Spy x Family has consistently been ranking high on anime charts and fan communities, which isn’t much of a surprise. Tatsuya Endo’s comedy espionage drama has all kinds of viewers addicted, and the release of episode 4 has just proven why.
One of the primary reasons fans love the series is Anya, the pink-haired 5-year-old “daughter” of the Westalian super-spy, Loid Forger.
The latest episode puts Anya at the center of perfectly blended comedy and emotion that really brings together the essence of the show.
As part of his latest mission – Operation Strix, Loid had to acquire a child so he could enroll them at Eden Academy, the school his target’s son attends. This is how he ends up adopting Anya, who fools him into thinking she is clever enough to secure admission into Eden Academy.
Anya is no an ordinary child. She is an esper – a mind-reader – who was experimented upon as a child. She has not had any education prior to this, and isn’t particularly intelligent in the academic sense.
Eden Academy is a prestigious school that only gives admission to the best of the best, students who have to go through rigorous rounds of interviews and tests to get in.
Does the Forger family have what it takes to get Anya into the elite school? Will Anya ultimately become an Edenite and help her father complete his mission?
Anya gets into Eden Academy despite messing up during the family interview. Two of the three instructors, Henry Henderson and Walter Evans, loved the Forger family, and Anya is put on top of the waiting list, after which she secures admission into the school.
How does Anya get into Eden Academy?
Anya has to pass 2 phases of admission to get into Eden Academy. The first phase consists of a written entrance exam, the second is a mandatory family interview.
In episode 1 we saw Anya barely scraping through the entrance exam. In episode 2, the school requires that both her parents be present for the next phase of admission – a family interview.
Loid manages to acquire a wife in episode 3, and Yor becomes Anya’s new mom. Episode 4, titled The Prestigious School’s Interview, brings all 3 Forgers on Eden grounds.
I know it seems practically impossible that Anya is accepted into a school that prides itself on academic excellence. We’ve seen how hopeless she is at anything that requires her to use her brain rather than her mind.
She could only solve the difficult crossword puzzle that initially fooled Loid at the orphanage because she telepathically gleaned the answers from his mind.
Anya has never had to study in her life. I mean, if you had telepathic abilities, you could just read minds to gain whatever solution you need, right? I don’t really blame her for thinking that she could just use her powers during the exam to get the answers from other students.
But Loid doesn’t know that Anya can read minds and is insistent that she studies. He is already worried about Anya’s intellect – or lack thereof. She can’t even tell the word “bakery” apart from “bacon.”
Getting Anya into Eden Academy is of top priority since it is the only way he can trail his target – Donovan Desmond, chairman of the extremist National Unity Party of Ostania.
He tries to persuade her into being put back into a better orphanage so he can adopt another child. But Anya has already latched onto Loid and at this point, will do anything for him to let her stay.
Loid brings together all the resources possible. With comical cooperation from Anya, he eventually succeeds in getting her into the school.
But how this whole admission process unfolds is really a testament to Endo’s brilliant writing.
Phase 1: Entrance Exam
Loid gets a copy of the entrance test questions and helps Anya memorize the answers. Anya is still not worried because she thinks she can telepathically get the exam answers from the other students in the hall.
But during the exam, the students all have tears in their eyes and are suffering from panic and stress. Their minds are a mess, and she cannot get anything out of them.
When she calms down, she is able to remember everything that Loid taught her, and she completes the exam successfully.
Although she only scored a mere 31 points on the exam, she does manage to pass.
Phase 2: Interview
The second phase is the family interview, as is shown in episode 4. It covers chapters 4 and 5 of the light novel’s Admissions Interview arc.
Neither of the Forgers are prepared for the family interview. I don’t exactly blame them, because 1) they aren’t an actual family, and 2) the dad’s a spy, the mom’s an assassin, and the kid’s a mind-reader. Not exactly the best ingredients to impress a panel of strict scholars.
Loid tries and retries the mock interview and also prepares Yor and Anya before they leave for the school. But there is nothing he could have done to prepare them for what comes next.
I. On Eden Campus
Phase 2 is not merely an interview. It is a cumulative test that begins the moment the Forger family sets foot on the school grounds. The walk from the entrance gate to the interview room itself is a series of hurdles that the Forgers would be judged on.
This is where we are introduced to 3 new characters, the esteemed instructors – the people judging the scrambling families seeking admission.
First, we have the “elegant” Housemaster, Henry Henderson who is genuinely disappointed by this year’s applicants lacking the true elegance he is looking for.
The other 2 are the Housemasters of Dorms 5 and 2, Walter Evans and Murdoch Swan, the latter of whom is collectively hated by anime fans currently. You’ll see why in a moment.
Loid, being a top-rate spy, quickly figures out that they are being watched. Mr. Suave Super Spy has no trouble impressing the elegance-obsessed Henderson.
He rescues a student fallen in a gutter and he, Anya, and Yor dirty their clothes in the process. Our guy Loid coolly brings out a change of clothes, surprising and impressing Henderson, who says that Loid is brilliant and elegant for having anticipated such a thing.
After this incident is Yor’s turn to shine. Frenzied animals have escaped the farmhouse and are running wild, an actual incident that is not part of the test. Other instructors and people are unaware of this and the animals become a safety hazard.
Yor immobilizes a charging cow and stops the entire herd from rampaging the school.
The icing on the cake is our darling Anya, who strokes the scared cow and calms all the animals down.
Henderson is almost overcome with the elegance of it all and personally thanks them for curbing such an unprecedented crisis.
To top it off, Loid produces another change of clothes, so they can tidy up before the actual interview begins.
After this immensely entertaining series of gags, comes the serious bit of the episode.
II. In the Interview Room
Walter Evans begins asking the Forgers some standard questions and Henderson quickly determines that Anya isn’t too intelligent.
Loid had previously planted a bug in the interview room and so has enough background information about what it takes for the judges to pass or fail candidates. But what could not have been anticipated was how Murdoch Swan would react to them.
Swan, who is triggered by happily married couples and loving families, decides to ask a series of invasive and offensive questions to Yor.
Walter takes over the questioning again but since Anya is panicked and disheveled by Swan, she mistakenly reads Loid’s thoughts aloud in response to the question.
Loid covers up her error in his usual style. Evans next asks Anya to score her parents, and she gives them a perfect 100.
Next comes the tear-jerking moment that brings the family together.
It is initiated by the immensely punchable Swan, who asks Anya to choose between Yor and her biological mother.
Anya understandably begins to cry, remembering dark memories from her childhood. Both Loid and Yor are overwhelmed with anger, almost letting their true colors slip.
This is when we realize the love that the 3 of them have for each other despite being in a fake domestic relationship.
Before things get out of hand, Loid decides to put an end to it, and tells the instructors that Eden Academy might not be the correct school for Anya.
They exit the interview they had tried so hard to get.
Loid literally sacrifices his mission for the sake of Anya and Yor’s feelings.
The Forger family might be fake but the emotions in that moment were genuine. And Henderson sees this. Touched by the Forgers and enraged by his colleague, he lands an admirable punch square on Swan’s face.
III. The Result
The way the interview went makes the Forgers believe that there is no way the instructors will allow Anya to be a member of their prestigious school.
But despite all the unfortunate accidents, Anya and her “parents” do manage to impress the authorities. Henderson and Evans have great respect for the way Loid and Yor stand up for their child, and admire the fact that Anya loves both her parents more than anything.
The next episode of the anime will reveal the result of the family interview.
Anya will be put on top of the waiting list and 3 days later, she will get a call congratulating her acceptance into the prestigious school.
Conclusion
I never really doubted Anya getting into Eden Academy. She might not be smart, but her heart and her will to make Loid – and now Yor – happy are going to get her far. Of course, being a mind-reader doesn’t hurt.
With Anya’s position secured in the same school as Damian Donovon, Loid will have the best chance at completing his mission. But more than anything, he will have a chance to be a real father.
I can’t wait to see Anya and her mind-reading shenanigans on the prestigious premises of Eden Academy.
About Spy × Family
Spy × Family is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump.
The story follows a spy who has to “build a family” to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl he adopts as a daughter and the woman he agrees to be in a fake marriage with are a mind reader and an assassin respectively.
Season 2 and a theatrical film are releasing in 2023.
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