Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I”: It’s All Fun And Games Until War [Review]

Spy x Family Season 3 continues into its second episode with Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I”. It begins with fun and games, first during Anya’s usual playtime, and then Loid’s childhood in the second segment. However, as manga fans will be aware, this is where the war finally ends all the fun and games.

Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I”: Details in Brief

Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I” is the second episode (you can read my review of Ep. 1 here) of the third season of this spy action-comedy anime, and the 38th overall in the series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the ongoing Spy x Family manga series by Tatsuya Endo.

Wit Studio (Attack on Titan S1-3, Ranking of Kings, Suicide Squad Isekai) and Cloverworks (The Promised Neverland, Bocchi the Rock!, My Dress-Up Darling) remains the animation studios behind this anime, just as they have for the first two seasons. In fact, longtime readers at THS will recall that we reviewed the first and second seasons, plus the Spy x Family Code: White anime film as well. The staff is a bit different this time around though. Yukiko Imai has replaced Kazuhiro Furuhashi and Takahiro Harada as the director, but all other staff are reprising their roles.

Synopsis

Alas, Spy x Family Season 3 has only just recently begun its run. In fact, Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I” only just started streaming on October 11, 2025 on Crunchyroll and Hulu. Thus, to avoid spoilers, here’s the synopsis of the episode from Crunchyroll:

“Anya’s class must avoid getting Tonitrus Bolts and we get a glimpse into someone’s past.”

Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I”: The Good

Since Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I” is divided into two segments, let’s examine each of them in turn, starting with:

Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts

This entire segment is effectively a school comedy-drama, all centered around the appearance of Ms. Donna Schlag (voiced by Ai Orikasa (JP)), who is the school’s “disciplinarian”. What this means in practice is that she effectively hands out Tonitrus Bolt demerits on a whim for even the slightest infractions. This would be terrifying for an adult to have to deal with, let alone elementary school-age kids, especially since getting enough of them results in an automatic expulsion.

It’s actually a surprisingly deadly serious situation, and yet the kids’ reactions to it is what creates the comedy because, well, they’re still just kids. They may or may not grasp the full severity of the situation, and they may or may not yet have developed the critical thinking skills needed to react to something like it properly, and it really shows in the hilarious variety of reactions to it…or the lack of it. Anya (voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki (JP) and Megan Shipman (EN)) is the most notable contributor to the hilarity simply because it’s clear that she’s too young to fully understand what’s going on or how to resolve it. Which, of course, results in her getting a Tonitrus bolt, but hey, at least it gives her points with Damian…as well as leading us to the next segment.

■■■■’s Memories I

This second segment is by far the most interesting of this entire episode, because it’s the moment when the Spy x Family finally begins to animate Loid’s backstory. Both the touchy-feely beginning part with young Loid’s friends and his sunny childhood life…and then the moment when the war horror suddenly interrupts all of that.

Honestly, the contrast between the two parts is what makes this episode so amazingly good. It perfectly captures the horror and tragedy of war as it interrupts a young child’s life in the most violent and horrendous way possible. Heck, I would compare this episode to equally as traumatic 2014 war survival video game This War of Mine. It could work very well as a prequel to the game, honestly, given how this segment focuses on the horror in such detail.

Details that the animation teams of Wit Studio and Cloverworks have rendered in very lovingly horrific detail. Things like the smoke and shrapnel generated by shell impacts, and the little detail of young Loid’s child-sized but made of real steel toy helmet keeping a brick fragment from taking his head off. It’s details like those that make this a horrifically memorable start to one of the most tearjerking arcs in the entirety of Spy x Family.

Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I”: The Bad

Honestly, my one complaint lies with Ms. Donna Schlag and her behavior, even though that behavior is part of the story. In my honest opinion, she is a horrible, horrible educator. No educator should feel glee from terrorizing elementary school students with demerits that would lead to eventual expulsion. All it does is proves that she’s just a sadist rather than a good educator, no matter what laughably bad and convoluted excuses she comes up with to justify her sadism to herself. Honestly, the hints that Henry Henderson finds her behavior to be atrocious should be all the info you need to know that “Ms. Tonitrus” is a bad, bad teacher.

Aside from that, there’s not really any action in Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 39 “Avoid Getting Tonitrus Bolts | ■■■■’s Memories I” aside from some comedic moments in both segments. If you want high-intensity action and/or blood and violence, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, Nyaight of the Living Cat, and/or May I Ask for One Final Thing?. On the other hand, if you want a more calm or slow-paced anime, then I suggest giving Senpai is an Otokonoko, Apocalypse Hotel, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, My Dress-Up Darling, and/or This Monster Wants to Eat Me a chance.

What do you think of this week’s episode of Spy x Family? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Keep Reading:

May I Ask for One Final Thing? Ep. 2-3: This Noble Wishes To Punch The Unjust [Review]