Glaiza Explores Manga: Spy x Family Vol 1

Everyone has a secret self they don't show to other people. Not to friends, not to loves, not even to family. They hide who they are and what they want behind lies and painted smiles. And thus the world maintains its thin veneer of peace.

Twilight

Spy x Family is a manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo, and is available on the Viz.Com where anyone can find mangas filled with action, adventure, fantasy, mystery, romance and more—thousands of manga volumes for every fan!

This review contains spoilers!

First Impressions:

One of the most common sayings people will hear about books is to not judge a book by it's cover. Of course that saying has it's benefits - unfortunately/fortunately for me - I am wired differently. I totally judge books by their cover.

That's how this whole part of the review comes out - I literally judge the cover of the volume. Also, if I cannot crush on anyone - what is the point? I'm very shallow in a lot of respects and that's one of the things I'll admit right now.

Speaking of crushes - the first volume of Spy x Family has a very good looking man on the cover, our main protagonist in this story: Twilight. I absolute adore this cover because it does not hide the fact that he's a spy of course, hence the gun and the spy paraphernalia everywhere. Yet with the newspaper he is reading - it just very cool dad vibes.

But what is Spy x Family about? Well this manga follows the story of a spy (codename: Twilight) who has to create a fake family in order to successfully execute a mission. The problem though is that he does not realize that the young girl he adopts as a daughter can actually read minds, and the woman he agrees to be in a fake marriage with is an assassin.

Story:

This volume opens with an introduction to "a veteran of the battlefield, employing a hundred different faces to survive," the spy only known as Twilight. He works hard, calculating and ruthless at making sure he's able to accomplish his mission. Unfortunately, he may have bitten more than he could chew with his next mission. See, in order to accomplish that mission, he needs be married and have a child that is old enough to attend school.

For a ruthless, calculating spy who has thrown away all hopes of a normal life, this is not something he could easily do.

But he's a spy after all - and that means quick thinking - and the first thing he does after securing a place to stay is to adopt a child. Unfortunately for him, or maybe it's fortunately, he adopts Anya, a telepath who possessed the ability to read minds. Anya who can read the thoughts of her new adopted father, finds him very, very cool.

With a child acquired, Twilight realizes he still needs to find a wife who would willingly marry him - a seemingly single dad. That's when Yor comes into the story! The sweet adorable... assassin? Yeah. Apparently, this whole family has a lot of things to keep secret - with only the five year old child knowing the whole truth.

However, Twilight is not easily deterred by all of this - he is determined to get Anya into the elite school so that he can complete his mission. Against all odds - they make it to the interview almost unscathed and impressing Mr. Henderson. Now whether they would get accepted or not, well - that's something for the next volume.

Art:

I'm absolutely in love with the art-work of this series, and I'm going to use Mr. Henderson's favorite word: Spy x Family has elegance. The way each of the main character is drawn - it's meant to be pretty and attractive.

It also relies on a lot of physical and situational comedy. It's definitely a nice contrast to the elegant characters. It's nice to see these beautiful people make the most hilarious mistakes.

Don't get me wrong, though they make these mistakes - they're still elegant at what they do. Tatsuya Endo is obviously a very talented author and I am so excited to see all of the different ways they tell this story.

Favorites:

There are many things about this manga series that I love from the get go.

Fake marriages where the couple slowly fall in love with each other? That's definitely a favorite trope of mine. I love that they both do not know their true identity. Also I think it's really hilarious that they're both so oblivious of who they truly are, it's perfect.

Another thing that I love about this series is Anya Forger. She is truly perfection. She can read minds and loves her chosen family so very much. I think it's hilarious that the reason why she chose them though was because of the fact that Twilight is a spy and that Yor was an assassin, and these were the things that impressed her.

I also love the vagueness of this world. Is it in the 80's? Is it a whole different world altogether? And the kind of masks that Twilight has? That's some James Bond level kind of disguises.

So excited for more to come!

Drawbacks:

I don't have much in the way of negatives at the moment to be honest. I'm really enjoying the story. I guess if my hand is forced, I would say there's a lot of suspension of disbelief required in this manga. The fact that Yor and Twilight is unable to tell that they're work involves some form of espionage. Or how about the idea that Twilight have not heard of the mind reading Anya?

But what manga doesn't require that suspension? I have too much love for this story that this is not at all a problem for me.

Final Words:

People are going to have to pry this series from my cold, dead, fingers because I am in love and will read this until there are no more chapters left to read.

Let's go on this adventure together?