When it comes to Spy x Family a normal story arc is about four to six chapters long. The exception to that rule was the Yor Forger/Thorn Princess led Cruise Adventure Arc that went fifteen chapters. But in the twelve months we’ve seen Tatsuya Endo has developed longer arcs. During this last year we have only gotten the Anya focused Red Circus Arc and Loid focused Mole Hunt Arc. Like the Cruise Adventure Arc, both have taken a much more serious, darker tone that is not normally tied to Spy x Family.
The Mole Hunt Arc, which is just wrapping up with a couple lighter aftermath chapters, specifically pushed Loid balancing his spy and family life to the edge. In the process we got the best story arc revolving around Loid as what is next for him is in question.
MOLE HUNT STORY ARC RECAP
Starting with Spy x Family Chapter 79 to the most recent chapter 87, the Mole Hunt Arc Loid Forger faced the danger of Operation Strix falling apart. This was because Fiona Frost learned that a mole from WISE HQ in Westalis stole important, top-secret files. These files included a coded map regarding agents’ activities in Ostania, including information about Operation Strix.
This mole turned out to be a man named Winston Wheeler, whose talents as a spy where as good as Loid and other WISE agents. If that wasn’t bad enough Yor’s brother Yuri Briar is assigned to be part of the Ostania’s State Security Service team that would secure the Winston safe arrival across the border.
In Loid’s attempt to get Winston without being noticed he disguised himself as Yuri. As luck would have it Loid, in his disguise, would run into Yuri and the two battled it out as Yuri knew he was fighting Twilight. While Loid won the fight against his “brother-in-law” he did get injured.
That injury proved vital as he was completely overpowered by Winston when they met. Lucky for Loid an enraged Fiona showed up and saved him from being killed. Filled with rage of seeing her crush in a bad state Fiona, fighting through a broken arm, overpowered and defeated Winston. With that WISE was able to capture Winston before SSS could get the mole or the files he stole.
EXPLORING LOID AND YOR FORGER RELATIONSHIP
While the Mole Hunt Arc was focused on Loid, Fiona, Yuri, and others racing to get Winston the story started and ended by spotlighting the Forger Family. Specifically, the state of Loid and Yor’s relationship.
With how much of a perfect husband Loid is we see Yor’s own insecurities about her lack of cooking and housekeeping skills come up. This led her to believe she had to make up some gripe about Loid to keep up the façade of a normal relationship with her friends. Because of how Loid has had difficulties reading Yor this ended up causing confusion on his part, along with Yuri, but more on him later.
By the end of Mole Hunt Arc we do see Yor clear things up with Loid its another chapter in their growing relationship. While not as big of a focus as the Yor focused Cruise Adventure Arc, this is another example of how when it comes to bigger arcs Endo likes to place a spotlight on Loid and Yor’s relationship. Both are clearly growing to have feelings for one another. Yor even states that she wishes Loid relied on her more. For Loid, this latest arc we saw him wrestle with the dangers of his spy life he is gaining an instinctual emotional investment in his family.
With Loid and Yor each now having these long arcs where Endo has spotlighted on their relationship it does appear to set something bigger up in the future. Afterall, we have yet to see Loid and Yor’s spy and assassin work clash yet. The stage seems now set for Endo to create the next big story arc for Spy x Family around Loid and Yor’s secret jobs coming into conflict with one another.
LOID VS YURI BRIAR
Probably the biggest development in the Mole Hunt Arc is that we had it featured the first physical fight between Loid and Yuri Briar, Yor’s little brother. As mentioned before, only one of the fighters they knew was fighting the other. That fighter was Loid, who at the time was disguising himself as Yuri to get close to Winston. All Yuri knew was that he was fighting the super spy Twilight but didn’t learn he was Loid.
While the fight was certainly one-sided Endo did give Yuri some time to shine. That is because what allowed Yuri to stay in the fight was his will to survive. As Loid rightfully suspected, Yuri has built a superhuman fortitude from being raised by Yor. While Loid was shown to clearly hold back due to caring for Yor, we did see Yuri land a few big hits in before being fully knocked out.
It was with one of these big hits that planted the seeds for a major sub-plot moving forward in Spy x Family. Because what kicked off the fight was Yuri shooting Loid in the arm. When they met later at the Forger household Yuri quickly picked up on Loid appearing to have an arm injury where he would’ve shot Twilight. Being the super spy that he is, Loid suspected this would happen and disguised the wound to avoid being discovered to be Twilight.
Though Loid was able to escape being uncovered as Twilight the fact is now Yuri has picked up the scent. Loid will now need to be more careful, especially if WISE and the SSS clash more moving forward. Anything he does will be scrutinized by Yuri, which adds even more spice to the conflict between their respective organizations.
FIONA UNLOCKS MORE POWER
Though she has made appearances in other arcs the Mole Hunt Arc featured the return of the Twilight and Nightfall team. This meant we once again saw Fiona’s crush on Loid be brought up. And arguably it’s the crush that Fiona has on Loid being as big as it is that made the mission successful.
That’s because when Fiona saw that Winston was knocked out and almost unmasked Loid, she went in full rage mode. Which led Fiona, in a Super Saiyan inspired moment, to reach a new level of strength to take on Winston. This power-up not only let Fiona get hits on Winston but also fight through the pain of a completely broken arm. Fiona’s inhuman display of pain tolerance and strength made it so she could save Loid and defeat the big bad of the Mole Hunt Arc.
As Endo typically does, we learn that one reason for Fiona’s greater strength came from her successful training in the mountains. Because Fiona is so dead set on defeating Yor the next time they meet she unknowingly gained power she didn’t know she could obtain. It leads this development for Fiona to have combination of emotional and comedic mix that Endo has mastered as a storyteller.
So while we see Loid vs Yuri set-up, Endo also quietly furthers the Yor vs Fiona sub-plot through this development. Ad given that we haven’t seen Yor and Fiona interact with each other since their initial meeting that is another story we could get soon.
FINAL THOUGHTS
With the focus on WISE vs SSS along with the state of the Forger Family the Mole Hunt Arc is the best Loid-focused story we have gotten in Spy x Family. Endo went all out exploring the different angles of Loid’s character. The more time Loid spends with Anya and Yor the more we are seeing him humanized. He is no longer just the perfect super spy protecting the world. The connections he has built are becoming more important to him.
Specifically, when it comes to Yor, having a relationship with an adult that’s not technically part of his spy or military world is giving Loid more emotional growth. He shows great emotional awareness for Yor than he does other adult characters. Which is something he is now battling internally as it did cause him to make a mistake he wouldn’t normally against Yuri. How Endo uses this development to further explore Loid’s character will be interesting to see.
Along with this, Endo spotlighted how delicate things are between Ostania and Westalis in the Mole Hunt Arc. While WISE was lucky in capturing Winston it’s not lost that they cut it close. If Fiona didn’t get her burst of power SSS could’ve got Winston under their control. That would’ve led to a full-on war between Ostania and Westalis.
With things coming so close it does create greater urgency with Loid’s Operation Strix being successful. Which all adds layers to the entire Forger Family. Now we will just wait and see where Endo takes things next in Spy x Family.