Spy x Family Stars Unpack the Show’s Popularity and Pitch Anya’s Dream Movie (Exclusive)

It isn’t hard to see how popular Spy x Family has become. The show had big hopes ahead of its debut, and those expectations were blown out of the water when Anya came to television. The entire Forger family is thriving ahead of its new cour’s debut this fall, and audiences are eating up its English dub. Actresses Megan Shipman (Anya) and Natalie Sistine (Yor) are leading the charge where the dub is concerned, and ComicBook got the chance to chat with these stars about the magic of Spy x Family.

As you can see below, the actresses have nothing but love for Spy x Family and the fandom. From finding fans in real-life to meeting the anime’s Japanese creators, Shipman and Sistine have lots to share about the anime, and that includes their own pitches for Anya’s perfect movie debut! And for those keeping up with the show’s dub, you better head over to Crunchyroll ASAP! The series has released its midseason finale’s dub, so check it out

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First and foremost, I have to say that Spy x Family is one of the best anime dubs I have heard in a long, long time. It is also hugely popular as we’ve seen at Anime Expo, so how are you both feeling about the show’s success so far?

Megan Shipman: It’s wild. This is my first big event doing anything like this at this scale while being in a show this size at this level. This is also the first time I’ve gone to an event where I’ve seen people cosplay as a character I’ve played. It’s mind blowing and very cool and super surreal. I just progressively keep pinching myself at every single milestone. It is crazy because you go to cons and you see people cosplay your characters you voice here and there – it’s like a sprinkling. But here, it’s like everywhere I turn.

It is like one of those things that we’re working on this in Dallas which is where we dove into everything and got caught in a bubble kind of as we’re going. You can look online and see a lot of positive reception. It never clicks because you don’t see those people; They’re just people on a screen. So coming here, it is really insane to see it on such a big scale. It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m on the big banner.’ It’s very validating for us. This is like one of those really special things because we recognize that this isn’t something you get to be a part of with every show.

Megan, it goes without saying that Anya is this year’s anime MVP. What do you think it is about this character that makes Anya so lovable?

Shipman: I genuinely think people enjoy her because when I first read her, I was literally laughing out loud and I don’t think I’ve ever done that before with a manga. I think what people find, or what I found so endearing about her, is the fact that she is a child that is actually a child. She’s not like a 10,000 year old being in a five year old body. She’s an actual child. And I think that’s what makes her so endearing is like her thought process is that of a child and she’s written so well as a child.

Like her thought process is ridiculous. She is so funny, like the way she plays with her toys and the way she just has all these funny thoughts. Like at school with Damien and Anya is like, ‘Well, if I get a dog and he has one as well, then he’ll invite me over and Papa will save the world.’ She is so childlike that I think that’s what is endearing. And then you also have her own personality mixed into her being a child If an adult tried to do all of this, it’d be weird. But since she’s a child, people are like, ‘God, she’s hilarious.’

And Natalie, Yor is in my book for Anime Mom of the Year. What have you come to like most about Yor while voicing her and what has surprised you the most about her?

Natalie Sistine: One of my favorite things of playing her and kind of finding her dynamic is you have this very, very anxious woman who is just trying to get by and trying to be as much of a normal person as possible. Or at least, what she thinks is a normal person. Then she has this persona that she can flip on where she’s so confident and you’re gonna get in her way. What I love is in the middle of there somewhere is how much she cares about doing things right. She wants to be the best mom, she’s wants to be the best citizen. She’s really concerned about that. That is so humanizing and really resonated with me – that there’s this absolute anxiety of whether I’m not doing anything right and this sheer confidence, I also am very anxious sometimes, but I can go into the booth and pretend like I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m confident, of course,I’m good at this. That’s where I see something that I can relate to so deeply in.

Spy x Family is the perfect blend of spy-thriller and slice-of-life comedy. Its first cour has been so fun to watch, but I want to know what your favorite moments from the season are so far?

Shipman: I think this is kind of it here. It’s so stupid to say, but it’s true. Like this is a highlight. Crunchyroll introduced us to some members of the studios that have been making the show and they were at the panel. That was alone was really wonderful. It was really humbling. And it was very validating because again, we’re always recording in a bubble and sometimes you don’t like you see fans, but I think Japan is an even bigger bubble. Like here we have a bubble and then Japan is way over there. You’re always like, ‘I don’t even know if they’ve heard us, do they even know I exist? Do they even know how much we care about this?’ So to watch the, watch us and be like, ‘Oh, we love this,’ was great. You don’t get that kind of interaction usually.

Sistine: Uh, definitely I would agree with all of that. I did a small event a couple weeks ago and it was my first time interacting with the public since being cast. It was the first time, you know, people would walk by me and go, ‘You’ve voiced this character. You did this.’ To have that level of recognition has been wild and it was so sweet. Like someone brought me Yor’s weapons as like little earrings. So I got to wear those yesterday and I got some prints and someone 3-D printed her and gave it to me. I was just blown away. It’s really incredible.

And finally, we’ve got to talk Bondman. Anya is a precious child and made her parents reenact a whole Bondman movie to celebrate her work for Eden College. In your perfect world, what scenario or pitch would you like to see an actual Spy x Family movie cover?

Shipman: If Anya’s involved, she’d have to have a castle. Yeah. And of course, she would save the princess. Actually, no, I take that back. She would absolutely not be the princess. She would try to become Bondman’s sidekick. Of course, she would be the reason they save the princess because she could just read minds. It’s all these layers together.

Sistine: I feel like it would be a the greatest hits of all the best spy and adventure tropes. So I’m imagininga James Bond x Indiana Jones kinda kind of mash-up. Just like everything in Uncharted, you know? There’d be bad guys. There’d be people solving cool puzzles and traps they’d have to fight off. Anya would really wanna be in the thick of things. She’d have, you know, her training montages, she imagines and my gosh, that’s what she was already the princess in episode five. [00:14:30] So now she has to be this guy.

She’s she’s had the whole dams and distress situation. I believe in this scenario that the princess would be Damien.

Shipman: It probably would. Oh my God. That’s a great idea. I just had this image of like her doing like Casino Royal. She doesn’t know how people play cards. So, she’s trying to figure what she thinks playing cards is. She knows what the numbers are. Then Anya just tries to read people’s mind, but she’s like, this is too much math so she’s just making it up and accidentally wins every time.