Spy × Family

Not to be confused with My Spy Family.

Spy × Family
File:Spy Family vol 1.jpg Cover of the first tankōbon volume, featuring Loid Forger/"Twilight".
Genre	Action, comedy, spy
Manga
Written by	Tatsuya Endo
Published by	Shueisha
English publisher	NA Viz Media
Demographic	Shōnen
Imprint	Jump Comics+
Magazine	Shōnen Jump+
Original run	March 25, 2019 – present
Volumes	9
Anime television series
Directed by	Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Written by	Kazuhiro Furuhashi
Music by	Makoto Miyazaki Shūhei Mutsuki
Studio	Wit Studio CloverWorks
Licensed by	Crunchyroll SA/SEA Muse Communication
Network	TXN (TV Tokyo), ux, TV Shizuoka, RCC, BS TV Tokyo
Original run	April 9, 2022 – present
Episodes	10

Spy × Family (stylized as SPY×FAMILY; pronounced "Spy Family") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. The story follows a spy who has to "build a family" to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl he adopts as his daughter is a telepath, and the woman he agrees to be in a marriage with is a skilled assassin. The series has been serialized biweekly on Shueisha's Shōnen Jump+ application and website since March 2019, with the chapters collected in nine tankōbon volumes as of April 2022. It was licensed in North America by Viz Media.

An anime television series adaptation by Wit Studio and CloverWorks premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliate stations in April 2022, and was licensed by Muse Communication in Asia and Crunchyroll worldwide.

As of May 2022, the series has over 21 million copies in circulation.

Plot

Main article: List of Spy × Family characters

In order to maintain the state of peace between the rival nations of Westalis and Ostania, a Westalian agent code-named "Twilight" is tasked with spying on Donovan Desmond, leader of the National Unity Party within Ostania. However, due to Desmond being notoriously reclusive, the only way Twilight can get close to him is to enroll a child in the same private school as Desmond's sons and pose as a fellow parent.

To accomplish this and present the image of a happy family, he creates the alias of Loid Forger, adopts a young orphan girl named Anya, and marries a woman named Yor Briar. However, unbeknownst to him Anya can read minds and Yor is in fact a professional assassin. Neither Loid nor Yor are aware of each other's true identities, or that Anya knows their true professions. The family later takes in a dog with precognitive abilities whom they name Bond. Despite these unknown factors and Twilight's occasional lapses of common sense due to years of being a spy, he must learn to play the role of the perfect father and husband in order to carry out his mission.

Production

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 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.

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. Lin said that he and Endo are always conscious of the line where violence, a necessary aspect in a spy manga, is given a pass for comedy's sake. With Tista and Gekka Bijin both having a dark tone, the editor told Endo to give Spy × Family a more cheerful one. 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.

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

Media

Manga

See also: List of Spy × Family chapters

Written and illustrated by Tatsuya 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.

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

The manga series has one companion book, Spy × Family Official Fanbook: Eyes Only. The book, serving as an collective information book, was published on May 2, 2022. It includes detailed information and analysis about the series' characters and worlds, colored artworks, early character designs, guests' art contributions, a long interview with Endo, and commentary on most chapters by Endo and Lin.

Light Novel

The light novel book Spy × Family: Kazoku no Shōzō (SPY×FAMILY 家族の肖像, lit. Spy × Family: Family's Portrait), containing four short stories and a seven-page "short novel" written by Aya Yajima, was published on July 2, 2021.

Anime

See also: List of Spy × Family episodes

On November 1, 2021, a website opened to announce an anime television series adaptation produced by Wit Studio and CloverWorks. The series is directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, with character designs handled by Kazuaki Shimada, and music produced by [K]NoW_NAME. The series will run for two split cours. The first cour premiered on April 9, 2022, on TXN stations. The opening theme song is "Mixed Nuts" (ミックスナッツ, Mikkusu Natsu) by Official Hige Dandism, while the ending theme song is "Comedy" (喜劇, Kigeki) by Gen Hoshino. Crunchyroll licensed the series outside of Asia. Muse Communication licensed the series in Taiwan, South and Southeast Asia; they are streaming it on their YouTube channel (limited time for some of the available regions), Netflix, iQIYI, bilibili, and other regional streaming services.

On April 11, 2022, Crunchyroll announced that the series would receive an English dub. It had an early preview on Crunchyroll's Twitch channel on April 15, before premiering the following day.

Accompanied the anime, the guidebook Animation × 1st Mission, that includes anime character designs, storyboards, key animations, interviews and comments from its staff, was released on April 4, 2022.

Musical

A musical adaptation, named Music Spy × Family (ミュージカル　スパイファミリー, Myūjikaru Supai Famirī), was reported to be in production at the beginning of May, 2022. Toho is the producer for the musical. The musical will be premiered and played at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre in March, 2023 and will be going on nationalwide tour in April to May the same year.

Reception

Popularity

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. Later that same month, Polygon included it on a list of the best comics of 2019. The 2020 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook named Spy × Family the best manga series for male readers. 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. It was named as the "No. 1 Popular Web Comic of 2019," the "No. 1 Popular Shonen Jump+ Work," and a "Signature Work of Jump+".

Sales

In 2020, 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. According to Oricon, volumes three and four of the series were some of the top 30 best-selling manga of 2020. 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. At that time, it was the ninth best-selling manga in 2020, with over 4.5 million copies sold within that year.

In May 2021, Spy × Family reached 10 million copies in circulation and increased to 11 million copies by the next month. 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. As of November 2021, the manga had over 12.5 million copies in circulation. It was the eighth best-selling manga in 2021, with over 4.9 million copies sold within that year.

On April 3, 2022, right at the release of volume 9 and before the premier of the anime, the manga had over 15 million copies in circulation. As of May 30, 2022, the manga had over 21 million copies in circulation. It was tentatively the 4th best-selling manga in the first 5 months of 2022.

In France, the series has had one million sold copies as of volume 6.

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. 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."

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. 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."

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2019	Next Manga Awards	Web Manga	Won
2020	4th Tsutaya Comic Awards	Next Hit
	44th Kodansha Manga Award	Best Shōnen Manga	Nominated
	24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize	Cultural Prize
	13th Manga Taishō	Manga Taishō	2nd Place
	Da Vinci 21th Annual Book of the Year	Book of the Year	3rd place
2021	14th Manga Taishō	Manga Taishō	10th Place
	Eisner Award	Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia	Nominated
	Harvey Award	Best Manga
2022	Eisner Award	Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia	Pending

External links

• Spy × Family at Shonen Jump+
• Spy × Family official blog
• Spy × Family at Manga Plus
• Spy x Family official anime website
• Spy × Family (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia