Do You Pronounce SPYxFAMILY Correctly?

SPY EX FAMILY or SPY FAMILY?

Otaku Voice Staff

If you are like me you are tuning in to the spring anime season’s best anime, SPYxFAMILY. It has this absolutely wholesome feeling to its bizarre family dynamic that is highly engrossing. I am completely enamored with the adorable Anya. She has stolen my heart. One thing that has puzzled me though, is how do you exactly pronounce the show, SPYxFAMILY? Clearly I am not alone.

I saw @PridefulSin‘s post scroll past my feed which got me curious. Do you pronounce the “X” in SPYXFAMILY?

Should You Pronounce the “X?”

In the past I have seen other parts of Japanese media pronounce the “X” in titles as “cross” and not the expected “ex” sound. Bouncing around in my head, SPYxFAMILY is “spy cross family” which is seemingly an outlier. No one in the mentions of the tweet bring this up as a possibility. Most are just debating whether they do or do not pronounce the “X” at all.

One famous anime that also has an “X” in the title is HUNTERxHUNTER. You have probably heard someone actually say that out loud and the “X” is distinctly dropped. It is just “Hunter. Hunter.” No one ever pronounces the “X.”

To get to the bottom of this I looked around for any official media. An interview with the director, or even one of the voice actors would suffice. Interestingly there is an official answer.

The Official SPYxFAMILY Podcast on Spotify

Apparently, there is an official podcast for the anime. Of course the show is all in Japanese, and therefore entirely unintelligible to me, but we have an answer. The “X” goes completely unpronounced. Its just “Spy. Family.”

The lead voice of Loid Forger, Eguchi Takuya, is the host of the podcast, interviewing other staff on the show. The first guest above is Atsumi Tanezaki who plays the incredibly adorable Anya Forger. In the fist episode alone you can hear Eguchi-san confirm the correct pronunciation of SPYxFAMILY. Its just SPYxFAMILY.

[Sources]
[Image via Twitter]
[Podcast via Spotify]