Spy x Family follows the escapades of the undercover spy Twilight, who's currently under the alias Loid Forger. Part of his mission is to create a believable, sophisticated family that could get his adopted daughter Anya enrolled in a renowned school among the children of the 1%. Despite the seriousness of Twilight's mission, Spy x Family manages to show children in the school as the mischievous and immature kids they really are.
When the subject of an anime is on the serious side, such as a secret spy mission that would save the country from war, the children involved often tend to take on a more responsible or adult role. In a realistic scenario, this would rarely -- if ever -- be the case. Spy x Family's depiction of Anya Forger and her classmates brings an entertaining and light-hearted realism to an otherwise serious plot line.
Spy x Family's Anya Forger Is Portrayed Much Like a Real-Life Child
Anya Forger, the telepathic adopted daughter of Loid Forger, behaves exactly as a child her age would. Often in anime, it feels as though creators forget how children act, and how their immaturity can impact their actions. For example, the children in The Promised Neverland effortlessly plan and escape an orphanage, committing arson in the process -- despite the oldest of the bunch being only 11. There's also Hunter x Hunter's 12-year-old Killua Zoldyck, whose main goal in life is to murder his entire family.
When it comes to Spy x Family's Anya, her mannerisms and traits are that of a child rather than a mini-adult. It's charming how she comes up with plans to help her family, but they are all eventually thwarted by her childish demeanor and over-ambition. The details in Anya's everyday life also highlight her innocence, such as when she gets on the bus. Being five years old, Anya struggles to climb up the steps because of her tiny legs. It makes her character not only adorable but also extremely accurate to reality.
Spy x Family's Other Child Characters Are Just as Realistic
Likewise, the side characters at Spy x Family's Eden Academy act with the same childish charm. They say mean things to one another, taunt their classmates and even resort to name-calling in some cases. Another character who embodies the energy of a child in school is Damian Desmond, the son of Loid Forger's target. Damian obviously has a schoolboy crush on Anya and pokes fun at her, trying (and failing) to hide his feelings for the outspoken child. But when it came to facing his feelings and accepting his crush, Damian quite literally ran away from them in a flurry of naive emotion, just as a normal kid would.
Damian and his friends also have moments where their imagination takes complete control. When the trio were preparing for a game of dodgeball, an extreme training montage shows them climbing the edge of a cliff -- until one of them dramatically falls. Flash back into reality, and the boys had been climbing in the playground just outside of school.
Kids truly do have a wild imagination that causes their perception to drastically differ from what's happening in real life, and Spy x Family captures this with every young character in the anime. From charging Kamehameha balls in a competitive game of dodgeball to plans formed by five and six-year-olds that are destined to fall apart, this anime shows children exactly as they are. It's a fresh perspective that makes for a more immersive experience, rather than convincing the audience a pre-teen is capable of committing murder.