The following contains spoilers for Spy x Family Episode 5, "Will They Pass or Fail?" now streaming on Crunchyroll.
With the explosive early success of Spring 2022's Spy x Family, the anime adaptation of Tatsuya Endo's ongoing manga series, old and new fans alike are wondering how faithful the show is to its source material. Many are paying attention to the highly-anticipated adaptation as its book counterpart was one of the top 10 best-selling manga in 2021. While the differences are sparse in its first few episodes, the show has already shown how it stands apart from the manga.
Spy x Family follows a top spy, codenamed Twilight, on a mission to survey and prevent threats to a truce between the Eastern and Western nations. He is tasked with arranging a fake family as his alibi while investigating the leader of the National Unity Party, who only appears publicly at events held by his son's private school, Eden College. He adopts the name Loid Forger, along with his new daughter, Anya Forger the telepath, and his new wife, Yor Forger the assassin. The catch is that neither Loid nor Yor are aware of each other's secret identities, creating an exciting and entertaining adventure for their well-aware psychic daughter and eager fans alike. Its display of classic secret agent nostalgia makes a refreshing dynamic, especially combined with the wholesome and humorous interactions between Loid, Yor and young Anya.
Part of the high anticipation for the Spy x Family anime is due to the production from Wit Studio (Attack on Titan and Vinland Saga) and CloverWorks, Inc. (The Promised Neverland and My Dress-Up Darling). Animation is often a make-or-break factor for many viewers, especially when translating the clean lines and art of the original manga artist. Luckily, both studios are attributed to their sharp and defined line work along with satisfying character movement.
Viewers also tend to focus on how faithful the story is adapted from each page and panel. For anime, storyboard artists often have to create additional scenes and details to help maintain pacing, and to fit the amount of content in however many chapters they want to adapt in an episode. The pacing of Episode 1 seems slow compared to the easily binge-able chapters of an entire volume, but it wraps up neatly with additional emphasis on the synopsis.
When Loid is reading about his new mission, scenes of train baggage and an ominous zoom into the shadowy Eden College are inter-stitched to help prolong the scene and slow the pacing; it implicates the weight of this mission on Loid -- and on the show as the basis to its plot.
Additions to the Spy x Family anime also smoothly transition and clarify moments that may not be expressed as effectively as in the manga. Anya is depicted with sparkles around her head whenever she actively uses her telepathic powers to listen and react to other characters' inner thoughts that may seem like regular narrations to the audience. Although these are minor differences not explicitly shown in the manga, they help viewers and readers build up a two-dimensional world and characters.
One of the more notable differences from the manga to the anime is the slight change of tone in violence. As an active spy and assassin, it makes sense to illustrate the visceral and almost scary side to Loid, Yor and their attacks. Fans noticed how the anime downplays Loid's elusive fight when rescuing Anya from the Foreign minister and his goons.
There is also a lack of blood and fast-paced impact to Yor's attacks during her first shown assassination, her getaway "engagement" with Loid, and her pressure point defense on the cow at Eden College. Although the action aspect is still present, the anime is going for a more family-friendly approach to the violence that doesn't seem to affect the increasing weekly views so far. After all, Anya's cuteness is a huge factor in this series' marketing.
Many fans of the Spy x Family source material agree that the anime has been giving a generally faithful 1:1 adaption to the manga panels. Some consider this a boring translation that defeats the purpose of adapting a novel into a more multidimensional medium such as anime, but others are relieved that the television series is not straying far from the already globally successful art and story.
The only major exception to this is Episode 5 of the anime. While the beginning stays faithful to the start of Chapter 6, Anya's grand and expensive reward for getting into Eden College surpasses the few pages it covers in the manga. From an adorable family plane ride to a dramatically villainous Uncle Frankie to an explosive sequence of Loid's Bondman cosplaying for a mirage of fangirling spies, the majority of the episode is considered a filler to the main story.
Yet, the comedic tone and consistent action exceeded fans' expectations for what would've been a brief moment from the manga. The expansion of Chapter 6's adaptation was a risky move, but it successfully fleshes out the characters' outrageous personalities while world-building to a point that didn't affect the main plot; it also gives the following chapters enough screen time to not be awkwardly cut between episodes.
The clean animation combined with a jazzy, action soundtrack and vintage spy aesthetic elevate the manga beyond its already-successful series circulation. Spy x Family's 2022 anime debut has been so positively received that after only a quarter of the first season's released episodes, it has been ranked as one of the top anime among Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Attack on Titan, even getting a stage musical next year. Loyal fans have pinpointed every small difference and major addition to the manga, but at this rate, the anime's reception speaks volumes for how effective its storytelling has been so far.