REVIEW: Gekijô-ban Supai Famirî Kôdo: Howaito [Spy x Family Code: White] [2023]

Rating: PG-13 | Runtime: 110 minutes
Release Date: December 22nd, 2023 (Japan) / April 19th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Toho Animation / Toho / Crunchyroll
Director(s): Kazuhiro Furuhashi & Takashi Katagiri
Writer(s): Ichirô Ôkouchi / Tatsuya Endo (Spy x Family)

They’re not moving, Anya.

The family that spies together, vacations together. Especially when they don’t know they’re doing the former. Think Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but with a child.

Spy x Family Code: White, directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi and written by Ichirô Ôkouchi (from Tatsuya Endo’s manga), stars undercover operative Loid (Takuya Eguchi) and assassin Yor Forger (Saori Hayami). Both have entered into this marriage as a cover, but neither knows the other’s identity. The only person who does is their young, adopted daughter Anya (Atsumi Tanezaki). Why? Because she has a secret of her own: telepathy. Add a rescue dog that can see the future courtesy of experimentations (his prophecies are extracted by Anya when she reads his mind) and the potential for the material is infinite.

Case in point: this feature film. What begins as one case (the reason Loid needed a daughter) soon transforms into another. The idea is that positioning Anya at a very exclusive school means he’ll have an opportunity to cross paths with his target (an integral cog to the institution’s past and present). To do so, however, the girl must win a cooking contest. Using his intel, Loid figures out exactly what dessert she needs to make for the judge (her principal) to choose her as the winner. That means traveling to Frigis to taste a unique meremere and unknowingly becoming embroiled in a military coup.

The result is a fun romp that culminates in an explosive finale with Loid taking on the army, Yor fighting an untested and seemingly indestructible soldier, and Anya meeting the Poop God. There are malicious characters, bumbling idiots, and yet another example of anime’s unfortunate desire to create women who live only to satisfy their male crush. Yor almost falls into the latter trap too considering she’s constantly worrying about Loid’s presumed infidelity in a way that makes her instantaneous shifts into cold-blooded killer mode more jarring than necessary. I know it’s a cultural thing, but it’s annoying when this bad-ass character chastises herself for not being a good enough “wife” (with the very overt connotation being sexual in nature).

Beyond that, though, Code: White excels both in the familial comedy (Anya knowing the truth and how to help despite not wanting to divulge her own secret leads the trio into entertaining scenarios—especially because she acts her excitable age) and thrilling suspense. Whether it’s scouring the town for cherry liqueur or dodging missiles in the air, Loid and Yor are constantly pushed into life-or-death situations just outside of the other’s view so as to keep them ignorant to who they really are. The animation is excellent, the voice cast effective, and the fast-moving script as jam-packed as it is smoothly streamlined.

It definitely feels episodic in nature with a desire to make more installments, so don’t expect anything crazy in terms of narrative besides a nice mix of exposition and adventure. But the same could be said for comics in general. You read/watch because you enjoy the characters and want to see what craziness they get into next. The central lesson being that monogamy (fake or not) saves careers while infidelity ruins lives may seem oddly overt in an otherwise young-skewing project, but here we are. This is a “found” family learning to authentically love each other despite the mission. That’s a good enough message all on its own.