SPY x FAMILY

I emerge from cryostasis to spread my filth once more! Or I got COVID and have had time to mindlessly browse and catch up on weeb-shit. I know which one I think sounds cooler.

When I was originally recommended Spy X Family via a YouTube video, I was a little suspicious of it. The premise sounds gimmicky and could easily end up being circuitous, ESPECIALLY if it ended up being long-running in shonen jump. I’m glad to say my fears are unfounded and that this has held up on a repeated viewing.

It works for really simple reasons as well – the scenarios and characters are fun and engaging, the art and panel composition strike all the balance between being clean and attractive while bleeding personality and this is all tied together with a coherent overarching narrative. Namely, adults are whack yo!

I tease, but that is ultimately the core emotional edge of this manga. Providing us with comedy and cutesy. I never saw Mr & Mrs Smith (I should be glad from the looks of it), but just observing the plot synopsis I can tell it was more suited to a film format than Spy X Family would be.

The reason? Because two assassins trying to kill each other is powerfully antagonistic with a short shelf-life of intrigue, while the antagonism on display in Spy X Family is more akin to exaggerated reality. Yor and Loid are keeping secrets from each other, rather exotic ones at that, but this is not dissimilar to most relationships IRL.

Given the relative competence of both characters at their in-universe jobs, hell, we may never have seen this other side of them if not for Anya, who functions as the deadest-of-pans to the ridiculous internal worlds of those around her.

The Esper twist to this formula is icing; but the kind that wraps around, coating the entire cake. Providing a second skin to our ever so spongy inner world. You know that sponge could function by itself, but the icing has recapitulated it’s identity and changed the flavour.

So this, eh, somewhat general East vs West, spies, assassins, espionage and an elite school narrative could have been quite interesting all by itself, but it wouldn’t have the belly laughs and possibly some of the emotional sincerity if it wasn’t for our small, cute diegetic mind revealer.

Past that, Spy X Family is a simple and easy recommend. The 62 available chapters are a gold mine for eye candy and reasons to laugh and get choked up BECAUSE THE FUCKING DOG MAN! I have also been masochistically trying to at least try every “I’m the villianess blah blah”-isekai in existence, so mumma has been GASPING for competency. Loid is also several magnitudes hotter than the “pretty boys” from those works so why do I even bother…