Review: SPY X FAMILY CODE: WHITE is a Weird Wild Ride for Fans
Starting this week and continuing throughout the month, SPY x FAMILY CODE: White will be rolling out to theaters across the world (release dates below).
The film is releasing courtesy of Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment with WIT STUDIO and CloverWorks handling the animation. The story is by 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 an assassin. Together, Loid and Yor keep their double lives to themselves while pretending to be the perfect family. However, their adopted daughter Anya, a telepath, knows both of their exciting secrets unbeknownst to them. While under the guise of taking his family on a weekend winter 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!
Global theatrical release dates for the film 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 & Tobago
April 25: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Brazil, Central America, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Mexico (in IMAX on April 18), Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Suriname, Switzerland (German-speaking), Switzerland (Italian-speaking), Uruguay
April 26: Bulgaria, Ecuador, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Venezuela
I want to preface my review by saying that I’m a huge fan of SPY x FAMILY and so is my wife. We were really excited to watch this. I also went into watching CODE: White with somehow not watching any of the trailers or reading the synopsis.
We went into this movie completely blind. We left the movie (and continue to this day) torn on our thoughts about it. I’ll provide a brief spoiler-free review and then dive deeper into it after the warning.
I would definitely recommend that you watch at least the first season of SPY x FAMILY before CODE: White. You do not need to know anything for story reasons, it is so that you’re familiar with the characters.
Overall, the movie introduction does a decent 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 such as Fiona/Nightfall and Frankie.
The animation for CODE: White is phenomenal. It is definitely a step up from the TV series as is to be expected from a movie with a higher budget and more time.
The story itself is fun and provides some great moments, but it does seem to get a little lost in itself with moments that just feel unconnected but are necessary to help maintain the status quo of the characters. There is a ton of non-sexual fan service that will keep fans happy throughout.
The hard thing for me about CODE: White is that the story felt weak, but I did enjoy most of my time watching it. I am unsure if I will watch it again anytime soon, but I think fans will enjoy watching it.
It may not become a favorite, but I think it’s a movie that we’ll remember in 2-3 years and go, “that was fun.” I will go ahead and put my score here, but if you want more details, you can check out the information past the spoiler tag.
If you are reading this part, it means that you want or are at least okay with spoilers. As I mentioned already, the story does feel weak. The problem is that they have more than one story happening. The main story is about the Forger family going on a little getaway to help Anya get a stella. This evolves into them getting involved with soldiers from Ostania trying to spark a war with Westalis. This is what is in the synopsis. Sadly, it gets muddled.
The secondary story is one that we’ve already more or less experienced in the anime. Yor thinks she sees Loid cheating on her and starts thinking that he is going to replace her because she’s inadequate. This leads to a lot of familiar plays with Yor overdoing things in an effort to secure her place as fake wife/mother. It not only feels a bit like beating a dead horse, but also feels superfluous. We do get a cute scene with Yor and Loid on a ferris wheel which ends that plotline, but that’s really it.
Unfortunately, the story is diluted towards the end because of the family dynamic. I love SPY x FAMILY and I love the dynamic of Loid and Yor not knowing the truth about the other. However, at the end of CODE: White, the whole family (minus Bond) end up on a flying war machine, but they have to keep Loid and Yor separated so that they can each do their things. Yor ends up fighting this cyborg guy that seemingly comes out of nowhere. My wife and I could not remember hearing about this guy before he just shows up to fight Yor. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a fun fight, but it doesn’t really serve the story outside of keeping Yor separated from Loid so she can kick butt. I would have liked something that actually connected to the story.
Another aspect I want to talk about is something that reminded me of the sex scene in Anchorman. Remember how weird that scene is? There are moments when Anya is trying to not poop so that the bad guys don’t get the microfiche that they need and she gets so stressed about it that she ends up in this weird state of mind where she talks with some potty guru or something and it’s done in a different art style. It’s extremely weird and gives me similar vibes to that Anchorman scene.
Let’s talk about some things that I really liked about CODE: White. First, during the character introductions at the beginning, Yor assassinates a target and the blood splatters into a rose. This is so sick! I also already mentioned the cute ferris wheel scene. Any time where we have Loid and Yor actually flirting or getting close to flirting is a good time. Can they just admit it now and kiss? Loid has to fly an old plane in order to get on the aforementioned flying war machine and Yor ends up stowing away in the plane’s cargo hold after chasing the plane. We also have a moment where two soldiers are threatening Anya and Yor shows up to protect her in that way that 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 she dutifully does).
Like I said, I did enjoy my time watching CODE: White. The story just felt weak and buoyed by non-sexual fan service.