SPY x FAMILY

About

Spy x Family (stylized as SPY x FAMILY) is an action, adventure, comedy manga and anime series created by Tatsuya Endo and published in Shoen Jump Plus. The manga follows the story of a master spy who is charged with starting a family as part of a mission to achieve world peace. An anime adaptation of the series began airing in April of 2022.

History

The SPY x FAMILY manga began publication on March 25th, 2019, in Shonen Jump+, and has been serialized as a bi-weekly publication.^[1] The manga was a quick commercial and critical success. Polygon named it one of the best comics of 2019^[2] and was the manga was ranked the most recommended comic in Japan's Honya Club's Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2020 list.^[3] As of April 2022, over 15 million copies of the manga were sold.^[4]

Plot

Agent Twilight is a spy who works to maintain the delicate peace between the nations Westalis and Ostania. In his latest assignment, "Operation Strix," he must start a family and enroll his child into the prestigious Eden Academy to preserve world peace.

For this assignment, Twilight adopts the identity of Loid Forger, a psychiatrist. He adopts a six-year-old orphan Anya, who secretly has the power to read minds, as his daughter to enroll in the Eden Academy. He takes Yor, a bubbleheaded office worker as his wife. Unbeknownst to him, she is secretly the deadliest assassin within the nation of Ostania.

Anime Adaptation

On November 1st, 2021, an anime adaptation of the manga was announced, to be produced by Wit Studios and CloverWorks (trailer shown below, left).^[5] On April 9th, 2022, the first episode of the series premired on Crunchyroll (opening shown below, right).^[6]

Online Presence

In line with its critical and commercial popularity, SPY x FAMILY has developed a strong online fanbase. A subreddit^[7] created the day before the first volume of the manga was released has accumulated over 37,000 followers in three years. A fan-run Twitter account for the series, @spyfamilymanga,^[8] has gained over 45,200 followers in three years. The series has also inspired fan art and cosplay across the web (examples shown below).

Related Memes

I Just Dropped My Super Cool Picture of My Dog

Oh No, I Just Dropped This Supercool Picture of My Dog refers to a panel from the Spy X Family manga series in which Anya intentionally drops her family photo with the aim of attracting attention. The cropped panel gained popularity in early May 2021 as an exploitable similar to the Magnum Dong meme.

Anya's "I Like This Show"

Anya's 'I Like This Show' is an exploitable meme format in which SPY x Family character Anya Forger points at a TV screen and comments that she likes the TV show. The format has primarily been used by the anime community to express love for various anime series by photoshopping what's displayed on the TV screen.

Anya Likes Peanuts

Anya Likes Peanuts refers to a series of memes referencing Anya Forger's taste for peanuts, her favorite food (examples shown below). The memes also often reference Anya's dislike for carrots.

"I Hate the Way They Sexualize the Little Girl"

Prior to April 11th, 2022, TikTok user @antarcticite1 posted a scene from episode one of the series in which Loid Forger lifts Anya up in the air in celebration of her successfully passing the academy entrance exam, captioning it "I hate the way they sexualize the little girl in the show whenever she's with her dad😕" The now-removed post received over 73,400 likes and 8,300 comments. On April 11th, 2022, Twitter^[9] user @waydropsbangers posted a screenshot of the TikTok to the website, writing, "tiktok anime fans can't be real people 💀," with the tweet gaining over 15,300 retweets and 215,100 likes in nine days (shown below, left). In the following days, the TikTok spawned a number of "fatherless behaviour" psots on Twitter and Reddit in which people ridiculed it (examples shown below, left and right).

Anya's "Heh" Face

Anya's "Heh" Face refers to manga panel of character Anya Forger with smug face and says "Heh." Her expression has been used to redraw (Examples shown below).

Search Interest

External References