Let's Talk About SPY X FAMILY Vol. 5

VIZ Media recently released the fifth volume of Tatsuya Endo’s Spy x Family, and it’s fun. This series has quickly become a favorite manga of mine and I wish that it got an anime adaptation.

The series follows a spy who has had to create a fake family in order to try to complete his mission to secure peace between the East and West. What he doesn’t know is that his wife Yor is really an assassin, his daughter Anya is a telepath, and their new dog Bond can see the future. VIZ was kind enough to provide me with a copy to read and you can grab a from your local comic shop, comiXology (affiliate link), and more.

Anya Forger has been trying her best to befriend Damian Desmond, the son of the powerful Ostanian political leader Donovan Desmond, but her attempts have been constantly rebuffed. Despite the setbacks, Anya is determined to gain access to the Desmonds' inner circle and even devises a new plan -- acing her midterm exams to earn stella stars! Can the academically challenged Anya pull off this feat for the sake of world peace?

This volume felt very different than the other ones with the focus seemingly much more on the characters in their lives instead of progressing Twilight’s mission. We start with Yor learning how to cook something edible. She eventually succeeds which is good. We also just learn how unhealthy of a relationship Yuri has with her. It’s kind of creepy and disturbing.

Anya tries her best to getting close with Damian Desmond, but it never goes as planned. She also has to actually study for exams and barely gets away with not being the lowest scores. I say she actually has to study because we learn that Anya loses her telepathy during a new moon.

We also get to see a moment where one student at the academy thinks he’s going to be kicked out because of business deals involving his family and the Desmonds. The kids treat him like royalty and then it turns out that he’s not getting kicked out because his family isn’t going bankrupt. Naturally, the kids are a little miffed the next day.

There’s not much spying in this episode though which felt kind of weird. We got Loid sneaking into the school’s vault in order to change Anya’s answers on her midterm so she wouldn’t get a Tonitrus Bolt. Along the way, he also has to deal with a very incompetent spy. We also see Loid’s cover as Anya has to interview him about work and follow him around a bit and he can’t show her that he’s a spy. That’s kind of fun.

To close out the volume we get a story about a spy named Nightfall that works with Loid. She’s helplessly in love with him and apparently was almost his fake wife instead of Yor and she basically wants to replace Yor now. She’s convinced she’d be better for the job and she’s not wrong, but then she decides to act a little underhanded in trying to remove Yor from the picture. This part is interesting because we get a bit more of the spy life from Loid without the spying so much (although they can apparently mouth words while saying others to speak in a code which sounds impossible).

Volume 5 felt much slower than the last ones and just like an okay read instead of a great one. There are some good moments like Anya thinking of the swole chihuahua, but I felt like it slowed a little too much. Hopefully, the next volume picks up a little more.