Anime: Spy x Family (2023) 1g5q2v

Spy x Family was once hailed as one of myanimelist's top-rated shows for a brief period, even managing to secure a spot within the top 20 rankings after just one episode of its first season. Nevertheless, about a year later, it appears that everyone doesn't care as much as they used to with the current season failing to breach the top 300. Let me elaborate on the possible reason behind this shift in interest.

Spy x Family consists of mainly multiple disconnected short stories that span between half an episode to two episodes which focus on different characters from a wide variety of cast . Sometimes those stories include a simple but meaningful message for you to take from and deal with some dark subject matter, however, most of these stories have little to no impact on the overarching narrative of the series. With an overabundance of these disconnected short stories, the main plot becomes sidelined for extended periods, to the extent that you can sometimes forget there was a goal in the first place. This can be seen in this season especially with the main goal of getting closer to Donovan Desmond, not progressing in any sort of way. Even the goal of Anya getting 8 golden stars has been sidelined to the point where the characters even joke about how she hasn’t been getting any. As of this season, it’s become quite clear that the way the author has structured the story seems to facilitate its perpetual continuation, a trope often seen in comedy anime (Gintama, Saiki K). However, when the central theme is as serious as preventing a war, the copious amounts of random slice-of-life comedy episodes leaves viewers pondering when the narrative will truly advance.

Overall, the majority of Spy x Family Season 2's runtime is dominated by disconnected short stories, often lacking in references or connections to the overarching narrative, creating an impression that you're just watching filler. Even the boat arc in the middle felt like a detour as, aside from some character development for Yor which we are yet to see the full outcome of, nothing that happened there really mattered in the grand scheme of things. While episodic shows can be enjoyable, introducing an important end goal without offering any meaningful narrative payoff for an entire season can be a drawback. The show's popularity and praise has seemed to be going down as a result of the show pretty much devolving into a Saturday morning cartoon with violent action. While it may serve as a good casual time-waster if you enjoy the comedy, don't expect any plot advancements in this season.