SpyXFamilyand the Kawaii: The Commodification of Girlhood

Abstract

SpyXFamily is a manga-adapted anime series, currently streaming on Netflix. The main plot centres on Loid Forger (alias, Twilight) and his spy work for the Westalis government which necessitates an elaborate ruse of constructing a fake nuclear family and having secret identities within the family unit, thus adding multiple layers of complexity to the plot. However, as evident from the numerous comments on “Kissanime”, the focus of the spectators is drawn towards Anya-Loid’s adopted daughter, rather than the very real politics of the Cold War which influences the plot. It is further interesting to note that most of Loid’s actions- espionage and otherwise, are often influenced by Anya and her actions. Being telepathic and keeping her telepathy a secret from her pretend family, Anya is the only one who has complete knowledge of her fake parents’ true identities. What happens then, when the entire truth of a situation, an elaborate ruse, is made privy to a little girl who wields her cuteness with as much ruthlessness as a trained spy and an assassin? Cuteness or Kawai (in Japanese) becomes a way through which this series draws our attention to the figure of the “girl”, an orphan who was left unchosen for a long while and looked upon as a freak. How do such representations of cuteness, smallness, and fragility portrayed in the series, coupled with an absolute means of knowing the truth, affect the image of the little girl? Combining this image of “freaky powers” and cuteness that the figure of the child elicits; I claim that the representation of the “cute” in SpyXFamily inherently becomes an aesthetic tool through which the body of the all-knowing child is gendered and is represented as helpless and innocent. Thinking through Sianne Ngai’s concepts of the aesthetic category of the “Cute”, I further claim that this gendered child becomes a commodity through which the audience is invited into the culture of consumption, thus masking the far larger political issues that the genre of espionage usually entails.

Keywords: