Tatsuya Endo, the original creator of Spy x Family, has a very unique sense of humor. The original series’s writing style is witty and creative, but it also isn’t afraid to throw in some truly bizarre curveballs to help break up the intensity of the overarching political disaster looming over the Forgers every move. True to his principles, to ring in the new year, Tatsuya Endo took to X (formerly Twitter) to upload a special illustration of Bond to celebrate the Year of the Wood Snake. Of course, the visual isn’t anything fans of his work could have anticipated.
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The illustration, which features a strange mash-up of Bond’s fluffy dog head on the body of a snake, is captioned by the mangaka: “I hope this year will be one in which everyone can spend peaceful times. I hope that my work can help, even if just a little. Thank you for your continued support of Spy × Family this year.” The tonal whiplash between the strange artwork of Bond and the wishes for a peaceful 2025 is more than just a little funny and speaks to one of the core, albeit subtle themes in the manga, which is to find humor and joy in absurd, sometimes stressful, circumstances.
[RELATED: Spy x Family Season 3 Announced]
Spy x Family Had an Insanely Successful 2023-24, With 2025 Set to Be Even Bigger
Following its original publication in 2019, Spy x Family has become a pop culture phenomenon. By the end of 2024, the manga had over 38 million copies in circulation, solidifying it as one of the best-selling series of all time. The collaborative anime adaptation from WIT Studio and CloverWorks heavily contributed to this, with the first season becoming a sensation when it released in 2022. Following the release of the first season, the anime has since received a second season, a feature-length film, and confirmation of a third season set to release in October 2025. In addition to the anime’s success, the manga is still ongoing and has been throwing non-stop plot twists and major reveals at readers.
In 2023, Spy x Family took home the grand prize at the 52nd Japan Cartoonists Associations Award, released audiobook versions of the series’s light novel spin-offs, a novelization of the manga, a video game titled Spy × Anya: Operation Memories and a stage play, among other projects. While this bombardment of content would, for other franchises, cause mass fatigue among members of the fandom, for fans of Spy x Family, each and every one of these projects was met with enthusiasm. The series has truly been a universal success and is the definition of a modern classic. While there’s still plenty in store for the series going into 2025 with the release of Season 3, it’s clear that the future of Spy x Family is bright.
