Book Reivew: Spy X Family

 

 Spy X Family:Volume 11

by Tatsuya Endo

Book Cover Picture:

Category: YA Manga

 

Target Age Group: Ages 16+

 

Format: paperback

 

Summary: Twilight, a spy who's alias is Loid Forger, has a mission that requires him to have a family. He adopts a telepathic orphan, Anya, and marries a hired assassin, Yor, as cover. Their special...talents... are a secret from each other. They try to appear to be a normal family while completing their unrelated missions. In this installment, Anya's school bus is hijacked and the story focuses on Anya's mind reading abilities to get out of a very sticky situation.

 

Justification:. Spy X Family manga has won several awards including Best Manga Series in the French Babelio Readers Awards, Da Vinci 22nd Annual Book of the Year and the 52nd Japan Cartoonists Association Award. It has recently been turned into an Anime that is gaining popularity here in the United States.

 

Review: This review will examine the illustrations, the plot and the overall experience of reading a manga for the first time.

The illustrations in manga books are done in black and white. This manga was no exception. Coming from being an avid watcher of the show, the shift to seeing everything in black and white was not a problem. I was able to color it in in my minds eye and did not find the lack of color a hindrance to the overall experience. The drawings themselves were also pretty traditional with exaggerated features in some sketches to emphasize thought or intent of the characters. 

In this installment of the manga, the plot centered around Anya. She has been enrolled into a prestigious school so that Loid can get closer to his target, a parent of one of the other students. The students are going on a field trip and their bus gets high-jacked by a rebel organization who holds the kids hostage in hopes of getting their incarcerated comrades freed. Since Anya is telepathic, she is able to get into the minds of the kidnappers and help to ensure that everyone gets off the bus safely. What was so enjoyable about watching this play out is how Anya is perceived by everyone else. Since they don't know she can read minds, she comes across as shockingly brave and at times very strange. I love that the whole spy family has alter egos that they want to hide from each other, but end up using their skills to help, but because at the core they are good people. Yes, even Yor the assassin.  

This was my first time reading a manga. Mangas are written in Japanese, which is written from top right to bottom left, completely opposite of how English is read. Even in the English translations, the position of the pictures and text dialogue does not change. On the very last page there is a guide to help you see how to read the manga telling you, oh so cutely, that  you're reading wrong! I thought that switching to this layout would be difficult to follow, however, it felt seamless. The pictures and dialogue bubbles are arranged perfectly so that it is simple to just follow the action and not get caught up in the layout. My only complaint is that some of the text was so tiny, my old eyes had to strain to read it! Each volume is equivalent to an episode of the manga with its own story. while it is a series,  you can enjoy any volume on its own.

Overall, the manga was just as much fun as the anime and I would happily pick up the next volume.  4 stars.

Resources

 

Endo, T. (2024). Spy x family (11), (T. Endo, Illus.). VIZ Media LLC.