Sorry for the late post, but life happened. But here I am. This was a fairly simple episode. I love the penguin chapter in the manga and I’m glad that they decided to adapt it. However, the placement feels a bit weird. Especially when it has literally nothing to do with the previous episode that had a sinister and foreboding feeling to it. Anyways, Loid overhears his neighbors gossiping about him and has to rectify this since if he gets reported, everything he’s done up till now would be a waste. So he makes plans to take the family out to the aquarium.
But man, this guy needs a vacation. Not only is he having to work on Operation Strix, but they keep piling on more jobs for this guy on top of it. And he can’t even lower his guard when he gets home as he still needs to act as the caring father of the family. That just feels like way too much for one person to be dealing with. I’m actually surprised he’s doing as well as he is since he’s drained mentally and physically. Probably emotionally as well. It’s a wonder how he’s still able to keep going. Though I suppose he does see the greater goal in mind. But I too became pretty distressed over the fact that they had the gall to give him yet ANOTHER mission when he’s literally just running on fumes all the while on a trip with his family. LET THIS MAN HAVE A VACATION DANG IT. But of course Loid being Loid can’t ignore an important mission that would save many lives especially if he could help it. They be working this poor guy to the bone.
The aquarium trip went as well as you’d expect with not only having to appease their gossipy neighbors who also happen to be there, but also deal with the penguin crisis. However, I do think it showed yet another example as to why this family is great together and how they cover for each other, even if they don’t realize it at times. With Anya’s ability, she was able to pinpoint the poor penguin that had the enemy item while Loid was able to strategically get to the penguin and prevent it from being taken by the enemy. And then one of the most hilarious scenes of Anya utilizing Yor’s abilities by yelling she’s being “kidnapped” and having the bad guy get smashed through the roof will always crack me up. They all make up for each other’s weaknesses and it’s always a pleasure to see it in action. And Loid succeeds in his mission in appeasing his neighbors with his “good dad” act. But rip that new employee. He sure has his work cut out for him now after what Loid did lol.
And then the episode ends with another extra chapter adaptation where Anya is playing with her new penguin plush. Which is really cute, especially with how she just drags it along while pretending to be a spy. It’s honestly nice to see Anya just be a kid in the house and not stressing over the mission or her studies. Though do to her overly curious nature ends up almost going into Loid’s room and gets IMMEDIATELY yeeted away because of course Loid doesn’t want her snooping around in there. THE SPEED. But of course being a child, Anya doesn’t take to being yelled at very good and just breaks down in tears all the while threatening to run away. I feel like little kids always threaten to run away if they get mad at their parents (I did the same thing) but never really follow through with it and if they do, they just come back in a short amount of time. But of course Loid doesn’t know how kids work and immediately tries to remedy the problem by pretending to be the penguin. Which was both adorable and hilarious because of the freaking voice he gave it XD. And seeing all three of them outside with Anya wearing sunglasses and Loid and Yor hiding behind her stuffed toys just had me cackling when I first saw that in the manga. What good parents~
And thus concludes the mid-season finale… which felt rather anticlimactic after what happened in the previous episode. I know this season got split into two parts, but the fact that this ended up being the mid-season finale is a questionable choice. Especially when a good chunk of the episode was essentially recap and touching on a character we only see once. Not to mention it felt weird to suddenly side track from what was happening in the previous episode. I feel like they could have put this episode in an earlier one to not make the pacing feel jarring and weird. I still enjoyed this episode because the penguin chapter was my favorite side chapter, but goodness the pacing for this series is kind of all over the place. Which is why I feel like this series works a lot better as a manga than it does an anime. Or at least with how it was handled. Like this penguin chapter could have just been an OVA or something like that since it’s really just a stand alone thing and the reason why it was just an extra chapter and not part of the main storyline.
Final Impressions:
I have mixed feelings about this adaptation. On one hand, it’s great to have one of my favorite manga finally made into an anime with great animation and effort put into it. But then on the other hand, I feel like certain things and the pacing just works better in manga. That may just be my “which media I got into first” type of mindset kicking in, but I feel like I just enjoyed some of the gags a lot more in the manga. There were still moments that made me cackle, but I think I just overall prefer the manga more. Like if I had to choose to buy the dvds or manga for this series, I’d choose the manga. But that’s just me. A lot of other people seemed to have really enjoy the anime so it must have been doing a lot of things right.
I’ve expressed this sentiment in the first impressions, but I was pretty iffy about how this series felt a little more serious and action oriented instead of more comedy oriented like the manga was. Like how certain silly things were adapted out for a more “normal” one instead. Which was a bit disappointing since the silliness was one of its big charming points for me. Granted the series was still very silly, but the smaller moments were always a nice addition in the manga. Which is probably why I really liked the dodgeball episode since it felt more true to the comedy in the manga with how snappy and fast paced it was.
Despite my grievances, the original story is still a solid piece of media especially with how much heart there is portraying this found family composed of a spy, an assassin and a telepath. They may not be “real” in the typical sense, but how all three of our main characters are slowly getting closer and learning to be a family is all sorts of heartwarming. Especially when all three have experienced so much tragedy in their individual lives. All I want is for them to be happy with each other. Though they still have a long way to go before they can be truly genuine with one another.
The characters were definitely the heart of the show. I think the anime helped me appreciate and understand Yor better as a character. My feelings for Loid and Anya have stayed the same, but I like Yor
a lot more than I did. I was able to see a bit more clearly how socially awkward she is and how she struggles to fit in with society because of how she was brought up. After watching her in the anime, I definitely would put her up there with my favorite black haired characters sorry Kaguya. Though Anya absolutely steals the show with her expressions and reactions. She’s probably my absolute favorite in this series and her VA did a wonderful job portraying her child-like tendencies.
The animation for this series was also top notch. Even if I had a problem with how stretched out they made Anya’s celebration for getting into the school, the amount of care for the animation during that episode was spectacular. I also really liked the style to both the opening and ending. Each one had such an adorable premise portrayed and both are essentially a great summary for the series in their own ways.
I may have my nitpicks, but overall, I did have a fun time with this anime even if I still prefer the manga. It’s just an adorable series with a lot of laughs with how outrageous the situations can be and how the characters just sort of react to each other is just fantastic. I do look forward to how the dog arc will be adapted so stay tuned for that when it comes back in the fall. So I’ll give this first part of the series a solid 8/10 since it still retains the heart despite the questionable choices made on certain things. Still overall a fun time. Until next time~
