Turns out that sometimes backstory time can be both interesting and maybe even relevant. Spy x Family is essentially an action-comedy where a spy has to create a family to get close to his mark; the gal he marries is secretly an assassin, the daughter he adopts is secretly a telepath (but she’s 6, meaning she understanding things not the conventional way a lot), and the family dog has some kind of foretelling (but is also a dog, and thus cannot speak people). For most of volumes 14-15, that main story of the mission and the secrets is sort of on pause for the backstory of two side characters that ends up really contributing to some of the worldbuilding, while also setting up some hints for future mysteries/excitement.
One of Anya’s teachers and one of her friend’s personal assistants turn out to have a mutual past. They ended up at the same school twice, once as a first-year and senior, and then as a senior and teacher. They develop a connection but struggle to admit this. One then gets in some trouble for objecting to the war that was on at the time ,and the other joins the army. Things happen, and then they reunite but it doesn’t go the way either expected. Decades later in the now time of the story, they’re just comfortable friends. It’s a bitter-sweet backstory but the war parts are definitely world building that might be relevant for the future of the main storyline. There’s also some more backstory for another side character during the teacher backstory, and then there’s some also for Melinda that’s less developed but it might be important to setting up something big for the main storyline, so we’ll see how that all goes as well.
The other side stories, like the school dance, the festival visit/run-ins, and the seal search, don’t seem to be much more than place holders for the most part, although Anya and Damien (more Damien really) get a little more development. Obviously, these kinds of things are standard for comedy and family manga and anime, and they’re not badly done, but also don’t contribute an awful lot, at least not visibly at the moment.
