The dubbing artists of the anime Spy x family reveal behind-the-scenes details of its second season

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At the end of last year, anime fans enjoyed the premiere of the final episode of the second season of Spy x family on Crunchyroll. This series is the adaptation of the humor manga, written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endō, and which follows the steps of the secret agent Twilight in the most difficult mission of his life: starting a family in less than 24 hours to maintain world peace. .

The spy must carry out Operation Strinx and prevent the leader of the national unity party Donovan Desmond from destroying the peace between Ostania and Westalis. To hide her true identity, Twilight steps into the shoes of Loid Forger, a loving, elegant, upper-class father who works at a mental health hospital.

He adopts Anya and passes her off as his six-year-old daughter who attends the most prestigious school in town with Damian, Desmond’s son. Beneath her sweet girl character, the pink-haired little girl hides her true power: She is actually a very skilled telepath and is only four years old.

They both meet Yor and propose that he become part of their family. She happily agrees because, behind an exemplary mother with a pretty office worker appearance, she will be able to hide her true job as the best hitwoman in the country. Eventually, the Fogers adopt Bond, a dog who seems very normal, but who actually has the ability to predict the future.

Dubbing an anime is making it your own

Spy x family was one of Crunchyroll’s tanks in 2023 and featured the Latin Spanish dubbing of Miguel de León, in the voice of Loid; Romina Marroquín Payró, in the voice of Yor; and Elizabeth Ugalde, in the voice of Anya.

In dialogue with VOS, the actresses and the actor recognize that dubbing a series not only involves changing the language, but also maintaining the connection with the original production and adapting the inflections, jokes and even the reactions of the characters so that the viewer feels it. innermost. “That’s why we make it ours. Rather than bending it, we adapt it,” says Elizabeth Ugalde.

In this sense, Miguel de León says that they did a great job of appropriating their characters to make the complex situations and feelings they experience, in the middle of a cold war between two world powers, as genuine as possible.

“Loid has many layers. He knows that he is a spy, but he is also someone very hurt by the consequences of the world war. Because of his work, he can dress up as all the characters he wants, but it is a challenge for him to play dad. For me, he connects a lot with the dynamics they have as a family because, although they are very colloquial things, for him they are very new and he doesn’t know how to react. He doesn’t know how to be a dad or have a family! So, seeing how the three of them discover it is super nice,” he acknowledges.

Miguel de León, Elizabeth Ugalde and Romina Marroquín Payró are the voices of Loid, Yor and Anya in Spy x family (Photo: Courtesy of the Press)

The interpreter says that we must not forget that none of the Forgers know what it is to have a family. Although Yor raised his younger brother Yuri, he does not remember what a mother’s love is like nor does he know what the rules of “being a good wife” are in the old century. “Beyond the fantastic plot, people identify a lot because it is a family. Everyone is learning to be what they are supposed to be, and that generates empathy,” adds Ugalde.

For her part, Romina Marroquín Payró points out that playing her character was a great challenge because Yor is both a mother and a murderer. “Generally, I am known for playing kinder, cuter characters,” explains the actress, who is also responsible for the voices of Judy Hopps in Zootopia and Princess Anna in Frozen.

“With Yor I have a double life: I am very good with ‘my daughter’ and ‘my husband’, but I am also bad. It was quite a challenge. I loved doing this series because it took me so much further than what I always do. At the end of the day, it was working with myself,” she adds enthusiastically.

What the second season of Spy x family left behind

In the second season of Spy x family, Agent Twilight puts Operation Trix on hold to deal with other matters related to his family role. Although Loid does not lose sight of the fact that he must discover Donovan Desmond’s plans, there are other more important matters that deserve his attention because, although he may not seem like it, they can put the mission at risk.

“The operation is very complex. As spies, they can solve simple events like finding a girl and adopting her or finding a wife and convincing her. If they had not found a wife, it is solved with another spy. But what is really complex is that Anya manages to be an outstanding student and thus get closer to Damian. I think this operation is no longer as concrete as arriving at a place or stealing something. Loid could do it without problems. Even in one chapter she mentioned that killing the bad guy would be easy, but what they want is to find out what he’s up to. So, making it more abstract makes the rhythm go down,” explains Miguel.

And at the end he adds: “We already know the characters and we know what they are doing and how they interact with each other. But now, other things happen. For example, Yor is now questioning whether she wants to continue being an assassin or not. And that’s awesome! It is something very rich to explore.”

To see

The 37 episodes of the first and second seasons of Spy x family are available on the Crunchyroll platform.