Following up the disaster that happened in episode 6, Anya is now in a position to try and apologize to Damian for punching him for the sake of Mission Strix. Though not gonna lie, the pacing of this episode felt a little clunky. Especially with the recap at the start of the episode where I actually had to skip through it because I already knew this… I just watched that not too long ago. Spy x Family chapters and fast paced and tend to be on the shorter side so I did notice that there were times where it felt like they were trying to pad out time. Like with that mini recap at the start. It didn’t take me out of the episode, but I did notice them.
While I still find how the manga lays out the jokes is better, I still couldn’t help but chuckle at Loid’s desperate attempts to get Anya to apologize. Even resorting to very… overt methods. I had a laugh at Anya feeling a large amount of pressure suddenly baring down on her all the while just having to go through the day seeing Loid’s subliminal messages. Poor girl. This girl is just trying her best and school hasn’t been treating her very kindly.
Becky is a character I feel you’d think you would dislike, but she’s actually a very charming character despite her “little rich girl” disposition. Even when she just met Anya, while she may have been a little belittling, there was never any malice and actually wanted to look after Anya. However, because of how Anya handled the situation last episode, Anya unintentionally gained Becky’s respect. And it was honestly really sweet to see Becky essentially rescue Anya from their classmate’s negative thoughts. Especially when she told Anya she’d always be on her side and would protect her, giving Anya what I would assume her very first friend. While Becky constantly got in the way of Anya’s attempts to apologize to Damian, I could hardly fault her for that because if not for the whole mission aspect, Becky would be doing what any other good friend would do. She was just being protective of Anya from bullies and I respect her for that.
And then there’s Damian who probably had one of the worst first impressions. Though it’s fairly obvious that there’s a lot more going on with this kid than meets the eye. I mean, taking a closer look at the class picture, it shows Damian off to the side being the only kid who doesn’t have his parents present. Which is actually pretty sad. Though that doesn’t justify how much of a jerk and a bully he is. But considering how he’s been raised or lack there of, it isn’t hard to see why he’s become the way that he is. Despite all this, I think it was obvious to a lot of people that he would insatiably develop a crush on Anya. Love at first punch if you will lol. And it was just the nail on the coffin when after reading his friends terrible thoughts towards her, Anya tearfully apologizes after getting her feelings hurt. Which absolutely slays Damian and I absolutely lost it at the freaking shoujo filter the anime had us see his POV through. Especially when most of the time Anya had derp faces most of the time in reality. Love is certainly blind lol.
I was wondering how they would translate Damian slapping away his heartbeat panel in the manga and while it wasn’t as funny, it was still a good replacement with him just clutching his chest with scribbles over his heart. And they certainly did the flower petal scattering scene justice. Unfortunately, Damian is still a child and doesn’t understand feelings. So he ends up rejecting Anya’s apology all the while running away. Which was funny because it reminded me a lot of Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura with him constantly running away blushing because he doesn’t know how to process his feelings lol. But I had to laugh when Loid just drops his waiter platter in disbelief and defeat.
Because of the failed attempt at recovering Plan B, Loid has no choice but to continue on with Plan A. Unfortunately, due to Anya’s traumatic past, she absolutely despises studying. And my goodness NO kindergartner should be studying quadratic formulas or whatever they were doing. That’s way too hard for them. Not to mention we don’t know if Anya is actually six and she could be younger than she claimed to be. I can hardly blame her for not knowing how to solve those questions. Considering how she has been portrayed thus far, Anya isn’t unintelligent. She’s actually fairly quick witted and insightful. I think she’s actually fairly intelligent, just not academically.
The whole situation just doesn’t seem very fair to her. Especially since she was forced to go to this school because it’s part of the mission and Anya only complies because she’s so desperate to stay with this forged family. She’s trying so hard so she won’t be abandoned and I can’t help but feel really sad for her in that regard. Despite the hilarity of the series, I feel like there’s this underlying sadness for this whole situation. Yor even brings this up to Loid when he pressures her into studying harder until she broke down and ran to her room. Is this what Anya really wants? Yes and No for the reasons I stated earlier. She’s just doing her best. T^T
Despite their relationship being fake, I do really like Loid and Yor’s growing relationship. Yor has been constantly showing us how she helps cover for Loid’s shortcomings and often provides him with a different perspective that his tunnel vision doesn’t catch on to in the moment. Not to mention they both encourage one another, giving each other affirmation that they’re doing well. Especially when Loid starts criticizing his performance as a father, Yor is there to build him back up despite not fully knowing just what kind of difficulties he’s facing having to keep the constant guise of a loving father up in this fake family. It’s such a sweet moment between the two and I’m just like: JUST GET ACTUALLY MARRIED ALREADY. But man, it did feel both heartwarming and a little foreboding the way Loid wondered how he would feel if he had a real family. Especially since we all want these three to stay together and hopefully become a REAL family. Since it’s obvious that the three of them are what all of them needs.
We are then given the pleasure of an after credit scene that properly gives us a proper look at Yor’s brother, Yuri. Which makes sense that he’d finally make an actual appearance after Yor talks about him in the episode. I absolutely knew this episode would end on seeing him since I was looking through the volume on where they would probably end the episode. We are definitely in for a ride with this guy, especially since no one freaking informed him of Yor’s “marriage.” Whoops… The next episode will surely be focusing on him now that he’s been introduced and I’m eager to see what everyone thinks of him XD. Especially considering… ahahahaha…
