Looks like we have another bout of Anya is having trouble studying as she does absolutely abysmal on her test, which puts her at risk of gaining more bolts. Though it was pretty hilarious how Damian basically struck back with Anya’s iconic “heh” face while holding up a 91% on his test. I guess what goes around comes around lol. I’ve always had issue with Anya believing she can just cheat her way through her tests, so I’m glad that something is actually there to actually try to encourage her to actually study. That being her powers mysteriously disappear during the lunar eclipse for reasons unknown. I definitely skimmed over this because I didn’t even remember that information and had to look back into the manga to double check.
In any case, because of the eclipse happening on the same day as her test, she won’t be able to depend on her powers. And not gonna lie, I think it’ll be good for her in the long run to not always having to rely on them. Her powers have allowed her to be a lot more intuitive towards emotional aspects, but completely stunts her ability to study and learn academics. And it goes to show that while not everything you learn in school is going to stick through out your life, there are still good things to be learned. To which Anya points out that if she was able to tell time, she could have helped a bit more during the dog bombing arc. And yes, telling time and knowing how much time you have is a very important life skill. So I do appreciate the series pointing out that Anya cannot solely depend on her mind reading and needs to expand and learn other things through studying. I definitely feel for her about not liking studying, but it is a very good skill to learn early on.
I have been WAITING to see the interaction between Anya and Yuri animated. That part absolutely KILLED me when I first read it. I really enjoy their dynamic, especially when Anya ends up manipulating him a little bit. And I think it’s nice to see Yuri interact with someone other than Yor and Loid, especially since Anya seems to be a bit of a neutral party considering his over infatuation with Yor and hostility towards Loid. Though I guess he didn’t have the greatest of opinions of her initially since he most likely just saw her as an extension of Loid at first. Though it was pretty hilarious how quickly she won him over by saying all those nice things about Yor XDDDD. However, he seems to have been able to bond with her a little bit over trying to help her study. Especially when Yuri goes on to explain why studying became something he put his all into. And despite his initial abrasive attitude towards her, he actually seems like a better teacher to her than Loid. When Loid tries to help her study, he always just points out her mistakes and demands why she can’t get it right. However, with Yuri, he points out the mistakes and helps her understand why she got them wrong and pushes her towards the right answers. Even going as far as to encourage her saying that she can do it. Which is honestly really adorable, especially coming from him.
When Yuri talks about the reason why he started studying so hard, how he felt frustrated with himself over not being able to do anything for his sister, it definitely heavily related to how Anya felt about not being able to help out with the mission more. And I love that he even emphasized how what he learned through studying does help him with everyday life, to which I think finally strikes a cord in Anya since she never seemed to understand the importance of studying other than for Loid’s mission. And while it ended with Anya seemingly learning nothing from their study session, it still inspired her to try harder to study now that she realizes the importance of it. And hey, in the end, she actually got higher scores on her tests because of it. While they aren’t spectacular grades and just barely avoided failing, the fact that she still made some pretty good improvements is something that should be noted. Thanks Yuri, your sacrifice was not in vain.
Though if I am pretty sad that they didn’t properly translate one of my favorite jokes very well, the “swole chihuahua.” That part had me cackling in the manga. They just didn’t do it justice in both the anime’s execution and the translated subtitles. Sigh…
Due to Loid just being naturally paranoid, though I guess it’s justified when it comes to Anya’s grades, he goes in to change Anya’s scores so she could at least not end up failing. However, he ends up crossing paths and an absolute idiot of a new spy who refers to himself as “Daybreak.” I didn’t mind him so much in the manga, but seeing him in animation just annoyed me. Not sure what it was, but something about him just really aggravated me in the anime. Maybe it was just how cocky he sounded, not to discredit his VA since he definitely nailed the arrogant cockiness of this guy, that rubbed me the wrong way all the while making all these really dumb mistakes and did things that would absolutely draw attention. Something a spy should not be doing and yet he somehow made it a ways through. This guy is talented, sure, but he makes a terrible spy and was only able to get to get in because Loid ended up helping him get in so he wouldn’t draw as much attention that would interfere with his mission.
Maybe his antics just seemed sillier in manga form since I feel like the humor in Spy x Family doesn’t always translate as well into this adaptation. But that’s enough of me comparing the two for now. Daybreak believes he is someone who could rival Twilight and I honestly couldn’t help but roll my eyes, especially with the amount of stuff this guy does wrong, much to Twilight’s chagrin. Even causing Twilight to break character for a moment due to his very non-spy-like attitude of wanting to be recognized by people instead of just staying in the shadows. But I guess it ends fine with Daybreak wanting him to spread the word about him instead of taking care of any witnesses as Twilight would have done. Both me and Twilight were just super done with this guy and relieved when he literally just rolled away.Anyways, despite the dumb hijinks this guy brought, it did bring about an interesting situation where someone had paid him to mess with Damian and his brother’s test scores. Makes me wonder if we’ll see others trying to sabotage those two again in the future because of strained relations concerning their dad.
While Loid set out to change Anya’s test scores, seems like he decided against it after seeing that her grades did improve to an extent. Most likely in lieu of her hard work decided not to alter it to not discredit her achievements. And like I stated before, they definitely are not scores to write home about since she just barely managed to pass, but considering where she was, it is a pretty good improvement. Though she definitely will need more study times with Yuri since his teaching skills seemed to create better results than what Loid was able to achieve surprisingly enough. Hopefully we get to see them interact more because their dynamic is absolutely hilarious.
Also it’s both adorable and sad to see Damian get so happy at how highly ranked he got from his test scores. Believing doing well at school will ultimately get his dad’s attention… This poor kid just constantly fighting a losing battle.
Thanks to Yuri, Anya seems more determined to do better in her studying so that she could help Loid out more with his missions. Which is most likely going to help her in the long run since mind reading can only get you so far and I’m glad that the series actually addressed it. Despite Yuri’s weird obsession with his sister, I am starting to like him a bit more. Probably due to my reignited liking towards brat characters. And I do like that they’re expanding on his interactions with other characters and just seeing how he reacts to them. I need more Yuri and Anya interactions! I did enjoy the themes and take aways from this episode, which definitely went over my head when I read skimmed this part in the manga. While studying is a drag and tedious, it is an important skill for everyday life and you shouldn’t rely on cheats or just the easy way out to get by.
