By Allison Watkinson
TLL Reporter
The toy and game company KessCo has announced an exciting new partnership with Crunchyroll and its popular Spy x Family franchise.
The collaboration will pave the way for an upcoming tabletop game titled SPY x FAMILY: Mission for Peanuts, set to release in Fall 2023 at Barnes & Noble and other leading retail locations.
“Bringing SPY x FAMILY: Mission for Peanuts to life is incredibly exciting for us,” said KessCo CEO Alex Kessler. “Our goal is to combine our passion for tabletop gaming with our love for anime. SPY x FAMILY is the perfect property to accomplish this, introducing gaming and anime enthusiasts to an immersive SPY x FAMILY experience that seamlessly transitions from screens to your game nights and hangouts.”
Since its launch in 2016, KessCo has consistently contributed to innovation in the toy industry through the introduction of its own successful intellectual properties. In fact, the company was the first to introduce a modern version of the ‘Hula Hoop’ in 1950, although it was the company Wham-O that trademarked the name Hula Hoop some years later. Today, KessCo’s ‘Ice Hoop’ remains the world’s most popular version of the hoop toy.
KessCo is now in the third generation of family ownership under its current CEO. As the company continues to expand, KessCo says it plans to further embrace licensing across its product range, with SPY x FAMILY marking one of its most highly anticipated anime licensing deals to date.
SPY x FAMILY is a comedic spy series that is both a heartwarming tale of found family and an action-packed adventure with world peace at stake. The series comes from a Japanese manga series of the same name, written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. The story follows a spy who has to “build a family” to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl he adopts as his daughter is a telepath, and the woman he agrees to marry is a skilled assassin.
The series has been serialized biweekly on Shueisha‘s Shōnen Jump+application and website since March 2019, with the chapters collected in eleven tankōbon volumes as of April 2023. It was licensed in North America by Viz Media.
The anime television series adaptation produced by Wit Studio and CloverWorks premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliate stations in April 2022, and was licensed by Muse Communication in Asia and Crunchyroll worldwide. A second season is set to premiere in October 2023 and an anime film, titled Spy × Family Code: White, is set for release on December 22, 2023.
SPY x FAMILY: Mission for Peanuts is a thrilling game of deduction and deception designed for 3-5 players. Players can assume different roles within the game, employing their strategic prowess to outmaneuver opponents and build the best 2-card team for each mission.
You don’t have to be a spy to get an exclusive first look at the game! Attendees of GenCon 2023 will get a chance to demo the game and purchase an advance copy at Booth #1949.
For more information about Kess, please visit www.kess.co.
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