Spy x Family

Again, friends’ suggestion. Anya and Bond are the best, they are, I live for this precious little girl and her fluffy dog.

I am, though, kinda confused what the story wants to be. And I believe it is my fault alone. It is a spy comedy story set in a cold war/Second World War setting. Our main character is a super mega cool spy and needs to build a fake family in order to get closer to the big-bad-“dictator”. The plan is to adopt a child and get her into the same class as the son of said big-bad-“dictator”. They become friends, and bam, spy can get closer to the dad. Our spy, Loid, adopts Anya, a sweet girl with psychic abilities: she is able to read other people’s minds. He does not know this. He also marries Yor who is happy to have a fake marriage because of social expectations and the like. But also, she’s an assassin and Loid’s enemy. Loid also does not know this. Yor also does not know anything. Anya does, though. She is on a super cool adventure, saving the world with big cool spy daddy and super powerful assassin mother. Bond, the dog, can see into the near future.

It is very light-hearted, more akin to a slice-of-life than a serious story. When it gets serious, it manages to hit the tone alright.

The thing that bothers me is the names. Yor has an over-the-top-in-love-with-her brother (Yuri) who is in the “SSS”, they live in “Berlint”. We have Westalis and Ostania as countries. If the big bad villain’s moustache had been a bit shorter, the analogy would have been even more extremely on the noise. For some reason, I just can’t marry (ha!) the very real life references to a terrible moment of European history with the happy-go-lucky-not-serious slice-of-life the story is most of the time. I really do not like comic-relief Yuri being a SS…S soldier. The naming feels so lazy, it’s almost a crime. I wouldn’t be surprised if the author is right leaning, based on his manga. Would it have been set in a pure fantasy setting, I think I wouldn’t be bothered. But there are so many real life references that the tone of the manga sometimes feels off.