the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.
So I've been discussing these details with @buf309 👀
Endo really IS a super detailed mangaka....
I mean, sure Yor and Yuri really look alike, but at the end Yuri IS taller than Yor and more built as he's a man.
So, it's minor, but there's difference in their jawline.
Yuri's (the right one) more masculine of course.
His leg muscle and feet size is bigger of course (right side)
The skirt would look much shorter on Yuri (right side) of course, because he's taller than Yor.
And the earrings...
They will be changed into clip-on earings on Yuri (right side) of course...
Bravo Endo and his details 🥰🥰👍👍
I hope the anime team noticed these details and adapt this details accordingly 🤭🤭🤭
PS: sometime in between, we can hear Twilight's BS reason of him being a "jewelry apprentince" when he was young or something, so he knows how to modified jewelries 🤣🤣🤣 and of course at the same time, he has to learn to do make ups, cause that's part of being a good jewelrer or some BS like that 🤣🤣🤣
Can't help but notice whenever Twilight makes this adorable boyish face, it's always in Yor's presence. I think it starts in chapter 79 but I could be wrong:
Enlarged for research purposes:
Tons of these in the ski lodge chapter:
OK so in these two shots Yor is not around:
But then she's back!
And now in the latest chapter (114):
So cute, who could ever suspect him of being a dangerous spy? Maybe he's subconsciously learning these cute smiles from his wife...
They do say that married couples start to resemble each other after a while! Scientists have actually done research on this, lol.
These two beautiful people only make each other more beautiful over time 😮💨
It's always nice thing to see how anime team noticed and adapted the details Endo deliberatly placed on his manga panels. 🥰🥰
I always love the fact that Endo and Editor-san are good friends 🥰🥰 How Endo respect Editor-san so much so that Endo slipped in a cameo inside the manga itself.
If S2 ED is Yor's song, then S3 OP is definitely Twilight's song.
All previous singers of sxf's OPs and EDs have somewhat touched upon how there is an undertone of sadness in the story. I particularly like what Gen Hoshino has said about his song, "Comedy",
"A big part of my reason for liking Spy x Family is that 'this is a comedy'. For me, comedy doesn't only contain joy. It is 'having the premise that life is a tragedy, and elevating it into something joyous'. My impression [of what comedies are] fits so well with [Spy x Family], as well as the world view and the music concept I'd like to show my audience. That's why I name this song Comedy."
Spy x Family Mission Report 20220429-0625
It is particularly interesting if you read Gen Hoshino's answer with Masamune Kusano's words, because we are going back to the beginning in this new season. We will be facing the tragedy directly, as this song "doesn't hide away from the pain", and from there the song hopes to direct the audience towards hope.
It totally shows in the lyrics and the music. It even opens with this drumming that resembles sounds of the military. Some liken this to the sounds of guns, others like this to military drums. Either way it tells you what is there from the beginning of the story.
But like the story, the sounds of war is quickly replaced by the soft guitar. The first part of the OP is consisted with two colours: shades of blue and green. They are both Loid's colours.
(Officially his eyes are of the colour 青, which is most often translated as "blue", but culturally 青 includes a wide range of colours, including green. One interesting fact about Japanese is that they don't exactly differentiate blue and green. They even call the green light 青信号 which would turn into "the blue light" according to the more common translation of the colour 青.)
The other thing I'd like to point out is that the yellowish green colour is most likely a traditional Japanese colour, 萌黃, which 萌 literally means "blooming". It is used to represent "youthfulness" - the children. The first part is about what Twilight has always wanted to build: "a world where children don't need to cry".
The first line of lyrics is about Twilight before the Forgers:
"I used to believe that it's an overindulgence to cry/
running through the monochromic back alleys."
That changes, of course, when he becomes a Forger. The lyric goes:
"Not expecting to have such an encounter."
Right after this scene, we enter the second part of the song, where the trumpet enters.
All the children are gone, disappearing with the youthful, yellowish green colour.
This is the end of his childhood.
There could be several explanations why they choose to have everything in this almost monochromatic blue other than that is the colour of Loid/Twilight: it could be inspired by the blue period, which is to convey the sense of bitterness and anger. In Japanese culture, 青 is also a colour representing "death".
The gun reappears, but it's no longer the toy gun held by a child.
And of course the gun leads us to the Handler, who trains the soldier into the spy. It also brings us to this reality represented by much muted colours (except for Becky's scene, which is in a yellow that resemble the colours of children in the first part). The Handler walks as she quietly looks at the children, who's coloured in the same shade of hers. This is her in bus arc, cautiously watching as these children are held hostage.
The singer sings about "a fleeting fate" and "precious memories being erased like graffiti". Despite knowing everything is fleeting, when the camera switches to Henderson, the lyrics go, "I will reach out my hands." And this is what Henderson did in the bus arc.
This is, again, a nod to chapter 1/s1ep1: Twilight reflects on how "no one reached out their hands to save me (the translation of crunchyroll)" when he's a child. But he saved Anya, just like how Henderson tries his best to save the children during the bus arc.
The lyrics in this part spells out the conflict of Twilight. I know everything is fleeting, but I can't help but to yearn: "if someday we could be forgiven, I want to reach the meaning of happiness."
As the singer sings "たいんだ want to", we have another transition scene: Anya's bright and colourful drawings of Bond and Bond's silliest dream to become all kinds of animals to please the people he loves. And this brings us to the last part.
The colours once again become brighter and lighter.
The last part is only consisted with one line of lyrics: "Let's protect this lovely light that quietly shines." Note that in Japanese grammar, the verb is placed at the end. Therefore the word "protect" is the last word to be sung. And what is Twilight doing when that happens?
His face lights up ever so slightly as he sees his wife and his daughter, who are walking towards him in shades of warm, reddish colours. As the four of them reunited in the same frame, we see a painting that resembles the famous artwork, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, that has inspired sxf ED1 on the wall again.
His colours are mixed with Yor's and Anya's shades of red. Even the food they are having is in the colours of red, blue and yellow, another nod to the artwork.
I honestly like this OP so much because it shows us how before this story, before Operation Strix, before Agent Twilight, it was the broken dreams of a little boy. And because of his family, the secret lovely light of his, he's able to pick up his broken dreams piece by piece.
And in this yellowish green, his world is in bloom again.
PS. there are other things I find interesting but they are not as directly related to Twilight. That's why they are not mentioned in this post.
PPS. For your reference, the full lyrics could be found here. However I only found this video after I have translated most of the lyrics so their version of translation would be different from mine.
