I had a lot of expectations going into the 2nd cour of Spy x Family. The first 12 episodes were a joy to watch and were brimming with potential. The show in general has room to explore a plethora of ideas and take its characters in intriguing directions. For that reason, I was genuinely curious to see where Cour 2 will take its burgeoning story.

Well, the direction it eventually chose for the Forger family had me taken aback. I had an entire mental list of possible avenues Spy x Family could explore in its second cour, but it opted for an avenue that I never considered before. The option Cour 2 chose was something that revolutionized how I envisioned storytelling:

Nothing.

Cour 2 is either content or complicit, depending on who you ask. It doesn’t even try to shake up the formula already established. We do get deeper insight into the characters, such as Loid’s friendship with Franky, Yor’s feelings of inadequacy, and Damian’s daddy issues. But Cour 2 takes great caution to keep the essentials intact. Even with these new insights, the way we perceive these characters stays fundamentally the same. Loid is still the cold, calculated straight man. Yor is still the talented assassin and dim-witted mom, albeit with more emphasis on the latter this time around. And Anya is, well, Anya (waku waku peanuts chichi to haha icha icha). The core dynamic among the Forgers, even with the addition of an entirely new member (Bond), remains the exact same with or without Cour 2’s character ‘development.’

And I think that’s intentional. Cour 2 is perfectly satisfied with sitting on what Cour 1 has established. It simply brings more of that sweet goodness we know as Forger family hijinks. It doesn’t seek to shatter expectations or elevate Spy x Family to a literary masterpiece. And, honestly, that’s totally fine. I had a great time with what Cour 1 had to offer, and Cour 2 delivered well on that front too.

I can’t deny, however, that this latter half of Season 1 is noticeably weaker than the episodes before it. Its contentment/complicity caused it to slump into a routine. Whereas Cour 1 maintained a feeling of haste and unpredictability, Cour 2 seems a lot more telegraphed. We know that Loid is going to overthink certain situations as ‘bad for the mission.’ We expect that the training montage with Anya will end in futility. These gags are no longer new, and they lose some of their excitement because of that.

Furthermore, I find myself somewhat frustrated with the avenues that Cour 2 didn’t take. In particular, the balance between Loid, Yor, and Anya that was so effortlessly achieved in Cour 1 is a lot more shaky this time around. Spy x Family always privileged Loid and Operation Strix over Anya’s (vaguely hinted) origins and Yor’s life as an assassin, but it feels… oppressive now. There are episodes centered on Anya and Yor, but Cour 2 treats them more like side stories—distractions from the main plot. The core cast of characters and their interactions between one another were and still are the show’s greatest strength. Yet, I hoped that Spy x Family would dedicate more time meaningfully fleshing out the women in the family. Maybe they could drop hints here and there about the experiment that bestowed to Anya her telepathic powers. I would also be super stoked to see a deep dive into Yor’s occupation as an assassin, paralleling how the anime already depicts Loid and his spy activities. None of these wishes were fulfilled in Cour 2, and I can’t help but be a tad bit disappointed.

I could spend all day knocking Cour 2, but all these criticisms do not take away from the highlights. In the end, the Forger family is as delightful to watch as ever. The opening high-octane mission matched the exhilaration of the first 12 episodes. Yor’s mini-arc with her cooking was both wholesome and funny. And the romance between Yor and Loid in the final episode made me melt (I’m a hopelessly romantic teen so I eat that stuff up-). Cour 2 may lack the novelty and polish that the original debut had. But it does reaffirm what made Spy x Family so much fun in the first place. And if you are anything like me, then that’s more than enough.

Random Note #2: I swear the animation team dedicates most of their budget to the opening and ending songs. Why is the animation much more fluid and the colors much more vivid?