Spy × Family Code: White

Spy × Family Code: White is a 2023 Japanese anime spy action comedy film directed by Takashi Katagiri from a screenplay by Ichirō Ōkouchi and produced by Wit Studio and CloverWorks. It is based on the shōnen manga series Spy × Family by Tatsuya Endo.

The film was released in theaters in Japan on 22 December 2023. The voice cast of the anime television series reprised their roles for the film. The film received positive reviews and grossed over US$59.6 million worldwide.

Plot
After successfully completing a mission for WISE, Loid Forger learns from his handler, Sylvia Sherwood, that he will be reassigned and replaced on "Operation Strix" due to orders from the higher-ups, but he might be able to prevent this if he makes meaningful progress. While leaving the rendezvous point, Loid has an interaction with his fellow spy Fiona Frost, which is spotted from afar by his "wife" Yor, making her believe he kissed her.

Loid learns from his "daughter" Anya that her class at Eden Academy will be having a cooking competition, and that the winner may receive a Stella star. Knowing that the judge is the principal, and that his favorite dessert is Meremere, specifically a regional version found in the northern country of Frigis, he decides to take the family there to try the dish and salvage Operation Strix by recreating it. While on the train ride there, Anya discovers a key, and after reading their pet Great Pyrenees Bond's precognitive mind, learns there is a treasure on board. She finds and opens the suitcase, which contains a chocolate that she inadvertently eats. The owners of the suitcase find and try to apprehend her, however Yor intervenes knocking them out.

The Forgers arrive in Frigis and visit the "Rubbles & Bonds" restaurant where they intend to have their last Meremere. However, Colonel Snidel, a military intelligence officer, and his soldiers barges his way in and takes the Meremere for himself, beating Loid in a competition for his further satisfaction. Due to the restaurant not having enough ingredients to make more of the dessert, Yor suggests finding them themselves, which the family agrees to. During their search, Yor becomes increasingly anxious believing Loid intends to "break-up" with her, even after he gives her lipstick as a gift, so she ends up getting drunk and causing a scene. Reading Loid and Yor's troubles in her mind, Anya sets up a situation to put them on the ferris wheel alone, where they are able to explain the misunderstanding and reaffirm their "feelings" towards each other.

Meanwhile, Snidel regroups at his military base where they are about to take off in their airship. It is revealed that the chocolate Anya ate contained a microform Snidel planned to use to instigate another war against Westalis, so sends his underlings out to find her. Loid attempts to find the last ingredient for the Meremere, cherry liquor, but to no avail; Anya suggests helping, but feels depressed when he turns her down. Using her powers, she figures out where to find the cherry liquor and sneaks out of their hotel to get it. She and Bond obtain the liquor, but she is captured by the underlings, with Bond left behind.

Loid and Yor frantically search for Anya, Loid finds Bond who bit off a military patch from the underlings, deducing they kidnapped her but is unsure why. Fiona suddenly arrives and informs Loid about WISE's highest priority mission in retrieving the microfilm. Loid overhears through a military transmission that Anya ate the microfilm and after learning she is on the airship, he then hijacks a Bristol Beaufighter to rescue her; Yor sneakily tags along in the cockpit to help.

Loid makes a crash landing onto the airship after it fires guided anti-aircraft missiles at him, sneaking through the ship with his disguise techniques. At the same time, Yor goes in guns-blazing and accidentally starts a fire that begins to spread throughout. Meanwhile, Anya desperately forces herself to hold in her bowel movement, knowing that Snidel and the underlings intend to reclaim the microfilm through her excrements. She manages to temporarily escape during Yor's commotion, but is recaptured and hidden away in the cockpit by Snidel.

A disguised Loid enters in order to find Anya, but Snidel immediately realizes it is him due to his exceptional sense of smell, causing a shoot-out. Snidel attempts to use experimental gas on Loid, but Anya is able to break free of her restraints in time to accidentally open the windows, expelling the gas. Loid, now disguised as Snidel, breaks Snidel's neck and orders all the men to abandon ship. Meanwhile, Yor faces off against a cyborg soldier known as Type F, in which she wins the fight by setting Type F on fire using the lipstick Loid gave her.

The Forgers reunite and together are able to steer the airship so it crashes into the river, avoiding the city; Loid also finds the microfilm stuck in Anya's teeth. Back at home, Loid presents the retrieved microfilm to Sylvia, who is pleased while also informing him Operation Strix will remain under his care. Anya is about to start the cooking competition with her class, but due to an accident the contest is delayed. Since the judge changes to the vice principal, this prompts Loid to suggest another trip to investigate a new dessert, this time in a warmer region, which Bond's precognition shows will be a relaxing vacation this time.

In a post-credits scene, Franky arrives in Frigis to hand the cherry liquor to Loid, unaware that the Forgers have returned from their trip.

Production
The film was announced at the Jump Festa 2023 event in December 2022 with the supervision from Tatsuya Endo. In a presentation at the AnimeJapan 2023 event on 25 March 2023, it was announced that the film would be titled Spy×Family Code: White, and would be directed by Takashi Katagiri, screenplay by Ichirō Ōkouchi, and produced by Wit Studio and CloverWorks. On 12 September 2023, it was reported that Tomoya Nakamura and Kento Kaku would voice the movie-original villain duo for the movie named Dmitri and Luka, respectively. On 22 September 2023, it was announced that Banjō Ginga and Shunsuke Takeuchi was cast for the role of two other villains, Snidel and Type F.

On 30 October 2023, the anime social media released another movie trailer, which announced "Soulsoup" by Official Hige Dandism as the main theme song as well as the second ending theme. On the premiere day, they revealed the song "Why" (光の跡), performed by Gen Hoshino, was used for the first ending theme.

Marketing
On 2 July 2023, it was announced that the film would be having a collaboration project with Street Fighter 6. An illustration drawn by Capcom's illustrator and designer Chisato Mita was also revealed. On 4 December 2023, Capcom social media released the animated short video of Yor Forger and Street Fighter 6's character Chun-Li dueling on Suval'hal Arena stage. The animation was made by Wit Studio, with Shunsuke Aoki doing key animation and Kyōji Asano working on storyboard and character design. On 9 January 2024, Capcom revealed and released the in-game collab items, which are avatar costumes based on Yor's Thorn Princess dress and Loid Forger's signature dark cyan suit. Yor and Loid's hairstyles are also added to the avatar creation. Players who log in during the collaboration period, which lasted until 31 January, would receive free items like picture frames, stickers, and player titles. The Battle Hub area would also receive a temporary redesign to promote the movie.

On 10 July 2023, a collaboration project with the movie Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was announced. A parody poster illustration featuring the main characters of the anime replacing the Mission: Impossible cast was released with the announcement, as was a highlight video for Dead Reckoning Part One narrated by Code: White voice actors. On 19 December 2023, the collaboration project with the movie Wish was announced. A parody poster illustration featuring Anya and Bond Forger, which mirrors the Japanese theatrical release poster of Wish, and a combination trailer video were also released on the same day.

On the day of release, the Shibuya 109 department store erected a statue of Bond Forger nearby the statue of Hachikō adorned with the words "Chūken Bondo" (忠犬ボンド), with other statues soon appearing inside the department store and at Toho Cinemas Ikebukuro.

Release
The film was released in theatres in Japan on 22 December 2023, including midnight screenings in nine theaters across five cities. On 9 January 2024, it was announced that nine cinemas in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Okinawa would be screening the film with English subtitles on 19 January.

Crunchyroll has licensed the film and released it in North America on 19 April 2024 with both English subbed and dubbed versions. Neofilms released the film in Hong Kong on 1 February 2024. SMG Holdings, a Korean film distributor, plans to release the movie in Korea in March 2024. Southeast Asian film distributor Encore Films licensed and released the movie in Indonesia on 7 February, in Singapore on 8 February, and in Brunei on 22 February. CGV Cinemas released the film in Vietnam on 10 February 2024, the first day of Tết Holidays. Warner Bros. Pictures announced releases of the film on 22 February in Malaysia, 13 March in the Philippines, and 14 March in Thailand. Universal Pictures released the film in the Netherlands on April 25.

The film was released in Belgium, France, and Switzerland on 17 April, Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico on 18 April, Canada, Spain, and the United States on 19 April, Austria and Germany on 23 April, Italy and the Caribbean on 24 April, select countries in South America, Central America, and Europe on 25 April, and the Balkans, Ecuador, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Venezuela on 26 April, China on 30 April, and Lithuania on May 3.

A novel adaptation of the movie with the same name was published on 22 December 2023, the same day as the movie premiere. It is written by Aya Yajima, who also penned for another Spy × Family novel, "Spy × Family: Family Portrait". The novel was based on the plot of the movie, which is screenplay by Ichirō Ōkouchi.

4 million printed booklets named Spy × Family Code: White Film File were distributed in theaters in Japan, containing an original 8-page manga and original cover by Tatsuya Endo, and included interviews with Endo, animation staff, and voice actors. Beginning 13 January 2024, 500,000 AR illustration cards drawn by Tatsuya Endo were distributed, containing a QR code for displaying a 3D pop-out model of Anya Forger with voice lines.

Box office
, Spy x Family Code: White has grossed $40.6 million in Japan and $19 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $59.6 million.

The film sold 866,436 tickets and earned 1.224 billion yen within the first three days (from 22 December to 24 December), which earned it the first position on Japanese box office ranking. The anime social media also reported that the satisfaction rate among the audiences is 93.6%. On the second weekend, the movie had retained its 1st position, by selling around 585,000 tickets and earning 800 million yen, bringing the total tickets sold up to 2.08 million for cumulative total of 2.8 billion yen in revenue. Later on 4 January, it was reported that the movie had sold 2.59 million tickets, earning more than 3.4 billion yen in revenue. As of Monday, 8 January, over the third weekend, the movie stayed at the first position in box office ranking and had sold 3.29 million tickets with a cumulative total of 4.41 billion yen in revenue.

In the United States, the film was released alongside Abigail and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, and was projected to gross $5–8 million from 2,009 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.2 million on its first day, including $670,000 from previews. It went on to debut to $4.9 million, finishing in fifth.

Critical response
American audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 92% positive score.

Richard Eisenbeis from Anime News Network rated the movie B+ overall; he wrote that although they fell a bit in the story department due to "the lack of any impact on the over all Spy × Family story", the movie provides great action scenes and fun comedy, being a good entrance movie for everyone who wants to get into the series.