There Were Two Panels Related To Spy X Family At Anime Expo This Year, With The First On Day 1 Being

There were two panels related to Spy x Family at Anime Expo this year, with the first on Day 1 being Toho Animation's panel featuring both Spy x Family and Kaiju No.8.

The panel started with the SxF portion, with the special guests being the series director, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, and the CODE: White director, Takashi Katagiri. They also had the six SxF ThreeZero figures on the stage with them 😀

The MC asked them some questions, like what their favorite scenes were from their respective works and who their favorite character is. They also showed behind-the-scenes footage of both the Loid/Fiona tennis match in season 1, and Yor's fight scene against Type F in the movie. We got to see both of these scenes in rough animatic sketch form and then in line art form, which was pretty cool (it wasn't clear if photo/video was prohibited at this panel, but I didn't want to risk it by being caught blatantly recording these exclusive clips, lol). Then they showed off some of Anya's unused outfits from the movie.

At the end, they showed this original illustration by Kyoji Asano, made specifically for this event 😁

And that was it for the SxF part of the panel before they moved on to Kaiju No.8...and to be honest, it kinda overshadowed the SxF part, mostly because it featured two of the main Kaiju No.8 voice actors, one of which was extremely hilarious and charismatic. Plus there were a lot more segments compared to the SxF part. The interview with the guests seemed longer, they did three live voice overs, showed a pre-recorded special message from the band that performs the Kaiju No.8 opening, and then they took a group photo with the audience (and maybe something else that I'm forgetting). It seemed like the SxF part took up about 35% of the panel's time while Kaiju No.8 took up 65%. Not sure why it felt so unbalanced, but it was still fun.

Next was the panel on Day 3 for Production IG and their related studios WIT and Signal MD. Heads of each studio were there, including George Wada from WIT. Photo/video wasn't allowed once the panel started, but it basically consisted of an interview with the different guests, then trailers/teasers for their upcoming projects, then a Q&A session.

WIT is the studio that makes SxF, so I was hoping for any news about season 3, specifically if WIT would be more involved with it than they were with season 2. For those who don't know, season 1 of SxF was made by both WIT Studio and Cloverworks. But when they decided to make both season 2 and the movie in 2023, they split up the work, with WIT focusing on the movie while Cloverworks did pretty much all the work on season 2 (which is why the animation in season 1 and season 2 looks a bit different). According to this tweet, the official staff listing for season 3 is the same as season 2, meaning WIT will once again have little involvement. But despite this, they had a slide during the presentation with the season 3 promo image (preceded by the CODE: White teaser trailer, which made the crowd go wild - glad there were lots of SxF fans in the audience!) George Wada also said in regards to season 3 that they're "working hard on it."

I wanted to confirm during the Q&A if WIT would again take a backseat during season 3's production as well, but unfortunately the panel only had a few minutes left when it was close to my turn, and then they opted to pick a few random people in line for their last questions (which I thought was kind of unfair). Guess we'll just have to wait and see if anything changes with that staff listing once we get closer to season 3's release.

Overall, while Takuya Eguchi's appearance at last year's AX was more fun, it was still cool to attend this year's SxF-related panels as well. Hopefully season 3 will either be airing or close to being released at next year's AX, so we'll have even more SxF events!

I recently updated my collection displays, so time to share photos that show how normal I am about Spy x Family 😅 I realized that the last time I posted collection photos was way back in October of last year...I've gotten a lot more stuff since then and I'm just about out of room 😳

One update you may notice compared to the old photos is that I put a white background on each tier of the display case where it used to be black (also on the base of the third tier). I realized that white makes everything stand out so much better, so I simply cut out some white poster board and taped it to each tier. Makes a big difference!

But the main change I made was extending my SxF collection to another shelf! I had a white shelf right next to the display case where I kept my Pokemon plushies. But I was able to move those guys somewhere else, which freed up space for the rest of my SxF acrylics~ I think it's a great spot since I have my Ita backpack with all my SxF pines/keychains hanging nearby!

And here's a photo of the full display case and shelf. I'm also keeping the collab merch from The Alley and AMC theaters on the bottom shelves.

Lastly, I have a few more things on my work desk (along with some non-SxF stuff). Right now I have the prized chara fine graph in the back until I can find a better spot. But it's fine for now since I can see it when I sit at the desk 😁

I'll be going to Anime Expo in a couple weeks...I'll try not to buy too much more merch 😅

Spy x Anya: Operation Memories English release

The SxF video game, Operation Diary (localized as Spy x Anya: Operation Memories) has now been officially released in English worldwide 🙂 I played the game in Japanese back when it released in December of last year and made a lot of posts about it - how the game works, pictures of the different outfits for the Forgers, information/videos about the mini-games, and more! So for those who are interested in the game, whether because you plan to buy it or are thinking about buying it and want to know more about it (since the marketing for the English release has been really barren) I thought it would be helpful to compile all the posts I made about the game into one, via the links below.

How to play: Here I discuss the basic plot and gameplay mechanics.

About the mini-games: This post provides an overview and video clips of the various mini-games within the main game. I also have them on this YouTube playlist. I hadn't unlocked all the mini-games when I made that post and never did get around to updating the playlist when I did unlock them all. But I do cover most of them!

Forger outfits: In this post, I showcase my favorite outfits for the Forgers that are available in the game! I hope that the English version includes all of them...I'm a little worried it won't since I had to get some as downloadable content (I paid separately for that) and another was only available through preordering the game.

Character conversations: This post shows some examples of the many cute/funny character interactions that you can trigger during the game (along with my translations). Additional interactions on this post here.

Original illustrations: And lastly, the game features a handful of original illustrations that you unlock as you progress. I took snapshots of all of them in this post (spoiler warning if you'd rather see them for yourself as you play!)

I do plan on playing the game again in English (on my PS5 this time instead of the Switch). But not for a while since the Elden Ring DLC has been taking up all my free time and I likely won't be finished with that for another week or two 😅 Plus I have Anime Expo coming up next week as well. But I will get to it eventually~

For my last Anime Expo '24 post, I wanted to share some of the SxF merch I found around the con!

Firstly is Animate's selection, including some exclusive CODE: White merch that they only sold at the expo.

Below are the lovely ThreeZero figures on display (pardon my reflection in the glass).

New Anya figures~

Some other merch, including T-shirts.

Loved seeing the season 2 illustrations on display ❤️

I got the below pin from the MangaPlus booth for downloading their app. There were different manga featured on the pins and they were giving them out at random, but when I showed the lady all the SxF stuff on my Ita bag, she gave me the Anya one 😄

In the end, the only SxF stuff I bought at the expo were the playmat and acrylic board from the aforementioned CODE: White merch at Animate. Guess that's one advantage of being such a proactive SxF collector...since I'm so familiar with all the SxF merch that exists and I'm always ordering the stuff I want when it releases, I don't need to buy much at physical shops 😅

Now that I have all SxF Weiss Schwarz cards that I want (had to buy a few rare variants as singles since I didn't get them when I bought a case) I decided to make scans of the adorable chibi art on some of them! While the majority of the cards simply feature scenes from the anime or illustrations that have been shown elsewhere, this chibi art is only found on these cards. Of course I had to collect all the Twiyor ones ❤️

For those who are interested in the Weiss Schwarz card game, I wrote a google doc here explaining the basics of how to play 😁

After the previous long arc and then a month break for Endo to work on volume 14, it's so nice to finally have a chill Forger-focused chapter! I missed my fake family so much 😭

This above spread is lovely ❤️

Hilarious Anya and Loid antics right from the get go - I missed that too!

JUST LOOK AT BOND INSTEAD 🤣 This guy...

He also calls her "baka" ("idiot," "dummy") in this panel in the Japanese version 😅

But despite her little kiddy tantrums and demands, I love that Anya still does what's best for Loid by giving up on a TV appearance.

The below scene between Loid and Yor is yet another example of how well they complement each other; how Loid is so intent on his mission that he can't accept any moments of being idle or "goofing off," but Yor is there to remind him that such things are okay...that you don't have to be constantly looking for trouble and it's good to be at peace every now and then.

That thought continues during their conversation at the riverbank. No matter how much he tries to put on a stoic spy face, Yor can tell that he's constantly on edge and needs to relax sometimes, for his own good.

Her comment that he constantly has wrinkles on his brow and needs to be careful about that - that is such married couple talk, just get REAL married already!

Then we have Becky being enamored with Loid again (and calling Yor her "master" 😂) At least she kept herself much more under control. Good girl.

Bond's first meeting with Weisel! And the tear in his eye when Weisel left 😥

This panel of them together is so cute~

As usual, despite this being a cute/funny chapter, Endo slips in some darker forboding...in this case, another hint about Project Apple still being an active threat.

Between this and the short mission about Anya's name, I wonder if Project Apple is indeed connected with whatever lab Anya came from, and if Endo is planning something really big from all this gradual build up about it. Looking forward to it, whatever it is!

And I know some people must be wondering why we didn't continue the "Anya tells Damian her secret" bombshell from way back, but I saw that chapter as ending with Damian not believing her and Anya not pressing on it further, at least for the time being. But it will definitely get brought up again.

EDIT: Thanks to @xxscarletxrosexx and @mika213 for pointing this out! There's a mistranslation in this scene: the English version has Yor telling Loid to be careful about wrinkles, but in the Japanese version, that speech bubble belongs to Loid, who's confirming he will be careful about it (hence the blush mark and sweat drop).

Bonus: It was just confirmed that Henderson will be on the cover of volume 14, which releases on September 4th!