Spy×Family Season 2

Episodes 26-28

There are so many things to love about SPY x FAMILY that it's often hard to pick just one, but episode twenty-eight makes it easy on at least one front: it is practically an ode to the number of little details that are included in this show. The easiest place to see it is in the special Bondman section – Anya's favorite cartoon Spy Wars not only lampoons spy fiction in a broader way than the main story, but it's also animated to capture the grainy quality of old TV sets with a different level of color saturation. If you walked away from your screen and missed that the segment was what Anya was watching, you'd still be able to tell that it was a different show. I admire that level of commitment. That goes for Yuri's spy mission, where he observes a man named Franklin to try to catch him going against the state. In a form of entertainment where foreign languages are more typically shown as what looks like gobbledygook newspaper snippets, all of the English here is readable and grammatically correct, not to mention appropriate to the situation. It's especially striking since episode twenty-six took care to blur out the details of bomb-making Anya picked up from the bad guy – the implication is that if it wasn't teaching how to make explosives, the information would have been provided and been correct.

Artistry and fidelity aside, these three episodes continue SPY x FAMILY's tradition of blending humor with careful character work. Although we open with a sillier story about Yor desperately trying to hide that she was shot in the ass on a mission (Anya's takeaway is that Yor is strong enough to be shot and not die), both Damian and Yuri get some thoughtful development across these episodes. Damian's is by way of a depressing confirmation: he's so worried about disappointing his father and not living up to his brother's reputation that he's barely sleeping, instead convinced that he needs to devote his time to studying. While that would be a little depressing for any child, I remind you that Damian is six years old. That's not an age where a child should be worn to a frazzle by anything, much less studying, something even Loid (who spends a fair amount of time being confused by children across these episodes) understands. Damian isn't being allowed to be a kid, and from what we've seen of his dad, all for a parent who doesn't appear to care either way. It's a confirmation of emotional neglect.

Fortunately for Damian, he's got great friends and a couple of teachers who are looking out for him. Ewan and Emile are so much more than just Damian's toadies – they're very aware of what's going on with him and want to do their best to help. And for his part, the ever-so-elegant Mr. Henderson is also cognizant of Damian's situation. He's a relatively hands-off teacher (I get the impression that he's not entirely comfortable with little kids), but he makes sure to get a hands-on colleague to do what he can't: take the boys out to just be kids for a while. Damian is adorably out of his depth in the woods, but it's hard to deny that he desperately needed both some positive adult reinforcement (or as much as someone at Eden can provide) and a chance to just run around outdoors shrieking. His entire arc is a parallel to Anya's, who did manage to luck into caring parents, and despite her concern that they'll up and leave her someday, that's still a lot more than Damian, the supposedly privileged one, has.

There are some links between Damian and Yuri, as well. Yuri's entire mission in episode twenty-eight is focused on him having to take down a man writing scurrilous articles about the government, which would be one thing if he wasn't tossing kids' toys into the garbage to get pictures he could lie about. But throughout his investigation, Yuri suddenly realizes that the man isn't just doing this because he hates the government; he's doing it because he needs the money to support his elderly father. Still unscrupulous? Yes, but he also clearly feels like he's been backed into a corner. Yuri isn't quite sure how to handle this realization, and that's some needed character work for a guy whose defining feature has been “loves his sister way too much.” Like Damian, Yuri thinks he's doing everything for his family, and he has an uncomfortable realization during this investigation shows that he's more vulnerable than he'd like to think. Anya gets it, of course, and the scene where she (creepily) pats his leg to encourage Yor to pat his head shows that despite what Yuri may think about Anya, she's got his back because he's her “unkie.”

Whether it's being silly, like Bond desperately trying to help Loid so that he'll save him from the certain death of a Yor-made meal, or serious, SPY x FAMILY is nearly always at the top of its game. This season will hopefully cover the storyline where Yor gets to take center stage, but even if we don't quite get there, it's sure to be a lot more fun than going to the pool and realizing that all the little boys are peeing in it, all the time.

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Spy×Family is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.