★★★★☆ An elegant family

Spy x Family, Vol 1

Tatsuya Endo (Story & Art), Casey Loe (Translator), Rina Mapa (Touch-Up Art & Lettering), Jimmy Presler (Design)

In my quest to learn to read Japanese, I have a routine of reading through a Japanese work at the rate of five new words every two days. I have almost finished reading The Little Prince (Japanese Edition) and feel I should move on to books originally written in Japanese. Tatsuya Endo's Spy x Family manga series seemed like it would be fun, so I'm getting ready to start that. I have laid hands on the first three volumes in Japanese (not a trivial problem for one living in Canada).

Because I don't want to sacrifice my enjoyment to my poor Japanese comprehension, I bought the English translation of Vol. 1 and read it. Here's the premise. 黄昏 (translated "Twilight") is a an accomplished spy for the small country Westalis, a master of disguise. His mission is to infiltrate the elite Eden Academy in order to spy on to a reclusive Ostanian politician. (Ostania is the enemy nation to the East.) He is supposed to do this by getting his daughter into Eden.

Twilight is single -- he doesn't have a daughter. He is expected to acquire one somehow. (Yeah, this is all ridiculous, but just roll with it.) He sets himself up with the not-even-slightly-suspicious alias "Loid Forger" and visits an orphanage to find a kid he can adopt. Anya, one of the orphans, is a telepath, so she knows that Twilight is a spy. She thinks that's SO COOL, and she uses her telepathic gift to figure out what Twilight wants and to make herself attractive to him. Twilight walks out of the orphanage with Anya. (Yes, within just a few minutes, and no paperwork. Just let it go...)

It transpires that Anya will need a mother to get into Eden, so Twilight goes out looking for a wife, too. Yuri is a not-so-young woman whose coworkers look down on her because, although 27, she is unmarried and doesn't even have a boyfriend. Apparently at 27 a Westalis woman is, if not quite over the hill, at the least approaching its crest. Yuri's secret, and the reason she's unpartnered, is that she is an assassin for hire.

Twilight and Yuri meet cute. Yuri tells Twilight about her night job, which for him only makes her a more attractive prospect as fake wife.

So, that's the set-up -- we have a fake family consisting of a spy father, an assassin mother, and a telepath child. Anya is the only one who knows all this. The last few chapters are concerned with their interview at Eden. This is really going to strain your suspension of disbelief muscles, but the best way to handle it is just to not think about it too much and enjoy the pretty pictures. It really is fun.

What strikes me about the artwork is how pretty the main characters are. Endo strains every nerve to make them the most beautiful, slender, elegant, attractive-looking people in the story, or possibly in the entire world. They have perfect clothes, perfect hair, and perfect figures. One look at them tells you that the Forgers are a model family. This of course is all in aid of charming the admissions officers at Eden.

Spy x Family, Vol 1 on Amazon

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