Operation Dog

Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 17 includes the end of Operation Dog. This operation was in the works for a while — since back in Part 1. But, it seems we can finally consider the operation to be dead in the water.

To help facilitate Operation Dog, Anya asked her father if they could take a new family photo with Bond. She then planned to show this picture to Damian, which would cause him to invite her over. It was a flawless plan. But, Anya’s execution left a lot to be desired.

On the way to school, Anya happened to drop the photo on the ground in Damian’s path. But, instead of looking at it, he and his friends walked right past. She shouldn’t have left it up to chance. She needed to be more aggressive in showing him the picture.

What really sealed Operation Dog’s fate, though, is Becky. After Damian ignored the photo, Becky picked it up off the ground. And she instantly fell in love with Anya’s father. Unfortunately for Becky, Loid Forger is already married. But, she might be able to snag the role of mistress if she plays her cards right.

Anyway, Becky refused to give the photo back to Anya, so she could no longer show Bond to Damian. At least, she couldn’t show him an actual photo of what Bond looks like. She could still show him an artistic representation of Bond.

However, it should come as no surprise that Anya has no artistic ability whatsoever. When she showed Damian her sculpture of Bond, he asked why she was so proud of a piece of garbage. A tough, yet fair assessment. Now, it’s time to move on to Operation Griffin.

Operation Griffin

Operation Griffin is quite a bit simpler than Operation Dog. It doesn’t involve getting a pet and then bragging about said pet to Damian. Instead, it’s all about being helpful so that Damian appreciates Anya. It’s that easy.

During the arts & crafts class, the students have to create animal-themed sculptures. But, the twist is that each group of students has limited resources to share between them. To get a high grade, the students must show that they’re able to share with one another.

Damian decided that he wants to make a griffin for his piece. But, it’s going to require more resources than he can get his hands on. So, he tells the other members of his group that they need to give their paper to him. That doesn’t sound very much like sharing to me.

However, Anya’s Bond sculpture didn’t use up many resources. It was basically a crumpled piece of paper with some tape and a few strings attached. So, she has plenty of leftover paper to contribute to Damian’s Griffin. But, she goes one step further and offers to help him make his sculpture to save time.

The thing is, I’m not sure Anya actually knows what a griffin is. So, instead of making the pieces that Damian asks for, she makes things like jet engines. Though, in her defense, a griffin with jet engines is way cooler than a griffin without.

There were a few good parts in this episode. Anya dropping the picture of bond is a classic. I’ve seen many meme edits of that panel from the manga. But, my favorite part was the picture above, when Anya had the rainbow halo around her while offering to help. I’d trust her.

Handler Sylvia Sherwood

In the Episode 16 review, I referred to Loid’s handler simply as Handler. But, we now have a name for her, Sylvia Sherwood. It’s unclear if this is her real name or a false name like Loid Forger. But, it doesn’t matter. Sylvia is her name as far as we’re concerned.

When meeting up with Loid in public Sylvia has to put on a disguise and lose anyone tailing her. That’s because she doesn’t only serve as a handler for WISE. Officially, she works as some sort of secretary in the Westalis embassy in the East.

Now, when I saw Sylvia’s disguise, my first thought was that she’s the unknown woman we see in the ED. But, her disguise actually doesn’t look all that similar to that woman. Her hair color and eye color are both different. And the woman in the ED doesn’t have a mole on the left side of her face.

Once I determined that the woman in the ED wasn’t Sylvia — at least not in that same disguise — I had another idea. Could Sylvia be the true identity of Monica McBride from the previous episode? That would explain why Monica shot down Franky’s request for a date.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case either. Sylvia’s disguise has a different hairstyle than Monica’s. They also have different eye colors. And while they both have moles near their mouths, they’re on opposite sides. So, I don’t think Monica is actually Sylvia.

At this point, I’m thinking Sylvia, Monica, and the woman from the ED are different characters. In most other anime, that would have been the obvious conclusion from the start. But, this is a series about spies. I figured this was another case of a character in disguise.

Conclusion

What do you think about Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 17? What could Anya have done to increase the odds of Operation Dog succeeding? Do you think she knows what a griffin is? And, how old do you think Sylvia Sherwood is? Whatever her age, she won’t be single for long if I have anything to say about it.

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 and Key Mochi for supporting this blog at the Heika and Senpai tiers this month. And I’d like to thank Rob, Pepe, and Eban for supporting at the Kouhai tier. To learn more about how you can support DoubleSama.com, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 18 is available now.

Yor’s Most Dangerous Mission

Somehow, the beginning of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 16 baited a lot of people. I know I shouldn’t expect intelligent conversation from Crunchyroll comment sections. But, I still scrolled down after watching the episode. And what I saw there was shocking, to say the least.

The title of the first half of the episode is literally “Yor’s Kitchen.” But, even if you didn’t read the title, it should have been obvious what was going on. Her injuries were consistent with someone injuring themself while cooking. And there have been previous comments about the quality of her cooking.

I get that Yor’s (second) job is that of an assassin. But, it was so obvious that the shots at the beginning of the episode were bait that I can’t understand falling for it. I won’t complain anymore, though. I take responsibility for making the mistake of looking at the comments.

Okay, actually I lied. I have another complaint. But, it has to do with the content of the episode, not comments about it. I’ve often brought up the fact that Yor doesn’t feel like a main character. She’s not like Loid and Anya. Compared to them, she’s a supporting character.

She’s often portrayed as dumb — sometimes Anya-level dumb. And what we saw of her in this episode was related to that. Instead of giving Yor a real conflict to overcome, she got the “female character who’s bad at cooking” trope.

I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the author to write Yor like his other characters. All he has to do is not rely on sexist tropes. It’s that simple. And no, I’m not saying I could write better. But. we know he can write characters normally. So, why not Yor?

Yor x Family

Something we saw a lot of in Episode 16 was how Loid and Yor view their family status. Or, at least, how they convince themselves they view it. In reality, I think we can all agree that both Loid and Yor view their family as real and valid.

But, that’s not how they talk about it. Starting with Yor, let’s take a look at why she wanted to learn how to cook. She said that it’s because her cooking put Loid in the bathroom for a full day. But, that’s only the surface-level reason.

Beneath the surface, she believed that if her cooking continued to be that bad, Loid would divorce her. And if he divorced her, she’d be under suspicion from the secret police for being a single woman at her age. If she loses her family, it would make her assassin gig harder.

Loid is the same way. Multiple times in this episode, he told Franky that he only had a family because of his mission. While that may have been true at first, it certainly isn’t at this point. So, it’s a bit disappointing to see Loid still saying that.

And then there’s Anya. To her, the Forger family is a real family. Of course, she knows the truth behind the formation of their family. She Loid started it as a cover for his job as a spy. And she knows Yor uses it as a cover for her job as an assassin.

But, even though Anya knows those things, that doesn’t make the family any less real for her. This is why it’s a bit disappointing that both Loid and Yor are still thinking of their family as fake. How do you think reading those thoughts makes Anya feel?

Monica McBride

In the second half of the episode, Franky confides in Loid that there’s a woman he likes. He knows basically everything there is to know about this woman. But, he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to ask her out on a date. Oh, and I’m thinking he knows a lot less about her than he believes.

Despite all Loid’s help, Franky didn’t get the date with Monica that he wanted. However, I’m convinced that her name isn’t Monica. I also don’t believe she actually looks as we saw her in this episode. And, I’m going to guess she doesn’t really work at the cigar club on Fifth Street.

You see, there’s another woman who looks similar to Monica in the ED for this season. She doesn’t look quite the same, though. She has a different hairstyle and color. So, my bet is that “Monica” is working at the cigar bar undercover.

The main question for me is who “Monica” works for. Is she an agent of WISE like Loid? She could be. That might explain why we see her and Loid talking together in the ED. She’s not pictured interacting with any of the other characters.

And, this could be why she rejected Franky so harshly. If she works for WISE, she may know that he’s one of their informants. And so, she didn’t want him around her because it could blow her cover. Or, it could actually be as Franky assumed and she doesn’t like what he looks like.

Regardless of why “Monica” rejected Franky, I’m still assuming she’s not who he thinks she is. And I’m assuming she has a connection to Loid, such as being his kouhai. Yuri looks up to Yor unconditionally. “Monica” might do the same for Loid.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 16? Do you think Yor’s getting the short end of the stick, writing-wise? When do you think Loid and Yor will finally admit their family is real, if ever? And, what do you think the true identity of Monica McBride is? 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 17 is available now.

A New Family Member

Bond Forger finally becomes a member of the family in Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 15. But, this almost wasn’t the case. Because he was one of the trained dogs used by the terrorists, WISE was originally going to take him.

Now, it’s possible that Anya would have put her foot down and demanded Bond anyway. But, it seems like the future she saw through him is what made her choose him. In the future Bond showed Anya, he was a member of their family. So, Anya wanted to make this future a reality.

Something I found interesting, but that probably doesn’t matter, is Handler’s child. After allowing Anya to keep Bond, she mentioned to Loid that she once had a daughter Anya’s age. I took this to mean her child died. But, it could be that the father has custody or she simply grew up.

Again, Handler’s daughter likely doesn’t matter at all for the story. But, I still liked this minor piece of character-building. This whole interaction between her and the Forgers in this scene did a lot for her character. She’s a real character now.

Also, my guess is that Anya understood who Handler was. At the end of their conversation, Anya refers to her as an important lady. That could be because she introduced herself as a government agent. But, there’s another clue here. Anya also brought up not going to school if she didn’t get Bond.

She could have been saying this because she knew how her father would react. But, it seems more likely to me that she understood Handler is her father’s boss. So, in this instance, her threat of not going to school had more weight. Loid and Handler can’t jeopardize their mission.

Operation: Anya Has a Dog

I forgot that the reason Anya wanted a dog was so she could help her father with his mission. After receiving a Stella Star, Loid told Anya that he’d get her a dog because she previously asked for one.

But, the reason she asked for one in the first place was so she could use it to get closer to Damian. She knows he has a dog, and so she figured she could score an invite to his house if she had a dog too. And, that would help Loid get close to Damian’s father.

Before telling Damian about Bond, Anya did a test run with Becky, who also has a dog. After telling Becky she got a dog, Becky’s reaction was to ask if she could come over to see it. That’s not exactly what Anya was looking for, but it’s close enough.

So, with her trial run a success, she confronts Damian with her big news. And, as expected, it didn’t go as Anya intended. She didn’t even consider the fact that Becky and Damian might react differently. Damian isn’t her friend like Becky is. So, why would he care that she got a dog?

Luckily for Anya, she got a second chance when Damian asked what her dog’s name was. But, this is where Anya shot herself in the foot. At this point, Bond didn’t yet have a name. So, Anya was going around bragging about her new, unnamed dog.

It might be too early to call Operation: Anya Has a Dog a failure. It’s possible that Damian meets Bond later on and does invite Anya over to meet his own dog. But, I feel pretty confident in saying that’s not going to happen. It’d be too easy.

Bond Forger

Do people actually train dogs to use litterboxes indoors like cats? When I saw Anya doing that with Bond, it seemed very strange to me. I get that the Forgers live in an apartment in a city. But, it still seems like taking the dog outside would be the best course of action.

It’s also not like Bond’s a small dog. He’s larger than Anya. I could maybe understand someone doing that with a very small dog. But definitely not a dog as large as Bond. Also, maybe don’t get a large dog if you’re in an apartment anyway.

Moving on, I brought this up in the Episode 14 review, but I’m not convinced Bond is going to have much of an impact. He can’t actually communicate with the other characters. So, that limits the ways in which he can participate in the events of the series.

Sure, there are a lot of fun ways to incorporate Bond’s future sight ability. For example, he could see a future in which Yuri uncovers Yor’s or Loid’s secret during a visit. And then it would be up to Anya to prevent that future from coming to pass.

But, how long will it take for Bond’s future sight ability to get old? If it’s used often, it won’t take long at all. So, this seems like something that’s going to be relatively rare. My guess is that it won’t happen more than 2 more times for the rest of the season.

The good news is that since Bond is the family dog, we can have episodes that don’t include him at all. If there’s an episode focused on Anya at school, Bond wouldn’t be present. And that’s good because it takes the pressure off Bond to do something interesting.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 15? Do you think we’ll ever learn more about Handler’s daughter? Would you invite Becky over to meet your dog? And, do you think Bond is a good name? Personally, I prefer Lucky Vanilla Princess III.

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 16 is available now.

Future Sight Dog

Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 14 confirms the ability of Anya’s future pet. From what we saw in Episode 13, I wasn’t sure about the extent of this dog’s abilities. It appeared to have additional abilities beyond seeing into the future. But, that no longer seems to be the case.

The dog is intelligent enough to understand what Anya says. Though, that doesn’t mean he actually listens and follows her directions all the time. However, from the previous episode, I assumed the dog had telepathy as well. I thought the dog was intentionally showing Anya the future.

That’s not what was happening. Instead, the dog was seeing the future on his own. Anya only saw the future as well because of her proximity to the dog. As the series already established, she’s always reading the minds of those around her. She can’t help it.

This explains why the dog doesn’t always know what Anya’s talking about. Rather than saying things out loud, she thinks them a lot of the time. The dog can’t read her mind like she can read his. And so, the dog doesn’t know what Anya’s trying to tell him.

Now that I know this is the case, I’m a bit less interested in the dog than I was before. If the dog has no way to communicate with Anya, then is he really a new character? I’d argue he’s not. Instead, he’s more like a buff to Anya’s abilities.

Before, Anya’s ability was that she could read minds. Now, her ability is that she can read minds and see the future if she’s near the dog. And, I also have my doubts about how entertaining this new ability is going to be in the long run. It could easily get overused.

Is Anya Normal for Her Age?

I know Anya’s portrayed as being not very smart for her age. Loid seems to think she’s a bit on the slow side. And compared to her classmates, she doesn’t excel in any subject. But, is Anya actually normal for her age?

This isn’t a rhetorical question. I’m genuinely asking. I don’t have children, so I don’t know what kinds of things she should and shouldn’t know. It’s also been a long time since I was her age, so I don’t remember from my own experience either.

Before going further into this topic, I want to remind you that we don’t actually know Anya’s age. She’s a first-grader, which would usually mean she’s about 6 years old. She also claimed to be 6 in Episode 1. But, Loid suspected she was either 4 or 5 in reality. So, let’s say she’s 5.

The first thing Anya doesn’t understand in this episode is how to tell time using an analog clock. This doesn’t surprise me. I’m pretty sure most 5-year-olds can’t do that. But, we also have to consider that Anya is in school. So, is this something that would be taught to first-graders?

I definitely remember learning how to read analog clocks in school. But, I don’t remember if that was something we learned in first grade.

Next up, Anya doesn’t know how many minutes are in 30 minutes. This one is a bit confusing to me. Is she trying to say she doesn’t have a reference for how long 30 minutes is? Or is she literally saying she can’t count to 30? It kind of seems like she meant the latter.

So, my next question is, can a 5-year-old count to 30? I want to say yes. But, maybe not.

Disarm the Time Bomb

Alright, I need to get something off my chest before diving into this section. There was no time bomb present in this episode. There were multiple bombs. But, none of them were time bombs. So, the episode title “Disarm the Time Bomb” is inaccurate — 0/10 anime.

With that out of the way, I liked that Anya thought she could actually disarm the bomb. And I’m not talking about how she thought there would be red and blue wires to choose from. I mean that she thought she could disarm a bomb at all.

I get it, she’s a kid. Kids think they can do things they obviously can’t. Adults also think they can do things they can’t. Not me, of course. I can do anything I claim to be able to. But, something about Anya not even hesitating to climb into the room was great.

I have to respect her confidence. A bomb on the other side of this door powerful enough to level the building? Yeah, that seems like no problem. And the fact that the dog helped her into the room was the icing on the cake. The genius dog even thinks it’s a fine plan.

In the end, though, Anya did actually help out. She left a message on the door written in blood (ketchup) and her father realized something was wrong. I mean, he didn’t decipher her message. But, her cryptic message seems to be what made him act with more caution.

After all, we know that if Anya didn’t do anything, the bomb would have gone off. It was the fact that she acted that changed the future. So, we can’t say her message was all for nothing even if it didn’t directly save the day.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 14? Do you think the dog is more of a power-up for Anya rather than a new character? Do you think Anya is actually normal for her age in terms of smarts? And what was your favorite part of the episode? 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 15 is available now.

Expanding the Forger Family

Spy x Family is back with the first episode of Part 2. This may be an unpopular opinion, but Episode 13 was better than the entirety of Part 1 in every way. Even before we got to the actual content of the episode, it was better.

The OP for Part 2 is infinitely better than the OP for Part 1. I know people like the song for the first OP. But, I’m going to say that the song for the second OP is better. Also, the visuals for the new OP are leagues better. It’s not even close.

As for the content itself, Episode 13 picks up where Episode 12 left off. After receiving her Stella Star, Anya chooses a dog as her reward. So, in this episode, the Forgers go to look at dogs to adopt. And at first, Loid tries to get Anya to adopt a spy guard dog.

I can understand why Anya wasn’t too thrilled with the options at the first pet store. All the dogs were muscular and looked aggressive — not exactly what she’s looking for. But, it was a bit surprising that she wasn’t interested in them at all.

After all, these are dogs trained by spies. Isn’t that exciting enough for her? Surely she knew that since she can read her father’s mind, right? I guess since her father is a spy already, a spy dog isn’t as exciting to her now.

In the end, Loid has to go on a secret mission to the bathroom and tells Yor and Anya to go on without him. This is the part of the episode I saw a lot of people talking about online. Anya saves the day with an assist. But, was it really that funny?

The Yor Content We Needed

Maybe I’m a killjoy, but Anya cursing isn’t enough to make me call this episode good. Up until that point (other than the OP), it was an alright episode. What made it a good episode is everything that came after Anya’s assist.

And one thing I liked, in particular, was that we got a fair amount of Yor content. One of my biggest complaints with Part 1 of the series is that Yor didn’t feel like a main character. Anya and Loid were the main characters, and Yor was a supporting character.

She had an episode or 2 in which she shined. But, other than that, she was always just the stepmother. To an extent, that’s still true. When interacting with Loid and Anya, Yor acts like an outsider. In reality, though, she’s known them almost as long as they’ve known each other.

Anyway, the pet fair was a chance for Yor to shine. With Loid out of the picture, we got to see Yor and Anya interacting more here than in most of Part 1. But, the highlight was once Anya disappeared and Yor was on her own.

We’ve seen before that Yor is overly protective of Anya. Loid is protective of Anya, as well. But, he’s protective in a normal parent way. Yor lets her imagination run wild and then has an equally extreme response. At first, she thinks a dog ate Anya. Then, after realizing that’s unlikely, she determines someone kidnapped Anya to marry her.

I’m not a huge fan of the fact that Yor’s an airhead. We already have Anya to fill that role. But, I’ll admit it can lead to entertaining moments, like Yor looking for Anya from the ceiling. Loid would never.

Return of Starlight Anya

Before I get to my favorite part of the episode, I feel I should discuss the dog. I know the dog’s name. But, I’m not going to spoil it since we haven’t learned it in the anime yet. For now, he’ll continue to be “the dog.”

The dog fits right in with the rest of the Forgers because he has a secret. He can see into the future — at least a little bit. And he seems to be aware that Anya can read his mind because he communicates with her in this way.

Perhaps he knows about Anya’s power thanks to his own future sight. I have no idea. But, on top of his future sight, he’s also very intelligent. At least, that’s what we’re told. He didn’t seem all that smart when he was running in circles instead of away from the terrorists.

So, what was the best part of the episode, to me? Well, after the terrorists corner Anya and the dog, Yor comes to their rescue. And let me tell you, this was the one part of the episode that actually made me laugh.

Of course, I expected Yor to beat up the bad guys and save the day. That’s what she does when Anya’s in danger. What I wasn’t expecting was for Yor to cause the one terrorist to bounce around the alley like a rubber ball. Okay, Anya cursing came out of nowhere too. But, I think this was way better.

Physical comedy translates better than verbal comedy (when subtitled). I’m sure Anya’s assist would be better in a dub because I’d actually hear it. The language doesn’t matter when I see Yor go Looney Toons on some random guy, though. It’s funny beyond the shock value.

Conclusion

What do you think of Spy x Family Part 2 Episode 13? What part of the episode was your favorite? Which of the buff guard dogs would you choose? And, do you prefer Yor or Loid content? 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. To learn more about how you too can be a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 14 is available now.