Spy x Family #01 — Face Off

April 9th, 2022

 

I honestly kind of hate the Mission Impossible/Lupin mask rip trope.

Impressions:

In another season, or maybe even had this come earlier in this season, I feel like the nonstop monologuing would have annoyed me more. Yeah, it's going for a noir kind of feel, but it's just nonstop through the entire episode. Practically twenty minutes straight of a deep voiced drawl, only occasionally interrupted by the child, who is usually accompanied by carnival music. I think the real problem with the endless internal monologue is that it's not really witty nor all that informative, mostly just plainly announcing every detail of what is happening. Again, yes, that is something that is part and parcel to noir, but it's not unusual for anime in general and this leans much more towards standard anime than into the noir side, especially when it's pulling crap like extended flashbacks out of nowhere.

I really wanted to see a better showing from both the spy side and the production. I do rather like heist things like Leverage or MacGyver, wits and ingenuity to beat the odds, and stringing up an elaborate tripwire and pulley trap with about thirty pounds of flour with an insta-made perfect face mask to copy Random Goon #4 is more like Lupin kind of antics while deliberately trying to be suave and debonair instead. It doesn't work all that well for me. It did at least introduce two characters with some kind of story and conflict that was resolved, so it accomplished something, which is more than can be said for a lot of shows this season, and a masculine drone is more soothing to the hindpart of the reptillian brain than a cacophony of high pitched screaming and/or JPop, but fairly soulless direction and not much effort past sufficient really kept this episode from having any particularly good or compelling scenes that I could point to and say "Yeah, this is what I want to see more of."

Posted in Spy x Family | 2 Comments »

2 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • NeclordX says:

    This one was incredibly dumb, but…I won’t lie, I felt something charming from it. May be it was how so unapologetic it is about being dumb, I enjoyed it.

  • LUNI_TUNZ says:

    I like how this guy is supposed to be a genius spy, and the best fake name he could come up with is “Forger.”

    “Yes, hi, my name is Guy Incognito.”