'Spy x Family' Explained

TV & Film

Feb 1

Spy x Family has become one of the most talked about and most popular shōnen anime series of the last few years. While the show's cutesy pastel coloring and young, pink-haired main character may lead you to believe that it is a simple comedy, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The series is a complex web of characters leading double lives and an espionage plan that will either lead to peace between nations or a global-scale war. In this article I will be breaking down the series plot as well as the main characters and what roles they play.

WARNING!! This article contains spoilers for all current seasons of Spy x Family, the manga, and Spy Family Code: White!!

History

The anime series is based on the manga written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. The manga was first released in March of 2019, and as of the writing of this article, new chapters are still being released. This past December saw the manga series become one of the best-selling manga series of all time after reaching the milestone of more than 38 million copies being in circulation across the globe. The anime adaptation began in 2022, released the finale of season two in December of 2023, and put out its first film in the franchise in 2023. Season three of the series is set to premiere in October 2025.

RELATED:

Featured

Jump Festa '25: Announcements, Big Reveals, And More

The Plot

The series follows a spy known as “Twilight” who is revered for his legendary disguises. Twilight lives in the fictitious country of Westalis, and the organization he works for is trying to keep peace between their country and the neighboring country Ostania. At the beginning of the series, he is assigned to “Operation Strix” which is expected to be his most difficult mission yet. He is to take on the name Lloyd Forger, and he must get married and gain access to a school-age child. His target is a political leader named Donovan Desmond who is known for being a recluse, and the only way to get access to him is through his young son, Damian. The plan is for Twilight, or “Lloyd”, to get his child into the prestigious Eden Academy where Damian goes to school. After achieving this incredible feat, she will need to become an “Imperial Scholar” by showing exemplary work and earning eight Stella Stars, or Stellas as they are routinely referred to.

Since Lloyd is not married, he decides to adopt a child from a local orphanage and then find a woman that he can convince to play his wife just to help get his child into Eden Academy since a wife is mandatory for the interview process that the school puts the children through. Twilight is able to obtain a daughter named Anya and a wife named Yor. They form the Forger family, but unbeknownst to each other they are all hiding secrets and using each other for their own purposes. While the series does deal with heavy topics, it is perfectly balanced with humor and romance. One of the best aspects of the show is that there are many side missions, or arcs, that Twilight must deal with while also trying to balance Operation Strix.

The Forger Family

The main characters of the show are Lloyd Forger (“Twilight”), Anya Forger, Yor Forger, and Bond Forger. There are many side characters that vary in level of importance to the plot, but to keep it simple we will just stick to the main characters.

Lloyd Forger

Lloyd Forger is the father of the Forger family, and he works as a psychiatrist at Berlint General Hospital. He is a single father raising his young daughter, Anya, alone after his wife passed away. He is now remarried to Yor Forger, and as far as anyone knows, that is his entire story. In reality, he is the Master Spy known as “Twilight”, and he is working to keep the peace between Westalis and Ostania. He is currently working on Operation Strix, but WISE routinely gives him side missions.

Yor Forger

Yor Forger, formerly Yor Briar, is the mother of the Forger family, and she works as a clerk at Berlint City Hall. She is doing her best to be a good mom and wife, but she doesn’t know how to cook and routinely “messes up” tasks that she thinks should be easy. Regardless of what she thinks of herself, her daughter loves her dearly. In reality, Yor is an assassin called “The Thorn Princess” who works for an organization known as Garden. Yor’s parents died when she was young, and in order to take care of her younger brother, Yuri, she was forced into the only work she could find. Now, many people believe her to be superhuman because of her strength, agility, and accuracy. Due to growing tensions between Westalis and Ostania, single women of Yor’s age have been arrested because the government believes they are spies which is why she agrees to be Lloyd’s wife.

Anya Forger

Anya Forger is the daughter and glue of the Forger family. She is an average six-year-old who was raised by her single father until he married her new mom, Yor. She loves peanuts, her dog, Bond, and her favorite show, Spy Wars. Just like her mom and dad, Anya has a big secret. Before ending up at the orphanage where Lloyd found her, she was a test subject in an unknown facility, and she was a telepath. When Lloyd enters the orphanage, she reads his thoughts about needing a smart six-year-old and does everything she can to convince him that she is who he is looking for. The truth is that she is only four or five years old, and she knows all of her family’s secrets. She spends most of her time trying to earn a Stella while also helping her parents to keep their identities hidden from each other so that they can stay a family.

Bond Forger

Bond Forger is Anya’s best friend and protector. He is a giant white dog that the forgers adopt when Anya begs her parents for a dog to keep her company. Just like his human counterparts, Bond is hiding a big secret that only Anya knows. When Anya and Bond met, he was being used as a bomber dog by a terrorist group. Anya used her telepathic abilities to lead Lloyd (secretly of course) to the location of the bombs and rescue Bond in the process. Like Anya, Bond was experimented on, and he has precognitive abilities that routinely work with Anya’s abilities.

Spy x Family and Spy x Family Code: White are available to stream on Crunchyroll in both the original Japanese language and English Dub.

READ NEXT:

Featured