SPY×FAMILY Episode 19

The main theme this episode seemed to surround misunderstandings with both of the short stories in this episode highlighted a character that misunderstood the situation and acted out of impulse believing their actions would somehow help. However… one certainly got the better end of the stick than the other because of course they did.

We get introduced to a new character in Anya’s class, though he has appeared maybe once as a cameo before this, George Glooman. And right off the bat, he is made into an enemy of Damian since it was supposedly because of his family that drove George’s family’s pharmacy into bankruptcy. Funnily enough, he was the one who ended up hiring that low leveled spy in the previous episode to mess up Damian’s test scores. Considering that it was paid through a kid’s allowance and was dealt by a very aged butler, it’s no wonder that they were only able to get an idiot of a newbie for a spy. I actually forgot that it was this guy who paid Daybreak or may have skimmed over that information, so it was interesting to learn that information.

True to his name, George is an incredibly gloomy looking kid who seems to have a permanent frown on his face. Not only that, but he turns out to be incredibly manipulative, both consciously and unconsciously. He ends up pretending to be victimized by Damian in an attempt to get him expelled by making it seem like he got punched. And not gonna lie, but the self punch and throwing himself to the ground just didn’t have the same impact as it did in the manga. Though it was still very overly dramatic. And once he tells the other students about his situation and that he will most likely have to leave school, he acts all sad and downtrodden so they’ll end up taking pity on him and allow him to get the things he wanted to experience once during school. While the latter situations seemed unconsciously manipulative on his part as he really did think he was going to end up being sold into slavery, I was still a bit incredulous towards him.

He still constantly paints himself as a victim both consciously and unconsciously, garnering pity from the people around him. Doesn’t help that he’s also incredibly over dramatic about it. But he’s a kid so I guess that’s to be expected. But man, I feel knowing how the whole thing ends made watching this part really difficult for me. I know it was supposed to a heartwarming scene where everyone just broke out into song and gave him a bunch of things to remember the class by, but my gosh I cringed so HARD. I even had to mute the kids singing because I was just overcome with severe second hand embarrassment… especially when the kicker was that George ended up not having to leave school because he misunderstood what his dad said about the pharmacy.

Turns out that the Desmond group ended up saving them from a financial crisis and more or less just ended up with new management and would be under a different name. Which meant George had to do the walk of shame back into school despite having all the theatrics of leaving. The second hand embarrassment was strong in that moment. Especially when everyone demanded he return all of their things since he’s still there. I think the only thing that kept me sane during that part was Anya just not buying the entire thing and just watched everything unfold with little emotion. Even just giving him a leaf she found on the side of the road when everyone was giving him things to remember them by. I hardly could feel sorry for him since he literally brought it upon himself and boy did he make himself out to be quite the clown by the end.

The second misunderstanding of the episode was with Yor thinking Anya had forgotten her PE clothes due to her oversleeping and having to rush out the door. Also can we just take a moment to acknowledge the fact that Loid carried Anya as he ran her to the bus? That little detail was really cute lol. Anyways, wanting to be a good mother and help Anya to not get expelled, she runs out to deliver her PE clothes to her. I don’t remember this part as it is either anime only or was in yet another bonus chapter. But the animators certainly went to town animating Yor’s journey to Anya’s school. Not to mention that really random part where she sends a falling flower pot back up to its owner.

After much shenanigans during her trip to find Anya (even revisiting the cow that went on a rampage during the test), I admit I really liked the scene of Yor just barely missing Anya, but Anya heard her thoughts and was trying to look for her. I like that they essentially inverted the trope of just barely missing each other with Anya hearing Yor’s thoughts and followed after them until they found each other. I also really loved the little detail of the sparkles around Anya’s head, indicating that she was reading Yor’s mind. It made the moment really cute to me.

And while Yor had Anya’s best interests in mind, turns out that Anya didn’t even have PE that day, which was why she left her gym clothes at home, much to Yor’s despair. At least Anya seemed to acknowledge Yor’s efforts and pat her on the back XD. During her traverse through the school, Loid ended up seeing her since he was also there keeping tabs on Anya’s school life. Which actually was pretty interesting since this felt like the first time that Yor could have accidentally bumped into Loid while he was on the job and would have made for quite the encounter. However, we would have to settle with Loid coming to find Yor afterwards and helping to lift her spirits by taking her out to lunch.

This was… an episode. I don’t really have much feelings for this episode besides the severe second hand embarrassment on George’s behalf. Though I suppose it was interesting how both situations came about with good intentions in mind, but ended up being a waste of time and efforts. At least Yor ended up getting to have lunch with Loid so her time wasn’t a complete waste as opposed to what happened with George. I guess the moral of this episode was not to jump to conclusions and act impulsively until you get all of the information?