Spy X Family Animation Art Book Scans - Part 2

Spy x Family Animation Art Book scans - part 2

Today I'm back with a few more scans from the Animation Art Book! If you haven't seen the first page of scans I made from this book, click here. Since many of the character design pages in this book are similar to the ones from the cour 1 season 1 artbook, I'm mostly going to skip these, so be sure to check out the previous scans here and here if you haven't already!

While the main feature of the book is character and setting designs, it also contains a lot of miscellaneous, "niche" images that only briefly show in the anime but are interesting if you stop and look at them. One of my favorites is of course Loid and Yor's (fake) marriage certificate and the doctored up photos in their living room. Obviously WISE/Twilight must have some advanced photo editing technology since Photoshop shouldn't exist when the series takes place 😅

Next is some examples of Anya's handwriting and schoolwork, as well as the cipher she and Yor make in mission 20. It's a bit hard to make out, but it looks like she spelled her name "Ania" in the mission 4 example but maybe started spelling it the right way in the mission 24 example? As for those notes at the top from mission 20...is that Bond in the lower right corner? 😂 I can just about make out the first question on the mission 4 paper - it says "Solve if you can understand the clock." The rest says something like "When * will * two hours * effect the current time?" And it looks like her answer is..."Time"? 😅

In contrast, here's some examples of Damian's tests that Daybreak tampered with in mission 18. I'm not gonna bother to check if his math is correct...I'm assuming all or most of it is! I also couldn't help but notice his answer on the cake question, "How many cakes are left?" - instead of just putting "4" he writers out, "There are 4 left." What an overachiever 🤣

Here's a few more scribbles from Anya's notebook, but more interestingly, the Eden schedule of classes. I wonder what the class "Theme" is. And they have to share a poem every morning? I'm surprised we haven't seen one of Anya's poems yet!

And lastly, I wanted to share two character pages for Bond and Fiona since they're didn't feature in the previous book.

It's time for another merch post, my biggest one yet since I went kind of crazy for merch in Dec/Jan...my wallet is still recovering 😵‍💫 (also, I made scans of some of this merch in a previous post here if you haven't already seen).

First is one of two Mercari orders. I only intended to get the movie booklet (which I've posted about previously) but added some more stuff to make the shipping worthwhile!

I got the towel with the cruise arc outfits that's part of the merch line for the Tokai Steamship collab. It's a bit small, but I still love it!

I always liked the art for the Tower Records collab, so I got a poster! (the seller also included stickers and postcards).

I also like the art for the Cruise Buffet collab, so I got a paper placemat which makes a great poster! The seller shipped it in this nice plastic cover, so I decided to keep that on to protect it (they included a postcard too, which will be part of my next miscellaneous scans post 😁)

The below acrylic stands were recently released as part of the movie merch line (sold at theaters I believe). Anya had a couple different designs, including one where she's in a director's chair and one where she has 3D glasses. But I picked the one where she's eating popcorn since Bond is with her (gotta always get the whole family when I can!)

A couple weeks ago I took a trip to Animate, where they just happened to be having a SxF promotion where you'd get postcards of the new camping designs if you spent a certain amount on SxF merchandise. I bought the four camping acrylics, which was more than enough to get all the postcards 😊

Also picked up these two magazines, since a Kinokuniya store was at that mall as well (scans of these coming soon!)

Below is the second Mercari order!

I absolutely love these painting acrylics! They're definitely one of my favorite sets ❤️

Some acrylics from the movie! The big one in the middle is really cool, the background is reflective but transparent too.

I love the Waku Waku Park designs, but was only able to find acrylics of Anya & Bond. Hope to add Loid and Yor to the collection one day. So I just got a clear file in the meantime, lol.

Couldn't resist this adorable CODE: White overnight bag! I decided to use it to hold my many TCG decks 😅

And lastly (kinda of) was my usual Amiami preoder!

The "Anya helping with chores" designs are so cute, I got them as both acrylic stands (from Amiami) and reusable bags (from the aforementioned Mercari order).

I got more acrylics and postcards of the lovely kimono designs ❤️ (postcards scans coming soon!)

As I posted about previously, I got the Operation Diary video game along with these nice goodies that came with the preorder! (that keychain is rare official Twiyor merch 👀)

And I got even more TCG accessories! (another set of sleeves, a few deck boxes, a card box, and card holder).

The reason I've been getting so much TCG stuff, as well as why I said the Amiami order was only "sort of" the last of my merch from the past couple months, is because I had also preordered a case of SxF Weiss Schwarz cards! I preordered it back in August, and the set officially released in English last week...but that will be covered in another post, so stay tuned~

We got a short mission chapter today that takes place prior to the gala!

For some reason, the English version has Anya calling Damian by his actual name in this panel, something I don't think she's done before. But in the original Japanese version, she's still calling him "Sy-on Boy." Both of them calling the other by their actual name seems like a big step in their relationship, so it's weird that the English version did this...maybe it was just an unintentional mistake.

Who was Martha's boyfriend indeed? I don't know but maybe his initials are H.H.

I love that Anya wanted to pick a dress that resembles Yor's ❤️ Also her taking all the "killing" expressions literally was hilarious, such an Anya thing to do!

After the previous chapter, there was so much fan art of Anya practicing dancing with Loid...and it actually ended up being canon!

Nice to see Yor and Bond again, it's been a while...poor Bond though! First he gets stepped on, then wet. At least that wasn't a scalding hot drink!

I like that Loid offered to clean up the spill for Yor. Also that he brings up Plan C again - still waiting for that to become a plot point again!

Soft Loid resurfacing after seeing Anya's determination is always nice~

Also, as an aside for those who haven't seen it yet, Endo made this new illustration last week to celebrate SxF's 5-year anniversary (5 years since chapter 1 was published!)

Thank you Endo for continuing to bring us joy with this amazing series! With the way the story's going, I can definitely see SxF continuing for another 5 years~ Can't wait to see how the plot and characters keep developing 😁

New manga illustrations for the upcoming volume 13 just dropped! First is this gorgeous picture of "WISE vs SSS." Nice to finally see Chloe officially in color 😁

And this cute drawing of Yor for the title page!

Also, if you haven't seen the actual cover for volume 13 yet, it was revealed a while back - the city hall employees!

Volume 13 will be released on March 4th. Hoping there will be more new illustrations and/or an omake chapter! 🤞

Japanese Linguistic Observations in Spy x Family - part 1

This is a post series I've been planning for a while and I've finally had the time to complete part 1! 😃 I may have mentioned here before that I got my B.A. in Japanese/East Asian Studies, and even though I'm not fluent, I know the linguistics of the language fairly well. So I thought it would be fun to examine the interesting aspects of the Japanese version of the SxF manga that aren't reflected in the English translation. It might also be an informative experience for those who don't know any Japanese to learn a bit about the language through SxF! I'll try not to get too technical with the linguistics and keep my explanations at a beginner's level.

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Part 1 - Twilight's "honne and tatemae"

One of the main themes in SxF is how many of the characters have secrets they want to hide, so they act a certain way in front of others in order to mask their true selves. Japanese has a word for this phenomena called 本音と建前 ("honne and tatemae").

I remember learning about the concept of "honne and tatemae" during my Japanese college studies – a quick google search will yield a lot of publications on the topic and its relation to Japanese culture in particular. While the idea of hiding one's true intentions behind a fake facade can exist anywhere and is not something unique to Japan, it is enough of an occurrence in Japanese culture that there are specific words for it. The Wiki article has a basic but good definition of honne and tatemae, to quote:

A person's honne may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances, and they are often kept hidden, except with one's closest friends. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances, and these may or may not match one's honne. In many cases, tatemae leads to outright telling of lies in order to avoid exposing the true inward feelings.

Sounds very much like the characters in SxF, doesn't it? Twilight especially, because unlike other characters like Yor and Anya, who simply have secrets they need to keep but don't create fake personas for themselves, Twilight does – the cheerful, friendly Loid Forger is a different person from the cold, calculating Twilight after all. Also unlike Yor and Anya, who speak the same way consistently no matter who they're talking to, Twilight uses different speech levels depending on which persona he's using and who he's talking to.

There are many different levels of speech in Japanese, ranging from super formal to totally crude. These speech levels are distinguished mostly by the pronouns the speaker chooses to use for themselves and who they're speaking to, as well as how they choose to conjugate the words they use. For example, 座ってください (suwatte kudasai), 座って (suwatte,) and 座れ (suware) all mean "sit," as in, telling someone to sit down. But the tone being conveyed is different: the first one is polite, the second one is casual, and the last one could be seen as rude if you're not using it with a close friend/family member.

As Twilight, he uses casual speech with the masculine and less polite pronoun 俺 or オレ (ore). This is the speech he uses when talking to a fellow spy like Fiona, and for his own inner thoughts.

As Loid Forger, he uses the polite 敬語 (keigo) speech, which is basically comprised of using the -ます (-masu) conjugation for verbs and the "to be" verb です (desu). He also uses the pronoun ボク or 僕 (boku), which is the standard male pronoun and more polite than "ore." He uses keigo to address pretty much everyone who doesn't know his true identity. When talking to a higher-up like Sylvia, he'll still use "ore" but will use polite speech instead of casual speech.

Anya is an exception to this: with her, he uses his most casual speech, the same as he uses with Franky.

I discussed a bit about this in part 24 of my Twiyor analysis posts, but this could be because Anya is a little kid, so he doesn't feel the need to put on any airs with her (same with Bond, whom he also uses casual speech with).

An interesting side note is that, as a child, Twilight used the pronoun "boku" but then changed to "ore" as soon as he became an adult/soldier.

Another aspect of keigo, besides using the more polite forms of pronouns and verb conjugations, is putting the honorific さん (san) after people's names. Twilight does this all the time with Yor, as she does with him. However, he switches to casual speech and drops the "san" part in her name when addressing her in front of people who (supposedly) believe they're a real married couple, such as Yuri and Fiona – because it would be weird for a real couple who have been married for a year to address each other in such a formal way, especially the husband. In the below panel when Fiona visits them, he's calling her "Yor" instead of "Yor-san" and using casual speech instead of keigo.

Oddly in these situations, while he uses just "Yor" when addressing her directly, he still calls her "Yor-san" when talking about her. During Yuri's first visit for example, he calls her "Yor-san" when telling Yuri how much Anya loves her (talking to someone about her) but then calls her just "Yor" a few moments later when telling her that he'll clean up the spill (talking to her directly). It's strange to me that he wouldn't just consistently use "Yor" whether he's talking to her or about her in these situations...I'm honestly not sure if he does this intentionally or if he just slips up since he's so used to using "Yor-san" in her presence.

*UPDATE* Thank you to @dentedintheworld-blog for enlightening me with the below reply about this!

"In Japanese, when speaking to your spouse's family about your spouse, you address her/him by attaching "san" her/his name out of respect for her/his family. This is also to show her/his family that you respect your spouse. That's why Loid calls Yor with san when he talks about how much he loves Yor to Yuri."

That definitely makes sense for why Twilight switches between "Yor" and "Yor-san" in these situations.

Regardless, this is why the scene in chapter 86 is so significant – when Yor isn't present, there's no reason for him to refer to her as "Yor-san," especially in front of a fellow spy like Fiona who knows he (supposedly) shouldn't have any feelings for her. Yet, even after he just called Yuri by his full name "Yuri Briar" a moment before, he doesn't do the same for Yor and continues to call her "Yor-san" here, much to Fiona's dismay.

In the same chapter, it's also significant that he uses "ore" when addressing Yor directly in his thoughts. Even though he's not speaking out loud, I believe this is the first time he's speaking directly "to" her as Twilight and/or his true self and not as Loid Forger.

But despite all this, I think that both Loid Forger and Twilight are tatemae…they're both masks to hide the person he truly is. The person who fondly talked about his mother to Yor on the park bench, the person who genuinely expressed gratitude for her sacrifice when leaving the resort island, the person who refused to kill Yuri in a life-or-death struggle because he knew it would hurt her…that's his actual honne. But of course, the ongoing conflict of the series is that he has yet to realize this. He won't even show his honne to his closest friend, Franky. Seems like it mostly comes out in dribs and drabs during his interactions with Yor...no surprise there, lol. The man is certainly a work in progress. When he finally starts letting his "honne" show, I'm curious what form of speech he'll adopt.

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Continue to Part 2 ->

According to AMC Theaters in the USA, an art board illustrated by Tatsuya Endo will be given out from 4/18 to 4/21! Haven't found an image of what it looks like yet.

Yes, I'm excited for that! 😁

(AMC link here)

I haven't seen the art either - if it's Endo's art related to the movie, I believe the only drawings he's done are the original teaser image (of the Forgers in a plane) and the cover of the movie film files booklet. But if it's just general SxF art, it could be anything! Or it could be a completely original design, but I doubt he'd make special art just for this one little giveaway in another country 😅

Regardless, I'm planning to see the movie at least twice at AMC theaters, including release day on the 18th, so hopefully I'll be able to secure an artboard!