The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Spy×Family Season 3

The cold war between Ostania and Westalis continues with a terrible strawberry shortage! Can Fiona Frost, AKA Nightfall, solve the crisis before it becomes too much? Maybe, but perhaps the bigger question is whether or not the entire Forger family can thwart an enraged construction worker from going on a rampage without letting each other in on their secrets!

Spy×Family Season 3 is based on the manga series by Tatsuya Endō. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu on Saturdays.

Did anything that happened in this episode matter? Does anything that ever happens in SPY x FAMILY matter? After a certain number of episodes of treading the same ground without any kind of forward momentum, I'm starting to get a little tired of it all. Maybe this isn't fair. There are lots of sitcoms that I enjoy, both of the anime variety and otherwise. What is it about SPY x FAMILY that drags at me so? I was all-in at the start, enthusiastically chuckling at the Forger family's antics.

The premiere of the third season is nothing more than business as usual. It's divided into two half-episodes, the former of which is about the Forgers going on a nice family outing until Anya catches Bond's vision of a man in an excavator (I think? I know I should really be more up on my big truck knowledge, considering my field of work). She directs her parents to where the dastard is carelessly knocking down a building, embittered by overwork and sleep deprivation.

To be honest, most of the what and why of that segment has slipped out of my head by now. Outside of Loid jumping behind the wheel of an excavator as well, it followed the episodic formula so closely that I found it hard to care. Anya has a vision she doesn't understand, Loid does something cool, Yor uses her superstrength to save someone. They're more superheroes than spies or assassins at this point. They're so hypercompetent that the episode felt frictionless—unable to stop, unable to start, unable to move forward.

I had a hard time shaking off the lassitude for the second half—and it took me longer than it should have to realize that hey, this is doing something a bit more interesting. It turns the focus to Franky and Nightfall, a pair of characters that one wouldn't associate with each other. Nightfall is still completely obsessed with Loid, but we get a bit more of a window into who Franky is and what drives him. Plus, the gunfight is cool and we get an excellent shot of Nightfall disarming a guy with her leg. The animation for this half is a bit stronger as well.

I don't know if I'm going to keep up with this season of SPY x FAMILY. It's just another sitcom designed to run in perpetuity, without having any forward progress on the characters' stated goals from the beginning. I don't have time in my life for this kind of wheel-spinning.

I'm not sure that SPY x FAMILY is starting its third season with its best foot forward, but I'm still delighted it's back. Certainly these aren't the gang's most memorable adventures, although they do give us a good reminder of who's who and what they can all do. From Loid showing that he's just as adept with construction vehicles as with any other weapon to Yor swooping in to save an old man and his (not swole) chihuahua, the basics are all here—and that's not even getting into Anya and Bond's astounding psychic duet. If you needed proof that a dog's a kid's best friend, look no further than Anya and Bond figuring out that a construction worker was about to shake hands with danger and start throwing trees like the world's worst caber toss. This first segment is also notable for some truly stellar borfing from Bond. Move over Siberian huskies, Bond is here to make weird dog sounds with the best of them.

The second half of the episode reintroduces my personal least favorite character, Fiona Frost. But this time she's far less obnoxious—mostly because her interactions with Loid are limited. Instead, she's off with Franky to stop a…strawberry shortage. That's part of the beauty of this series; it can switch gears between ludicrous and poignant at the drop of a hat. We're definitely going to be in for the latter in upcoming episodes, as soon as next week, even, as Loid's past begins to come to light—and it's the balance between those story elements that makes this series so special. (Not that you'd know it this week.) The highlight of this half of the episode isn't poignancy, though, but Fiona's fighting. It's fun to watch Franky drag her around the club to puff up his ego, but when the SSS shows up and she starts whipping out her leg skills, that's when things take off. The darkness of the scenes makes it a little hard to see, but the animation of her leg movements is exquisite.

Even if this isn't SPY x FAMILY's strongest episode, it's still a good one. With its reintroduction to the major players and their dynamic, we're all set for things to take off from here—and all with Tatsuya Endō's admirable commitment to never hurting or killing dogs. It should be a borfing good time.