English Dub Season Review: Spy X Family Season Two

The Forger family has completed another mission and will go off the grid for now (at least until that movie comes out over here) with the end of their second season. And the first one I have finished in full! As mentioned, I had heard good things about the series as the manga and first season were coming out, as well as seeing a ton of memes and screenshots that basically got me all educated about the premise of the series. Essentially, a spy guy and a lady assassin form a fake family with a mind reading child (who is dumb as rocks) and a future seeing dog while not being aware that they are working for the opposing faction. Over time, the mask falls away and they soon find themselves making a real family, with only small slight reminders that their regular jobs exist. One day, Loid and Yor may find themselves on the opposite sides of a conflict, but for now, the Forger family continues to live their days in relative peace. Which is certainly noticeable in this season, as a little over half of the episodes are self-contained vignettes and only the other half does much of substance.

The first four and last two and a half episodes are, as just mentioned, smaller scale tales focusing on not just the Forger Family going about their daily lives, but also their equally endearing supporting cast. The season opens with a story about Loid trying to take Yor on a date, being unaware that an assassination mission has given her a rather sore butt injury, which definitely sets the tone for the rest of the batch. From there, we get a couple stories following Bond, the aforementioned clairvoyant canine, a couple about Yor’s fanatical brother Yuri, and even some showing Anya’s time at school with her friends. But the main development is in the middle half of the season (Episodes 5-10, to be exact), which puts the Forgers on a cruise ship vacation for differing reasons. Loid and Anya end up on there because of a random mall prize, but Yor is there on a mission from her organization, meeting another makeshift family also coming together because of violent circumstances. Between the harrowing fights and spectacular stealth, Yor finds reason to appreciate her own family while recommitting to her own mission, allowing them to manage some sort of family vacation in the end.

Overall, I would say I did like the show on average, and plan to watch the previous season sometime soon, something I rarely make time for with shows of lesser quality. But while no individual episode really had any egregious problems, I think the way the stand alone episodes and the plot relevant episodes were balanced was definitely a distraction. I realize they’re probably just making the episodes in the order of the chapter releases they’re adapting from, but it’s still real odd. Then again, I don’t know how much the first season balances its own stand alone to plot episode ratios, so it could be similar across its twenty five episodes. Still, I would be lying if I said this show wasn’t worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed the first season. With the still thriving popularity of the series, I’m sure we won’t have to wait long for a third season, and even putting that aside, we have a full fledged movie on the way to the states soon now that it has been released in Japan. The Forger Family isn’t done with their story just yet and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to look forward to the next installment.