Loid Forger’s fortunes with Operation Strix are unclear in recentSpy x Familyarcs, and I’ve been enjoying the story’s renewed focus. While the series often turns into a blend of slice-of-life with a looming consequential plot, I strongly appreciated Tatsuya Endo’s deliberate pacing. But with focus returning to the Desmond family, and their crucial connections to each of the Forgers, it’s fascinating seeing how Endo teases their dynamics with each other and Ostanian society. While perhaps not as overtly thrilling as recent arcs, the Desmond family secrets are beginning to surface inSpy x Family.
Operation Strix is the Westalian intelligence mission to broker peace with Ostania, mainly through Donovan Desmond, chairman of his country’s National Unity Party. To play up the difficulty and rarity of encounters with Donovan and his clan, Tatsuya Endo has carefully fleshed out other story arcs inSpy x Familyto build the manga’s world around the plot. But beyond simpler, crowd-pleasing moments like the Red Circus or Mole Hunt Arcs,I enjoy the complicated, smaller glimpses into the Desmond family and Ostania’s secrets inSpy x Family.
Secrets Are the Desmond Family Currency in Spy x Family
Each Chapter Shows New Hints
SinceSpy x Familychapter #103, I’ve seenSpy x Familyintroduce new twists on established traits about Ostania and the Desmonds to spice up the plot. This includes teases of suspected Project Apple escapees, incredibly tense Desmond family dinners, Damian’s doting butler Jeeves, and even some interesting secrets like Melinda Desmond’s. I’m beginning to see a collection ofimpressions left from previousSpy x Familyarcs intermingle with the current plot, with uncertain terms as to the first major development.
We all could guess the Desmond family tension given Donovan’s icy encounter in the Imperial Scholars Mixer Arc. Melinda’s complicated behavior following the Red Circus Arc adds a more anxious and layered impression, yet there’s still more to see. With the most powerful family inSpy x Family’splot having their hands in everything from the government to failing pharmaceutical companies,it’s worth taking stock of everything they’re doing lately. For me, Tatsuya Endo appears to lock into focus, weaving these elements together after Henry and Martha’s recent tragic love story arc.
Project Apple Is a Recurring Fixation in Spy x Family
Belle the Seal Could Be the Latest New Hint
Project Apple has been hinted at as a top-secret military research project for producing highly intelligent animals, resulting in Bond Forger’s strange gift for precognition. InSpy x Familychapter #78, Donovan andthe Desmonds' uncertain connection to Project Appleis teased when Sylvia Sherwood brings former test canine Aaron to meet with Loid. But in chapter #103, withBelle, a highly intelligent seal, escaping and prompting a suspiciously high-profile search,Loid is right to suspect that Project Apple may not be a shuttered Ostanian mission.
Project Apple may be officially terminated, but it’s clear that pockets of the operation are still going on.
With Project Apple’s previous glimpses at land and aquatic animals and teases of owls and eagles, a multifaceted intelligence-gathering unit comes to mind first for me. But with Belle’s gratefulness to Yor for giving directions to the ocean inSpy x Familychapter #103 and Bond’s memories of cruel treatment in his time as Subject 8,it still leaves fresh trauma on its subjects. Project Apple may be officially terminated, but it’s clear that pockets of the operation are still going on, possibly at the secret behest of Donovan Desmond.
But the reveals about Belle the Seal were three months ago, on July 15, 2025.There’s been little further revelation about Project Apple’s connection since then inSpy x Family, with dozens of chapters between the substantive tease from chapter #78 and the previous concerned chapters. Instead, after this crucial moment,Spy x Familyfocuses on Damian Desmond and how the plot weighs on him.
Damian Desmond Gets Much-Needed Attention in Recent Chapters
Scion Boy and the Doting Butler Jeeves
Despite his family position effectively making him a political prince in Ostania, Damian Desmond’s upbringing is lonely. His father, Donovan, is frequently absent with vanishingly few pleasant encounters, andMelinda, despite her internal monologue suggesting conflicted feelings, shows genuine care for the boy. Jeeves, Damian’s butler, gives the boy a chance to go out with friends and evena confidant to whom he tells his secrets inSpy x Familychapter #104.
Spy x Family Uses an Underrated Character to Prove Fans' Criticism Wrong (Again)
Tatsuya Endo’s strength as Spy x Family’s creator truly shines when deeply exploring his characters, and the latest chapter was subtle yet crucial.
Despite these developments, Damian’s adventure in chapter #104 was essentially a side story but withcrucial hints of his frayed relationship with the Desmonds. Despite Damian’s introduction as a pompous child idolized by his cohort at Eden Academy, his feelings about everything, including dinners with Melinda and his possible childhood crush on Anya Forger, paint a more vulnerable image. This vulnerability has helped me sympathize with him, with more questions about whether he can repair his dynamic with the Desmonds, with one subsequent chapter addressing this directly.
The Desmond Family Ties Show Strain in Spy x Family
Dinner with Deafening Silence
Despite it taking the manga years of biweekly chapters to get a proper Desmond family gathering,Spy x Familychapter #106 showed the family having a surprise dinner together. Donovan spends his time off with his family,sharing one of the most strikingly tense dinner scenes I’ve ever observed.The table placement, with Donovan and Demetrius sharing a corner opposite to Martha and Damian, suggests opposing viewpoints and an almost threatening dynamic. Donovan’s paranoia is on full display, with suspicious stares at Melinda hinting but never confirming why their relationship is fractured inSpy x Family.
The Desmond family dinner sceneis an easy target for fan theories that don’t feel farfetched given the context of the series. With characters like Anya and Bond being test subjects given mental powers, it doesn’t feel unusual to suspect that Donovan and Demetrius can communicate telepathically. Given Donovan’s suspicious behavior with Loid Forger in chapter #37 at their first meeting, it only fuels the fires of speculation.But as for Melinda’s stake in the matter, things remain unclear about how deep the Desmond family secrets runand how she feels about it inSpy x Family.
Melinda’s Fortune-Telling Hobby in Spy x Family Is Fascinating
Glimpsing the Future of the War of Friendship Schemes
WithSpy x Familychapter #107 presenting an overwhelming gathering of key Ostanian luminaries, Melinda Desmond’s surprise reveal as a rookie fortune-teller is especially strange. As the series brings the Forgers to Berlint’s Annual Winter Sheep Festival, Loid meets with top Ostanian officials across its corporations, military institutions, and the Berlint political apparatus. Despite Loid primarily hoping to meet with Melinda to help Yor build ties, he parts with the Forgers to spend time with his new connections instead.Anya and Yor, meanwhile, opt for free fortune-telling, discovering Melinda’s alter ego, Selena.
Tatsuya Endo’s answer to the previous chapter’s questions is a smoke bomb, scenery change, and more questions.
Unlike all the others, this secret reveal feels especially baffling inSpy x Family. Each preceding chapter, except Franky’s interlude in chapter #105, has introduced key elements of the Desmond family’s secrets inSpy x Family.Project Apple may be operating in secret. Damian and Melinda have a fraught relationship with Donovan and Demetrius, butMelinda’s moonlighting as a fortune-teller is a confusing surprise. Tatsuya Endo’s answer to the previous chapter’s questions is a smoke bomb, scenery change, and more questions.
But all this reminds me ofwhy I loveSpy x Familyand what the series means to me. It has confidently built a world around its plot, with moving parts in play using Endo’s wonderfully realized characters. The result is an action-comedy series with an ensemble cast resembling a high-profile TV drama, where it can set up multiple subplots with each chapter, meaning exciting reveals on the horizon. But it also means I can be content with heartwarming moments and soul-crushing tragedies while waiting for other buzzworthy developments inSpy x Family.
Spy X Family
“Spy × Family” is a popular Japanese manga and anime franchise that blends action, comedy, and spy elements. The story follows Twilight, a secret agent tasked with creating a fake family to carry out a mission, unaware that his “wife” is an assassin and his adopted “daughter” is a telepath. The series, praised for its humor, heartwarming moments, and dynamic characters, has expanded to include anime adaptations, a feature film, and various merchandise.
