I failed at cooking again: Representation of womanhood and motherhood in the action-comedy anime SPYxFAMILY

Abstract

This paper examines the portrayal of mother and wife identities in the action-comedy anime SPYxFAMILY (Akifumi, 2022, 2023), using the frameworks of stylization and positioning (Davies and Harré, 1990). I focus on one of the main female characters, Yor Forger, and how she is positioned in select episodes where these roles are foregrounded for her. In the anime, characters adopt various social identities to achieve certain social practices. Findings reveal that Yor’s identities as mother and wife are both reflexively and interactively positioned, where she consciously embraces both roles despite her non-normative profession (i.e., an assassin); Yor maintains her speech style and her consistent efforts to become a better wife and mother to Loid and Anya. Yor’s characterization also aligns with the societal norms of what is expected of a wife and mother, despite the flaws which are presented to the audience. These expectations in turn reflect the social practice of how women and femininity are portrayed and expressed in the frame of the fictional world in which the anime is set in and how that still has to resonate with what the consumers of anime know about gender expectations in Japanese society.