Mio Honda OwO

Forger family

Twilight (黄昏, Tasogare^?)

Loid is a spy from the country of Westalis, who has extraordinary combat, memory, and information processing capabilities. He uses various faces and names for each mission, though he is generally known by his code name, "Twilight." To be able to execute his current mission, Operation Strix, he is required to have a child enrolled in a prestigious school where one of the admission qualifications is that "both parents are present," hence he creates a fake family by adopting Anya and marrying Yor. He is skilled in cooking and cleaning. As "Loid Forger," he camouflaged himself as a psychiatrist at Berlint General Hospital. Formerly a war orphan, he became a spy in order to create a "world where children do not cry."

Thorn Princess (いばら姫, Ibara Hime^?)

Seen as a female employee at Berlint City Hall, Yor is actually a skilled assassin nicknamed "Thorn Princess." Her combat power and physical ability surpasses Twilight, but she's a natural airhead and is bad at lying. Also, weak at alcohol. Yor's maiden name before marrying Loid is Briar (ブライア, Buraia^?). She is 27 years old. Without knowing who Loid really is, and believing that Anya is Loid's actual daughter from a previous marriage, she agrees to a fake marriage so she will not appear suspicious. Being an assassin, Yor is good at cleaning, but not with the other household chores, particularly cooking. Because of this, Loid does most of the cooking, though recently she has started to learn to cook from her coworker. She has a younger brother named Yuri, who is a civil servant and is a bit too attached to her.

Anya Forger (アーニャ・フォージャー, Ānya Fōjā^?)

A young girl who can read the thoughts of other people, Anya is the only one who knows the overall situation of her family. She seems 4 or 5 years old, but claims to be 6 so Loid will adopt her. Originally an experimental human test subject dubbed "Subject 007" (被検体007, "Subject 007"^?), she escaped because she was disgusted with a life where she could not behave like a child, and named herself "Anya." Due to her ability, Anya is not good with crowds. In addition, because she has not received a proper education, she is not good at studying but makes up for it by reading other peoples' minds for answers, though it appears she can not use her ability during a new moon. She likes spy anime and thinks anything involving "secrets" and "missions" are exciting.

Bond Forger (ボンド・フォージャー, Bondo Fōjā^?)

The family's pet dog, Bond was originally Project Apple's canine test subject named "Subject 8" (8号, lit. "Number 8"^?). He has the ability to look into the future which is known and utilized only by Anya through her telepathy. He meets Anya and the Forger family when being used in a terrorist bomb attack and is then adopted into the Forgers. He dreads Yor's cooking (which was shown via future sight to him once that it can kill him) and goes to great length to avoid that. He was named after Anya's favorite cartoon character, Bondman.

Others

Damian Desmond (ダミアン・デズモンド, Damian Dezumondo^?)

A cheeky classmate of Anya whose father is someone with overwhelming authority, but he works hard to gain his father's attention and approval. His father, Donovan Desmond (ドノバン・デズモンド, Donoban Dezumondo^?), is the primary target of Operation Strix. He is usually aggressive toward Anya, not realizing that he has a crush on her. He has an over-achiever older brother named Demetrius Desmond (ディミトリアス・デズモンド, Dimitoriasu Dezumondo^?) and a dog named Max. He stays in the dormitories at school with his two closest friends, Emile (エミールぅ, Emīrū^?) and Ewen (ユーイン, Yūin^?).

Becky Blackbell (ベッキー・ブラックベル, Bekkī Burakkuberu^?)

Anya's best friend at school. Her father is a major military manufacturer. After Anya's altercation with Damian on the first day of school, she became Anya's friend and have been treating her with great care despite every other classmates has shunned both of them. She has a crush on Anya's father.

Yuri Briar (ユーリ・ブライア, Yūri Buriaru^?)

Yor's 20-year-old younger brother. Ostensibly a functionary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this is just cover for his real position as a lieutenant of the State Security Service - where he is tasked with hunting down "Twilight" and other rebelling, terrorist and oversea intelligence groups. He is a bit too attached to his sister, opposing Yor and Loid's marriage whilst knowing neither Yor's actual assassin job or Loid's true identity. Both Loid and Anya know about his real occupation as a secret police while Yor remains oblivious.

Franky (フランキー, Furankī^?)

An informant from WISE, the Westalian spy agency, who provides Twilight with information, and often serves as a babysitter for Anya. He works at the tobacco store as his day job. He is hopeless in his pursuit of romance.

Sylvia Sherwood (シルヴィア・シャーウッド, Shiruvuia Shāuddo^?)

Twilight's handler or contact at the Westalian spy agency WISE, who gives him most of his missions and oversees Operation Strix. She works as an attaché and secretary in the embassy as a front for her intelligence act. She is called "Fullmetal Lady" by her agents due to her exceptional abilities and personalities. She once had a young daughter, but it is unknown what happened to her.

Nightfall (夜帷, Tobari^?)

An intelligence agent code-named "Nightfall." She is Twilight's coworker in both espionage and at Berlint General Hospital, where she works undercover as a clerk. While generally showing no emotion, she actually holds strong feelings towards Twilight, and thinks that Yor does not deserve him. Only Anya knows her true nature and is wary of her.

Video

Promotional video for the series.

Tatsuya Endo and his editor Shihei Lin have known each other for over ten years; Lin was his initial editor on his first serial Tista (2007). When Lin was moved from the Jump Square editorial department to Shōnen Jump+, Endo happily followed and they began developing a new work. Spy × Family takes elements from three of Endo's Jump Square one-shots; "Rengoku no Ashe", "Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi" and "I Spy". Lin said that its reception among the editorial department was so good that serialization was practically decided before the official meeting was even held.^[1]

Lin had Endo work as an assistant to Tatsuki Fujimoto on Fire Punch to gain experience. With Tista and Gekka Bijin both having a dark tone, Lin told Endo to give Spy × Family a more positive and cheerful one. The initial draft was given a working title of Spy Family written in Japanese. When deciding the final name, Endo came up with over 100 options, but they ultimately decided to use the same title but in English and with a "cross" in between, the latter influenced by Hunter × Hunter.^[1]

The editor said that he and Endo are always conscious of the line where violence, which is necessary in a spy manga, is given a pass for comedy's sake. Anya was inspired by the main character of "Rengoku no Ashe". Her extrasensory perception was decided early on, and Lin cited its use for comedic effect as one of the series' strengths. Lin said that the series has a broad readership among all ages and genders. He also cited Endo's clean art and ability to convey emotions as part of the manga's appeal.^[1]

Lin feels that the world and characters were firmly established as of volume two, and as such revealed that he and Endo would start to include longer narratives in the series.^[1]

Written and illustrated by Tetsuya Endo, Spy × Family has been serialized biweekly on the Shōnen Jump+ application and website since March 25, 2019. The chapters, which are released every other Monday, have been collected and published into tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Shueisha also simultaneously publishes the series in English for free on the Manga Plus app and website.^[2]

Viz Media began publishing Spy × Family in English digitally on their website for free on September 22, 2019.^[3] They released the first volume in print in spring 2020.^[4]

Volume list

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

These chapters have yet to be published in a tankōbon volume. They were serialized on Shōnen Jump+.

• Mission: 45–49

Popularity

Spy × Family took first place in the web manga category of the Next Manga Awards 2019.^[19] In December 2019, Brutus magazine included the series on their "Most Dangerous Manga" list, which included works with the most "stimulating" and thought-provoking themes.^[20] Later that same month, Polygon included it on a list of the best comics of 2019.^[21] The 2020 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook named Spy × Family the best manga series for male readers.^[22] It came in first on Honya Club's Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics of 2020 list, compiled by surveying 1,100 professional bookstore employees in Japan.^[23] It also won the 4th Tsutaya Comic Taishō in 2020.^[24] Spy × Family was nominated for the 44th Kodansha Manga Award and the 24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2020.^[25][26] It was nominated for the 13th Manga Taishō in 2020, where it came in second place,^[27][28] and was nominated for the 14th Manga Taishō in 2021, where it came in tenth place.^[29][30] In December 2020, Media Factory's Da Vinci magazine included the series at number three on their January 2021 Book of the Year list.^[31] Viz Media's English release of Spy × Family was nominated for the 2021 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia,^[32] and has been nominated for the Harvey Award for Best Manga.^[33]

Sales

Spy × Family had 800,000 copies in circulation, including digital and physical sales, upon release of its second volume. This number exceeded 2 million with the release of volume three, and 3 million in circulation by volume four.^[34] According to Oricon, volumes three and four of the series were some of the top 30 best-selling manga of 2020.^[35] Volume six received an initial print run of over 1 million copies, a first for a Shōnen Jump+ series. With its release in December 2020, Spy × Family had over 8 million digital and physical copies in circulation.^[36] In May 2021, it reached 10 million copies in circulation.^[37] As of June 2021, the manga had over 11 million copies in circulation.^[38] With 537,558 copies sold in its first week, volume six became the series' second consecutive volume to debut at number one on Oricon's weekly list of the best-selling manga.^[39][40]

Critical response

In a positive review of the first 11 chapters, Antonio Mireles of The Fandom Post summed up Spy × Family as a great comedy about a dysfunctional family put into uncanny situations that never pan out as planned due to their unique personalities. He described the family setup of Loid as the straight man, Yor the "dumb character" and Anya the adorable child "that readers fall in love with," as the perfect recipe for a comedy. However, he felt the humor that comes from Yor being the dumb character was underutilized.^[41] Comic Book Resources' Hannah Collins hailed the first volume as one of the best manga releases of 2020. She had strong praise for Endo's art; writing that "Action-comedy is no mean feat even in animated or live-action mediums. To pull it off so well in still images takes real artistic talent." The reviewer called the artist's range of facial expressions his secret weapon, which he deploys to win over the hearts and minds of readers; particularity with those of Anya, whom Collins said, "steals every page she appears on."^[42]

Morgana Santilli of The Beat stated that Spy × Family volume one does an excellent job balancing fun espionage action with heartwarming family moments. She called Endo's art "clean and appealing", which makes his parody of post-war Berlin easily recognizable. Santilli compared its comedy to that of From Eroica with Love, another Cold War-centric series.^[43] In a review for Polygon, Julia Lee stated that Endo takes a premise that could make a "typical, corny, action manga" and uses it to make one of the funniest series out right now. Like the other reviewers, Lee praised Endo's art, writing that he has a knack for action scenes, as well as "expressive panels that really show you how the characters are feeling."^[44]

• Spy × Family at Shonen Jump+
• Spy × Family official blog
• Spy × Family at Manga Plus
• Mio Honda OwO (manga) tại từ điển bách khoa của Anime News Network