted daughter, is the only know who knows what everyone is and does her best to help her father achieve world peace, while also panicking about the idea that her mother may try to kill him. Although Yor, his wife, only wants a fake family so that she doesn’t look suspicious and can continue taking on assassination contracts.

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Artistic shift

Spy X Family Season 2

While the style of animation and character designs seem to be completely the same across the two parts of this anime, some of the more artistic choices have changed just slightly. In episodes one through twelve whenever viewers were treated to a specific character's point of view the world remained largely unchanged, with only a few embellishments. Such as reductions in backgrounds when she was reading someone’s mind. However, in the second half the point of views that the viewers have seen from Anya’s perspective have dramatically altered the world. Everything from her daring escape on Mister Dog, where she cannot focus on any passersby and so they are simply not present. One of the only times in the first half that such a thing was seen was in the brief dodgeball moment where she pictured her strength dramatically, though this was still less of an imagining than in episode 13.

Additionally, both of the episodes in the second half have been a part of the exact same story, instead of the serialized style of the first half. Aside from the overarching plotlines every story has begun and concluded within a single episode. But not the student rebellion, nor Anya getting a pet. This change may lead to more interesting subplots as the stories will have more time to develop.

Tonal Shift

Bond when he first appears in the anime.

The two-parter story, while interesting, also forced the characters away from their ultimate goal, getting close to the Donovans. Two episodes into part two and Anya has yet to return to school. She hasn’t seen her friends, and she hasn’t had to focus on stella at all. This subplot was extremely interesting and well done, but it did little to move the main plot forward. With only 11 episodes left in the season, hopefully they manage to steer back towards their real goal quickly.

In the first half of Spy x Family the show was objectively light-hearted. It even managed to make casual jokes, through Anya and Twilight, about the bloody and horrific acts committed by Yor. For example Twilight slipped the grenade pin ring onto Yor’s finger when he proposed to her and she of course liked it. Never mind the fact that the grenade went off and likely killed people.

But the second half has taken a much darker outlook on things. Scenes ranging from Handler’s speech, to Mister Dog’s visions about Twilight’s death came across very strong. And instead of being counterbalanced by levity they were counterbalanced by Yor believing that Anya had been kidnapped into sex trafficking and dogs being trained to deliver bombs in suicide runs. This isn’t to say that there aren’t still jokes being made. The leader of the student rebellion’s awe at seeing the minister perform acrobatics was a well-delivered punchline. It just seems that the show is dipping into the much darker aspects of their source material.

In all, Spy x Family still manages to engage and entertain its viewers. The changes don’t weaken the show, and they don’t make it feel like another show altogether, although they do make it feel different. It is unclear if the changes that have been seen in the first two episodes of the second half are here to stay or if they are simply a strong kick-off to the second half. Either way, viewers are guaranteed to see more spy hijinks, more of Anya trying her very best, and hopefully a lot more of Mister Dog.

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