Wit Studio and Cloverworks are back in the family-friendly espionage business with Spy x Family season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”. This time, they’re starting off the new season with a bang. Both metaphorically and literally. The latter especially when some random nameless villain actually manages to get a shot off at Yor Forger while she’s working as the Thorn Princess.

Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”: Details

Spy x Family season 2 NA key visual.
Funny how we get to see both sides of everyone in this first episode.

Spy x Family season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa” is, as its title suggests, the first episode of the new season of this anime series. Said anime series is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Tatsuya Endo. Wit Studio (Attack on Titan season 1-3, Ranking of Kings, The Ancient Magus’ Bride season 1) and Cloverworks (Horimiya, Wonder Egg Priority, My Dress-Up Darling) remain the animation studios behind this anime.

Kazuhiro Furuhashi along with Takahiro Harada (starting with this season) are the directors of Spy x Family season 2. Ichirō Ōkouchi is the writer for season 2 of the anime this time, taking over from Furuhashi. (K)NoW_NAME is still the composer for the music you hear in the anime.

Voice Cast

Spy x Family season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa” stars the voices of Takuya Eguchi (Alex Organ in English dub) as Loid Forger/Twilight, Atsumi Tanezaki (Megan Shipman in English dub) as Anya Forger, Saori Hayami (Natalie Van Sistine in English dub) as Yor Forger/Thorn Princess, and Kenichirō Matsuda (Tyler Walker in English dub) as Bond Forger (even if he appears only very briefly). Another notable role in this episode of the anime is Hiroyuki Yoshino (Anthony Bowling in English dub) as Franky Franklin.

When and Where to Watch

Spy x Family season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa” made its debut on October 7, 2023. You can currently watch this episode only on Crunchyroll. You can watch the previous season either on Crunchyroll as well, or on Hulu.

Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”: Synopsis

This is Anya crying because Loid and Yor won’t let her go with them on their date.

Normally, this would be the part where I give you a spoiler-filled plot summary for Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”. However, this is the spoiler-free version of this episode’s review. Thus, I will simply give you all Crunchyroll’s official synopsis for this episode. You can check it out below:

Yor gets injured while on a mission for the Garden and comes home trying to mask with the pain. Loid sees this and gets the wrong idea, thinking that he upset her somehow! The next day, Loid tries to cheer her up by inviting her out on a date.

Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”: The Good

Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 "Follow Mama and Papa" screenshot depicting Yor on the phone after finishing her Thorn Princess job.
It’s usually not a good thing whenever Yor is on the job.

If you were a fan of the previous season of Spy x Family, then you’ll love Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”. The story, as always, is top-notch. It’s not surprising since the story of this episode is almost identical to what happened to what Tatsuya Endo drew and wrote in the manga. The fact that this episode is so faithful to the manga is why I’m rating it so highly. This may seem like a small thing, but it’s pretty significant in my opinion. Especially when you see all those other story adaptations where the production radically alters the original story.

And yet even though I say that, Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa” isn’t entirely faithful to the original manga. There’s actually one small part of it that wasn’t in the original manga: Bond Forger. See, in the manga, Bond hadn’t actually joined the Forger family yet by that point in the story. In fact, Bond’s arc came afer Extra Mission 2, which was when this episode took place in the manga. You can actually understand why they switched up the order of the story given how it’s a side story that’s unrelated to the main story, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make here.

The point is that Bond wasn’t supposed to be in Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”, so his presence in the episode is technically non-canon to the manga. However, the way in which Bond appears in this episode feels canon. It may not be canon, but it feels exactly like what Tatsuya Endo would do if Bond had been there. That’s the important thing. Adaptation-original content is okay, but it must feel canon to the original. A lot of adaptations forget that, but this one nails it.

Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa”: The Bad

Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 "Follow Mama and Papa" screenshot depicting Yor's "angry" face as she tries to walk off being shot in the butt.
That is not the kind of face you want looking at you in the dark.

Honestly, if you don’t like action, comedy, or drama; then Spy x Family Season 2 Ep. 1 “Follow Mama and Papa” isn’t for you. In fact, Spy x Family as a whole isn’t for you. Also in fact, my only complaint here is that Bond didn’t get to join in on the Loid and Yor stalking with Anya and Franky. This however, I can forgive for time constraints. Plus, Bond did appear, so it mollifies me a bit.

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