Spy x Family : My Recent Favorite Manga
I love reading Manga, sometimes even more than their respective anime series. My favorite genre is the mainstream Shonen battle Manga. I read (almost) all the genres and I love a romantic comedy just as much.
So, I tend to find new Manga/Anime series to enjoy every few months. Earlier this year I was fascinated by Ascendance of a Bookworm, after that I read the manga of Kusuriya no Hitorigoto and my current new favorite is without a doubt: Spy x Family!
The Perfect Spy Manga
Spy x Family is a free Manga published bi-weekly on Shonen Jump Plus in Japan. MangaPlus is doing a simultaneous release in English. You can read all chapters for free here (at least for now.)
The story follows Twilight, the best spy in the agency who works to prevent a war between two conflicting neighbor nations. His most recent mission requires him to start a family and live a new life, in order to get close to his next target.
Now, assuming the identity of Loid Forger, he adopts Anya, a young girl who (unbeknownst to him) has telepathic powers. Since the school in which he has to meet the target requires both parents to be present, Loid marries Yor who's secretly a professional hitwoman, and she's using the marriage to hide that fact.
Thus starts the story of this made-up family as they work for their respective goals while hiding their secret identities from the world and each other. The story mainly follows the long term mission of using Anya's school enrollment to get close to the target but some chapters focus on side missions and the relationships between the characters.
The series is half comedy and half action/drama. It doesn't take itself too seriously but it doesn't use jokes for the sake of jokes either. All characters have deep motivations for the actions they do. Oh, and the manga touches about the harshness of war! A Lot!
A Lovely Dysfunctional Family
Loid being one of the best spies in the world, is a very powerful and intelligent person. He hides his work as Twilight by working as a psychiatric (a job who's really good at.) He's not above using questionable means to succeed the mission.
Loid is a master of disguise and is very cold person. He's an expert of faking emotions and only plays the role of the loving father/husband for the sake of the mission. This makes the moments where he genuinely cares about his family extra meaningful! As I read chapters of this manga it becomes clear how his fake role of the family is slowly becomes real.
One thing I love about Loid is how logical he is, and how the eccentricity of his wife and daughter turns every skill he learned as a spy upside down. I love how he would've completed the mission by now if he was working alone, but as he said, even with his powers of disguise he can't pass off as a child.
My favorite character of this manga is the daughter: Anya! She a brat! She's a young girl who ran from an experiment lab that gave her the telepathic ability to read minds. She loves a children spy show, which made her determined to make Loid adopt her.
After she realized her father's cool dream of the world peace, she decided to help him with the mission, (in her own childish way/without revealing her powers to him.) Anya's goal is to keep the family together even after the end of the mission.
What makes Anya my favorite, is that everything about her is fun! She is a hunter for amusement and the main reason the family is together because she thought it'll be fun! Her reactions as she reads the thoughts of her super spy father and assassin mother are masterpieces! Anya is also childish but as soon as you start get annoyed with her as a reader, she does something impressive that makes you anticipate her next move!
Anya's relationships with her classmates is as interesting to watch as her relationship with her perfect father and her eccentric mother.
The mother in the family is Yor Forger. (Formerly: Yor Briar.) She's a professional assassin who hides her real job by working at a public service office. Her brother advises her to find someone because being single at her age made people suspicious.
She meets Loid one day and asks him to play the role of her boyfriend, but things happen and they get married instead (which worked in the favor of both of them.) Loid isn't only supportive of her, but doesn't ask her about her personal life either.
Yor is kind of airhead and it's a miracle that her secret identity of being an assassin isn't discovered yet. (To be fair, the people closest to her won't believe it if they knew.) She genuinely believes that Anya is Loid's real daughter, and she loves the girl so much and tries her best to be a perfect step mother for her.
One of my favorite things about Yor is her super strength. She's stronger than the already super powerful Loid. Yor is also very bad at lying which makes it more unnatural that no one figured her secret identity yet. (Not that I mind.)
Read for the dynamic between characters!
All the family members play the role of the main character. Many chapters are focusing on either the spy life of Loid or the school life of his daughter Anya. There are of course chapters where the wife Yor is the main character, but I wish there were more of them.
Most of the other recurring characters in the manga. My favorite is Anya's classmate and the target's son: Damian. Also, Yor's younger brother Yuri, both are multi-layered characters who are fun to watch. I even consider Damian to be one of the main characters despite being on the antagonist's side.
I just caught up with this manga the other day, and it's one of the few works I wish to buy a physical book of one day, (others being BAKUMAN, and A Silent Voice.) It's also one of the few manga I read as soon as a new chapter is posted (the only other Manga I read this way is One Piece.) I'm glad I caught this game relatively early in its run!
Did my article motivated you to read it? What's your favorite character?
Please tell me what do you think in comments!