Westalis and Ostania are two "twin countries" divided by one being a democracy and the other a dictatorship. Since Ostania's state official Desmond is suspected of having a dangerous plan, Westalian top spy Twilight is given an unusual assignment: to "create" a fake family and send his kid in the same class as Desmond's son, leading him to Desmond. Twilight is thus given a new identity as Loid Forger, a psychiatrist, and marries Yor, a woman who is secretly an assassin. He also adopts a little girl, Anya, and sends her to the private school to befriend Desmond's son. They are also later joined by a big dog that can see the future. In the end, Twilight is just barely able to talk to Desmond personally, who appears briefly with his bodyguards.
An amusing comedy take on the spy era of West and East Germany during the Cold War set in an alternate universe, "Spy X Family" seems as if the story was aimed to appeal to two utterly separate audiences: one obviously intended for the grown ups who understand the socio-historical context, and the other perplexingly intended for kids in elementary school. As such, these two disparate levels of the storyline clash sometimes badly with each other. The 'grown ups' story works, especially in the first two episodes which are excellent—each of the three protagonists who pretend that they are a family have something to gain from it (Twilight is only there for "professionalism" to spy on the politician; Yor is a lonely woman who wants to impress her co-workers at job who gossip as to why she is still single, to deflect from her secret identity as an assassin; Anya doesn't want to be an orphan), and each motivation has its purpose and a logic.
The 2nd episode is especially delicious: Yor waits for Twilight for their date, but he is preoccupied with fighting villains on another location. Yor finally goes alone to a party, where her co-workers all have a date, and some even have their kids with them, so Yor is ashamed, sitting alone in the corner, as everyone thinks she lied she has a boyfriend. Just as a disappointed Yor wants to leave early, Twilight suddenly breaks the door open and enters the room, with blood (!) on his face, apologizing because he had to "restrain" a crazy patient, and accidentally blunders by saying Yor is his wife, which shocks everyone at the party, yet obviously makes Yor very proud and happy, giving her significance. The writing somewhat falters after that. Another great episode is #7 when Twilight goes to school and secretly tries to persuade Anya to apologize to Desmond's son, whom she punched earlier, so Anya sees Twilight's "SORRY" message everywhere—either being chopped in cypress trees, written on a note attached to a kid's back, or even written via ketchup on omelette in the cantina. Unfortunately, for some reason, when the story revolves around the 7-year old Anya in elementary school, it plays out like a kids' show, since the plots revolving around arts and class, Anya going shopping with her friend or getting instructions are simply boring and uninteresting. She is like Chibiusa from "Sailor Moon" in this anime. Also, Yor is underwritten, when she is one of the most fascinatingly unusual characters. Considering that very little is discovered by the end of the first season, and that there are too many 'filler' or 'empty walk' episodes, "Spy X Family" is an anime that is good, yet could have been much better if the authors were more focused on its better parts.
Grade:++
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