The third season of Spy x Family ended on Saturday, December 27. Anime fans are left staring into sparkly pink space, watching the many animal shapeshifts of Bond Forger. While Anya Forger rides on his back in his elephant form, it’s the stuff 5-year-old dreams are made of. But for Spy x Family fans, it’s a bittersweet pause the mission… for now.
It seems like the anime was barely back before it was over again. That being said, Season 3 was overflowing with a balance between adorableness and the darkest moments in the series to date. The title for Season 3, Episode 13, “A World Where We Cannot Survive,” says it all. Innocence isn’t maintainable, so long as things continue as they are, and this season proves that Agent Twilight is that truth.
It is a heavy reminder that a lighthearted ending to the current mission doesn’t mean the world is safe. The war between East and West is still going strong behind the scenes. Secrets still cower in the shadows, fearing the light, and a second war wages within Loid Forger. It is a war between family and duty, and for a man who’s never had the former, he doesn’t know what to do with any of it.
Spy x Family Season 3 Is a Tribute to All Things Agent Twilight
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From the moment Agent Twilight is introduced in Season 1, Episode 1, everything about him is hard. He has no capacity for attachments. His job doesn’t allow for it. He can play the loving fiancé long enough to get what he came for. Then he walks away from a woman he made fall in love with him without looking back. It’s a hard truth about the man we come to know as Loid Forger. Especially once he adopts Anya.
Anya is childhood imagination and excitement extraordinaire. Loid can barely wrap his head around her antics most of the time, but we watch him wrap slowly around her little finger as each season progresses. One of the best things about Spy x Family‘s third season has been seeing where Loid came from. All the elements of his life that made him into the unstoppable super spy, Twilight, unfold in tragic nightmares that launch the season.
We finally come to understand why Loid is so hardened as a character. Everyone he’s ever cared about was killed by the war. His father, whom he lied to during their last conversation, killed. His mother, who spirited him away from the carnage of war to safety, killed. Reunited with the friends he thought he lost, they are all killed in battle, leaving him completely alone in a world that doesn’t feel safe for anyone.
Twilight’s Status as a Spy No Longer Supports His Unwillingness to Get Close to Anyone
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When the handler recruits Agent Twilight, he is a man who’s lost everything. He has no identity anymore, beyond his rage against the war machine, which makes him the perfect recruit. He is a man who will do anything and everything to put an end to the nonstop death and loss. But in turning off his ability to feel emotions, he’s seemingly impervious to that which makes him human.
As the anime series progresses, it does become harder and harder for Loid to rely on Operation Strix as his excuse to care. Even in the final episode, as they are wrapping things up and heading back home, Loid uses his family as an excuse to get out of drinking with his fellow agents. Not because Operation Strix needs his attention at the moment, but because Loid needs to be with the people he doesn’t even realize he’s no fighting for.
He wants to get home so he can fix whatever is going on with Yor. He wants to see Anya, who is already asleep. Whether he wants to admit it, or not, his family has become more than Operation Strix for Twilight. The Forgers are his family now, and everything he does is in effort to make the world a better place than the one he grew up in.
Character Balance Feels a Teensy Bit Off In Spy x Family Season 3
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I won’t deny that I love every scrap Wit Studios and CloverWorks throw at me with the Spy x Family anime. Give me 13 episodes, and I will devour them and beg like a gluttonous pauper for more. But Season 3 felt, at times, like it was missing something. Of course, I still love every second, but the season’s character balance felt a little off.
Yor feels a little bit like an extra this season. She offers two contributions in Season 3 are. First, she befriends Damian’s mom, Melinda Desmond. Second, she is back to looking for reasons to be discontent in her marriage to Loid so she looks like a normal wife. The biggest part of Yor’s charm (aside from her inability to do much of anything beyond bloody murder,) is that she tries way too hard to be normal. She doesn’t even see it, but she is most normal when playing the part of Anya’s mama.
I would like to see her give in to her feelings for Loid. He has come close more than once, and each time she completely implodes. Still, I keep rooting for her to find her courage and embrace the love they both deserve.
Maybe Season 2 Had Too Much Yor… Nah, That’s Silly
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Season 2 has a lot of Yor, especially the Cruise Adventure Arc. The difference was in balancing it with Loid trying to get Anya to “like” him and her taking full advantage of it. That being said, Anya has a ton of great moments in Season 3, including the entire Bus Hijacking Arc. She proves once more that she has what it takes to be a hero (even if it can be chalked up to bravery and obliviousness,) and earns her second Stella Star.
And that is where the balance evens out. Anya’s silliness is the polar opposite of Loid’s seriousness. Stepping back in time to Loid as an innocent, carefree little boy gave both audiences and Anya a glimpse at Papa’s history. We see now what Loid has been missing. And we see even more clearly just how Yor and Anya can fill that void and help him heal.
It was also a huge deal that Loid spared Yuri in the sewers. Deep down, Twilight knew Yuri is a loose end he can’t afford, but he thought of Yor and couldn’t follow through. He is already corrupted by his feelings for his family, and it has nothing to do with Operation Strix.
Spy x Family Season 3 on a Scale of 1 to 10
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With Season 3 of Spy x Family having just ended a few days ago, it’s no surprise there hasn’t been an announcement yet. The official Spy x Family X .com account did however promise a special Spy x Family Anime Extra Mission II. November 8, 2026, will be a big day for anime fans. There is definitely hope a Season 4 announcement will come then.
Still, it was just November like a few weeks ago, so on top of having to wait for The Apothecary Diaries, I’ll just be over here watching Jujutsu Kaisen Season 3 and Hell’s Paradise Season 2 to tide me over.
On to the overall Season 3 rating… I’m going to give it a strong 8/10. It gets docked for there being only 13 episodes (and I’m greedy.) I did also feel like the character imbalance was a little too noticeable, especially in the final couple of episodes. It was a good season, though, and the revelation of Loid’s back story is something anime fans won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
