Spy x Family is topping charts and it’s only been out for a month. Spy x Family, based on Tatsuya Endo’s action-comedy manga, gets its comedy by merging spy dramas with the more everyday domestic difficulties of parenthood. It’s easy to call it a disguised slice-of-life comedy, but, although there are times of action and an overlying spy plot, it’s really about a guy dealing with being a parent.

Spy x Family is set in the midst of a cold war between two countries, dubbed as Westalis and Ostania, where spying is the only thing that prevents the globe from complete annihilation. Here is where we meet “Twilight,” a Westalis agent who is the best at what he does. Twilight’s next mission requires him to get closer to the leader of a political group. The catch? He is a well-known introvert who only attends public events exclusively for his son’s private school. Then what’s an agent to do other than make a fake family and enter the school to get close to his target at parent-teacher meetings? He adopts a 6-year-old daughter from a sketchy orphanage, and she is his complete opposite, a quirky, emotional girl who also happens to be a telepath.

For only five episodes so far, the anime seems to be doing well, it’s very entertaining, especially when the show plays its narratives and dark humor the right way. The retro spy imitation and sketchy recreation of  Berlin landscape, have such a fascination despite the art style’s simplicity. You would think that portraying cold-blooded murders might contradict the show’s slice-of-life themes, but they actually serve as a thematic counterpart. The action in Spy x Family’s first episodes isn’t very exciting, however that doesn’t make it less interesting. The animated scenes during the action, stays on point, with its rapid attacks and fluid motion.