SPY x FAMILY Episode 8 Review – Best In Show

Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts

SPY x FAMILY Episode 8 Review – Quick Summary

In SPY x FAMILY Episode 8, “THE COUNTER-SECRET POLICE COVER OPERATION,” Anya faced her arch-nemesis: math, specifically fractions. After having embarrassed her in class, it seemed like fractions were moving in for the kill. Can even Bondman help her defeat this enemy? Meanwhile, Yor’s brother Yuri wanted to meet his sister’s new husband, Loid. And Yuri has vowed not to accept the man who took his sister away! Can Loid earn Yuri’s trust? Just who is Yuri, anyway? And what is he willing to do to protect his big sister?

Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.

Favorite Quote from SPY x FAMILY Episode 8

Apparently, Yuri draws the line at meteors. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

This episode made me want to create a PDF of the entire episode, then present it to you as my favorite quote in macro form. This episode went from high point to high point, and I can happily say it’s been a long while since I laughed so long or so often. 

Case in point: my favorite quote for this episode. Yuri could not find it in himself to accept Loid. Convinced that that Loid was too weak to protect his big sister the way only he could, Yuri challenged Loid.

Loid, maintaining his trade-mark calm, said that he loved Yor so much that he would risk his life to protect her (20:38), “even if spears or meteors rained down from the sky.”

Shocked, Yuri thought (20:48), “Did he say… meteors? I’m confident that I could protect her from spears, but meteors?”

Funny, yes. Completely in character, yes! And also yes – this guy is clearly Yor’s brother. They have identical ways of looking at the world!

Best in Show Moment for SPY x FAMILY Episode 8

You control a population by manufacturing a threat – and then using that threat to manipulate that population. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Setup: The Last Puzzle Piece

This is a comedy. Anilist shows its genres as Action, Comedy, Slice of Life, and Supernatural. So why did it take a show like this to help me understand something that has bothered me for years? Is it because the lens of fiction removes extraneous information, leaving only the most important bits?

That probably doesn’t make a ton of sense, does it? Let me try it this way. A recent trend almost destroyed my faith in humanity. I saw a video clip of an older woman at a town hall-style meeting. I remember she lived in a medium sized city in the midwest United States. I think of myself as a midwesterner. She should have been one of my people. But she stood up and grabbed the microphone. In a shaking voice, she said she never wanted to see a dictator in the United States, but that it was time, and that she thought it should be the individual elected as the forty-fifth president.

There’s a reason Loid would never stand up to advocate (knowingly) for a dictator. It’s that his training and disposition make him resistant to the element I had previously not understood. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

I’m glad I wasn’t driving. I would have driven right off the road. My mind could not accept her words. I could not accept that a citizen of the United States, living in the comfort earned by the blood of men and women who had dedicated their lives to the idea of freedom, would stand up and embrace dictatorship. 

What drives people to that kind of insanity? Because I can think of no other word to describe it. But I had missed something essential. And this show made me realize what it was.

It’s the same thing that drove Germany insane in the late 1930s. A leader rose in Germany who knew what buttons to push. I’d learned in history that he had played on nationalism; that he had stoked the fires of corporatism. All of the typical, weak-minded fascist stuff. I accepted that answer; I saw its fingerprints on the insane woman’s denial of personal freedom. 

Delivery: Yuri Put the Last Piece into Place

But I missed the why. With that explanation, I’ll bet you can guess my favorite moment! Remember Yuri investigating the traitor early in the episode? That poor sap tried to plead he only traded paper for some cash so he could cheat on his wife. Do you remember what Yuri said?

“Unlike you. I love my family… my sister,” he said (08:08), driving the man’s face into the ashtray. “I will do anything to protect this country where my sister lives. And I do mean anything.”

That’s it. That’s how you control a population: you convince them that this or that group is a threat to your family, you provide them with ammunition, and you sit back and watch the blood flow. You can go for style points like de-humanizing that population, like I discussed in my review of the first episode of CubexCursedxCurious. But instilling fear is how you start the process. Because then even people who love their families like Yor and Yuri can be turned into killing machines.

Make them fear. Give them a protector. Then sit back to enjoy the show. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

That’s why the insane woman had gone insane. Master propagandists made a enemy to scare her. It could be whatever disadvantaged population you like. Then a despot promises, with one hand on his heart and the other on the flag, that he will protect her. And then you watch the work of hundreds of years begin to crumple.

It’s an oversimplification, of course. But it contains an important insight. Now that I recognize that insight, I have to think hard about how to counter it. Because with knowledge comes responsibility. And I have an action/comedy/slice of life/supernatural anime series to thank for it.

So, yea?

What did you think of Anya’s power declaration that Bondman had two-eighths of his bullets left? What were your favorite moments? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

SPY x FAMILY Episode 8: Other Posts

Other Anime Sites

• Reddit: Spy x Family – Episode 8 discussion
• Anime Evo: Spy x Family – 08
• I Drink and Watch Anime: Spy x Family episode 8 – Family-In-Law
• RABUJOI: Spy x Family – 08 – Into the Briar Patch

This Site (Crow’s World of Anime!)

• SPY x FAMILY Episode 1: OPERATION STRIX
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 2: SECURE A WIFE
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 3: PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 4: THE PRESTIGIOUS SCHOOL’S INTERVIEW
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 5: WILL THEY PASS OR FAIL?
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 6: THE FRIENDSHIP SCHEME
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 7: THE TARGET’S SECOND SON
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 8: THE COUNTER-SECRET POLICE COVER OPERATION
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 9: SHOW OFF HOW IN LOVE YOU ARE
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 10: THE GREAT DODGEBALL PLAN
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 11: STELLA
• SPY x FAMILY Episode 12: PENGUIN PARK