The Campbelldon

Loid and Fiona’s joint mission begins in Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 22. Their mission is to acquire a painting currently owned by a member of the government. This painting is important because it may hold information that could start a war.

The exact information held within the painting isn’t clear — if it even exists at all. It could hold secrets about war crimes committed by either country. But, WISE’s mission is to prevent war from breaking out at all costs. So, no matter what the information in the painting is, they can’t let it come to light.

So, how are Loid and Fiona going to get their hands on this painting? By entering and winning an underground tennis tournament, of course. The winners of the tournament can take any one piece of artwork from Mr. Campbell’s collection.

Since the Campbelldon is an underground tournament, the rules are more like suggestions. Competitors can use performance-enhancing drugs. They can use specialized equipment, such as a jet-propelled racket. And they may even need to dodge traps built into the court itself. But, the one thing the event organizers frown upon is rigging matches.

The thing is, it’s hard to say where the line is when it comes to rigging matches. Everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph is fair game. But, we can assume that paying off the opposing team would cross the line. So, what about drugging the opposing team so that they play worse?

You could make the argument that it’s fair. You could view it as drug use or a trap. I mean, just because the other team is drugged doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to lose. It’s not the same as throwing a match.

Fiona’s Mission to Win Loid’s Heart

Despite not having any real experience playing Tennis, Loid is a pro. In fact, he’s better than a pro. And Fiona is just as skilled as Loid is. However, I have a feeling she’s not new to the sport.

I don’t think she mentioned this in the episode, but she definitely practiced a lot. There’s no way she didn’t spend every waking hour training for this tournament. This is her best shot at showing Loid how much better she is than Yor. She’s not someone to let that chance slip away.

The only problem is that Fiona doesn’t realize that she can’t replace Yor. She’s so busy obsessing over Loid that she doesn’t see the issues that would cause. Fiona can’t replace Yor for the simple fact that Yor was already chosen to play the role of Loid’s wife.

Remember that Eden College has some very strict rules for the families of its students. Why did Loid need to get married in the first place? Because students needed to have 2 parents who were married. Appearances are everything at Eden College.

How would it look if Fiona suddenly took over as Anya’s mother? Not good. The only reason Yor was acceptable is because of the backstory Loid came up with. His first wife died years ago and he only married Yor after a proper mourning period. Also, he retconned their marriage date back a year.

The school now knows Yor as Loid’s wife and Anya’s mother. So, nobody can replace her without causing problems. Even if Yor died, that would be an issue.

At the end of the day, Fiona’s fantasies of being with Loid won’t ever become real. And it has nothing to do with him loving Yor.

Campbell vs. Phony

In the final match of the Campbelldon, Loid and Fiona face off against Campbell’s children. And this is where the legality of drugging your opponents comes into play. The Campbells have been drugging their opponents before each match.

But, the thing is, they seem good enough to have won all those matches on merit anyway. Well, as long as you consider their specialized rackets to be legal. So, was there a reason for them to resort to drugging the other competitors? Not really. They’re definitely the best players other than Loid and Fiona.

Anyway, in the first match of the finals, the Campbells sweep Loid and Fiona. This is because Loid and Fiona are feeling the effects of the drugs. They didn’t get a very high dose. But, it was enough that they weren’t able to respond to the Campbell’s pressure.

In the second match, it’s Loid and Fiona who do the sweeping. Up until this point, they had been playing as if it was a singles tournament. But now, they begin to play like a real team. It’s the only way they can keep up with their opponents.

And at the very end of the episode, the third match of the finals begins. This is when traps on the court come into play. By traps, I just mean that parts of the court can raise and lower to throw players off balance. It’s not as if buzzsaws are coming up out of the floor — yet.

I’m expecting Loid and Fiona to win in the end. And I’m looking forward to how they celebrate their win. Whatever Loid does, Fiona will probably take it as him confessing his love to her, or something. It should be entertaining.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 22? Do you prefer Fiona’s tennis player look over her normal appearance? How do you feel about Fiona as a character overall now that we’ve had an episode focusing on her? And, do you think Loid and Fiona will win? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 23 is available now.

Fiona Frost: Agent Nightfall

Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 21 officially introduces Fiona Frost, one of Loid’s colleagues. We’ve seen her in the ED all season. And she made a brief appearance in Episode 20. But, she’s finally here as a named character.

Something you may have noticed is the similarity between Loid’s and Fiona’s codenames. Loid’s is Twilight and Fiona’s is Nightfall. We also know there’s an “Agent” Daybreak. Well, their codenames actually represent where they’re from. I didn’t make the connection until we learned Fiona’s codename.

You see, Twilight and Nightfall are spies for Westalis, the country in the West. And Daybreak is from whatever the Eastern country is called. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. That’s why Daybreak is from the East and both Twilight and Nightfall are from the West. Though, I should point out that Daybreak gave himself that name to be the opposite of Twilight.

Anyway, Fiona is one of the top spies in WISE. We don’t know exactly how high up she is. But, we know Loid is the #1 spy in the West. We know he helped train Fiona. And we know that other WISE agents view Fiona as competing with Loid.

From all that, we can assume she’s a competent spy, unlike Daybreak. But, Fiona has one major flaw — she’s obsessed with Loid and wants to marry him. In fact, she wants to go beyond marrying him. She wants to give him everything.

I’m expecting this to cause Fiona to make a few mistakes during their joint mission in the next episode. And I’m also expecting to be disappointed by her character. The fact that she’s obsessed with Loid feels like Yor being the clumsy housewife all over again.

Yor Forger’s Greatest Foe

I’m not sure why the author is unable or unwilling to write normal, adult female characters. Well, that’s not entirely true. Sylvia Sherwood’s character isn’t bad. But, she’s a much more minor character than Yor. And I’m assuming even Fiona is going to surpass her in relevance.

But, at least Yor now has a rival. I can see Fiona being to Yor what Yuri is to Loid. And my hope is that having a rival will give Yor some better content. Is that actually going to be the case? Probably not.

Still, what could a Fiona and Yor rivalry look like? Well, let’s look at Yuri and Loid. Yuri wants to separate Loid from Yor because he believes Loid isn’t good enough for her. That’s pretty much the same for Fiona. She wants to separate Yor from Loid because she believes Yor isn’t good enough for him.

On top of that, Yuri is pretty sure that Loid is working for Westalis. So, part of their dynamic is that Yuri’s trying to out Loid as a spy so that he can have Loid arrested. I could see something similar happening with Fiona and Yor.

I doubt she’ll ever get concrete proof. But, Fiona could start to suspect that Yor moonlights as an assassin. And, if she does, outing Yor as an assassin would become Fiona’s goal. If Fiona manages to do that, Yor won’t be able to be with Loid anymore.

Also, Anya is a key component in both of these rivalries. When Yuri saw how happy Anya makes Yor, he didn’t want to make Yor sad by separating them. And when Fiona saw how much Anya loves Yor, she realized how hard it will be to get Loid to replace Yor.

Agent Penguin Is Dead

If you stopped watching the episode when the ED began, you missed about a quarter of the episode. In the post-credits scene, Bond destroys Anya’s Agent Penguin plush she got at the aquarium. He bites and scratches it because he’s jealous that she slept with it instead of him.

And because this is a plush that Loid got for her, Agent Penguin means a lot to Anya. She doesn’t want to replace it. So, Yor offers to fix it. And, who would have guessed that Yor offering to fix it would only make things worse?

Seriously, the author should kill Yor off at this point. As a viewer, that would be less painful than seeing how he writes her character.

But, the good news for Anya is that Loid saves the day by actually fixing Agent Penguin. At least, to the best of his abilities.

To be fair, I didn’t think this part of the episode was all that good aside from Anya freaking out. Well, the entire episode wasn’t that good. But, at least we got to see an iconic panel from the manga animated. It’s when Anya asks to sleep with Agent Penguin.

The panel itself isn’t really anything special. However, I’ve seen so many edits of it of Anya asking for and Loid giving her different things. It’s become one of those scenes that I can’t take seriously at this point. You know, like those Tokyo Ghoul and Magical Girl Site panels that have become memes.

Anyway, this was the first time Bond has been relevant in a while. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s for the best that he isn’t one of the main characters since there aren’t that many ways to use him.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 21? Did you realize the agent codenaming conventions before I pointed them out? Do you think Fiona is going to get the Yor treatment from the author? And, do you know the manga panel I was talking about with Agent Penguin? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 22 is available now.

Anya Shadows Yor

Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 20 follows Anya as she gathers information for her school report. The students in her class have to do a report on an occupation they’re interested in. And, naturally, most of the kids take the easy way out by interviewing one of their parents.

At first, Anya asks to follow Yor at work. This seems to be the right choice. After all, Yor works a normal job at City Hall. There would be no issue with her bringing Anya along for the assignment. But, because this is Yor, that’s not the job she considered bringing Anya to.

Yor didn’t immediately think about her City Hall job. Instead, she thought about what it would be like to bring Anya along on an assassination job. It’s clear that this is what Yor views as her “real” job. City Hall is just her cover.

Now, you might think that Anya would want to follow Yor at her real job. But, you need to remember that Anya is a young child. Does she think Yor’s job as an assassin is exciting? Yes. Does she want to see Yor kill people? No. She thinks that’s scary.

I’m a bit surprised that Anya didn’t wait to ask Loid first in the hopes she could see him do spy stuff. But, I guess she understood that wasn’t going to happen. So, she might as well ask Yor first since she has a normal job on the side.

When Anya asked Loid, the series did something I appreciate. It skipped over Anya explaining her project and asking to go to work with him. I’m pretty sure Spy x Family has done that other times before now. But, it was a nice way to speed through unnecessary dialogue.

Investigate the General Hospital

When Anya asked to follow Loid around at work, he said yes without hesitation. Of course, his “job” is that he’s a therapist who works in a hospital. But, I didn’t actually think he went to the hospital. I thought that was just something he said he did.

It turns out that Loid actually does go to the hospital most days and sees patients there. He has good relationships with his coworkers. And he’s even praised for his good work ethic. Oh, and most of these coworkers aren’t WISE agent plants.

I never would have guessed that Loid spent so much time at the hospital considering his spy job. It’s not like Operation Strix is his only mission. It’s his most important mission, sure. But, we’ve seen that Sylvia Sherwood gives him other assignments to fill his downtime. And he spends a lot of time keeping an eye on Anya.

Anyway, Loid takes Anya to the hospital and she has a great time. His coworkers give him snacks and she gets to investigate a secret passage. What more could she ask for?

Okay, so she didn’t get to hear the details of the new mission Loid received. She probably would have liked that. But, exploring the secret passage behind the bookcase is more important. It’s not every day that she can do that. She can read Loid’s mind to get details about his missions whenever she wants.

Speaking of the assignment Loid received, did you notice the woman who gave it to him? She’s the mystery woman from the ED. We don’t know her name yet. But, it seems like next week’s episode is going to feature her prominently. So, I expect we’ll get her name then. We may even get her codename, too.

Decipher the Perplexing Code

Did anyone else actually decipher the code on the piece of paper from this episode? Or was I the only one? Well, if you didn’t, you’ll be happy to know you didn’t miss out on anything. The code says exactly what we were told it says.

Every number in the code has 2 digits. The first digit represents the column and the second represents the row. So, 61 means column 6, row 1, which is the letter T. Commas between numbers signify separate letters. And spaces are still spaces.

So, what does the secret code say? It says “Come to… [the bridge (Sat) 0800].”

Part of me wants to compliment Spy x Family for having the code actually work. They could have written nonsense or used a fake alphabet that we couldn’t decipher. But, it actually used a real code. That’s pretty neat.

However, there’s another part of me that wishes the secret code wasn’t what the series told us it was. It would have been more fun if there was a different message waiting for anyone who tried to decipher it. I really would have appreciated an easter egg like that.

Imagine if you deciphered the code and it said something like “Part 3 coming soon.” But, even something less exciting would have been enough for me. It could have been a name of a character we haven’t met yet. Or it could have been some random piece of trivia about one of the characters.

Unfortunately, that’s not what we got. And, also unfortunately, Franky was the only one in the show who took the time to decipher the code and show up. I was hoping we’d see a bunch of random characters all show up at the bridge without Anya there in the end.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 20? Would you have rather seen Anya visit Yor’s job at City Hall? How do you think Loid makes time to be a practicing therapist? And did you decipher the code on your own? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

46,53,31,64,43
46,42,14,31,64,46,53,42,42
16,43
46,53,42,54,53,22

My review of Episode 21 is available now.

Damian’s Rival, George Glooman

I don’t think the first half of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 19 was good. The way this half of the episode ended wasn’t bad. But, in general, I didn’t find this half to be very entertaining. And a big part of why was George Glooman.

George Glooman isn’t a funny or interesting character. He’s also ugly. And the fact that he’s ugly is a bigger deal than you might expect. People like characters that look good. So, the fact that he’s not funny, interesting, or good-looking is a death sentence for poor George.

Obviously, George is ugly on purpose. He’s supposed to be the opposite of Damian, who’s portrayed as a handsome young man. They’re even opposites in the way they act. Damian is pretty outgoing, even if he often views himself as better than those around him. George is gloomy.

But, why are these two characters rivals? Well, it’s more of a one-sided rivalry. Damian doesn’t view George as his rival. It’s George who views Damian as his rival. And the reason for this is that George believes Damian’s father is putting his own father out of business.

In George’s mind, getting Damian expelled from Eden College is one way to solve his situation. The expulsion of Damian would rock the Desmond family. And it would distract the Desmond Group from taking down Glooman Pharmaceuticals. Clearly, George is overestimating the impact of Damian being expelled.

But, one thing we learned from this episode is that George was the one who hired Daybreak. He gave his butler the money to hire a spy to alter Damian’s test scores so he would earn Tonitrus Bolts. Even if that plan worked, though, he would still have needed Damian to earn 4 more.

Becky… For Real?

What was the best part of the first half of Episode 19? It was Anya’s reaction to everyone breaking out in song. I felt Anya’s reaction on a spiritual level. She and I reacted in pretty much the same way.

As soon as Becky began to sing, and before Anya’s “Becky… for real?” comment, I made a comment of my own. I actually said aloud, “Man, this is so cringe.” I absolutely loathe when characters break out into song. But, at least there were no lyrics to the song the students started singing. I would have had to skip through it if that was the case.

I also appreciate that Anya never joined in on the singing. Throughout the whole song, she stood there with a look of disgust on her face. People like to act all edgy and say they identify with characters like Light from Death Note. I’ve never identified with a character more than I did with Anya in this moment.

The other part of this portion of the episode I didn’t mind was George’s return to school the next day. I saw it coming from the start. But, it was still pretty good. I think what made it better were the reactions of the other students.

At this point, my question is whether or not we’ll see George again. I’m sure he’ll be in the background. But, I’m not convinced that he’s going to become a real character. Are there other stories or gags that can make use of him?

And since George is the one who hired Daybreak, we might not see him again either. Though, Daybreak feels like he has more reuse value than George does. George is replaceable by any number of students. Daybreak is far more unique.

Yor Becomes the Wind

The more I think about it, the second half of Episode 19 wasn’t very good either. Okay, it was Yor content, which is nice. But it wasn’t exciting or funny Yor content. It was Yor delivering gym clothes to Anya.

Yes, we got to see Yor doing Yor things, like saving the falling plant and sending it back up to the ledge it came from. But, that felt out of place. It felt like it was only included because it had to be since this part of the episode focused on Yor.

I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s hard to explain. But, it’s like the plant thing and Yor scaling the school are obligatory inclusions. Why are they included? Because something like that has to be included if we’re going to be focusing on Yor.

At the very end of the episode, Loid catches up with Yor and asks if she wants to go out to lunch with him. Not that’s some content I’d like to see. I wouldn’t mind if we got some cute romance between Loid and Yor. It has to happen eventually, right?

It doesn’t look like next week’s episode is going to pick up where this one left off. So, I’m not getting my hopes up that we’ll see Loid and Yor’s lunch date. But, that’s one kind of Yor content I want. I want either cute romance Yor content or cool assassin Yor content.

Instead, we constantly get flustered housewife Yor content and I’m over it. I’ve been over it. To be fair, I’ve already given up on Yor ever becoming more than what she currently is. It doesn’t seem like the author has much interest in that. It’s disappointing.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 19? Do you like George Glooman? Would you have joined the other students in song? And what’s your opinion on how Yor has been portrayed in the series so far? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 20 is available now.

Eden College Exam Time

Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 18 introduces a new weakness of Anya’s telepathy. Apparently, she can’t use her power on days when there’s a New Moon. Why is this the case? We’re not given an explanation. All Anya knows is that she overheard scientists say that.

And, Anya has experienced many New Moons since she became a telepath. So, she knows that what she overheard is true, even if she doesn’t know why. But, the real reason for this is a little thing called plot convenience.

Anya’s upcoming exams wouldn’t be much of a problem if she could simply read the minds of her classmates. So, of course, the exams happen to fall on a day with a New Moon. It seems Anya will have to study for her exams the old-fashioned way.

We also need to keep in mind that exams are one of the times throughout the year when students can earn Stella Stars. The exams cover 4 subjects, and the top 2 students for each subject in each grade earn a Stella Star. On the other hand, any student who fails an exam earns a Tonitrus Bolt.

If Anya can manage to be in the top 2 for all 4 of her exams, she’ll earn 4 Stella Stars. With those, her total would be 5 of the 8 she needs. And if she fails all 4 exams, which is much more likely, she’ll have 4 of 8 Tonitrus Bolts.

Another issue is that these exams are only the midterms. If Anya fails all her midterms and fails all her finals, she’ll reach 8 Tonitrus Bolts and get expelled. So, while it’s unlikely Anya will earn any Stella Stars, she needs to make sure she doesn’t fail any exams.

Yuri-Sensei Tutors Anya

After Loid has little success tutoring Anya, Yor decides to ask Yuri to take over. Naturally, Yuri immediately accepted. It didn’t matter what Yor asked him to do. He would have accepted anything his sister asked of him.

Something you may have forgotten is that this was the first time Yuri and Anya met. The last time Yuri came over, Anya was already asleep. And, of course, Anya became very excited when she figured out that Yuri is a member of the secret police.

Yuri, however, wasn’t immediately taken with Anya. As far as he knows, Anya is Loid’s biological daughter. And since Yuri views Loid as the man who stole his sister away from him, Yuri doesn’t like Anya by default. And when he learns about Anya’s lack of general knowledge, his view of her only gets worse.

Anya may not be very book-smart. But, it didn’t take very long for her to figure out that Yuri is an absolute siscon. And so, she tells him about the nice things she hopes to do for Yor after she passes her exam.

With his new motivation, Yuri begins working even harder to tutor Anya. Unfortunately, all his hard work was for nothing. By the end of the tutoring session, Anya didn’t even know what subject she had been learning. And with that, Yuri quit his job as Anya’s tutor and exited the apartment.

In the end, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that Anya didn’t know what subject she was studying. After Yuri left, Loid picked up the book he was using to teach Anya with and noticed it was a foreign language book. Anya doesn’t have a foreign language exam.

From Twilight to Daybreak

In the final part of the episode, we’re introduced to a new character, Agent Daybreak. Daybreak is Loid’s foil character. Imagine someone who’s the opposite of Loid in every way, and you have Daybreak. Even his code name is the opposite of Loid’s.

I can never remember if Loid works for the East or the West. But, that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Daybreak works for the opposite side. And he’s the most incompetent spy imaginable. Though, even calling him a spy seems like a bit of a stretch.

You see, Loid is a real spy. He works for WISE, which is a secret government agency. As far as we know, Daybreak doesn’t work for any similar organization. He’s a free agent whom someone hired to alter the Desmond brothers’ scores on their exams. Specifically, his mission is to lower their scores.

As you might expect, Loid wanted nothing to do with Daybreak. But, they were both breaking into Eden College’s vault at the same time. And because of how sloppy Daybreak was, Loid had to cover for him so he wouldn’t jeopardize Loid’s own mission.

This cover included helping Daybreak get passed security and into the vault. But, it also included stopping Daybreak from doing things like autographing his work. In the end, he even had to undo the alterations Daybreak made to the Desmond brothers’ exams. Why? Loid needs both Anya and Damian to become Imperial Scholars.

If Damian were to get expelled for receiving 8 Tonitrus Bolts, Loid’s mission would be a failure. And the same is true if Damian doesn’t earn 8 Stella Stars and become an Imperial Scholar. But, that’s not as extreme of a failure. There are other ways to get Anya close to Damian.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 18? Did you expect Anya to get any Stella Stars or Tonitrus Bolts? How did you feel about Anya meeting Yuri for the first time? And do you think Daybreak is going to be a recurring character or a one-off? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server to discuss anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 19 is available now.