Spy × Family

is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo.  The story follows a spy who has to "build a family" in order to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl he adopts as a daughter and the woman he agrees to be in a fake marriage with are a mind reader and an assassin respectively.  It has been serialized biweekly for free on the Shōnen Jump+ application and website since March 25, 2019, with the chapters collected and published into tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.  Viz Media has licensed the series for English release in North America. 

Characters

Loid is a spy 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, 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.  Formerly a war orphan, he became a spy in order to create a "world where children do not cry." 

Seen as a female employee at the Berlint City Hall, Yor is actually a skilled assassin nicknamed "Thorn Princess."  Yor's maiden name before marrying Loid is .  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 her coworkers will not make fun of her anymore.  She has a younger brother named , who is a civil servant and has excessive love for her. 

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 is 4 or 5 years old, but claims to be 6 so that Loid will adopt her.  Originally an experimental human test subject dubbed , she escaped because she was disgusted with a life where she could not behave like a child.  Due to her ability, Anya is not good with crowds.  In addition, because she has not received a proper education, she is not good with studying but makes up for it by reading other peoples' minds for answers.  She likes spy anime and thinks anything involving "secrets" and "missions" are exciting. 

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 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. 

Lin had Endo work as an assistant on Tatsuki Fujimoto's 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. 

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. 

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. 

Publication
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. 

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

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: 18–22
Short Mission 1–2

Reception 
With the release of its second volume, Spy × Family had 800,000 copies in circulation, counting digital and physical sales. 

The series took first place in the web manga category of the Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Awards 2019.  In December 2019, Brutus magazine listed Spy × Family on their "Most Dangerous Manga" list, which included works with the most "stimulating" and thought-provoking themes.  The 2020 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi!  guidebook named Spy × Family the best manga series for male readers.  It also 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.  Spy × Family is nominated for the 13th Manga Taishō and the 24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. 

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. 

References

External links 
Spy × Family at  Shonen Jump+

Category:2019 webcomic debuts
Category:Action anime and manga
Category:Comedy anime and manga
Category:Japanese webcomics
Category:Shōnen manga
Category:Shueisha manga
Category:Spy comics
Category:Viz Media manga
Category:Webcomics in print