SPY×FAMILY Episode 21

So we finally meet the silver haired operative and boy does she make quite the first impression. Initially, she seems like an incredibly cold and reserved woman who will take any chance to take credit from others to get ahead. Only for her to actually be madly in love with Twilight, though those affections never make it onto the outside. And due to these feelings, she believes that the role of Loid’s wife was stolen from her by Yor and thus goes to harass her to force her out of the role. And I’m sure that fans of the series would already be up in arms to protect the precious Forger family against anyone who would want to break up that dynamic.

Right off the bat, Fiona is shown to be a very technical person, very similar to how Twilight is. The way she criticizes everything that Yor and Anya do, viewing them in more of an objective sense instead of as people. Even priding herself about knowing so much more about Twilight than anyone. However, all of the examples she brings up about being the better wife are all technical skills. While Fiona may be good in a technical sense as Twilight’s wife, she isn’t thinking what is emotionally good for him or for the pretend family. While she can cover all the technical aspects, something Twilight can already do on his own, Yor is able to cover Loid’s weaknesses in the emotional department and help him see things from a different angle. Not to mention that Fiona is just all too focused on becoming Twilight’s wife and doesn’t seem to care at all about peace whatsoever. Something that both Loid and Yor hold very personally and the driving points to both of their careers. And don’t get me wrong, Fiona does have a point in prioritizing the mission, however, she’s only saying that out of selfishness.

I also highly doubt that Fiona would actually be able to form a good relationship with Anya. Especially with how violent and demanding she would be if she were the kid’s mother. And while that scene of her imagining her whipping Anya into shape (literally) was played for laughs, there’s still an underlying unease of the idea considering what Anya has already gone through. While Anya is often scared by Yor’s… tendencies, Yor still provides Anya with a lot of emotional care and security. Especially since Anya KNOWS Yor will jump to her rescue if she’s ever in trouble. I would even argue that out of the family unit, Yor and Anya have been bonding a lot more than with Loid. Which makes sense since Loid seems to keep them at arm’s length emotionally due to his job as a spy. However, despite that, he most likely still ended up developing a soft spot for both of them over time. Something even Fiona notices and gets upset over. Sorry Fiona, but you’re not breaking up this adorable family unit.

But poor Yor. Even if Loid is constantly reassuring her, she’s still dealing with low self esteem when it comes to being a mother and here Fiona comes to make those insecurities fester even more.

While Fiona is an interesting character, she definitely frustrates me. Not because of her being a rival for Loid’s affections, but because of how arrogant and selfish she is. She has no qualms in trying to break apart this family unit and only cares if she gets what she wants. The way she just nitpicks every little thing and concludes she’s better got tiresome really quick. Not to mention that she’s just like Twilight in terms of only seeing things on a technical and objective level and just doesn’t seem capable of expanding her affections to anyone else. Not even sparing a thought for what would happen to Yor or Anya if she did end up stealing the position of Twilight’s wife. Because of that, I just can’t bring myself to feel sorry for her unrequited feelings.

While I love the extra chapter of Anya, her penguin and Bond, it did feel weird for that to be after the ending. And I definitely preferred this in the manga rather than it animated because of course I did. Part of it may have had to do with the voice acting for Bond and the other part was that some of the scenes just didn’t have the same comedic punch as it did in the manga. I’m a bit miffed that Anya’s crying expression wasn’t as hilarious as she looked in the manga since that was legit one of my favorite panels since in the manga it looked as if she was going into hysterics and distress while in the anime she was just the same crying face she had one before. There wasn’t as much variety in expressions.

Overall, this episode was okay, though there were still things that bothered me. I don’t remember if this happens in any other episode, but for some reason they did the blurry in the foreground/background and then changes to the opposite A LOT. Like it’s fine if they use that technique once in a while, but not literally every other scene. I was also a little disappointed that while there were a lot of funny moments that happened in the episode, they felt so much more expressive and funny in the manga. The silly Anya faces were done right, however, the more subtle expressions and their details on the others weren’t adapted. I couldn’t help but notice that Loid’s expressions were a lot more passive and stiff than the ones he had in the manga. Like when he told Anya that the scars are a badge of honor, he had a little bit of an embarrassed face with some blush, but in the anime he just looked as if he were stating a fact. It’s the small details in the manga that often get brushed under the rug, which is a shame because I feel like those are what added to the charm of the series.

Also, the “hiss” that Anya did just didn’t hit my funny bond as hard as it did in the manga. >_<

In any case, we’ll be getting to see more of Fiona since she and him were assigned to the same mission. So there’s that I guess.