Spy x Family Season 3 Review: the Best Season So Far
Article at a glance:
- Spy x Family Season 3 is easily the strongest season yet, finally breaking out of the slight repetitiveness of Season 2 and delivering a much richer, more plot-driven experience.
- This season massively expands the world and political tensions between Ostania and Westalis, while still keeping the series’ trademark character-focused storytelling front and center.
- With deeper backstories, tighter pacing, and consistently great production, Season 3 proves that the series still has plenty of fresh ideas and emotional weight to offer.
Yeah, I am not exaggerating. I really do think that this is the best season of Spy x Family so far. Season 2 did start to feel a little repetitive over Season 1. So I was worried that Season 3 would just be more of the same. But, nope, Season 3 did so much in terms of expanding the world and giving us more of an idea of the political climate, while still maintaining the character-focused storytelling, that it just deserves its flowers. All that should already set the tone for how this Spy x Family Season 3 review is going to go.
Full disclosure, there are some actually interesting plot elements in Season 3 that I want people to experience for themselves. Unlike the previous 2 seasons, Season 3 is quite a bit more plot-heavy. So that’s why I am putting up a spoiler warning right here. Only continue reading if you are caught up with the anime/manga, or you don’t care about spoilers.
With all that out of the way, welcome to another review, and today, we are talking about Spy x Family Season 3. So let’s get started right away.
Plot
So as I said, Season 3 is a LOT more plot-heavy than both Seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 set everything up, Season 2 showed us a bit more of Yor’s side of things, and all. But Season 3 has consistently had important plot points in every single episode aside from the first one or two episodes. Season 3 really does go out of its way to expand the world and give us more details on the delicate political situation between Ostania and Westalis. It goes out of its way to show us how different organizations want to start wars and those working to prevent wars.
Loid’s backstory about how he lost his parents because of the war and then became a soldier on the frontlines adds so much to his character. Given everything he has been through, his motivation to prevent wars makes a lot more sense. Now, the only thing I’d like to see more of is Yor’s side of things. Where does her own organization stand in this whole war thing? And I bet that will come up in a future season. The main thing I’d criticize with the plot is that things move too fast at times. We get introduced to new factions too quickly, and then they’re just dealt with.
Characters
Once again, despite the massive improvements to plot and overall story, the characters remain the strongest point of the writing. Let’s split this up into sections.
Loid
I said as much in my mid-season review for Spy x Family Season 3 as well, but Loid might just be the most improved character in Season 3. His backstory just adds so much to his character. As a war orphan, someone who saw his whole town get bombed and then realized that there were people on the other side who were just dragged into the war, it makes sense why he is so desperate to stop another war. It says so much when the average soldiers on both sides had no idea why they were even fighting.
Like, yeah, the whole backstory segment kind of comes out of nowhere, but his backstory is so well-handled that I can’t even complain about how random the placement feels.
Anya, Damien, and Becky
I am choosing to group these three because a lot of their character arcs are related. The kids get a lot of time to shine in this season thanks to the whole bus-jacking ordeal. All 3 of these kids showed surprising maturity during the bus-jacking. And despite how much of an airhead Anya can be, she handled herself well during the bus-jacking. I mean, it is thanks to the 3 of them that everyone was saved.
I like how we get to see more of Damien’s family situation. And yeah, his mom is a nutjob. Life must be hard for the poor kid; he is mostly neglected by both his parents and somehow has to live up to his brother. His growing friendship with Anya is a nice dynamic to have, as always lol. Their banter is just perfect. And, of course, Becky always is the perfect wing-girl for Anya lol.
The Others
The others kind of have nothing to do with this season for the most part because of how Loid and Anya-focused it is, but that’s fine. Last season was more Yor-focused, so it only makes sense. It was nice seeing Franky and Fiona interact without Loid around to introduce them. It gave us a nice glimpse into the daily lives of the spies and stuff. But that’s about it, really. Maybe this will change in the remaining 3 episodes, but still.
Production
I mean, it’s WIT Studio and CloverWorks, some of the best studios you can ask for. What do you want me to say? Even in mundane scenes, the animation looks good. The animation is extremely consistent, and I can barely recall scenes where the animation looked wonky or the quality dropped. Again, WIT Studio x CloverWorks, of course, the animations are good. The voice acting is top-notch as always.
The music overall is good. The opening theme, while good, isn’t my favorite, but that’s subjective. But again, no major complaints in this regard either.
Summing Up
Here are my final review scores for Spy x Family Season 3:
- Plot – 8/10
- Characters – 9/10
- Production – 9/10
- Enjoyment – 10/10
- Overall – 9/10
I know it is a high score, but that’s just how much I enjoyed this season of Spy x Family. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. With that said, I will take my leave here. See ya!
Also, check out my thoughts on May I Ask for One Final Thing here!
