Upon the recommendation of a friend, I watched Spy x Family (2022), and to my surprise, the first episode immediately caught my attention with its excellent production, well-timed humor, and a lighthearted narrative that contains serious contemplation. Before Kaguya-sama: Love is War - The First Kiss That Never Ends (2022) became a classic with its nearly perfect conclusion, I considered both works to be on the same level of excellence.
At the same time, I often pondered about what it was in the story of Spy x Family that made this adorable work feel slightly off. Then one day, it suddenly dawned on me.
Undoubtedly, the trio in the story forms a typical Western middle-class family: a detached house, sumptuous cuisine, a pet dog... However, it's worth noting that all these luxuries are supported by Loid Forger (aka Twilight) and his missions as a spy. In other words, Forger sustains this idyllic and glamorous lifestyle with funds from national intelligence operations. Right from the beginning, the family's domestic life is not a natural product of normal social logic but rather an anomaly in a specific political context. The seemingly within-reach middle-class ideal is nothing more than an illusory castle in the air.
Ironically, while the characters in the story ardently pursue "world peace," as soon as Loid Forger's mission is complete, the long-lasting peace between the fictional countries of Ostania and Westalis in the story arrives, and the family's ephemeral middle-class life inevitably crumbles. The escalating tension between the two nations means the continuation of harmony within Loid Forger's family, while peaceful coexistence between the two countries signifies the end of the three characters' happy lives. This paradox between "international relations" and "family life" reveals the false nature of the idealized middle-class family in the story.
Of course, being a comedy primarily focused on lighthearted daily life and given the author's solemn promise of a "Happy Ending," it is likely that this story will conclude with a grand finale resolving both the family and national issues. The author will probably introduce certain plot elements to ensure the middle-class life of the family continues after the missions are over.
Nevertheless, this contradictory setup still becomes a certain metaphor for real historical events. The prototypes of the two countries in the story correspond to the divided East and West Germany after World War II, and the story's historical backdrop undeniably resembles the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Perhaps to avoid excessive controversy or because the Cold War-style ideology has lost its relevance to today's audience, the author simplifies the conflict between the two fictional countries as a political clash between nations and abstracts it into a contest of "peace" versus "war," as spoken through the mouths of various characters.
However, if we place the story's setting back into the historical context of the Cold War, we will discover the striking similarities between fiction and reality. The mass welfare and middle-classification of Western capitalist societies in the 20th century were direct responses to the immense threat posed by the Soviet Union. As the two blocs stood in opposition to each other, the standard of living for the people became a critical indicator of the competition, and ensuring that the majority of the population enjoyed a relatively equal and abundant life became an important strategy for Western developed countries to counter the Soviet-style equality. In other words, the Western middle-class society of the last century was not an inevitable or natural outcome of history; on the contrary, it was a special existence in the course of capitalist development, an "exception" of sorts.
Similar to the family formed by Loid Forger, this middle-class society emerged in response to a significant external threat and is bound to disintegrate with the disappearance of that threat. While people in the 1990s rejoiced at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of the Iron Curtain, hardly anyone noticed the new walls being slowly built within Western countries. With the rapid development of neoliberalism, the middle class, which once constituted the majority of capitalist society, rapidly dwindled, while the number of super-rich and impoverished individuals continued to grow. The once peaceful way of life would gradually disappear. Similarly, with the arrival of an era of peace, Loid, Yor, and Anya's family might also reach its endpoint.
Against this backdrop, it is not difficult to understand why a work that constructs an ideal middle-class family receives widespread acclaim and has a global impact in a time when the middle-class population in Western Europe, Japan, and the United States is continuously shrinking. One could say that this middle-class fantasy carries a certain "nostalgic" nature. Clearly, as suggested by the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, the end of the Cold War did not bring about Francis Fukuyama's proclaimed "End of History"; instead, it led to the gradual contraction of the middle class, which represents the achievements of Western capitalism. Influenced by this, a nostalgic vision of the middle class, devoid of Cold War ideology, has become a sweet compensation.
However, the plot of the story still conveys a more outdated theme than nostalgia: only with the arrival of so-called peace can the happy and prosperous middle-class life continue endlessly. The entire significance of maintaining this false middle-class family lies precisely in accomplishing political tasks at the national level and pursuing ultimate peace. It seems to convey a message: only when everyone becomes part of the Western middle class in the Western sense, only when each person adheres to the Western way of middle-class life, can the problems be thoroughly resolved, and peace can arrive permanently. This is almost synonymous with the famous declaration of Margaret Thatcher: "There Is No Alternative." A nostalgic imagination born out of the shadow of neoliberalism, constantly reinforcing the typical ideology of neoliberalism, is this not an exceedingly symptomatic phenomenon of the contemporary era?
There is no doubt that Spy x Family is an outstanding comedy work, and its remarkable entertainment value should not be underestimated. However, we should also understand that it is merely a dream about middle-class life. So, after waking up from this dream, what comes next? I believe we have yet to find an answer.
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