Spy X Family- Mission 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

I picked this up some time ago, and finally found the time to give it a look. It's become a very popular anime and it even had a crossover event in Street Fighter 6 (though not in the way people were hoping for). In this story a master spy, Agent Twilight, is forced to take on a wife and child for his mission. What he didn't know was the wife he chose is an assassin and the kid he chose is a telepath. Let's check it out.

Mission one opens with a diplomat in Ostania dying in a car accident due to cut brakes. An organization suspect it was an assassination carried out by the East's political party. They want a war in Westalis so they must know what they're planning in the east. They decide to call the best agent they have, Agent Twilight.

Elsewhere a man in a trenchcoat hands over some photos proving that a foreign minister wears a hairpiece to a man in a suit.. The man in the suit says he can use this to make him resign. After the man leaves, the spy walks off when the same man returns and asks for the photos. The spy realizes that the first man in the suit that he gave the photos to was an imposter. Elsewhere, Twilight takes off his costume, as he drives off with the photos.

Later on, Twilight is having dinner as 'Robert', dating the foreign minister's daughter. She complains about how her father is upset that someone stole photos of him and his hairpiece. The woman sees a young couple proposing and asks if that will be them someday. Robert gets up and breaks up with her, leaving. As he heads out he mentions he has no further need to keep dating the minster's daughter and to keep up the 'Robert' disguise. He also says he abandoned all hopes of a regular life and marriage along with his ID when he became a spy. 

Later on, Twilight goes to a train station and sits on a bench alongside a stranger. They quickly switch newspapers, and the other man gets up to leave saying 'meow'. Twilight knows this means he must take the train heading to Berlint. As he rides the train and reads the paper, secret coding within the print thanks him for securing the photos so the foreign minister can continue his position. They have a new mission already lined up for him. 

His target is a man named Donovan Desmond, a member of the National Unity Party who poses a great threat to the truce between the East and the West. His mission it to get close to him and monitor his activities, but to do so he will have to get married and have a child. Twilight spits out his coffee upon reading that.

Desmond is reclusive and suspicious of others. The only public appearances he makes are at events at his son's public school. These events are non-formal get-togethers that include everyone from the upper crust of industrial and political leaders. Twilight will have to enroll his child into the school to get access to these events. However there is only a week left before admissions closed. Twilight tears the newspaper in half and blurts out that he's expected to make a child in seven days.

Twilight calms himself down to prevent making a scene in public. He reads on, as he finds out that this operation will be codenamed Operation Strix. This mission will be to maintain peace between the East and West and hopefully save the world. The paper reminds them that they are heroes without shadows, and their deeds will never make it to the papers. However their blood and sweat ensure the day-to-day lives of the people around them. Twilight figures the role of a father is another role to play, and he will play it to perfection for the sake of the world.

Later on Twilight checks out a furnished single family apartment. Going by the name Loid Forger, Twilight takes the place. The real estate agent is excited for him starting a new life with a new family and asks if he has a son or daughter. Twilight says that's the part he'll have to figure out next.

Later on Twilight is at an orphanage, looking to adopt since 'his wife has tried for many years'. The owner doesn't care and tells him to 'take whoever he wants'. Twilight looks around and figures a place this shoddy probably wouldn't keep good records on their kids, so it would be easier to fabricate a story. He hates kids though and wishes this a solo mission, but even he's not good enough to impersonate a kid.

Twilight asks if there's a kid that can already read and write. The owner introduces him to Anya, the smartest kid they have. The owner thinks to himself that Anya always creeped him out so now would be a good chance to get rid of her. Twilight thinks to himself that the kid would have be at least six to be admitted into the academy, and Anya looks four or five. Anya suddenly blurts out that she's six. 

Anya runs off to grab a newspaper and points out the crossword puzzle. Twilight says that would probably be too advanced for her, but Anya fills it out. Twilight is impressed, thinking she should be able to ace the entrance exams, and will take her. He asks about the paperwork and the orphanage owner tells him to forget it and to just take the kid out of there. Twilight asks Anya is this is ok with her. Anya is already picking up thoughts that Twilight is a spy on some sort of mission, which she thinks is cool.

We find out through narration that Anya is a telepath. She was experimented on, which gave her these abilities, until she escaped the facility. She has been moved from institution to institution as she looked for someone to take care of her.

As they arrive at the apartment, Twilight tells Anya that he is her father and if anyone asks, she will say he had always been her father. He tells her to call him father like the upper crust people to, but she calls him Papa. They walk past an old woman who calls Anya an adorable young lady. Anya says she's always been Papa's daughter, which confuses the old woman. Twilight thinks to himself that she's not to supposed to say that part.

Twilight takes Anya to his apartment and lets her watch TV. He thinks about the things he will need and figured he will have to get fake ID for Anya. Anya insists on coming along on this 'adventure', even though he says it's just shopping.

Twilight tries to act normal in public but Anya is overexcited and running around. An old woman says she should take her father's hand so she doesn't get lost. Twilight takes Anya's hand and thinks to himself he won't be able to react to an enemy attack like this. Anya 'hears' this and runs off to hide from enemy attack. Twilight is trying to understand her, and figure he must use diplomacy to make peace. Anya reads his mind on that as well and blurts out that she like carrots and peanuts. 

Later on, they walk past a bakery, which Anya calls a Bankenry and says she loved bacon. Twilight says it's a bakery and they don't sell bacon there. Later on Anya tries to buy something with the wrong kind of currency. Twilight begins to wonder if Anya is stupid and the crossword puzzle is a fluke. When he considered exchanging her, Anya begs for him not to get rid of her, much to the dismay of the crowd. Twilight offers her some peanuts if she stops crying. Anya says she's tired and she can't walk anymore. Twilight walks off carrying groceries and a sleeping Anya. He says this isn't working and he needs a manual.

Later on Twilight buys every book he can find on how to raise a child. He reads certain things like how to see things from the child's point of view, and how to cultivate their self-esteem for a better future. Twilight figures there will no future, since she's going back to the orphanage once the mission is over.

The next day, Twilight is trying to get Anya to study so she can pass the entrance exams. She refuses and thinks to herself that she can just read the answers from the other kids' minds. Twilight has had enough and will be heading out. This time Anya will stay behind. After multiple attempts to keep Anya from following him, he finally barricaded the front door.

Twilight tells this to one of his fellow agents, who says he hopes he doesn't get reported for child abuse. Twilight says he can't figure it out, and crying seems to be her answer for everything. The man says she's a kid and crying is her job. He hands Twilight an application, an appointment for the entrance exam and a copy of the exam. Twilight figures Anya should be able to memorize the exam enough to pass.

The man, named Franky, says he also looked into Anya and wasn't able to find any birth records or who her parents are. She's been returned four times and has been transferred from orphanage to orphanage. While her name is always Anya, her last name is different each time. Franky jokes that the kid has many names, so she's the perfect daughter for Twilight. Franky warns him to not get attached since that never ends well.

Back at the apartment, Anya is lying on the couch completely bored. She figured living with a spy would be more exciting. She remembers the combination to a safe Twilight was hiding and finds his spy stuff. She finds a spy radio and starts typing out a message. 

Elsewhere, the organization tied to the man in the suit from earlier intercepts the message. The message is 'Twilight here. Catch me if you can'. Since the signal came from Westalis, they figured it really must be him. The man demands to know the source of the signal and says he will kill him.

Anya sees the mess she made and puts everything away. She doesn't want Twilight to know that she knows he's a spy, but she also can't risk him finding about her powers either, or she will have to run away. She has flashbacks to the facility that gave her these powers. The people there are insisting that she studies so she can use her powers to bring peace to the world.

Twilight returns, hoping Anya didn't make a mess, and there is a man with a steel pipe waiting by the door. Twilight dodges the strike and socks him in the jaw. Another man has a gun and starts to open fire. Twilight runs behind the bag of groceries and throws a can at his face. He then smashes him with a wooden chair and knocks the gunman out.

Twilight looks around and can't find Anya. He figures he has been compromised and needs to get to safety. He thinks Anya is gone and he will just have to start from square one and get another kid. Just then the guy with the lead pipe gets behind him and clocks him.

Elsewhere, the man in the suit and his men have captured Anya and figure she must be his daughter, since she was in the same room where the transmission came from. The man says they can use her a hostage to make Twilight reveal the minister's hairpiece. One of his men says he should give up when it comes to the minister's hairpiece.

The man shoots the guy down. He says transparency is important within the government so a hairpiece is a no-go. He also says the foreign minister has been secretly backing the west, so he's a traitor. Anya sees the man killed one of his men with a silenced gun, like she has seen in her spy shows. She realized the man is the suit is a real life bad guy.

Just then the guy with the lead pipe from earlier named Nguyen, and the rest of the men have arrived. They have Twilight tied up with a bag over his head. Nguyen says the guy was tough, so it had to have been the real Twilight. The boss says Twilight has some photos that belong to him and is about to remove the paper bag from his head. Twilight turns out to be the real Nguyen, and when the bad guys realized they've been tricked, they also see that Anya is gone. Twilight, still disguised as Nguyen, has gotten away with Anya.

As Anya starts to cry again, suddenly Twilight remembers why he hates crying so much. It brings back memories of when he was a child, helpless and alone where all he could do was cry. Twilight sets Anya down and tells her that he and the other guys are pro tag players. He hands her a paper and tells her to run towards the police station. He thinks to himself that if she does that, the police will send her to a safer orphanage. He'll need to re-work his plan in a way that doesn't involve children. Naturally Anya is able to read his mind and catch on to his ruse.

As Anya runs off, Twilight figures that while he's fit to be a spy, he never should have endangered the child. He says the reason he became a spy to begin with was to help form a world where no child would ever have to cry again.

The thugs run through a grocery store saying they'll drag out Twilight and expose his face to the public. Just then one of them hits a trip wire and several bags of flour fall all over the men. Twilight hides amongst the flour and says he'd never let them see his face. He attacks them through the smokescreen.

The boss arrives and sees that all of his men are down. Twilight pulls a gun on him and says he's dead if he turns around. Twilight calls the man Edgar and asks how Karen is doing. Edgar asks how he knows his daughter's name. He says it's his job as a spy to know, and he knows everything about Karen, including all the criminal activity she's involved in. He tells Edgar to leave him the hell alone if he wants his daughter to live any semblance to a regular life.

Twilight heads back and sees that Anya is waiting for him. She wants to go home with him, or she will cry again. Twilight considers that she's already been returned from four different homes, so he decides to take her in. He tells her they will have to find another apartment. The one they were in was not safe because he found a snake in there. Anya sees past his lies but figures he's a cool liar. 

Twilight tells Anya that after they move, she will have to study. She doesn't like that but Twilight says this time it will be easier since she will just be memorizing the answers.

The next day Anya takes the entrance exam. She reads the minds of the children around her, but they either don't know the answers either or are picking them at complete random. She tries to focus and remembers how she studied the previous night.

Later on, Twilight and Anya are both happy to find out that she passed the entrance exams. Later on, Twilight is sleeping on the couch of their new place when Anya hears a knock on the door. Anya sees that it's the mailman and she gets a letter. Twilight soon wakes up and Anya hands her the letter. The letter is from Eden Academy, and it informs them that the second part of the admission process is a mandatory family interview. Both parents have to attend and there are absolutely no exceptions. Anya points out they're missing a Mommy.

My thoughts-

Pretty interesting set up. We have a spy with a lot of disguises and he's an impressive fighter as well. He hides so well that his enemies never get to see his face. We get to find out his motives and see that he's doing what he does in hopes of a better world for everyone. Anya is a telepath that can read minds but is too young to fully understand everything so she's quick to jump to conclusions or take things too literal. It doesn't help that Twilight's always thinking in 'spy mode', so that would make reading his mind a lot more confusing. 

The characters are pretty cool so far. Twilight never saw himself with a family and now this missions calls for him to create one. Anya also wants a family so she won't be sent back to foster care, and similar to Twilight had decided to use her gifts for good. Anya is using her telepathy to make herself come off being smarter than most kids, and it's funny when it backfires. I especially liked the scene when she figured she'd just read the minds of the other kids around her during the exam, but it turns out none of them know the answers either. I wonder how most of them passed.

The story reminds me a bit of the original Despicable Me, in which Gru only adopted the girls as part of a scheme, with plans to ship them back to the orphanage once the mission was over but instead he grows to care for them as his actual daughters. Obviously Twilight doesn't have any evil schemes here, but he does have similar plans to ditch Anya once the mission is over. We're already seeing signs of him starting to care for her.

The bad guys so far range from being deadly but also comedic. I feel most of the comedy lies in just how outmatched they are when dealing with Twilight and seeing him get one over on them. I liked that the moment Anya saw one of the bad guys shoot the other, she knew that this was no longer a game and these guys were not messing around.

The art style and the way the action flows is also pretty cool. It's an interesting contrast to see everyone drawn more realistic while Anya is more cartoonish and does most of the anime-style facial expressions we're used to in sillier shows. It further contrasts the more serious mindset Twilight has with the childish innocence Anya has and how both of them view the world.

So far we've met Twilight and Anya. The next chapter will introduce the missing piece of the puzzle for this undercover family, the assassin named Yor.