KOREA FOUNDATION

SPY×FAMILY is a globally-popular comic for which consumer response is currently especially enthusiastic, with an animated version on Netflix spreading to Europe and North America, breaking sales records, and attracting new fans all over the world. With the forthcoming release of the animated work's second part in the fourth quarter of this year, fan anticipation continues to grow.

The plot unfolds from an unexpectedly absurd and excessive premise. Contrary to audiences’ initial shock at the absurdity, after a few episodes, viewers get used to and start to enjoy the incidents that unfold. It is why many call it a comedy, “slice of life,” or even a childrearing novel.

The male protagonist is code-named “Twilight,” with his real name unknown. He is the top spy of Westalis and dispatched to Ostania to carry out Operation Strix, in which he must approach Donovan Desmond, leader of the National Unity Party in Ostania, and find out the latter’s plans. Twilight creates a fake family to enroll a child at Eden Academy, where Donovan is expected to appear, and assumes the identity of psychiatrist, Loid Forger.

Twilight brings from an orphanage a small girl, Anya, who is an expert at reading minds. After repeated cycles of being taken in and given up by her adoptive family, she enters the academy under the name “Anya Forger” as Loid Forger’s daughter.

Yor Briar, the female protagonist who marries Loid, is a professional assassin from a group called “Garden.” She entered the business at a young age in order to be able to live with her younger brother, the only family she has, and has continued her trade into her late 20s. As Westalis and Ostania keep each other in check, Yor, who appears as a single woman "whose window for marriage is closing," agrees to join Loid’s fake family to avoid arousing suspicion over her true identity. She poses as a clerk at Berlint City who is Loid’s wife.

In other words, all of the major characters lead fake lives, present false fronts, and hide extreme truths about themselves. So, what is their "true reality?" Loid, Yor, and Anya live as a “family” for each of their own needs. Is this not what families are really like?

Their actual lives are dark, difficult, and lonely, while their forged identities are tremendously happy and stable. Why can they only be happy in their fake world? Stories generally pursue truth over lies and eventually find their way to the truth, but the author seems to deliver the opposite message. Does he mean that people need to lie to be happy?

“Well, if you ask me, Yor... Perhaps many families throughout this world are somehow putting on an act, thinking, ‘A wife should be like this’ or ‘A parent should be like that.’ Of course, working hard to be one’s best self is admirable, but dwelling on that too much at the cost of yourself could see things that should go well fall apart. Many people who suffer like that come to my clinic all the time. Putting on an act all the time is often tiring. And this is why I want you to be who you are, Yor. The more confident you seem, the less people suspect anything.”

This is what Loid tells Yor when she vents her frustration about not being a good enough wife or mother. Loid may be passing on his own secret for survival as a consummate liar. His words, however, might also reflect the author’s way of seeing ordinary people.

A considerable number of readers watching the Forgers' lie-based happiness might wish the best for the family, but the story seems to be headed toward a climactic crisis and conclusion. Twilight is the best spy in Westalis, and Yor is a militant patriot of Ostania. When their true identities are revealed, they will not be capable of tolerating each other. The two willingly accept personal tragedy for their countries: the happier they grow in their fake lives, the more their long-held beliefs and sacrifices torment them.

The Owl of Minerva flies at twilight. The truth about the Forgers is likely to be exposed by the Desmond family, which Loid approaches through Operation Strix. Their staunch worldviews could collapse. It will be interesting to see how Twilight, with his pretend family, spreads his wings deep in the night and copes with the ensuing situation.