WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Spy x Family Chapter 57 by Tatsuya Endo, Casey Loe and Rina Mapa, available in English now on Viz.
The premise of Spy x Family centers on a family that is built around lies. None of them are who they say they are and have maintained a tenuous act of balancing their double lives. The only one who knows the truth is none other than six-year-old esper Anya, who really isn't the brightest crayon in the box. Even though she knows that Loid is a spy and Yor is an assassin, she still somehow misunderstands and misinterpret their thoughts, leading to some truly hilarious moments in the manga.
Chapter 57 was the cherry on top. Not only do readers experience secondhand embarrassment from watching Anya try to recount her adventures on the cruise trip, they also get to see Loid, Yor and Yuri try, and unexpectedly succeed in, teaching Anya a valuable life lesson in telling falsehoods. Part of the humor in Spy x Family is how the mangaka weaves irony throughout the story and this might be his best chapter yet.
After the epic cruise trip, Anya returned to school, puffing with pride and brimming with bravado. After all, her family had just beat the bad guys on a luxury cruise ship -- everyone needed to hear about how heroic she was. Except as soon as she opened her mouth, an elaborate over-exaggeration of the story came out because of her hopes of impressing her classmates. Suddenly, there had been villains during that mission like Sickly Chain Bartleby, evil-doers who could teleport and, the most dastardly of them all, octo-people who had invaded their ship. Fortunately, Anya boasted, she was there to save the day.
The problem is, however, she forgot who she was speaking to. This is a school full of the richest and most privileged kids in Ostania; they aren't interested in stories like these. And, these kids are used to spinning their own tales about celebrities they've met and parties they've gone to. That day, Anya left with her tail between her legs. Tatsuya Endo really stepped it up in these scenes with how he illustrated Anya's expressions, adding to the collection of Anya meme faces.
When Anya got home, she told her parents and Yuri, who came to visit Yor, about her disastrous day. She admitted that all she'd wanted was attention. She was reprimanded by the three adults for lying, which is obviously hypocritical of them. The last two panels are absolutely rich in irony with Loid haltingly saying that lying is wrong, Yuri outright claiming that liars are trash and Yor fluttering about and telling Anya to just be herself.
While they were speaking aloud, Anya read their minds and their philosophies around lying. Loid was thinking about how a perfect lie should be constructed, Yuri tried to justify his lies and Yor was surprisingly transparent. Unlike the other two, Yor didn't have any kind of complicated thought process, she just lied without really thinking -- and this might be why she's typically flustered when she gets caught lying.
It wasn't the adults' words that taught Anya, but the sight of them trying to sort out their double lives. The endeavor seemed too complicated for her to attempt herself. This too is ironic as Anya will undoubtedly continue to lie, given her family's situation, and the lie that she'll continue with is not one of a harmless child, like she'd done at school.
Anya's true lies are far more complicated, and they're done to protect her parents' double lives. While she's not the best at fabricating stories (maybe she can get tips from reading Loid's mind), she gets the job done. She doesn't quite have a full grasp on why Yor and Loid are keeping secrets from each other, but she helps them anyway because she loves them and this illusion of a family might shatter if she doesn't.
