Forging a Family: Subverting the Heteronormative Family Structure and Navigating Identities in the Anime Spy X Family

Abstract

Anime, with its global popularity and mass engagement, is a cultural form that is positioned at a strategically significant juncture where the demarcation between high culture and popular culture gets blurred. The medium and form of anime that include stunning visual storytelling styles not only attract the audience towards it but also allow the medium to explore serious and mature themes like death, grief, etc., in a nuanced manner. The anime series Spy X Family, which was released in April 2022 and is based on an eponymous manga by Tatsuya Endo, leverages the intricacies of the anime form to portray serious issues like war, poverty and corruption in a way that is simultaneously sensitive and light-hearted. The premise of the anime series centres on an international spy code-named Twilight who is assigned a mission to gather intelligence about a hostile country that might initiate a nuclear war in the future. The secret mission requires Twilight to forge a faux family so that he can easily blend into society. He manages to assemble an eccentric faux family that involves an assassin and an orphaned telepath as his wife and daughter, respectively. The family that Twilight forges for the mission is ironically called the Forger family, however, the family name is not merely a silly word play, it is more than just a pun. It subverts the heteronormative family structure that is based on blood kinship and creates space for alternative family dynamics. This paper analyses Spy X Family by focussing on the series’ portrayal of counter-normative family structures, interpersonal dynamics, the negotiation of multiple identities and how it dismantles the socio-cultural constructedness of heteronormative family configurations.