11 Charming Anime Like Spy x Family Packed With Fake Families and Secret Lives

Still grinning over the Forgers, a spy, an assassin, and a telepath kid all pretending to be a normal family? Plenty of anime like Spy x Family deliver the same joy: a found family of people hiding secret or dangerous lives from the world (and sometimes each other), blending wholesome comedy with bursts of action and espionage, usually anchored by an unforgettable, precocious kid. Nothing is quite the Forgers, but the closest ones get wonderfully near.

The timing could not be better. Season 3 premiered in October 2025 on Crunchyroll and the Code: White movie is already out, so there is plenty of SxF to go around and a very specific itch to scratch between episodes. If you are catching up first, our Spy x Family filler list confirms there is nothing to skip.

We ranked these from closest match to loosest by how much each shares Spy x Family's actual build: a found family of people with secret or dangerous identities, a blend of wholesome comedy and action or espionage, and an adorable kid near the center of it all. A quick table sits up top, with honest notes at the end.

11 anime like Spy x Family at a glance

If you just want the fast read, here is the whole roster. The Similarity column is our call on how close each one gets to Spy x Family itself, not how good the show is on its own.

Streaming rights shift by region, so these are a starting point. Check what is available where you are before you commit.

The anime most like Spy x Family, ranked

Here are the anime like Spy x Family that genuinely share its build, ranked from the closest match to the loosest. The Similarity Rating is our read on how near each one gets to Spy x Family specifically, not how good the show is overall, and we kept the stars to whole numbers. The build we are measuring against is simple: a found family of people with secret identities, a blend of wholesome comedy and action, and an adorable kid near the center.

1. Buddy Daddies

Similarity Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Crunchyroll

Synopsis: Kazuki and Rei are professional hitmen and roommates whose carefully compartmentalized lives implode when a job leaves them responsible for Miri, a cheerful four-year-old looking for her father. Against every instinct, the two killers end up raising her together, fumbling through parenting while hiding their real work. What begins as an obligation slowly becomes a genuine family. It is funny, action-packed, and unexpectedly tender.

Of everything here, Buddy Daddies is the undisputed number-one peer. Produced by P.A. Works, it shares the exact premise: two contrasting professional assassins, one cold and analytical, the other impulsive, accidentally take in a chaotic, joyful four-year-old girl named Miri. From there they juggle lethal underworld contracts with nursery school admissions, French toast breakfasts, and suburban parent meetings, which is the Forger balancing act with hitmen in Loid and Yor's place. Miri is every bit as scene-stealing as Anya. If you want the SxF feeling with almost nothing lost in translation, start here.

2. Mission: Yozakura Family

Similarity Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Hulu

Synopsis: Taiyo is a shy high schooler whose only real friend is his childhood companion Mutsumi, who happens to be the heir to the Yozakura clan, an entire family of elite spies. When her overprotective spy brother threatens to come between them, Taiyo marries into the family to protect her, and must train as a spy himself to survive his new in-laws. It is a chaotic action-comedy about family. The cast is enormous and the energy is nonstop.

Mission: Yozakura Family is the closest match for an undercover domestic spy network. A shy high school boy discovers his childhood friend is the head of Japan's preeminent spy family, and to protect his life he marries into the clan, then has to work through a household of eccentric in-laws armed with specialized lethal gadgets. Balancing deadly syndicate hits with chaotic family dinners is the exact Forger tension, just scaled up to a whole clan of secret agents instead of a party of three. The tone is louder and more shonen than SxF's polish, but the spy-family build is about as close as it gets.

3. Sakamoto Days

Similarity Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Netflix

Synopsis: Taro Sakamoto was once the most feared hitman alive, until he fell in love, retired, married, had a daughter, and settled down to run a quiet neighborhood convenience store, growing comfortably plump in the process. When his violent past comes knocking, he has to protect his new life and his family without breaking his vow never to kill. The action is inventive and the comedy is relentless. It is a huge, stylish crowd-pleaser.

Sakamoto Days is the direct counterpart to Yor and Loid's domestic-retirement dream. Taro Sakamoto, the underworld's most legendary hitman, falls in love, retires, gets married, gains weight, and opens a sleepy neighborhood convenience store. Alongside his telepathic young employee Shin, who reads minds much like Anya does, he defends his peaceful domestic life from wave after wave of assassin hit squads, all without breaking the no-kill vow he made to his wife. The blend of spectacular action and warm family comedy maps closely onto SxF, and that mind-reading sidekick is a fun echo of Anya. It leans harder into action than SxF's school hijinks, but the deadly-pro-protecting-a-family build is a dead-on match. One note: it streams on Netflix, so availability depends on your region.

4. The Way of the Househusband

Similarity Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Netflix

Synopsis: Tatsu was once the legendary yakuza known as “the Immortal Dragon,” feared throughout the underworld, until he walked away from it all to become a full-time househusband. Now he applies the same terrifying intensity to grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking for his career-woman wife. His fearsome looks constantly get him mistaken for an active gangster. It is a deadpan domestic comedy with a huge heart.

The Way of the Househusband is a hilarious exploration of a lethal operator committing one hundred percent of his deadly focus to mundane domestic life. The feared yakuza known as the Immortal Dragon, Tatsu, trades underworld crime for grocery coupons, apron stitching, and neighborhood association rivalries, applying terrifying underworld intensity to home economics. That gag, a dangerous man with a hidden past throwing himself completely into wholesome chores, is the exact Loid-and-Yor comedy of fearsome professionals doing ordinary family things. It is pure slice-of-life comedy with no espionage plot or child at the center, which keeps it a notch below the top, but the hidden-menace-meets-domestic-bliss build is a strong fit. One note: it streams on Netflix, so availability depends on your region.

5. The Fable

Similarity Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Disney+, Hulu

Synopsis: The Fable is the deadliest hitman in the business, so good that his boss orders him to do the impossible: lie low in Osaka for a full year, living as an ordinary civilian named Akira without killing anyone. Saddled with a fake sister and a normal job, the socially awkward killer tries to blend in while trouble keeps finding him. It is a sharp blend of crime comedy and sudden, brutal action. Akira's deadpan attempts at normalcy are the heart of it.

The Fable is a gritty, deadpan comedy inversion of the spy-family idea. A peerless, lethal hitman is ordered by his boss to live as an ordinary civilian in Osaka for one full year without killing anyone, saddled with a fake sister and a normal job. His constant, careful effort to figure out whether he is mimicking normal human behavior convincingly mirrors Loid's own inner panic about passing as a regular husband and father. It is more of a crime-comedy than a wholesome family show and it skews a little older, but the deadly-pro-faking-an-ordinary-life build is a close fit.

6. Hinamatsuri

Similarity Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Crunchyroll

Synopsis: Yoshifumi Nitta is a young yakuza with a comfortable life, until a mysterious capsule crashes into his apartment and out pops Hina, a deadpan girl with immense psychic powers. She promptly moves in and makes herself his problem, and against his better judgment, the gangster ends up raising her like a daughter. The series is a surreal, hilarious, and surprisingly warm comedy. Its emotional beats sneak up on you.

Hinamatsuri shares Spy x Family's chaotic found-family comedy. A mid-level yakuza member named Nitta unexpectedly ends up parenting Hina, a deadpan girl with immense telekinetic powers, and from there he juggles his criminal reputation, his business deals, and elite-school PTA meetings while Hina causes accidental psychic mayhem. Nitta and Hina's grumpy-guardian-and-weird-powerful-kid dynamic is a dead ringer for Loid and Anya, right down to the deadpan child with hidden abilities. It is more absurdist and has no spy plot, but the found-family-with-a-powered-kid build is a strong match.

7. Princess Principal

Similarity Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Crunchyroll

Synopsis: In an alternate, steam-powered Victorian London divided by a massive wall into a wealthy Kingdom and a struggling Commonwealth, a squad of teenage girls works as undercover spies for the rebel side. Posing as ordinary students at the elite Queen's Mayfair boarding school, they run covert operations, from wiretapping to assassinations, while one of them impersonates the actual princess. The action is slick and the intrigue is dense. It is a stylish, underrated gem.

Princess Principal matches two of Spy x Family's most specific ingredients at once: Cold War-style espionage across a divided nation, and spies hiding in plain sight at an elite boarding school. The wall splitting London into hostile East and West is a direct cousin to SxF's Westalis and Ostania, and the girls balancing covert wiretapping and kills with the social politics of school life rhymes with Loid's Operation Strix and Anya's days at Eden Academy. It has no family or comedy focus, leaning darker and more tactical, but on pure spy-at-school premise it is one of the closest matches here.

8. Lycoris Recoil

Similarity Rating: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Crunchyroll

Synopsis: Beneath peaceful modern Tokyo, a secret organization trains orphaned girls as elite agents called Lycoris to quietly eliminate threats before they ever surface. The prodigy Chisato, cheerful and deadly, works out of a cozy little café called LycoReco alongside the stern, newly-assigned Takina. Between lethal missions, they run the café, serve regulars, and bicker like family. It is a warm, action-packed buddy story. The gunfights are gorgeous.

Lycoris Recoil captures Spy x Family's charming contradiction: lethal covert work wrapped in a sweet, cozy domestic setting. A secretive all-female agency carries out deadly operations from the shadows, but it does so out of a warm little traditional café, and the day-to-day of running that café with a makeshift family sits right alongside the violence, exactly the way SxF balances Yor's assassin work and Loid's spying against breakfast-table normalcy. There is no fake family or kid at the center, so it sits mid-list, but the deadly-ops-meet-cozy-slice-of-life build is a strong fit.

9. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

Similarity Rating: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Crunchyroll

Synopsis: At the elite Shuchiin Academy, student council president Miyuki Shirogane and vice-president Kaguya Shinomiya are both brilliant, both proud, and both secretly head-over-heels for each other. Convinced that whoever confesses first loses, they wage an escalating war of psychological schemes to trick the other into admitting their feelings. Each tiny interaction becomes a dramatic battle of wits. It is one of the funniest comedies in anime.

Kaguya-sama shares two of Spy x Family's signatures: an elite private-school setting, much like Eden Academy, and a comedy built almost entirely on high-IQ overthinking. The dueling internal monologues, the elaborate social bluffs, and the characters' desperate scramble to hide their true vulnerabilities behind a flawless facade all mirror Loid and Yor narrating their own anxious calculations while trying to seem perfectly normal. It is a school romance with no spies, assassins, or family, which keeps it lower on the build, but the overthinking-everything-behind-a-perfect-mask comedy is a close match.

10. Great Pretender

Similarity Rating: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Netflix

Synopsis: Makoto is a small-time con artist who thinks he is the best in Japan, until he is outplayed by the flamboyant Laurent and swept into a globe-trotting team of elite swindlers who con the world's worst people. Across dazzlingly animated capers in Los Angeles, Singapore, London, and beyond, the crew pulls off elaborate stings while hiding their true selves from one another. It is stylish, twisty, and endlessly cool. Each arc is a puzzle box.

Great Pretender is a sleek, international caper about world-class confidence tricksters running multi-stage disguises, forged identities, and elaborate sting operations against global syndicates. The disguises, the cover stories, and the quick-thinking schemes scratch the same itch as Loid's spy work, and the crew slowly becomes a found family much like the Forgers do. It trades domestic parenting for globe-trotting deception, so there is no wholesome home life or kid, which keeps it lower, but the deception-and-found-family build connects. One note: it streams on Netflix, so availability depends on your region.

11. Kotaro Lives Alone

Similarity Rating: 3/5 ⭐⭐⭐

Anime Overall Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Watch on: Netflix

Synopsis: Kotaro is a four-year-old who, astonishingly, lives entirely on his own in an apartment complex, speaking like a tiny feudal lord and carrying himself with eerie independence. His neighbors, a struggling manga artist chief among them, slowly become the found family he needs, even as hints of his difficult past emerge. The series is gentle, funny, and quietly heartbreaking. Kotaro will absolutely get to you.

Kotaro Lives Alone is kept here as the sole representative of pure emotional childcare. A remarkably mature four-year-old living alone in a low-rent apartment quietly changes the lives of the eccentric adults around him, who slowly become the found family he needs. Stripped of all the espionage, it captures Anya's vulnerable emotional core, the lonely, perceptive little kid who just wants people to care for him, better than almost anything on this list. There is no spy action at all, so it sits at the bottom of the build, but the adorable-wise-kid-who-melts-everyone's-heart match is a tender one. One note: it streams on Netflix, so availability depends on your region.

A couple that get recommended but watch differently

Search around for anime similar to Spy x Family and a couple of names come up that share a piece of the appeal but not the secret-agent-family build. They are worth your time. We just want the match to feel honest.

Assassination Classroom blends deadly skills, big laughs, and real heart around a mysterious, impossibly powerful teacher, but it plays out as a classroom-and-mentor story rather than a family under cover. Barakamon delivers the wholesome found-family warmth and an irrepressible, scene-stealing kid, yet it is a quiet slice-of-life with no espionage, action, or secret identities at all. Both are fantastic. Just go in knowing they capture the deadly-mentor comedy or the pure found-family heart, not SxF's specific blend of a spy family at home.

Your next undercover family

Spy x Family is in great shape, with Season 3 having premiered in October 2025 on Crunchyroll and the Code: White movie already out, but between new episodes a good watchlist keeps the Forger-family feeling alive. Start at the top with Buddy Daddies for the closest mix of hitman action and found-family heart, step into a whole clan of secret agents with Mission: Yozakura Family, or feel the deadly-dad energy of Sakamoto Days. The whole point of a good list of anime like Spy x Family is to keep that blend of action, comedy, and wholesome family going between missions.

While you line it all up, come hang out with us at Kaminari, where our weekly newsletter rounds up the shows worth your time, the news that actually matters, and takes written for people who love this stuff as much as you do. We will keep flagging the best wholesome action-comedies as they land, so you never miss the next obsession.

FAQs

Is there an anime exactly like Spy x Family?

Not a perfect twin, but two come very close. Buddy Daddies matches the premise almost exactly, deadly professionals raising an adorable little kid while hiding their real work, and Mission: Yozakura Family scales it up to an ordinary guy marrying into a whole clan of elite spies. Each nails a core piece of what makes SxF work.

What is the best anime like Spy x Family?

For the closest overall experience, Buddy Daddies leads the pack, since it shares SxF's exact found-family-of-killers premise. If you want the full spy-family network specifically, Mission: Yozakura Family is the one to beat, with Sakamoto Days close behind for the retired-hitman-protecting-his-home action.

What anime has a cute kid like Anya?

Several come close. Buddy Daddies has the scene-stealing Miri, Hinamatsuri has the deadpan psychic Hina, and Kotaro Lives Alone has the tiny, formal Kotaro. Each centers an adorable, unforgettable kid much like Anya.

Is there an anime like Spy x Family with a fake family?

Yes. Buddy Daddies and The Fable both build fake families as cover, while Mission: Yozakura Family has an ordinary guy marry into a clan of spies. Each turns a constructed family into something that slowly starts to feel real, just like the Forgers.

Where can you watch anime like Spy x Family?

These are spread across services. Several sit on Crunchyroll, including Spy x Family itself along with Buddy Daddies, The Fable, Lycoris Recoil, Kaguya-sama, Hinamatsuri and Princess Principal, while Mission: Yozakura Family is on Hulu, and Sakamoto Days, The Way of the Househusband, Great Pretender, and Kotaro Lives Alone are on Netflix. Rights shift over time, so confirm before you settle in.