I Was Prepared To Love The ‘Spy x Family’ Dog. I Was Not Prepared for the Excellent Borfs.

Spy x Family is back. Even in the whirlwind of a ridiculous Saturday anime schedule for the Fall 2022 season, it is right back in the center of my life. I have missed it so. And there was, indeed, so much to miss and look forward to. Cour 1 set up the circumstances for the Forger family to get a pup, after all. And if you’ve seen any promotional images for the Spy x Family manga, you knew that they indeed get the pup. So I was highly anticipating the pup. I was not ready for his beautiful borfs.

It’s fantastic just to have my weekly dose of Anya’s Anya-ness back, and within the first episode of Cour 2, which essentially functions like the second half of the show’s first season, Anya found the perfect complimentary pal: a dog who can read the future. But while this is an excellent twist to Spy x Family’s intricate and always-entertaining central conundrum of “Who is deceiving whom and who knows what?” no one online was talking about Bond for his abilities. They were talking about Bond for his borfs. Behold the borf!

I don’t know how to explain with mere human words how much I love that this dog does not say woof. Instead, he says borf. In a very low voice, he says borf. To add to the sublime nature of it all, Crunchyroll’s subtitles also translated the borfs as “borf.” And to make me really lose my mind, one of the greatest lines of all times occurred courtesy of a villainous man who was annoyed with Bond, to the general effect of “Don’t you borf at me.”

The only thing affecting my total delight at Bond is that my friend pointed out his resemblance to Alexander, the dog from “that incident” in Fullmetal Alchemist. If you’ve seen or read Fullmetal Alchemist, you are undoubtedly now saying, “WHYYYYYYYYY, NOOOOOOOOO.” I’m sorry. At least Alexander does not wear a necktie. And he does not borf. They’re totally different!

Here, I’ll cleanse your brain of one of the saddest scenes in all of anime with this incredibly wholesome one from the series at hand.

So on the bright side, we get an entire series with this perfect gentleman? I’m elated. I didn’t think I could love Spy x Family any more, but here we are. I’m excited for all the borfs to come.

Image credit: Wit Studio/CloverWorks