REVIEW: ‘Spy x Family’ Season 2 Episode 2 — “Bonds Strategy to Stay Alive/Damian’s Field Research Trip”

For an episode so steeped in the framing of vignette storytelling, Spy x Family Season 2 Episode 2 never comes across as weightless. Instead, despite the inherent silliness of both stories, “Bonds Strategy to Stay Alive” and “Damian’s Field Research Trip” both allow strong insight into the characters and their relationships with those around them. Yes, Bond’s (Kenichirō Matsuda) canine adventure isn’t exactly deep, but it adds to the atmosphere and delivers some of the biggest laughs in this week’s episode while Damian’s (Natsumi Fujiwara) story offers the heart. 

Bond’s storyline — like so many of Spy x Family’s greatest excursions — is deceptive in its simplicity. The family dog with precognition skills wants to be fed but is realizing that Yor (Saori Hayami) is ill-equipped to do so, especially without actual dog food in the house. Considering her history of mildly poisoning anyone she feeds, his desperation finds an answer in Loid (Takuya Eguchi), believing that if he can locate the fake family patriarch he’ll be saved. It’s a charming introduction to the episode and it’s airy yet not inconsequential tone. It starts with a fantastic Anya (Atsumi Tanezaki) quip where she remarks on Bond’s laziness makes it even better, serving as an always necessary reminder that part of her excessive amount of entertainment stems from her lack of precociousness and her judgemental, childlike attitude. 

Spy x Family Season 2 Episode 2 might spend time with supporting players but it enhances the stories around them as well. Bond is driven by his belly but his adventure with Loid serves as a reminder that the Forger family is tethered not just by mutual gain but that all four of them come from scarred beginnings, with Bond having been found in an abusive research laboratory. It makes the found family narrative of the story all the more crystal clear, even if members such as Loid and even Yor fail to realize just how potent their emotional, gravitational pull on one another is. 

Bond’s storyline also allows for some strong animation with a surprise bout of action which delivers on the expected kinetic energy of the series. But it’s the second portion of the episode that deals with Damian’s days of being reprimanded that delivers some of the series’s finest animation through landscapes and the elements alone. Damian and his friends, in an act of surprising kindness by the headmaster, have been taken on a trip by the school custodian during their day off, despite originally being punished.

They’re meant to go on a picnic but it soon turns into a day dedicated to allowing Damian to thrive in his youth, and to see the world from his small stature rather than the shoulders of his father who expects him to stay in line and to be an adult when still having not reached double digits. He’s often been one of the sadder characters of the series, exemplified at the start by the dark shadows under his eyes due to his long nights studying for the coveted school Stella. So to see him simply enjoy a day in nature with his friends and to laugh at their jokes is refreshing and necessary, as it allows him to be a kid. 

It also shows the general kindness of other adults in his life, a kindness that’s absent in his relationship with his father. Considering his father’s relevancy in the overarching plot of the series, it will be interesting to see if Damian can further untangle himself from the web his relationship with the man has cast. Spy x Family works for many reasons, obviously, but one of the most striking elements since the very start and something shared with other anime series such as this year’s Buddy Daddies is the fact that the writing very deliberately depicts Anya as the child she is. Yes, she has an extraordinary gift, but she’s also prone to laziness, impulse, and selfishness, concerned with her snacks and her favorite shows. She exists in a world of adults of espionage and violence, but she sees it all from the point of view of a kid. Damian too merely exists in the world of his father and this episode makes sure to see it from his point of view too. 

The episode could’ve relied on the humor and heart that’s so abundant in the series but it delivers fine animation as well, namely in the scenes at the lake where the water touches the sky, engulfing the characters. These details are just as important to the story as the comedy of Anya’s facial reactions or Bond’s daydreams of being mourned by the Forger family because the backgrounds create the world in which they inhabit. 

Spy x Family Season 2 Episode 2 finds a sweet, wholesome story on Damian’s day off with his friends while doubling down on the humor of Bond’s misadventures. Charmingly cute, the vignette style works by allowing these supporting characters’ moments to explore their positions in the overarching narrative and demonstrating how they fit into the bigger picture of Loid, Yor, and Anya’s story. 

Spy x Family Season 2 is available now on Crunchyroll.