If any of you read my post with Scott about AMAIM yesterday, you might know that I was sick last Monday but feeling a bit better on Tuesday. Well, it turned out that, that was unfortunately short-lived and by Wednesday I was quite sick again and remained so until Friday. At that point, I was solidly on the mend and now I am feeling like myself again for the first time in a week. It’s like I’ve walked out of a daze and I’m still a little groggy.
I need to get my routine back on track. I haven’t worked out in days, my groceries have mostly gone to waste and I hardly watched any anime this week. But you know what’s a great way to get back into the anime swing of things: Spy x Family!
It’s not like I didn’t know this week was the last episode of the first cour. I knew. I’ve been saying it for a while. And I was still surprised by it. I’m partly blaming that on my brain still being a little squishy from whatever I caught. I’m also partly laming this on the season having just flown by! Although I m looking forward to summer 2022 in anime, I will miss Spy x Family a lot. Good thing that we only have to wait one season in between!
As I predicted, this last episode was the adaptation of the extra aquarium chapter and… This is the first time I can honestly say this all season, which in itself is impressive, I liked his bit better in the manga. I still liked the episode but I think it broke the flow. Let me try to explain.
The events themselves are pretty much the same as in the manga. And I do like the actual plot of the episode. The premise of a casual weekend at the aquarium that turns into a secret mission for Twilight is fun. I liked how the family came together to make sure it was a success. I thought that Anya weaponizing Yor’s love for her was both mischievous and adorable. It certainly is black humour having Yor casually think that she hopes she didn’t kill a man when there’s a strong probability she did and Lod walking through the background with a comical WOW. It almost had a Looney Tunes quality to it and I am here for that.
The last part, when Any was playing spy with the stuffed animals is an anime original and it was mostly fine although it felt particularly filler to me in an already filler episode. Still, none of that was what I took issue with.
Throughout the season, the Spy x Family adaptation has moved events around a little to make them fit better with the new format. And I have to say it has been a smashing success. In my opinion, Spy x Family is one of the best adaptations I have seen. But his particular series of events was moved more than most and I just don’t think it works at this point in the story.
Originally, the aquarioum ooting takes place much earlier on and the way it is presented gives you the impression that it’s even a bit of a flashback. Essentially taking place shortly after Yor comes into the picture and they start to officially live as a family. And you can tell. It’s subtle but the way they are interacting with each other is a lot more tentative and careful. They are still forming a lot of their relationships and they have yet to go through those events that brought them all closer to each other. They don’t trust each other as much. And that step back in their interactions was really jarring to me. Also, despite what I said last time, I don’t think this was the best place to put a break in the main storyline.
I still believe that it’s a practical choice to end on the Aquarium episode. The entire thing serves as a bit of a soft recap for the season and you could easily just rewatch the opening of it before the beginning of the next cour if you need a refresher. But the pacing suffered a bit.
I’m sounding really negative. The fact is, I enjoyed the episode. In a season as great as the first cour of Spy x Family has been, even great episodes can be a weak point in comparison though. Or maybe I’m just being bitter that I don’t get to watch the rest next Saturday. I’m going to be counting the days!
Previous Posts
- Spy x Family episode 1 – Family Man
- Spy x Family episode 2 – Found Family
- Spy x Family episode 3 – Family Ooting
- Spy x Family episode 4 – The Elegant Family
- Spy x Family episode 5 – Meet the Loidman Family
- Spy x Family episode 6 – Like Mother, Like Daughter
- Spy x Family episode 7 – Extended Family
- Spy x Family episode 8 – Family-In-Law
- Spy x Family episode 9 – Briar Family Issues
- Spy x Family episode 10 – Dodgeball Lessons with Mom
- Spy x Family episode 11 – Family Pride
I really enjoyed this episode, didn’t feel any of them were filler (or if it’s filler, it’s the good kind, maybe like Thanksgiving stuffing or something.) But I agree looking back that the placement in the cour was weird. It would have thrown me for more of a loop if I didn’t know a second cour was coming this fall.
I’m the same as you
I’m glad you are feeling better. And I kind of agree about the episode being where it is in the series, but everything about it felt fine otherwise.
Oh yeah, it was still a very cute episode
Glad to know you’re feeling better! Getting sick is always the worst because it really does throw everything off.
I’m so happy to be over it
Sorry to hear you weren’t feeling well! I hope you can recover quickly!
This really was a fun episode, but I think you’re right about the placement of the episode. I feel like episode 11 might have been a better finale and episode 12 should have been earlier in the season. I mean the episode was super cute, but where it was in the season just felt a little bit off.
I’m a lot better thank you. It was still very sweet but like you said, a bit off
I’m not surprised to learn that this happened earlier. The way they prefaced the episode with a recap made it feel more like an OVA or special than a regular episode. It’s filler, sure, but it feels like… bubblewrap? The thing you put in presents to preserve the integrity of the gift and rescue it from careless postal handling. A buffer episode before the restart in the near future. I actually really liked Anya playing spy. It showed how important the penguin plushy is.
Bubble wrap is perfect. That’s exactly what it was