Review: SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE is a strange wild ride for fans

Starting this week and throughout the month, SPY CODE for FAMILY: White will be released in theaters worldwide (release dates below).

The film will be released courtesy of Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment with WIT STUDIO and CloverWorks providing animation. The story is of Tatsuya Endo with the film written by Ichiro Ohkouchi and directed by Takashi Katagiri.

Crunchyroll was kind enough to provide me with an advanced screener, and you can find all my thoughts below.

He’s a spy. She’s a killer. Together, Loid and Yor keep their double lives to themselves by pretending to be the perfect family. However, their adopted daughter Anya, a telepath, knows both of their exciting secrets without their knowledge. Under the guise of taking his family on a winter weekend getaway, Loid’s attempt to make progress on his current mission, Operation Strix, proves difficult when Anya mistakenly gets involved and triggers events that threaten world peace!

• The film’s global theatrical release dates are as follows:

  • April 17: Belgium, France, Switzerland (French-speaking)

  • April 18: Australia, New Zealand

  • April 19: Canada, Spain, United States

  • April 23: Austria, Germany

  • April 24: Italy, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago

  • April 25: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (in IMAX on April 18), Netherlands, Nicaragua, Hungary , Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Suriname, Switzerland (German), Switzerland (Italian), Uruguay

  • April 26: Bulgaria, Ecuador, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Venezuela

I want to preface my review by saying that I am a huge fan SPY x FAMILY and so is my wife. We were really excited to watch it. I also went to look CODE: White without somehow watching any of the trailers or reading the synopsis.

We went into this film completely blind. We left the film (and continue to this day) with our thoughts on it. I’ll provide a short spoiler-free review and then go into more detail after the warning.

I highly recommend watching at least the first season of SPY x FAMILY Before CODE: White. You don’t need to know anything for story purposes, that’s how you’re familiar with the characters.

Overall, the film’s introduction does a good job of explaining the premise of the series and the Forger family, but I think it’s important to better understand the relationships with some of the other characters like Fiona/Nightfall and Frankie.

The animation for CODE: White it’s phenomenal. It’s definitely a step up from the TV series, as you might expect from a film with a bigger budget and more time.

The story itself is fun and offers some great moments, but it seems to lose itself a bit with moments that just feel disconnected but are necessary to help maintain the status quo of the characters. There’s plenty of non-sexual fan service that will keep fans happy throughout.

The difficult thing for me CODE: White it’s that the story seemed weak, but I enjoyed watching it for the most part. I’m not sure if I’ll watch it again anytime soon, but I think fans will enjoy watching it.

It may not become one of our favorites, but I think it’s a movie we’ll look back on in 2-3 years and say, “that was fun.” I’ll go ahead and put my score here, but if you want more details, you can check out the information beyond the spoiler tag.

If you are reading this part it means you want or at least are okay with spoilers. As I said, the story feels weak. The problem is that they have more than one story going on. The main story is about the Forger family who goes on a little vacation to help Anya get a star. This leads them to become involved with the soldiers of Ostania who seek to start a war with Westalis. This is what is reported in the synopsis. Unfortunately, everything gets confusing.

The secondary story is what we have already more or less experienced in the anime. Yor thinks she sees Loid betraying her and begins to think that she will replace her because she is inadequate. This leads to a lot of family comedy where Yor goes overboard in an attempt to secure her place as a false wife/mother. Not only does it feel a bit like beating a dead horse, but it also seems unnecessary. We get a cute scene with Yor and Loid on a Ferris wheel that concludes the plot, but that’s just it.

Unfortunately, the story gets diluted towards the end due to family dynamics. I love SPY x FAMILY and I love the dynamic of Loid and Yor not knowing the truth about each other. However, at the end of CODE: White, the entire family (minus Bond) ends up in a flying war machine, but they have to keep Loid and Yor separated so they can each do their own thing. Yor ends up fighting this cyborg guy who seems to come out of nowhere. My wife and I didn’t remember hearing about this guy before he showed up to fight Yor. Do not get me wrong. It’s a fun fight, but it doesn’t really serve the story other than to keep Yor separated from Loid so she can kick some ass. I would have liked something that was actually related to the story.

Another thing I want to talk about is something that reminded me of the sex scene in Anchorman. Remember how weird that scene is? There are times when Anya tries not to poop so the bad guys don’t get the microfiche they need and she’s so stressed about it that she ends up in this weird state of mind where she talks to some potty training guru or something of the genre and is done in a different art style. It’s extremely weird and gives me similar vibes to that scene from Anchorman.

Let’s talk about some things that I really liked CODE: White. First, during character introductions at the beginning, Yor assassinates a target and blood splatters into a rose. He’s so sick! I also already mentioned the cute Ferris wheel scene. Anytime Loid and Yor flirt or come close to flirting is a good time. Can they admit it now and kiss? Loid has to fly an old plane to get onto the aforementioned flying war machine and Yor ends up hiding in the plane’s cargo hold after chasing the plane. We also get a moment where two soldiers threaten Anya and Yor shows up to protect her in a way only Yor can. What makes it even better is that Anya is there, so Yor asks her to close her eyes for a minute (which he dutifully does).

Like I said, I enjoyed watching CODE: White. The story just felt weak and buoyed by non-sexual fanservice.