![Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 44 “The Red Circus”: Busjacking Blues Pt. 2 [Review]](http://18.211.146.234/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Spy-X-Family-Review-5-1280x640.png)
Spy x Family Season 3 continues the deadly serious saga of the Eden College busjacking in Ep. 44 “The Red Circus”. All with Anya and her school friends caught up in the clash between the titular terrorist organization and the Ostania government. Will they survive the encounter? Time will only tell.
Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 44 “The Red Circus”: Details in Brief
Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 44 “The Red Circus” is the seventh episode (you can read my reviews of Ep. 1, Ep. 2, Ep. 3, Ep. 4, Ep. 5, and Ep. 7 here) of the third season of this spy action-comedy anime, and the 44th 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.
The opening theme song for this third season of Spy x Family Season 3 is “Hi o Mamoru” (灯を護る) by Spitz. Meanwhile, “Actor” by Lilas Ikuta is the ending theme song for the same.
Synopsis
Alas, Spy x Family Season 3 is still an ongoing anime series. In fact, Ep. 44 “The Red Circus” only just made its debut on November 15, 2025 on Crunchyroll and Hulu. Thus, to avoid spoilers, here’s the synopsis of this episode from Crunchyroll:
“A bus carrying Anya’s class is busjacked by some terrorists.”
Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 44 “The Red Circus”: The Good
It’s really no question that the political violence of Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 44 “The Red Circus” is the reason why the story is so good. With the centerpiece of that political violence being, of course, the busjacking of not one, but two Eden Academy schoolbuses full of kids by a terrorist organization calling itself Red Circus, and with Anya (voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki (JP) and Megan Shipman (EN)) and her friends, including Becky (voiced by Emiri Katō (JP) and Dani Chambers (EN)), all on one of those buses. And these terrorists aren’t kidding around. They actively tase the teacher in charge of the kids, fires guns in their presence, and threaten to shoot them for not following orders, even going so far as pointing those guns at them.
The climax of this political violence is when the terrorists attach bomb collars to Anya, and then Damian (voiced by Natsumi Fujiwara (JP) and Caitlin Glass (EN)). Yes, Anya’s telepathy has revealed to her and us the audience that the bomb collars are fake. However, the terrorists put the bomb collars on while declaring to the kids that they are real, so to all practical purposes, they might as well be real. I don’t know about you, but making bomb threats against elementary school kids is pretty dark.
Curious Complexity
And yet, the fact that the terrorists use fake bombs instead of real ones does show that the Red Circus does have moral compunctions. Not many, but they do have them, thus showing that they have a surprisingly degree of complexity to them instead of being defined solely by their willingness to kidnap and hold hostage children. All of which makes the Red Circus fascinating antagonists. We will have to see what else they do in the next episode.
And one last thing: there is the additional politics in the clash between the regular police and the SSS secret police. The fact that both sides have very different goals in mind in how to deal with this busjacking speaks to a high degree of factionalism within the Ostanian law enforcement. No matter how this situation resolves, it looks as if there will be some bad blood between the regular police and the SSS as a result of the latter’s handling of the case here.
Spy x Family Season 3 Ep. 44 “The Red Circus”: The Bad
Honestly, the decision to exclude Loid (voiced by Takuya Eguchi (JP) and Alex Organ (EN)) and Yor Forger (voiced by Saori Hayami (JP) and Natalie Van Sistine (EN)) from this busjacking arc is…interesting. On one hand, it misses out on an opportunity for the parents to demonstrate some parental prowess in dealing with these would-be busjackers.
On the other hand though, it allows Anya and her friends to be forced to help themselves against the Red Circus. Indeed, they show some remarkable ingenuity in their tactics here. It’s basically a lose some, win some situation here, and ultimately, the balance of the story does show that we the audience win more than we lose here.
Anime Recommendations
If you wish for more action like what the Red Circus pull off in Spy x Family, 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?. Alternatively, if you want more calm or slow-paced anime to relax to after watching some kids being terrorized by cold, hard reality; then you might want to watch 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.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Spy x Family Season 3? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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