Spy X Family Code: White review: A delightful “ooting” for fans young and old

It’s hard to believe that the Spy X Family series, based on the manga series of the same name, has only been around since 2022. The characters have become so ubiquitous in fan spaces that it feels like they’ve been with us for much longer. Even if you’ve never seen the show before, you’ve probably seen an image of pink-haired, wide-eyed (or sometimes narrow-eyed) Anya in the wild, on a T-shirt or some other kind of merch. For those who fall into this group, now would be a great time to catch up and get to know the series before the release of its first theatrical feature, Spy X Family Code: White. There are 37 charming episodes waiting for you Crunchyroll or Hulu, each running less than 30 minutes long.

That research is by no means required to enjoy the new film, though. Everything is set up for you in the first few minutes, but if you want the short version, here it is: Spy X Family is set in a fictional world where two powerful, vaguely European-coded countries, Westalia and Ostania, are constantly on the brink of war. The series begins with a super spy code-named Twilight (voiced in English by Alex Organ) embarking on a mission to get close to a high-placed government official in Ostania. To do that, he adopts a little girl named Anya (Megan Shipman) and enrolls her in the same prestigious school as his target’s youngest son. What Twilight, alias Loid Forger, doesn’t know is that Anya has the ability to read minds; she never lets on for fear that her new dad will reject her and send her back to the orphanage. Completing the family portrait is a young woman named Yor (Natalie Van Sistine), a government worker who agrees to a marriage of convenience with Loid (who she believes to be an ordinary psychologist) in order to hide her double life as a deadly assassin. This may not sound like the short version, but trust me, it’s only a rough outline. This little family has some big secrets. Oh, and a dog named Bond who sees visions of the future.

As the title implies, Spy X Family is part espionage thriller and part domestic slice of life, but above all, it’s a comedy. It gets away with its plot contrivances and general silliness by never taking itself too seriously, and delivering plenty of genuine laughs (often courtesy of Anya’s hilarious inner-monologue asides). Over the course of its two seasons, these ridiculous contortions have become part of the fun. So when the movie sends the family on a trip together to track down the recipe for a special dessert served only at this one specific restaurant that only takes reservations from families and happens to be located in a snowy resort town near the epicenter of a covert military operation, longtime fans will just nod and accept it. Like the show, the storyline in Code: White seems to have been conceived with a destination in mind first, with everything else reverse-engineered to get us there. That’s fine; that’s Spy X Family.

While the film is friendly to newcomers, there’s no question that it’s the fans who will get the most out of it. Despite the story taking the family out of their element, the writers find ways to give time to other characters who have become fan favorites. We get a bit of Anya’s classmates Becky and Damian in the Eden Academy scenes at the beginning, and ongoing subplots featuring Twilight’s spy colleague Nightfall, who’s totally obsessed with him, and Yor’s brother Yuri, who’s totally obsessed with her (in a creepy, Folgers coffee commercial sort of way). There’s even time to check in with poor, lovelorn Franky, Twilight’s underappreciated informant and fixer. Jokes about Yor’s terrible cooking, Anya’s love of peanuts, and Twilight’s practically superhuman expertise in everything to do with spying while failing to clock what’s going on right under his nose aren’t just throwaway gags, they feel like rewards for the loyal viewership that has catapulted the franchise to international success.

It all leads up to a spectacular final sequence aboard an airborne war machine, where our three protagonists are conveniently split up so they can do what they do without revealing their true selves to each other. While Loid infiltrates and Yor kicks ass, Anya struggles with a fundamental bodily function, deftly illustrated in an extended sequence that had young audience members (and other aficionados of toilet humor) erupting into fits of giggles at the screening I attended. The animation throughout is attractive and innovative, utilizing cinematic camera movements and angles that give a sense of scale and depth. This isn’t just a supersized version of the TV series; it’s made to look impressive on a big screen. And it does.

That being said, while watching the film I found myself wondering how long the show can sustain its deceptions without straining the tension so far that it becomes tedious. It’s not there yet, but that point feels like it’s fast approaching. At the risk of betraying the premise, I do kind of wish they’d just come out with it already. It sure would make things simpler. Maybe the writers are saving that for another film at some point in the future. Maybe not, but either way it’s safe to say that while Code: White may be the first full-length Spy X Family feature, it surely won’t be the last.