Hey wait, Spy x Family season 2 aired two years ago. Why am I only just now reviewing it? To be honest, I have no clue. I got caught up in other stuff, and wasn't able to finally get around to writing it until today. Whoops. Well, as the saying goes, better late than never. The second season takes place not too long after the end of the first one, still following the adventures of the spy Twilight aka Loid Forger, the assassin Yor Briar, their adopted mind-reading daughter Anya, and a new addition to their family, a dog named Bond who can see into the future. Both epic adventures and comedic hijinks ensue as this ragtag group of people try to pretend they're a family as part of Loid's mission to make contact with the politician Donovan Desmond. Oh wait, he actually already did that at the end of the last season. But there wouldn't be a story if Spy x Family just ended right then and there, now would it?

Quality-wise, the animation still manages to hold up, as both Wit Studio and CloverWorks were brought back to animate, and since they could split the work between each other and the healthier scheduling that came out from it, it's honestly quite amazing how consistent it still looks. Season 2 retains season 1's dynamic camera angles, kinetic character animation, and colorful backdrops, going all out whenever necessary, and while most of the season does consist of quieter, more comedic episodes compared to the more action-oriented ones, even those manage to deliver. The soundtrack is still an absolute bop, complete with its 80s and jazz inspired score that still manages to hit more than miss, with some new additions in the form of insert songs by the group (K)NoW_NAME that are well sung and done in surprisingly good English. I only wish some of their songs were longer, but hey, sometimes less is more.

As far as the narrative and characterization goes, I do feel like this season was slightly weaker on those fronts. There isn't really much of an ongoing plot in this season compared to the first one, except for in the middle, and 70% of it consists of comedy and slice-of-life antics. If those aren't your thing, you're not going to like this season, or probably Spy x Family in general. I actually found the comedy to be the weakest aspect this season, not because most of it is bad (Yuri's siscon bullshit still sucks), but it did take up a good portion of this season, even if I know it's just adapting later chapters of the manga. A lot of it didn't quite punch as hard as the first season's comedy did, a lot of it just felt like filler, and some parts of it were just weird. Like...did we really need an episode entirely about Becky, a 6-year-old girl, thirsting over Loid, an adult man, and trying to seduce him like the people in her soap operas? I know she was imitating what she saw on her favorite shows, but she really needs to tone it down. Like...a lot.

That said, there are a few things this season really does right. One is that it fleshed out characters that didn't quite get much development in the previous season, namely Damian and Yuri. The show still doesn't do away with Yuri's stupid siscon thing, but it does manage to flesh him out and show what he's like on the job. In the second half of episode 2, Damian gets a whole segment to himself where he's made to go on a camping trip with his friends and learns to be a regular kid, showing more sides to him that we never got to see in the first season and making him into more than just another stereotypical bully character. But one character really got to shine this season: Yor. All throughout season 1, she never really got much to do outside of her introduction. Here, she's given a whole arc, the cruise ship arc, where she not only gets to kick all sorts of ass and be more than just the easily anxious woman who can't cook for shit, but find a new reason to keep her assassin job. For all you Yor fans feeling like she never got to do much last season, season 2 fixes that tenfold. And from what I hear, there's a later arc in the manga that gives her even more to do that actually progresses the plot quite a bit. Yor fans will be feasting like kings and queens with this season.

But...I actually think the problem with this season is that it saved its best episodes for the middle of the series, not the end. This season feels like a sandwich with all the good stuff in the middle, but with two slices of stale bread making up the top and the bottom. Season 2's biggest flaw, IMHO, is that its overall structure feels uneven. It would have been better off had they kept the more episodic, comedic episodes just in the first half and moved the cruise ship arc to the end, that way it would have ended with a bang rather than a whimper. That said, Spy x Family season 2 does have good parts that manage to keep it from being too stale and samey, so I wouldn't call it a waste of time. Not as good as the first season, sure, but Spy x Family is still fun, energetic popcorn entertainment if you want your action fix.