Crunchyroll’s VP Of Global Commerce Hypes Spy X Family Code: White & Explains Why We All Love Anya

The upcoming theatrical release of Spy X Family Code: White represents a growing trend of fantastic anime films receiving theatrical releases, and Crunchyroll’s Senior Vice President of Global Commerce, Mitchel Berger, has joined Screen Rant in a chat about the film and the ever-increasing influence of the art medium. A wonderful combination of comedy, drama, and action is achieved in the Spy X Family story with an incredibly effective spy, a beautifully skilled assassin, and the young telepathic orphan who does her best to keep the family together, a dynamic Code: White executes brilliantly in its self-contained story.

Spy X Family‘s first movie joins an exciting roster of anime films occupied by recent gems like Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero and One Piece Film: Red. The anime medium continues to grow in popularity and become more socially acceptable across many markets, thanks in part to the work of people Berger.

Series like Spy X Family have helped bring a larger audience to the anime spectrum thanks to their ability to appeal to almost every demographic. Mitchel Berger sat down with Screen Rant to talk not only about the Spy X Family Code: White‘s April 19th theatrical release but also about his favorite anime series, why he believes it’s a fantastic time to be an anime fan, and much more.

People Who Haven’t Seen Spy x Family‘s Anime Can Enjoy The Code: White Movie

Spy X Family is a series that’s mastered the art of comedic, dramatic irony where audiences know information its characters do not, which fuels many of its best comedic scenes. It’s a series that is recommended a lot to people who’ve been hesitant to try anime. Do you feel like people who have not watched any anime or the first two seasons of Spy X Family‘s series should give the Code: White movie a try? And why?

Mitchel Berger: Absolutely, and you’re exactly right. I think that Spy X Family as a franchise is a great entry point. For a lot of folks, it’s got a lot of mass appeal. It’s very accessible to anime interested folks. The great thing about this film though, it is a standalone [story]. You don’t have to have watched the series, although if you’d love to, we’d love for you to come watch it on Crunchyroll. But you don’t have to, it’s not necessary [because] it’s fully contained.

Spy x Family Code: White effectively set’s the story up without prior knowledge of the series. You’ll enjoy it for what it is. And then I hope that if you do enjoy it, you do want to dive into this series, because I think this movie is a great representation, to your point, of exactly what the flavor of that series is. And it is something really special and unique that we love. So yeah, absolutely. Everybody should come out and give it a try. No prior knowledge necessary. Come and enjoy the film. And I think you’ll have a good time.

There Are Lots Of Great Entry Points For New Anime Fans

Spy X Family does a great job of balancing its comedy with action and drama with a heavier emphasis on comedy. However, there are still a lot of people in the world who look at anime as weird, and something that they could never get into. What are some anime series that you highly recommend for first-time anime viewers?

Mitchel Berger: The great question and a tough one to answer, because anime is a medium, not a genre. So it’s like if someone said, “Hey, I’m gonna start watching movies. What movies should I start with?” because there’s literally a little bit of everything. Now, having said that, I will tell you there’s a lot of good entry points based on what kind of what you already like. So if you’re a fan of things like X-Men or The Avengers type of films, try My Hero Academia. If you’re a fan of Harry Potter, try Mashle: Magic and Muscles. If you like things like Jumanji, there are great isekai shows where you’re trapped in another world.There are hundreds and hundreds of those. Start with something like Sword Art Online to get a feel there.

There’s always something for everybody. I always recommend Cowboy Bebop. I think it’s a classic. One of the best soundtracks in the entire world. Very, very accessible to a western audience. If you’ve watched [and enjoyed shows like] Firefly or Serenity, you’re gonna see a lot of things that are comfortable for you there. But its just a great, great series in general. I could go on forever. If you like romance, comedy or drama, there’s something for everyone. What I would really say is just give it a try, because you’ll find something you love.

There Has Never Been A Better Time To Be An Anime Fan

Anime is not a specific genre but an entire art medium filled with genres. While battle shōnens like Dragon Ball, One Piece and My Hero Academia are some of the most popular, other series like romance shojo and relaxing slice-of-life series’ are also becoming more popular. What kind of challenges from the Crunchyroll experience are there in catering to that wide range of fans of different anime genres?

MB: I don’t think it’s a challenge as much as I think it’s an opportunity. There was a time when people perceived anime as just a bunch of fighting, yelling and screaming, and then some more yelling, and fighting and screaming. Which is great. I love those shows, they’re a lot of fun. But what we’ve seen over the last 10 years or so is that the fan base has grown so much globally, and so much demographically. It’s really everybody. Now, it is male and female, it is all nationalities, it’s all walks of life, it’s all ages. So what we found there is that when you’ve got that diverse of a fan base, you need to find diverse offerings, because not everybody likes the same thing.

Again, it’s an entire medium with all these genres in it. So it’s been a great opportunity for us to branch out and find shows that we know people want to see, that are appealing and are different, and that have a unique voice, point of view, or story to tell.

One of the shows that I’ve been watching with my daughter, which I absolutely love and that I think is right down that alley, is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. It’s a really, really smart, intelligent, different kind of show that makes you think, and I love that about it. It still has some humor and action. But it really is a different take on the fantasy genre [by exploring] what happens after the quest is over. And deals with things like immortality and mortality. And so there are just so many things there. And what we’ve had the opportunity to do is find all those stories that the creators in Japan are telling and bring them to this global audience. It’s been a phenomenal opportunity for us.

I apologize beforehand if this is going upset some creators out there, but what are your favorite anime series of all time, and what makes them special?

Mitchel Berger: That is like trying to pick your favorite child. It is really tough. I’ll say this. You know, I mentioned Cowboy Bebop, I think it’s an absolute classic that everyone should watch once because it is one of the pinnacles. It’s such a personal thing. It’s hard to rank the best animes because it’s all about your personal tastes.

For me, I’ll always love Sword Art Online, both for the story itself, but it’s also one of the first shows that I got to watch with my kids and I really enjoyed watching it with them. So much of the show is how it’s experienced for me and that one will always have a special place in my heart. Dragon Ball is obviously a behemoth in the industry. Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F was the first movie that we released as Funimation and the first one I got to work on here. So that one holds a special place in my heart.

I’ll tell you in the last two years or so that the two titles that I’ve really enjoyed the most, and again, just personal preference so I’m not saying one’s better than the other but one is Solo Leveling right now. Phenomenal show. Absolutely amazing show. The seasons coming to an end, I am already hungry for what’s going to come next. I love that. And then you know, way, way down that road is Chainsaw Man. [It’s] one of the most fun shows that I’ve seen in a very long time. You know, it’s different, aggressive, violent, funny, just in a very, very unique point of view and a unique story to tell. And I mean, it’s got of guy with chainsaws for hands and on his head. I mean it’s something different. I love that about it.

There’s also My Hero Academia, Attack on Titan, Black Butler, and I could just name thousands of shows that I can think of. The thing is, right now, it’s a great time to be an anime fan because there’s a ton of great content. And there’s more Demon Slayer. It’s new season is about to start, which is a phenomenal groundbreaking and world changing show. It’s just a great time to be a fan of anime because you have so many choices.

Spy X Family‘s Telepathic Orphan Is Becoming More Popular Than The Series

Back to Spy x Family, who is your favorite character from the series, and why is it Anya?

Mitchel Berger: I was goning say it’s got to be Anya. Because, of course, it’s Anya, she’s amazing. She’s such a great character and storytelling device. I think it holds all of it together and adds that innocent childlike view of what’s going on that you can experience as a viewer. For me, the voice acting for the English dub, I love the voice. That to me is Anya. It’s perfectly who that character should be. So yeah, what’s not to love? I’m just going to follow along with everybody else and say yes, it is Anya.

What about Spy x Family‘s Anya has helped her become such a breakout character from the series, whose become something of an icon among the anime fandom?

Mitchel Berger: I think it’s because she gives the audiences a really great way into the story. And she gives you a perspective that is both childlike and not childlike. Because of what she can do and extract information from those around her and [inform viewer’s of] what’s going on but through her young naive perspective. To me it’s almost an analog to a lot of what growing up itself is like where you’re playing in this world where there’s all this stuff going on, and you kind of know what’s happening, but you’re also kind of figuring it out as you go. You have this childlike innocence but you also have this maturity that’s coming in and those kind of collides sometimes.

So I think a lot of people see themselves in Anya and can relate to what that narrative is and what it brings to the story. That’s why I think she’s a great way into it because for those who are not hardcore anime fans, or those who are just fans of good stories, she’s the perfect entryway into it. And then once you get in, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s a great, great franchise.

Anime Is Becoming Cool For A Very Good Reason

Why do you believe American society in general has begun to become more open-minded when it comes to anime?

Mitchel Berger: I think at its core, it gets back to the stories that it tells. When you look at anime, broadly speaking, it’s a very inclusive community. It’s an inclusive set of story arcs and narratives where there’s a lot of discussion about learning to overcome adversity, learning to strive for excellence, learning to work together as a team and find your place in the world and achieve something. Sometimes, it’s less about personal glory and more about the objective and what you’re going to achieve. And I think that as society continues to evolve, and we continue to both be closer, connected, and also more disconnected through technology at the same time, people crave that human contact, they crave that sense of community, they want to belong somewhere they want to find their people.

I think what anime does is it allows people to express who they really are and who they want to be. And then, it allows this connective tissue to then gather together as a community around something that they share. They come from all different walks of life. They come from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, and life experiences, but they share this love of this content, its core, and that commonality is a place where they can all meet in the middle and congregate.

Too often, I think we concentrate on everyone’s differences, and it’s hard to find common ground. It’s hard not to be back and forth and all about tension and conflict. Animes a place where you come together. And yes, there’s debates, and yes, there’s tension. And there’s sub versus dub, there are always discussions in a large community, but at its core, it is a community that comes together, and I think it operates and gives people a home. And that’s why I think it works: because it’s a comfortable place. It’s it’s allowing people to be who they want to be around people who share that with them. And at the end of the day, we all crave that.

You mentioned the premieres. That and opening weekends are some reasons why that works so well, and it’s because people love to do this in real life. It’s one thing to sit at home and watch a show and love it. But once you love it, getting in a theater with a bunch of people, like you said, hollering and screaming, understanding all the jokes, and dressing up, that’s a whole other level of experience. And we don’t have enough of that today. There’s not that many opportunities to do that. So people crave it, and they love it. And they come together and share it. We love that for them and hope to keep enabling it for as long as we possibly can.

With anime films like Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and The Heron recently winning several high-profile awards, do you feel Crunchyroll is approaching the position to be able to start pushing certain films for Oscar nominations?

Mitchel Berger: Absolutely, but first of all, congratulations to The Boy and The Heron, a phenomenal film. We were fortunate to have helped distribute it ourselves in Australia and New Zealand. So it was great to share in that success. It’s great for the industry to see things like that succeed. And yes, we are already there. We pushed Suzume through the award cycle last year. Again, it was a phenomenal film; we got a lot of focus on that. We didn’t ultimately get nominated for an Oscar. But we were in the conversation. And the fact that we were in the conversation in a meaningful way is good for anime fans.

It’s good for anime as a business because it’s another way of proving that anime is here to stay and that it’s having an impact. People are noticing what’s going on there. So yeah, I look forward to many more opportunities to find amazing films like that, and to bring them forward to critics and the public. We want to push for those kinds of things and hopefully continue to get recognized through all these award seasons for the incredible work that these filmmakers put into this content because it is always a labor of love. And it’s always gratifying for me to see that labor of love acknowledged and rewarded.

How To Support Anime Artists Who Bring You Joy

With popular series like Jujutsu Kaisen‘s season 2 recently wrapping up, there’s was quite a bit of controversy with animators from MAPPA coming out and bringing to light the extreme crunch culture, unrealistic deadlines, and low wages for a lot of animators of the series that so many people love to see and enjoy. What would you recommend is the best way for fans to support these artists who are helping bring these series to life for our enjoyment?

Mitchel Berger: I think, for us, we look at a way to bring anime legally to fan bases everywhere. We all know that there’s anime content out there illegally because piracy exists across all of entertainment. And unfortunately, when you pirate content, you’re ultimately hurting the creators. They’re the ones who bear the brunt of it.

We’re really excited about being able to bring Crunchyroll to the world as a streaming platform and distribution company. It is important to give people the opportunity to legally consume anime, support the industry, be part of the culture, and, again, help it grow and share that with its fans. At the end of the day, it is all about the fans to us and allowing them access to that content. That’s what we’re focused on.

About Spy X Family Code: White

He’s a spy. She’s an assassin. Together, Loid and Yor keep their double lives to themselves while pretending to be the perfect family. However, their adopted daughter Anya, a telepath, knows both of their exciting secrets unbeknownst to them. While under the guise of taking his family on a weekend winter getaway, Loid’s attempt to make progress on his current mission Operation Strix proves difficult when Anya mistakenly gets involved and triggers events that threaten world peace!

SPY x FAMILY CODE: White is the first film installment of the popular television series – delivering an original standalone story featuring secret agent Twilight, his deadly assassin wife Yor, and their telepathic adopted daughter Anya in an all-new mission. Based on the widely acclaimed Harvey and Eisner Award-nominated manga written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo, the television series SPY x FAMILY originally debuted on April 9, 2022 and was quickly embraced by fans across the globe. The first two seasons are available on Crunchyroll.

Check out our other interviews with great talents in anime:

• Sally Amaki on Crunchyroll Awards & Bilingual Voice Acting
• Solo Leveling‘s Aleks Le & Caitlin Glass
• Zom 100‘s Lead Voice Actor Zeno Robinson

Source: Screen Rant Plus