Biggest Anime news for the week, February 10

Another week has gone by, so it's time for Bam Smack Pow to bring you this week's anime news recap. Plus, follow along to the end of the article to see this week's anime recommendation. This week, we'll be taking a look at one of the most popular comedy series from recent anime seasons.

The Bam Smack Pow team would also like to wish all our readers a very happy Valentine's Day weekend — which has nothing to do with classic Sci Fi series Cowboy Bebop's Faye Valentine, but we couldn't resist making that joke…

Various anime series celebrate Valentine's Day

Crunchyroll has compiled the special holiday art released by the official social media accounts of various anime series to commemorate Valentine's Day on February 14. We've included the art from the team behind popular Historical Fantasy series Demon Slayer below:

Other series that have posted special Valentine's art include hit series Oshi no Ko, recent anime debut Honey Lemon Soda and cult classic supernatural Mystery series Mononoke. The full list can be viewed on Crunchyroll here.

Crunchyroll Store announces new slate of weekly sales

Crunchyroll has announced the beginning of its annual warehouse sale. Running from February 12 to March 4, these sales promise savings of up to 70% off. The announcement also notes that new items will be discounted every week for the duration of the sale.

Having expanded its operations throughout Europe last year, the Crunchyroll Store is the one of the best places for anime fans all around the world to shop for anime DVDs and Blu-rays, manga volumes and merch including clothing and collectibles.

HIDIVE's latest Winter 2025 schedule updates

Streaming service HIDIVE has posted several updates regarding new and upcoming content for the platform's Winter 2025 season. As seen above, the first episode of the English dub of isekai series Loner Life in Another World is now available to stream.

HIDIVE has also revealed two upcoming releases for March to wrap up the Winter season. First, the finale episode of the fifth season of comedy Fantasy series Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? streams on March 5. While HIDIVE is not the only platform to stream the series, the English dub is exclusive to HIDIVE, though the English dub remains several episodes behind the original Japanese airings. Secondly, HIDIVE has announced that bawdy reverse isekai comedy Plus-Sized Elf will begin airing dubbed episodes on March 12.

HIDIVE is currently available to viewers in the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

Weekly anime recommendation: Spy x Family

Debuting in the Spring 2022 anime season and based on a manga series by Tatsuya Endo that began in 2019, Spy x Family has become one of the biggest runaway hits among recent anime TV series. First, a quick note: The X in the title works like a plus side or an ampersand, meaning that the title is meant to convey the idea of "Spy and Family". However, the X itself is silent, so the title is simply pronounced as "Spy Family."

Set against a backdrop based on the real-life Cold War, especially the situation on the border between East and West Germany, with an aesthetic that owes a clear debt to the Sean Connery and Roger Moore-era Bond movies, Spy x Family follows an elite agent known only by the codename Twilight as he goes undercover to prevent a tense political situation from escalating into all-out war.

Twilight's undercover alias requires him to create the identity of a family man. Adopting the persona of a psychiatrist named Loid Forger, Twilight adopts an orphan girl named Anya and arranges a fake marriage with a local civic servant named Yor — though Anya is actually telepathic and Yor is secretly an expert assassin. Crunchyroll provides the following summary of the series:

"World peace is at stake and secret agent Twilight must undergo his most difficult mission yet—pretend to be a family man. Posing as a loving husband and father, he’ll infiltrate an elite school to get close to a high-profile politician. He has the perfect cover, except his wife’s a deadly assassin and neither knows each other’s identity. But someone does, his adopted daughter who’s a telepath!"

As serious as that premise sounds, Spy x Family is actually one of the most genuinely hilarious comedy series in recent memory. A lot of the humor in the series is based on Twilight and Yor being oblivious to each other's true identity and their hilariously flailing attempts to keep each other in the dark, while Anya has to pretend that she doesn't know the truth thanks to her telepathy.

The art and animation of Spy x Family are standouts, especially the characters' exaggerated facial reactions. Anya's reaction faces (as seen above) in particular have proven fertile ground for memes and screenshots.

Both seasons of the anime that have been released up to this point are available to stream on both Netflix and Crunchyroll. The standalone spin-off movie Spy x Family: Code White is available on Crunchyroll. The original Spy x Family manga by Tatsuya Endo can be read on original publisher Shueisha's Manga Plus app and on English distributor Viz Media's Shonen Jump app.

Come back week next as the Bam Smack Pow team brings you the biggest and latest anime news and another anime recommendation!