With the recentconfirmation of season 3’s production, fans’ love for the animeSpy x Familyhas continued to soar. Popular for its comedy, action, and quirky slice-of-life elements, the series' lovable and eccentric characters bring a surprising amount of heart to the spy genre. While anime as a whole is packed with broken families,Spy x Familyoffers fans a refreshing and unique take on parent-child relationships.
Tasked with maintaining international peace, deep-cover spy agent “Twilight” becomes “Loid Forger” and quickly pieces together a family unit via a sketchy adoption and marriage of convenience for Operation Strix. Despite years of espionage, the role of father has proved to be his greatest challenge.
However, while his identity may be forged,Loid’s love for his adopted daughter Anya is anything but fabricated.Loid has already proved time and again that he’s one of – if not the most – amazing anime dads, even if he doesn’t know it.
10Loid Revealing His Reason For Becoming a Spy
Episode 1: Operation Strix / Chapter 62 Parts 1-3
Long before Loid met Anya, he was already focused on protecting children. As a child,he lost both his parents to war and struggled to survive in the harsh aftermath.He later became a soldier, and shortly after reuniting with his childhood friends, they perished in a poorly planned military operation. When WISE recruits him, Loid states he has no reason for agreeing to join, though it’s painfully clear he’s lying.
As his tragic past and statement in episode #1 convey,Loid seeks to create a world where children can live safely and happily.He remembers crying as he stood in the post-bombing rubble as a young boy, orphaned and with no one to turn to for help. Loid never wants to see another child suffer as he did again.
9Getting Caught Up In the Moment When Anya Passes The Entrance Exam
Episode 1: Operation Strix
One of the major initial hurdles of Operation Strix is Anya’s ability to pass the prestigious Eden College’s entrance exam.Loid does his best to ensure that Anya memorizes the test answers, but with the mission’s fate resting in the hands of a struggling child, his confidence is shaky. On the day of the exam, to her dismay, Anya finds that her telepathic powers won’t do her any good.
Against all odds, Anya manages to score high enough to pass. Ecstatic to see her applicant number on the bulletin board,Loid’s relief turns into genuine fatherly pride.While praising Anya’s good work, he momentarily forgets himself, inadvertently causing his exhaustion to overwhelm him. After falling to the ground, he wonders how he could possibly allow himself to relax, even for a moment.
8Becoming Loidman at a Theme Park Castle
Episode 5: Will They Pass or Fail?
At Franky’s instigation, Anya’s request to play rescue the princess as a reward for getting into Eden turns into an over-the-top affair. While many other anime dads can’t even be bothered to visit their kids, let alone play with them,Loid needlessly involves dozens of fellow agents when Anya laments the castle is too empty.Franky, playing the villain, then orders them to prevent “Loidman” from saving “Princess” Anya.
After failing Anya’s quiz obstacle, Loid swallows his pride and dons a Bondman mask from her favorite spy cartoon, much to her delight. He then continues through the obstacles, fighting the overzealous other spies and a drunken, overpowered Yor. Despite feeling foolish,he stays in character until the end.After the agents leave, Anya, unprompted, promises to do her best in school, and Loid seems genuinely happy and proud.
7Loid Teaches Anya Valuable Lessons Unrelated to His Mission
Episode 21: Nightfall / First Fit of Jealousy
When Bond rips up Anya’s stuffed penguin, she bursts into tears and yells that she hates him. Loid offers to buy her a new one, but she insists her Mr. Penguin is special because Loid gave it to her.Loid mends the mangled plush, but it looks “Frankensteiny,” as Anya puts it.
Hoping to cheer her up,Loid compares Mr. Penguin’s stitch scars to medals of valor received in the line of duty.He assures her they’re nothing to be ashamed of, and Anya is in awe. He also encourages her to accept Bond’s apology peanuts, reminding her that Bondman advocates forgiveness. Anya also apologizes to Bond for saying she hates him. Loid’s guidance helps teach Anya to look past appearances and navigate problems between friends.
6Loid Realizes He Needs to be More Supportive
Episode 7: The Target’s Second Son
When Anya fails to befriend his target’s son, Loid doubles down on his backup plan to meet Donovan Desmond at the upcoming Imperial Scholar mixer. Knowing Anya’s grades must swiftly improve, he pushes her too hard to study. She ends up running off to her room from the stress, and Yor insists that Loid should give her space.
As they continue their discussion over tea, Yor recounts how complimenting her brother’s intelligence made him excited to learn more as a child. She suggests that Loid give Anya more praise and encouragement in her studies, and reminds him that Anya thinks he’s an amazing dad.Loid quickly realizes that he’s been neglecting the gentler aspects of fatherhoodand needs to work toward living up to Anya’s impression of him.
5Loid Validates Damian’s Feelings
Episode 25: First Contact
It is said it takes a village to raise a child. In episode #25, Loid creates an opportunity to speak with his target, Donovan Desmond, by interacting with Donovan’s younger son, Damian. Loid apologizes to Donovan for Anya punching Damian earlier in the semester, butDonovan dismisses the issue.Damian is shocked and upset by his father’s lack of concern for him but quickly backs down when Donovan reacts with annoyance.
Loid, however, assures Damian that he has every right to feel angry, even though Loid has nothing to gain from doing so. Sometimes, parents need to step in and show compassion and understanding to other people’s children, and this moment beautifully illustrates howLoid’s paternal instincts extend beyond caring for Anya.
4Loid Tells Bond He’s A Forger First and Foremost
Episode 37: Part of the Family
Being a parent means not only caring about one’s child but also the things one’s child cares about. While out on a walk with Loid after training, Bond’s precognition shows him a puppy trapped in a nearby apartment fire. He hurries to the rescue, and Loid follows him into the burning building. Together they save the puppy and apprehend the arsonist.
Loid praises the canine but also tells him that he needs to be more careful in the future. Despite Loid’s determination to shape Bond into a multi-skilled guard dog, he sees him as amember of the familyabove all else.He knows Anya would be devastated if something ever happened to Bondand there’s a good Loid would be too.
3Loid Nearly Replans His Entire Mission for Anya’s Sake
Throughout the series, Loid is given all sorts of missions to carry out alongside his main mission. No matter how bizarre or difficult his tasks may be, he always executes them with little complaint and without fail. From the moment he’s assigned to Operation Strix, Loid knows the plan is outlandish and risky, but he’s determined to make it work.
Shortly after Anya’s adoption, Loid’s enemies from an earlier mission kidnap her and intend to use her against “Twilight.” It’s at this point thatLoid breaks his usual compliance and decides he’ll need to rework the entire plan to exclude involving a child.Without revealing her telepathic powers, Anya convinces Loid to keep her, but had she not done so, Loid’s time as a father would have swiftly ended right then and there.
2Loid Almost Punches Master Swan For Making Anya Cry
Episode 4: The Prestigious School’s Interview
During the family interview with the Eden College house masters, Master Swan makes several rude remarks about the Forgers’ family dynamic. As per his cover story, Loid mentions his first wife is deceased. The situation boils over when Swan asks Anya if she prefers Yor or her biological mother, bringing Anya to tears.Loid loses his composure and nearly punches Swan, destroying the table between them at the last second.
Genuinely outraged by Swan’s callousness, Loid ends the interview. Swan is appalled, but Loid stands his ground, stating that Eden College is the wrong school for his daughter if the instructors trivialize children’s feelings. Later at home,Loid is shocked at how easily he disregarded his mission, but nonetheless comforts Anya when she feels she failed him.
1Loid’s Guilt About Leaving His Family to Work
Episode 34: The Hand That Connect to the Future
While on a spontaneous cruise, Loid is forced to leave Anya with childcare staff so he can defuse several active bombs hidden throughout the ship. Upon his return,he regrets having to “leave [his] family yet again” to take care of spy business.He’s taken aback by the thought, puzzled as to why he mentally addressed Anya as his family in this instance since their vacation is unrelated to Operation Strix.
It’s clear thatLoid has subconsciously come to love and embrace Anya as his ownand is struggling to understand this. Even in modern media, the “evil stepparent” trope is alive and well, and too manyfictional fathers betray even their biological childrenin some way.Spy x Family’s Loid is thus a breath of fresh air, offering a heartwarming take on the adoptive father and fatherhood as a whole.
Spy x Family
Cast
Created by Tatsuya Endo, Spy X Family is an action-adventure comedy anime that follows the misadventures of a found family with unique quirks. The story follows spy Twilight (known as Loid Forger), who, while on assignment, builds a fake family to get closer to his target. Unbeknownst to him, his new family carries their quirks. His wife, Yor, is a kind but deadly assassin, while his daughter, Anya, has telepathic powers - and is the only one who knows their secrets.
