(CR) Spy x Family Season 2

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Yuri really is awful. Series would be so much better without him.

I just like the idea of the inevitable drama when he goes after Loid as Twilight directly and he and his sister find out about their mutual careers and the fallout...and how his nationalism contrasts with everybody else .

[SamCurt]

Originally Posted by Frontier

I just like the idea of the inevitable drama when he goes after Loid as Twilight directly and he and his sister find out about their mutual careers and the fallout...and how his nationalism contrasts with everybody else .

Well, when it comes to the relationships between the two countries, the current Ostanian and Westalis governments are actually identical (as one may recall in S1E13-14), at the point that the first thing we saw Twlight doing in S1E1 is, essentially, preventing the Ostanian foreign minister from getting into a scandal. So there's a way to reconcile between the two.

[FlareKnight]

A bleak episode. But I get the importance of establishing Yuri's capabilities. While showing that he can ingest Yor's cooking (and survive) along with handle her smacking him across the room, it's good to see what he can do on the job.

Sadly the job...is being part of the secret police.

So as a whole it wasn't super fun. But at least it's a useful episode for setting things up. It's really been a strange start to this season with where they picked things up in the source material. Guess we'll keep this train going for now .

[SamCurt]

After watching the first segment (as well as its source material), I was wondering the limits of speech in Ostania. It seems Perkin's problem isn't him writing anti-government articles per se, but selling them to the underground press (not to mention some of the things he wrote are outright fake). Does that mean Ostania actually tolerates these kinds of things within the private sphere...?

[Endscape]

Originally Posted by SamCurt

After watching the first segment (as well as its source material), I was wondering the limits of speech in Ostania. It seems Perkin's problem isn't him writing anti-government articles per se, but selling them to the underground press (not to mention some of the things he wrote are outright fake). Does that mean Ostania actually tolerates these kinds of things within the private sphere...?

The fact that the government can arrest people for what they write not to mention the fact that it was the secret police doing it, tells you that whatever laws there are likely so vague that they can just arrest people for whatever.

[Guido]

CODE IV: Mission and Family

Observation: Although highly dangerous and risky, it's commendable to fight against the authoritarian regime by any procurable means such as writing your thoughts on the matter and have them published outside. Indeed, the pen of the writer is mightier than the gun of the soldier.

Reprobate: However, yellow journalism, exaggerating the facts, and manufacturing self-made evidence can turn you into vile scum, nevertheless, the world and media these days craves for hot news.

Lesson learned: Family matters at the end of the day so do not do anything that could jeopardize your family's well-being and happiness.

Extra lesson to account for: Young men with sister complexes are still... ...CREEPS!

CODE V: The Elegant Bondman

Personal chronicle: During my childhood the cartoons I used to watch dealt in simple terms the good guys beating the bad guys and teaching a moral to the audience. And, it never was about the hero stocking-up a harem for himself while saving the world.

CODE VI: The Heart of a Child/Waking Up

Word of advice: Children engage in nonsense that love/like there's no point for adults to overanalyze everything that children do, or one will end up with a freaking headache.

Still, an adult's awkward expression at non-understanding his child partaking in her childhood play is priceless and a must watch.

Lesson learned: Rich boys learned from experience to wake-up in time for class. Meanwhile, Girls with ESP powers oversleep due that studying is not to their liking.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by SamCurt

After watching the first segment (as well as its source material), I was wondering the limits of speech in Ostania. It seems Perkin's problem isn't him writing anti-government articles per se, but selling them to the underground press (not to mention some of the things he wrote are outright fake). Does that mean Ostania actually tolerates these kinds of things within the private sphere...?

I get the feeling they wouldn't be ok with that either. A big thing for them seems to be public image of their nation. So I'd suspect critical writings would be a good way to get fired. Whether because they don't want the negative truth out there or because they don't want anything that could be used as propaganda I'm not as certain about.

It could just be that selling to the underground press was the element they wanted to focus on. Makes them sound less evil that way. Could be as simple as wanting to make it sound better than it is to keep "pure" parts of their forces like Yuri from having doubts about what they are doing. Though I could be off on that one.

At the very least I can't imagine they are actually ok with critical speech against the nation. Though anything is possible I suppose.

[Mad Pierrot]

For a second I was like "Oh, I think I might like Yuri's character" and then the incest came back.....

[SeijiSensei]

For me this was perhaps the weakest episode of either season. Not very funny, and nothing to advance the plot.

What life was like dealing with the real-life Yuri's in East Germany. Not very funny either. An excellent, though depressing, film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others

[magnuskn]

Yeah, the "oh, he's a Stasi member" thing is probably the worst part of the entire show.

[Guardian Enzo]

A Stasi member and an assassin working for a totalitarian government are not great choices for sympathetic treatment. The fact that SxF sometimes isn't sure if it's a comedy or not (or tries to have it both ways, at least) doesn't help in that respect.

[magnuskn]

True enough. Yor kinda gets away with it, because she targets people who are more clearly coded "evil". Disappearing people who just are dissidents of public opinion seems inherently less savory.

Also, I'm not even sure Yor's agency is working for the government.

[fukarming]

Tatsuya Endo enjoys darker work and Spy X Family is his most light-hearted work so far but you still see he enjoys putting in darker elements like the secret police and the resemblance of East Germany.

[Guardian Enzo]

I like the darker elements. I just don’t enjoy when he seems to be trying to make authoritarian stooges the good guys.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I like the darker elements. I just don’t enjoy when he seems to be trying to make authoritarian stooges the good guys.

I don't think Yuri is meant to come off as a "good guy," at least as far as his loyalty to the Ostanian government, especially when he's after Loid.

Of course they had to write the guy he was going after bullying some kids so .

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by magnuskn

True enough. Yor kinda gets away with it, because she targets people who are more clearly coded "evil". Disappearing people who just are dissidents of public opinion seems inherently less savory.

Also, I'm not even sure Yor's agency is working for the government.

Yor targets are usually those with connections to organized crime and while her organization may not be an official part of the Ostanian government, it wiould seem they're also getting contracts from them to go after people that are careful enough not to get caught by official government channels.

Originally Posted by Frontier

I don't think Yuri is meant to come off as a "good guy," at least as far as his loyalty to the Ostanian government, especially when he's after Loid.

Of course they had to write the guy he was going after bullying some kids so .

Yuri for me doesn't really come off as good nor evil. A bit unhinged when it comes to his sister but that's about it. Otherwise he just does his job to the best of his abilities because he believes that in protecting his country, he's protecting his sister. I'm sure if anything were to happen to shake his loyalty to his country it would have to involve Yor.

So prediction time! There will come a time when Yuri will be forced to choose between Ostanian or Yor and I think we all know what action Yuri would take.

[Frontier]

A special pastry that grants great intelligence and the chance to be a true Imperial Scholar? Perfect premise for a story involving the kids .

It's nice to see Joker Anya and Queen Becky together again this season even if their ideas for roleplay are so different. Although if they really are separating the classes by how well you do...man, Anya is sooooo screwed .

Kids shouldn't run in the halls, but of course the kids have to race each other to see who gets to eat the special macarons! Even get Damian and Anya together on-screen again !

I can't believe frikkin' GEORGE got the macarons! At least it's easy to pester him into giving some away, but that still will leave an odd-kid out. Time for a competition !

It's rough playing old maid with a telepath, especially when she's unleashing so many classic Anya faces, though Anya realizes she played her telepathic hand too early and has to throw the game to not expose her powers. She's lucky Damian is so sweet on her that he let her win...and she was even a little sweet on him, though his tsundere nature screwed him over on that front .

Has Anya awakened as a true Imperial Scholar!? Has her true intellectual power unleashed!? Well...her grades are still bad, but it does seem like she's more knowledgeable about stuff she shouldn't really know, so maybe the effect was real? Either way, I'm glad Loid is still treating her .

It's funny watching Loid and Franky talk about Yor's real job as an assassin without knowing it, and Loid basically dismisses Garden. Boy will that come back to bite him eventually .

Franky is still determined to get a girlfriend and thinks saving the cat of a waitress from a cafe he frequents is his best bet, and it even leads to an unexpected team-up with Yor as they search for cats .

Poor Franky. His inventions are clever and creative but don't always hold up to reality, whether it be cats breaking his cat monitoring device, his capture devices all being foiled, or the exo-suit he spent 10 years building getting torn to pieces by Yor. It doesn't pay to be an inventor sometimes .

Although I like how even when he claims he's an inventor to help better the world, he just had to throw in how he also wants to make money off his inventions .

Is there anything more cuter than Yor twirling around with cats glomping her? But Yor putting the fear of GOD into Kopi is also very Yor .

I KNEW she was going to have a boyfriend. Poor Franky. Will he ever get a girlfriend ?

Yor's co-workers still seem to barely tolerate her, but that's okay because they just think she's a normal wife and not an elite assassin taking targets from Junichi Suwabe .

[Nachtwandler]

Cruise Arc, here we go. One of the best parts of the manga. I wonder how many eps it will take.

[Kanon]

I had completely forgotten the bit about Anya being strangely proficient in the ancient language. Felt like it was meant to be foreshadowing but that never went anywhere in the manga... yet, at least. It's slow as shit. Both the release schedule and the pacing of the story.

Cruise arc already? Definitely looking forward to it, it's amazing. I hope the animation will hold up, but I'm not too worried.

[Wandering Soul]

Many people were looking forward to the cruise arc, myself included. Here's hoping the anime version doesn't disappoint.