Agent Twilight, aka Loid Forger, is undercover in Spy x Family on an assignment as a spy for Westalian Intelligence. In order to maintain peace between Westalis and Ostania, Twilight must put together a fake family and infiltrate The Desmond Group through Donovan Desmond’s son’s school, Eden Academy.
While the anime comes across as highly political at first, this plot line is quickly overshadowed by the Forgers’ antics. Between Loid and his wife Yor going on intense Bondman missions with their daughter Anya — and adopting a dog to complete their family — it’s easy for the politics of Ostania to get lost in the wholesomeness. However, this subplot hums along nicely in the background of Spy x Family, mostly brought to light through the young students of Eden.
Becky’s Family, The Blackbells, Are Military Contractors
Anya Forger initially struggled to make friends in her new school but quickly found herself taken under Becky Blackbell’s wing. Unbeknownst to Anya, the young girl comes from a family of military contractors working in partnership with The Desmond Group and making a fortune off the Westalis and Ostania war. This isn’t obvious to begin with, but subtleties around Becky’s character feed into the anime’s political storyline.
For example, Becky wears very distinct bomb hair clips, giving a nod to her family’s business and fortune. When the young Blackbell asks Anya what reward she’ll request after earning her first Stella Star, Becky pushes her friend to ask for the biggest gifts possible. In doing so, she relays gifts her own family has given her, including pink tanks and warplanes. Becky Blackbell’s presence in Spy x Family is a reminder of the current political climate, as well as a subtle suggestion that Ostania may be making moves to remilitarize its forces.
Damian Desmond Is the Enemy’s Son
The group that Loid must infiltrate to maintain peace is called The Desmond Group, run by the Desmond family. This is one of the most influential families in Ostania, with its underground behavior orchestrated by Donovan Desmond. At Eden, Anya is trying hard to befriend a young boy named Damian Desmond — Donovan’s second son — to aid in Twilight’s mission. In Episode 17 of the anime, Anya attempts to get closer to Damian by helping him with his arts and crafts project. He chose to craft a Griffin because the animal is his family’s symbol, once again showing the subtlety of this political subplot while it ticks along behind the students’ antics at Eden.
With what is known about Donovan Desmond, his past as the president of Ostania and the current chairman of the far-right National Unity Party, the descriptions of Damian’s Griffin “standing proud despite plucked wings,” and as “a powerful vision of our nation as it rebounds from war,” suddenly become far less innocuous than before. But because this is all coming from the point of view of six-year-old students at Eden Academy who are blissfully unaware of politics, these moments are looked over in jest or treated as throwaways.
Spy x Family creator Tatsuya Endo excellently lulls the audience into thinking this anime is a fun story about happy family life and harmless children’s shenanigans. Then, once fans are comfortable with this happy-go-lucky plot, their attention is suddenly drawn to the important subplot around educating viewers on war and trauma. Therefore, much of the world-building surrounding Ostania’s political climate takes place at Eden Academy; it’s masked by the antics of children to make the reality of war easier to consume than it would be if the adults were overtly politically involved.
